The Sun Will Shine Tomorrow Read Free Page A

said, ‘I’m looking for a house, Ann. It’s terrible living with my mother and she’s getting worse.’
    Granny was sympathetic. ‘Is she still cleaning the house from top to bottom, Minnie?’
    Minnie looked grim. ‘Aye, she is but it’s getting worse. The other night Peter was playing with a pencil and she started wiping the floor around him, saying he’d put pencil marks on the linoleum. She sloshed so much disinfectant water around him that he was soaked and smelling of San Izal for ages. I’m sure she’s going daft with all this cleaning.’
    ‘What will you do, Minnie?’ I asked.
    She shook her head. ‘I wish I knew.’
    Suddenly the door opened and Bella, Granny’s sister, appeared. On seeing her, Grandad said he needed some more tobacco and he hurried off.
    Granny was appalled by his behaviour but fortunately Bella didn’t seem to notice.
    Bella said, ‘I couldn’t help overhearing that you’re looking for a house, Minnie. Is that right?’
    Minnie nodded.
    ‘Well, the house next door to me is becoming empty next week. The old wife died, poor soul, but if you go down to the factor in Reform Street you’ll maybe get it.’
    Minnie was overjoyed. ‘I’ll go and see them first thing on Monday morning. Thanks, Bella!’
    Bella tried not to look like Lady Bountiful but couldn’t. ‘Och, that’s all right, Minnie. We know what a dragon your mother is with the washcloth.’
    Bella lived in Cochrane Street, one of the highly populated streets that formed the ‘Crescent’ area situated beside the very busy Lochee Road. It was also near the Hawkhill where Minnie’s mother lived.
    Bella then turned her attention to me. ‘You might have to join up, Ann – you being a single lassie with no bairns. The papers are saying that you’ll get sent to the munitions factories or you can join the Land Army. What would you like?’
    Before I could answer, Granny butted in. ‘Ann has Lily to look after. How can she go to some munitions factory or anywhere else for that matter?’
    Bella sat in the best chair like a fat Buddha and shook her head. I was always fascinated by the way her heavy jowls wobbled like a plate of jelly. She continued. ‘Doesn’t matter about a sister, I don’t think. Ann will have to go if she’s told.’
    More worries, I thought. Was there no end to them? Also, although I wouldn’t say anything to Bella, I wished she had mentioned the empty house to me. But maybe she didn’t know I was looking for one. And I certainly didn’t begrudge it to Minnie who had been through so much in the last few months, coming out of the shelter in Clydebank to discover the entire area completely flattened and everything gone except what they were wearing. It had been a traumatic time for her and little Peter.
    Bella was now on the subject of Rosie. ‘What a pair of daft beggars they are, having a bairn at their time of life. Still, your father was aye a bit stupid, Ann.’
    Granny glared at her but she went gaily on, ‘And I hear Rosie is sick every morning, noon and night. That can’t be right. There must be something wrong with her to be aye so ill.’
    ‘It’s never stopped you, Bella,’ said Granny acidly. Bella either didn’t hear or else she pretended to be deaf.
    I tried hard not to laugh. Bella was our family hypochondriac and here she was running down Rosie who had just cause for her sickness. But there was no stopping her when she got going in a character assassination.
    ‘Rosie has the shape that’ll run to fat. I bet she’ll be like a house end by the time the bairn’s born.’ This was rich coming from her. There was the well-known family joke about the time she got stuck in a chair at home and it had taken three young men to pull her free.
    Minnie got ready to leave and, to our relief, so did Bella. Minnie said she would let us know about the house and they all departed.
    I said to Granny, ‘I’m looking for a house as well, Granny. It’s not fair on Rosie and Dad having