Now the War Is Over by Annie Murray Read Free Book Online Page B

gleam in the girl’s eyes.
    ‘I
wasn’t
,’ she insisted.
    She turned away as if to help Tommy, fussing over him unnecessarily.
    ‘He’s like a babby,’ Melly heard Shirley Sutton remark. She kept her eyes fixed on Tommy’s.
Ignore them
, her eyes said.
They’re just nasty like their
mom
.
    Her own mom and dad were just behind them so she felt safe. She heard Mom chatting to Dolly. Rachel broke away for a moment from the group to call out to a friend up the road.
    ‘All right, Netta? I thought you were going to come and watch it at Mo and Dolly’s?’
    Netta made some flustered reply and Rachel called back, ‘All right then – see you tomorrow!’
    Tommy was looking happy now and he beamed when they were presented with a bowl of orange jelly.
    ‘Here y’are,’ Melly said, reaching for a spoon to give him. Tommy could eat perfectly well with his good arm.
    ‘It’s disgusting, the way he eats,’ Rita said, her eyes gleaming nastily.
    Melly wanted to say,
Well, at least he doesn
’t have a face like a rat like you
, but she didn’t dare. Rita was nearly fourteen and Melly was scared of her.
    Seeing that Tommy was eating happily she glanced quickly round at Wally Morrison again. His blonde hair was slicked back and he stood more upright since the army, a swagger to him. He was all
right, Melly told herself. But he wasn’t Reggie. Reggie was quieter, kinder.
    Around her was all chat and laughter. She could hear Mo’s voice from down the other end of the table. Someone had rolled out a keg of beer and Mo, legs braced to hold his barrel-like body,
was handing round cups, glasses, jam jars of it. Her mom leaned over to cut the cake. There was a pink seam of jam through the middle.
    ‘Hold your plates out,’ Mom said. ‘One at a time!’
    Mo worked his way along. ‘Here yer go – a toast to Her Majesty!’
    They were in the midst of drinking and cheering on the new Queen when an all-too-familiar figure came zigzagging along the road, staggering into walls and out again across the pavement.
    ‘Oh, look who it isn’t,’ Dolly said loudly, as Ray Sutton tripped into the gutter and almost fell. ‘The ruddy Lone Ranger.’
    ‘He’s getting worse.’ Gladys stared along the street. Melly knew that Auntie did not approve of swearing or bad manners or drinking to excess. ‘When’s he ever
sober?’
    Melly only half-heard what they were saying. The other half of her was dreaming about Reggie, imagining that he was here, that he would come and sit next to her and gaze deep into her eyes . . .
She only looked up when there was a horrified outcry from around her. Ray Sutton was lurching along the road close to them, bashing into people who were shouting and telling him to get out of
there, the state he was in.
    ‘Wench!’ he yelled, seeming able to focus at least on the fact that the ample woman in red was his wife. His voice was so slurred they could only just gather what he was saying.
‘Get in the *****g house!’ He staggered and nearly fell.
    ‘Using the soldier’s word – when you’ve never been near a uniform,’ someone sneered.
    Ray wasn’t listening to anyone else. ‘What’re yer doing out ’ere . . . ? Showing yerself off . . . Yer filthy trollop.’ He weaved round the end of the table towards
Irene.
    ‘Ray!’ Irene shrieked, as he started to manhandle her. Other voices were shouting at him to get off her.
    ‘Knock it off, Ray!’ Melly heard her father shout. ‘Look at yourself – what’re you doing?’
    ‘Oh my God, here we go,’ Rachel said contemptuously. ‘Wouldn’t you know it?’
    ‘It’s a party!’ Irene shrieked. ‘For the new Queen. Come on, Ray – come and have a—’
    But Ray managed to grab Irene’s hair, poking a finger into her eye as he did so. She screamed with pain and continued to scream as he dragged her along by her blonde locks and up the entry
towards the house.
    ‘Bloody disgrace!’ Melly heard, amid other shouts after them.
    Her own