A Family's Duty by Maggie Bennett

Author:Maggie Bennett [Maggie Bennett]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780749013837
Publisher: Allison & Busby
Published: 2013-09-10T04:00:00+00:00

It was Devora Munday’s idea to take the whole family to see the Saturday matinee of Pinocchio. There were six children now, with the addition of the two little girl evacuees, Ruth and Sarah. Jonny Pascoe was now a tall lad of sixteen, and had left school to help in the office of Munday and Pascoe; in another year’s time he would be due for call-up, and Ernest banished the thought from his mind.

‘Yes, it will be a treat for us all,’ he agreed, ‘especially for little Ruth and Sarah.’

All that week the children talked about Saturday in happy anticipation; Devora too looked forward to this family outing and the pleasure she and Ernest would get from the children’s enjoyment.

Saturday dawned, and Devora prepared an early lunch, to give them plenty of time to join the queue outside the Embassy Cinema.

And it was just as they sat down to eat that Ayesha began to wheeze and pant, her eyes stared as if in terror, and her nose and lips turned a purplish blue. She opened her mouth and gasped, but no words came out. It was a severe and therefore frightening asthmatic attack.

Ernest rose from his chair. ‘You stay with her, Devora, and I’ll fetch a phial.’

On a top shelf in a kitchen cupboard were the glass phials containing the instantly effective iodine compound with menthol and chloroform; he folded one of them in a large handkerchief, broke it and returned to hold the vapour to Ayesha’s nose and mouth. Jonny was standing beside her, whispering reassurances, and Devora was serving the others with their lunch, her mouth set in a firm straight line.

Ayesha started to take breaths again, shallow at first, becoming deeper as the vapour took effect. ‘Stay with me, Jonny,’ she panted, ‘don’t leave me, please.’ Jonny said he would stay with her, and told Ernest to go to the cinema with the others.

‘I understand her, Dad, I’ll be fine,’ he said.

Ernest lifted Ayesha up in his arms and took her into the parlour where he laid her on the sofa, propping her up with cushions.

‘I can’t risk it, she might have another attack,’ he told Jonny, ‘and I’d only worry about her. I’m happy to stay, and you go to help your mother with the others.’

Jonny reluctantly agreed, and Devora had no choice; she hid her resentment as well as she could, and at the cinema she and Jonny were shown into a row of seats with her at one end and him at the other. The curtains drew back, the children cheered, and the film began.

While the younger children stared in wonder at the screen, Jonny and David’s amused attention was taken up with the antics of a family two rows below them, not very well controlled by the couple who were presumably the parents. When the second part of the programme began, the parents had a brisk exchange with the children.

‘That family’s very naughty, aren’t they, Mama?’ said little Ruth.

‘They won’t keep quiet, and we can’t hear Jiminy Cricket,’ said Sarah.

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