The Girl From Barefoot House Read Free Page A

impishly at Josie. ‘Tara.’
    ‘It’s not fair. Oh, it’s not fair a bit,’ Mam raged as theywalked quickly out of Blackler’s into the bright spring sunshine. Her face was very red. Josie had to run to keep up, and kept bumping into people on the crowded pavements. A shopping basket nearly sent her flying. ‘As if I’d’ve given up me good job in Bailey’s to be a nanny, for God’s sake. But I suppose our poor Ivy had to come up with something to explain why I wasn’t there no more. After all, I was forced to think up all sorts of lies meself, else the truth might have killed the poor woman. Mind you, I never thought she’d turn against me the way she did. She’s me sister, after all. I thought she’d stick by me.’
    ‘Mam!’ Josie panted. She had a stitch in her side, and felt confused. What on earth was Mam on about? Which poor woman might the truth have killed?
    ‘I’m sorry, Petal. Am I going too fast for you? I’m the worst mam in the whole world.’ She slowed down considerably, but remained just as angry. ‘I’m glad we were all done up in our best gear and I had me beret on, not that horrible brown thing. Did you see the lovely coats they had on? Mollie will have made them, as well as them dead smart hats. She makes all the kids’ clothes, including the boys’. Mr Kavanagh – Eddie, that is – owns the haberdashers by Woolworths in Penny Lane, so she gets the material cheap, like. She was ever such a good friend when I was little. I used to have me tea in their house until our Ivy came home from work. Their Stanley’s only three years younger than me.’ She stopped dead in the middle of the street. ‘I would have liked a cup of tea and a natter, I really would, but I was scared she’d guess what’s what.’
    ‘What is what, Mam?’
    ‘Never mind.’ Mam sighed. ‘You should be wearing coats like Lily’s, not other kids’ cast-offs from Paddy’smarket. There was money left, hundreds of pounds, and half of it were mine. Mollie Kavanagh made the frock for me first Holy Communion, something you’ll be needing yourself in the not too distant future, and where are we going to get that from, I’d like to know?’
    Josie had no idea. Nor did she know why the day, which she had anticipated being so enjoyable, should have turned so sour, all because they’d met nice Mrs Kavanagh and her daughter, Lily.
    Then the day became even worse. Mam noticed they were standing outside a pub. She said, ‘Hang on a minute, Petal. If I don’t down something quick to calm me nerves, I’m likely to bust a blood vessel. Sit on the step, luv. I’ll be out again in the twinkling of an eye.’
    True to her word, Mam was only a short while in the pub, and when she came out she looked much calmer. But she had claimed that drinking was a curse, that she was determined to stop altogether so she could get a job and a little house. This was the first time Josie had known her to drink during the day.

2
    Josie had been at Our Lady of Mount Carmel elementary school a year when Britain declared war on Germany, and everyone began to make a desperate fuss about things. But apart from food rationing and people having to wear gas masks over their shoulders, war made little difference to their lives as far as Josie could see. All the windows had crisscross tape to protect against bomb damage – not that anyone thought there was the remotest chance that bombs would fall. Tall Kate and fat Liz had ‘pulled themselves together’ and gone downsouth to work in a factory making parts for aeroplanes. But Josie and her mam remained in Huskisson Street, where these days there were always a few bottles of stout kept in the sideboard cupboard, and the little house hadn’t been mentioned in a long while.
    Josie didn’t mind, not very much. They still went to Princes Park and for rides on the ferry. She liked school, and could read quite well. Night-times, when Mam was out – and she was out longer and longer these days –