Dream On Read Free

around with.
    â€˜I was the one what painted and papered the flaming thing,’ George added under his breath.
    â€˜Oi! I heard that!’ Pearl grinned. ‘Tell you what, girls, let’s leave the fellers to it and go and help with the food instead. By the looks of it, they need some sorting out up there or it’ll never get finished. Just look at ’em. You’d think they was doing it for a guv’nor instead of for ’emselves.’
    She turned back to her husband and sons. ‘And no slacking, you three, I’ve got eyes in the back of this head of mine, remember.’
    â€˜As if we could forget,’ Sid muttered.
    â€˜And I’ve got ears like a bat.’ She chuckled, nudging her son in the side. ‘So you wanna watch it, my lad. You might be nearly six foot in your stockinged feet, but you’re still not too big for a wallop with the copper stick.’
    Pearl didn’t wait for Sid to reply, she just linked arms with Nellie and guided Dilys and Ginny forward in front of them towards the knot of women milling about at the business end of the tables, where yet more sandwiches were being made.
    When he judged the women, or more specifically Pearl, to be out of earshot, George gave up the unequal contest and surrendered to the piano, leaving it perched on the street doorstep, hanging half in and half out of number 11 like an indecisive visitor.
    Nodding for his sons to do likewise, George relaxed back against the door jamb, took a packet of Capstan Full Strength from his waistcoat pocket and offered them to the boys.
    â€˜And for Gawd’s sake don’t let your mother see,’ he said, striking a match for them.
    Micky inhaled deeply, his eyes narrowing against the smoke. ‘Sixteen years old and she still treats me like I was a little kid,’ he complained.
    â€˜Less of the “she”, thank you, Micky.’
    â€˜Sorry, Dad.’
    â€˜You can talk,’ sneered Sid. ‘How d’you think I feel? If this war hadn’t have ended just before I was old enough to bloody join up, she’d have
had
to have started treating me like an adult.’
    â€˜Pipe down, will you? I’m sick of the pair of you sulking and moping about. You don’t know you’re sodding born, either of you. You should have had the life I had, when I was your age.’
    George took a long drag on his cigarette, then lifted his chin towards Ginny. She was standing to one side of the other women with a sad, far-away look in her eyes.
    â€˜Or the worries that poor little cow’s got; then you’d know what trouble was all about. Look at her. Left all alone with Nellie again while he’s out and about, and up to Gawd alone knows what.’
    Sid shook his head in wonder. ‘Honest, Dad, I reckon Ted Martin’s gotta be off his head. I mean, you’d have to be mad wouldn’t you, leaving a lovely bit of stuff like Ginny at a loose end?’
    Micky snorted, his youthful imagination painting glorious visions of Ginny in his mind. ‘I wouldn’t leave her at any sort of end. I’d—’
    Sid punched his younger brother in the shoulder. ‘Shut up you, you little squirt.’ He rolled his eyes at his dad in a gesture of mature male solidarity, to demonstrate that he was obviously above such smut. ‘Typical of him though. I reckon he gets away with murder, that Ted Martin.’
    â€˜You’re right there,’ agreed George with a sigh. ‘Must be one of the fittest young fellers in the street. And what is he, twenty-five, twenty-six? But did he do the decent thing and join up? Do me a favour. Bad chest, he reckoned. I’ve never heard so much old fanny. If he’s got a bad chest, then I’m—’
    â€˜Here we go,’ murmured Micky.
    Sid punched him in the arm again. ‘Shut up, mouthy.’
    â€˜Come on.’ George flicked his half-smoked cigarette into the gutter and straightened