The Best in Blountmere Street (The Blountmere Street Series Book 2) by Arnold Barbara

Author:Arnold, Barbara [Arnold, Barbara]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: B. Arnold
Published: 2011-11-20T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

On my return from the shops, Angela is leaning against her front door waiting for me. She calls out even before I’ve crossed the road, ‘I thought you were never coming! I’ve got something to tell you.’

I tense and slow my steps. I no longer trust life to be predictable; always on my guard for the unexpected, the unplanned, the unfair. Maybe Angela’s seen me with Bill and wants to know who he is.

‘Guess what?’ Angela asks as I walk up the path towards her. She doesn’t wait for a reply before she blurts, ‘I’ve got a job at Hendersons Leather Factory.’

My smile is broad with relief.

‘I knew you’d be pleased.’

‘What will you be doing?’

‘I don’t know. Anything. What’s it matter as long as it’s a job and I get paid thirty-five bob a week.’

‘What does your mother say?’

‘All the things mothers say about working hard and trying to better yourself, you know.’

I know, except that now Mum doesn’t say or do all the usual things. Perhaps she will never say and do all the usual things mothers say and do ever again.

‘Why don’t you come up later, and I’ll do your make-up. You look like death warmed up twice.’ Angela’s lips shimmer vivid pink and her face shines iced pale beige.

This time next year, I’ll be leaving school and looking for a job. I’ve no idea what l’ll do. Work in a shop, I suppose, or join Angela in the leather factory. It’s a long way from Mum’s dream of me becoming a botanist, although she never seemed to have a clear idea what botanists did, except that they had something to do with plants. If I chose not to become a botanist, Mum had supposed, I could be a mannequin like the ones in the Woman’s Weekly, who modelled the twin sets she had so admired.’

‘Are we having mashed potatoes tonight?’ Dad calls along the passage when I get in.

‘Sausage and mash,’ I reply from my bedroom, at the same time taking Bill’s card from my pocket. ‘I’ll be there to help in a minute.’ I turn the card over in the middle of my hand, studying it. Best to burn it, or tear it up. Rather that, than Dad find out I’ve seen Bill. I begin to rip it in two, then on an impulse and as quietly as I can, I move my bed away from the wall. I lift a piece of linoleum and slide the card under it.

Angela holds the lipstick between her fingers like a cigarette. She places her hands either side of my head to steady it. ‘I don’t know how you expect me to get it right when you keep doing funny things with your lips,’ Angela reprimands and adds, ‘Cupid’s bows are all the rage.’

‘But my lips are just about touching my nose, and they’re so bright,’ I peer into the Addingtons’ fly spotted mirror at the red gash circling my mouth. I daren’t think where Angela got the lipstick.

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