Welcome Home by Margaret Dickinson

Author:Margaret Dickinson [Dickinson, Margaret]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781447237273
Publisher: Macmillan

Twenty-Six

Edie wasn’t dealing very well with being on her own for days – even weeks – at a time. She counted the days now to Archie coming home from the sea more than she ever had done in their married life. Always – until now – she had had the family to keep her busy, too busy sometimes, but Edie, a born homemaker and mother, had revelled in it. Even when she had gone to bed exhausted, it had been what she always called a healthy tiredness. ‘I’m not ill,’ she would say to Lil, ‘because there’s a good reason why I’m weary.’ Then she’d smile and add, ‘but I wouldn’t have it any other way.’

But now was a different matter; she was alone and very lonely. ‘If it wasn’t for you, Lil, I don’t know what I’d do,’ she’d say a dozen times during the weeks when Archie was away. Lil tried to keep her friend busy, but it wasn’t always easy to think of things they could do. Any pleasure the two women had had in shopping was now gone; it was an unending chore coping with the rationing and the shortage of goods that weren’t on ration. And the queues just seemed to grow longer, often with disappointment in the end. ‘That’s another two hours wasted,’ Edie would grumble as they trudged home from the town, their shopping bags hardly any heavier than when they had set out.

‘Have you heard from Shirley?’ Lil asked.

‘She writes every week – never misses.’ Her tone hardened as she added, ‘That’s more than I can say for Beth. Only one postcard in months, Lil. I wonder about that girl, really I do.’

‘I expect she’s busy, Edie. If she’s involved in nursing now, maybe she’s even been sent abroad.’

‘She’d have let us know if that had happened.’ Edie paused and there was uncertainty in her tone as she added, ‘Wouldn’t she?’

‘Of course, she would, duck,’ Lil tried to reassure her, and then steered the subject away from Edie’s children. But that was easier said than done. Edie was still going through them – one by one – in her mind. ‘Frank’s on the mend. I actually got a letter from him yesterday.’

‘I expect he’s had more time whilst he’s been laid up.’

‘He’s going back on light duties next week, he said.’

‘That’s good.’

‘Is it?’ Edie said mournfully. ‘I’m not so sure ’cos it might mean he’ll be back in the thick of the fighting again soon.’

Lil bit her lip, unable to argue with Edie’s logic.

‘We could take a trip out to the farm again – just the two of us – or we could ask Ursula if she’d like to come with us. Or Jessie.’

Edie pulled a face. ‘Archie said he thought it best to stay away. I don’t think we were ever so welcome last time.’

‘Oh, I’m sure we were. It was just that we arrived unexpectedly. This time we could plan it and write and tell them.’

‘I suppose so.’ Edie seemed strangely reluctant and, for once, her friend couldn’t understand why.

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