Queenie Read Free Page B

the toilet paper and took a gulp of water from the cold tap. I didn’t want to go back and face the friend, so I sat on the edge of the bath, snivelling into a flannel.
    After a little while there was a knock on the door. ‘Elsie? Are you all right?’ she called.
    I didn’t bother answering. Of course I wasn’t all right! Nan was in hospital and I wasn’t sure about Mum and I knew all too well what might happen to me. It had happened once before, long ago. I couldn’t really remember it properly. It was when I was really little and living with Mum. I think she went out and left me and some landlady heard me crying. I ended up in a big Home that wasn’t a bit like a home at all, with a lot of other children, and I didn’t know anyone and I had to eat cabbage and I got smacked for wetting the bed. I still had nightmares about it, though I think I was only there for a few days. Nan came to get me and I went to live with her.
    I was so scared I was going to have to go back to that Home. But then I heard the front door and the policeman’s voice, and I went dashing out of the bathroom.
    ‘Hey, hey,’ he said when he saw my red eyes and wet cheeks. ‘It’s all right. Your mum’s coming.’
    She didn’t come straight away. She couldn’t come till the evening. She sent a message to say I should go to school, just like normal, but I didn’t want to go. In the end I went to the police station with the policeman. I was scared he’d lock me in a cell, but he was very kind and sat me on his desk and took my fingerprints, and even let me play with a pair of handcuffs. Lots of the policemen came and talked to me and called me funny names like Tuppenny and Dandelion-and-Burdock. They gave me steak and kidney pie and chips for lunch, which was much nicer than school dinners. Then they gave me a newspaper with lots of photos, and I inked moustaches and beards on everyone, even the ladies. They played games with me too – Noughts and Crosses and Hangman. If I hadn’t felt so anxious about Nan I’d have had a lovely time.
    Then Mum arrived – and she wasn’t cross at all. She looked beautiful in her best red coat, with her hair all loose and blonde and fluffy on her shoulders. All the policemen looked at her as if she were a film star.
    ‘My poor little girl,’ she said to me, and she gave me a big cuddle right in front of everyone.
    We even got a lift home in a proper police car. I wanted to hear the siren, and they played it just once, as a treat. I thought we’d be going straight to the hospital to visit Nan, but we went back home instead.
    ‘But we have to see Nan!’ I said.
    ‘It’s too late now,’ said Mum, putting the kettle on. ‘Visiting hours are in the afternoon, two till four. I phoned and checked.’
    ‘Oh, we’ve missed it! Nan will be so sad and lonely by herself! Did you speak to her, Mum? Is she all right? When can she come home?’ I gabbled.
    ‘Ssh now, calm down. I don’t think she’s staying in that hospital. They’re talking about moving her tomorrow,’ said Mum.
    ‘Oh, she’s coming home tomorrow!’ I said, clapping my hands.
    ‘No, she’s got to go to a special blooming sanatorium.’ Mum leaned against the wall, rubbing her forehead, her eyes closed.
    ‘A sanatorium?’ I said. ‘What’s that? What’s wrong with Nan?’
    ‘They think she’s only gone and got TB,’ said Mum, lowering her voice when she said the two initials, as if it were somehow shameful.
    I’d vaguely heard of TB but didn’t know much about it.
    ‘Nan will get better though, won’t she?’ I whispered.
    ‘How on earth do I know? Oh God, I could weep. Why didn’t she go to the doctor’s when she first started coughing? Maybe it wouldn’t have turned into full-blown TB then! Oh Lordy, how are we going to manage now? We’ll have to keep this quiet. I’ll never get another job if it gets out there’s TB in the family. They’re ever so particular when you’re in theatrical digs – you nearly