18. JANET AND JOHN

Part of the horror of WW2 was the evacuation of children...

The Second world war was still a quiet affair so far as most of the civilians in the country were concerned, but shortly before it had been declared it was decided to move children living in what were considered vulnerable places to where they might be safer. It was a huge evacuation, and from the moment they were moved and for the remainder of their lives they were known, when the topic arose, as evacuees.

Janet and John were evacuees.

Twins aged nine, their home was in the East End of London where wisdom predicted that bombs would fall sooner or later, and as it turned out to be sooner it was a good job they were evacuated.

They ended up in Swanspottle at the home of Bert and Dolly Spandex because they had a spare bedroom, it being the one previously occupied throughout her childhood by Ursula, and they hadn’t been there for long before it became clear they were an almost unbearable strain on Dolly who was showing signs of suffering from the arthritis that would plague her for the rest of her life.

Back in those halcyon days there was little that medical science could do about arthritis and with no unified health service those who suffered from it had to put up with it or moan about their lot. Dolly rarely moaned even though she was becoming crippled by the condition.

So Janet and John hadn’t been in Swanspottle long before they were allowed to move into the village store run by Ursula Spandex. Constable Plodnose oversaw the matter. There were forms to be filled in (forms that nobody would see at any time, probably, but they still had to be completed in triplicate.)

Of the two, Janet was outgoing and John was quiet and shy. Their parents had struggled on a low income in a Victorian slum and the twins had always been clean and healthy, according to school records. Those parents sadly turned out to be short-lived after the twins left for the country, largely because the Victorian slum was demolished by the Luftwaffe whilst they were shivering under the kitchen table with the sirens shrieking and aircraft thundering overhead, praying that none of the bombs falling had their names on it. One did.

And it was the morning after. The news had been sent, that the two children were technically homeless if the war ended. But something would be sorted out for them. It would have to be.

Ursula was behind the counter of the shop, tears running down her face after reading the telegram that Constable Plodnose had brought to her. She’d never met the twins’ parents but was beginning to think she knew them from the snippets dropped by the two children randomly in conversation, and what she’d heard she liked.

“There’s something you two should know,” said Ursula as the two of them ran into the shop from a back room where they’d been counting stock, and she pulled them towards her with a huge display of affection, tears still in her eyes.

The twins noticed and guessed.

“They’re dead, aren’t they?” forestalled Janet.

“In their beds,” whispered John.

“I dreamed… we’re all alone now, aren’t we?” said Janet, putting a brave face on news that she had neither heard nor could barely understand when she did.

“They were sheltering,” said Ursula quietly, “but not in a safe enough place, like you are,” she added.

“I want to be bombed,” spluttered John. “I want to go Heaven with mummy and daddy. I don’t want to be alive any more.”

“And I want to learn to fight the Germans,” announced Janet, “I want to pay them back for what they’ve done!”

“I’ve got a friend called Greendale,” began Ursula.

“A boyfriend. We’ve seen you snogging when you thought we were asleep,” said John, seriously.

“And other stuff,” added Janet, “like mummy and daddy do when they think they’re on their own. No, not do: did. What they did.” And she started crying. Real, genuine crying.

“Boyfriend, then,” admitted Ursula, and it sounded good when she said it because it crossed her mind that’s exactly what the solicitor’s clerk was. “He’s going to sign up to the forces. He’d like to be in the air force and fly fighters. He’ll shoot them down and kill the pilots, those who bombed your home in London.”

“I’ll be a pilot too, when I’m old enough,” said John stoutly.

“And me,” added Janet, even more stoutly.

“That’s daft. Girls can’t fly,” declared John, “they’re not strong enough.”

“But I will,” breathed a determined Janet.

“And I’m sure you will,” Ursula said quietly to her, “I see times changing. I see the old times going and better times coming.”

“Better times when we’re all speaking in German,” growled John.

“Never,” whispered Ursula, “I’ll never do that.”

The shop door bell jangled and she turned round.

“Never do what?” asked the newcomer. It was Greendale Blocksley, and he was clutching a manilla envelope in one hand.

“Speak German,” she said, “It’s the twins’ parents, love. We’ve had a telegram.”

“Bombed?” he asked.

She nodded, and the two children snuggled closer to her.

“I’ve been accepted,” he said simply, “I’ll be going away, for training. But I’ll always be with you in my heart. And you two: I love the pair of you,” he added to the twins.

“How soon?” asked Ursula.

“Very soon. Tomorrow, my dearest, most gorgeous Ursula. “And I’ll try to stay alive long enough to say hello to our child...”

“Our child?” asked a shocked Ursula.

“Yes, sweetheart. The one we’re going to order this very afternoon when you shut the shop. And boy or girl, I don’t care what it’ll be, just that it will be alive and living a free life once this bloody war is over and Germany is crushed once and for all.”

“I don’t...” Ursula was going to lie and say she didn’t understand, but she did. She understood only too well. Greendale was going away, probably to his death, and he wanted to leave a thread of himself behind him. And if she refused him it would be the cruellest thing she could do.

The shop door opened again, and the errand boy, grinning as wickedly as ever, walked in.

“Davey, there aren’t any deliveries, but I’ll give you a whole ten shillings if you’ll do me a favour,” said Ursula.

“Ten shillings, that’s a lot of money,” thought Greendale.

“Cor, misses, ten whole bob?” gasped Davey, because it really was a lot of money.

“Take the twins with you to see my mum,” said Ursula, “say it’s important, that I have an order to make, one that can’t wait. And make sure it’s an hour before you bring them back.”

“I know what you’re up to!” grinned Davey, “you’re going celebrate something and might get drunk, just like my folks!”

“I know what they’re going to do,” said Janet quietly.

“It’s called kissing, and it’s what grown-ups do!” added John.

© Peter Rogerson 27.07.18