Bia's War Read Free Page B

from him and, anyway, divorce
wasn’t an option in those days. I just had to get on with it and
hope that he could acquire a character and a personality change
somewhere along the line. And, of course, he was the breadwinner.
In those days men went out to work and most women stayed at home
and cooked and washed and cleaned for their family. If a girl had a
job, like being a teacher for example, she would have to give it up
when she got married.”
    “I didn’t realise that life was
like that then.” Victoria was amazed at the distance society had
travelled in just over fifty years. She had ambitions to become a
teacher and thought she probably wouldn’t have got married if it
had meant that she would have had to have stopped teaching.
    “It was the War that changed
everything, not the war that finished nearly thirty years ago, but
the Great War, the War to end all wars as they called it when it
began. But I’m getting ahead of myself. I was talking about 1912,
when I was a young wife with a baby on the way and everything to
live for. None of us knew then that the whole world was going to
change for ever.”
    “Nana, was the baby Simon? Was
that who you were looking for last night? And if it was, what
happened to him? Have I got an Uncle Simon somewhere?” Victoria
asked.
    “You’re moving the story on too
quickly, pet, but yes, my baby was a boy and I named him Simon.”
Nana said. “He was born on October 8th 1912. Of course, once he was
born, I was too busy to worry about being bored because babies take
such a lot of caring for and he was the most adorable baby I had
ever laid eyes on. His hair was blond with a wave in it and his
eyes were huge and the blue of the sky on a summer day. I loved him
so much it hurt. He was the be-all and end-all of my life and I’m
afraid I ignored his father because I was so tied up in the
adoration of my child. I think I even forgot about William being
his father, although I continued to keep the house clean and put
food on the table, organise our finances and make decisions about
trivial matters and always, always I cared for my child.”
    “Did William notice what you
were doing? Was he jealous of the baby?” Victoria asked.
    “Oh yes, he noticed, more than I
could have given him credit for, if the truth be known. William
didn’t say anything to me, that wasn’t his way, but he became even
quieter when we were together, until I stopped telling him what
Simon and I had done every day. I didn’t consult him on anything, I
just went my own sweet way and he became more and more withdrawn
from me. He was always good with Simon, though, and played with him
and talked to him when I was busy cooking or when I went out
shopping. I should have seen what was happening, but I didn’t
because I was so wrapped-up in being a mother, I forgot about being
a wife.”
    “Then one day, when Simon was
about a year old, I went to the butcher’s to buy some pork for our
tea.” Nana continued. “Simon liked to eat pork and I even
remembered that William liked pork crackling, so I would go to the
best pork butcher in the town, Dennison’s on Normanby Road. I’d
left Simon at home with his father because William was on night
shift that night and I only expected to be about ten minutes. There
was no one else in the shop when I got there and Dennison’s eyes
lit up when he saw me. He had the false impression that I thought
he was attractive in some way, but he couldn’t have been further
from the truth. He looked like one of the pigs that he sold; fat
and greasy and smarmy. He chose that day to ask me to kiss him and
when I refused, he said some terrible things to me while he was
serving me and I was furious with him. I probably over-reacted, but
I found him so repulsive that I was almost physically sick at the
thought of him touching me. I grabbed my meat, threw the money at
him and ran out of the shop, sobbing because I was so angry. When I
got home, William wanted to know what had upset