An Orphan's Christmas by Katie Flynn

Author:Katie Flynn
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House

Chapter Eight

1942

Molly sat on the end of her bed, staring crossly at its metal frame. Not that it was her bed any more; probably the new owner would be along any minute, in time for kit inspection at any rate. And by then Molly would be on her way, because the train which would carry her most of the way to Lincolnshire and RAF Credington was due to leave the station in a quarter of an hour. In fact, she was only still here because she and Ellen were being posted to the same airfield and Ellen was still bidding her friends goodbye and promising to write, a task which Molly had carried out as soon as she finished her breakfast.

Molly glanced at her wristwatch, sighed and stood up. The trouble with the air force, she thought morosely, picking up her bulging kitbag and staggering as she hung it on her shoulder, was its passion for moving people around. She and her fellow Waafs thought it was a bad policy, because just as you got used to one set of people there was your name on the bulletin board with a new posting beneath it, and you had to start getting to know your fellow workers all over again.

Molly picked up Ellen’s kitbag – it was a good deal lighter than her own – and went out of the hut. She crossed the parade ground, thinking rather sentimentally that this would be the first drill she had missed since arriving in Southampton to man the ops table. She had loved the work and been good at it, but now it appeared that she was needed elsewhere. Fighter stations had been grand but now the war had changed and it was bomber stations which were crying out for personnel. She had been told that she and Ellen were to re-muster, not as plotters but as radio telephone operators, and the Wing officer, explaining their new duties, had said they had been chosen for the work because both had clear, unaccented voices.

‘You will be talking the aircraft down,’ she had explained, ‘and it’s essential that the pilot can hear every word. Regional accents are all very well, but when clarity is essential . . .’

Molly and Ellen had nodded their comprehension and told each other that at least the new job would not be as tense and nerve-racking as the old one. In fact, had it not been for being taken away from an area of which they had grown fond, and people who had become friends, they might have welcomed the move. They would be starting from scratch, of course, knowing nothing about RT operating or, for that matter, Lincolnshire, but both were convinced that the RAF would not have moved them had they not believed them capable of the work in question.

Halfway across the parade ground Molly saw a small figure coming towards her and smiled to herself. Ellen was always late starting, but somehow she also always managed to get where she should be by the skin of her teeth.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.