The Girl From Number 22 by Joan Jonker Read Free Book Online Page B

time.’
    ‘Have yer had a word with Edith?’ Hetty asked. ‘She usually gives Eliza a knock before she goes to the shops.’
    ‘That’s just it,’ Jean said, clasping her hands. ‘Edith went out early this morning, to visit her mam, and she asked me if I’d see to any shopping Eliza wanted. And I’ve knocked a few times but got no answer, and I’m starting to get worried. I don’t know what to do for the best.’
    ‘Have yer looked through the window?’ Ada asked, walking towards the house next door. ‘She may be asleep on the couch.’ With a hand shading her eyes, she tried to see through the netcurtains, but they were heavily patterned and it was impossible to see anything. She was frowning when she joined her two neighbours. ‘I can’t see anything. But if my memory serves me right, doesn’t she leave a key on a piece of string in the lavatory, in case of an emergency? I’m sure she told me once, oh, years ago, that she was afraid of locking herself out, so she kept a spare key in the lavvy.’
    Jean was very flustered. ‘Trust this to happen when it was my day to keep an eye on her. Even if there is a key, I couldn’t just walk in on her, she’d get a fright.’
    ‘If ye’re so concerned about her, that’s the only solution if she’s not answering the door to yer. For all we know she might not be feeling well, and it’s better to be safe than sorry. If yer nip through yours and get the key from her lavvy, I’ll go in, sunshine,’ Ada said. ‘And I’ll shout out when I open the door, so she won’t get a fright.’
    Hetty nodded her head in agreement. ‘Ada’s right, queen, we can’t just do nothing. And if Eliza’s not feeling well, she’ll be glad to see us.’
    ‘Okay, you stay here while I slip through my yard to hers. If the key is where yer say it is, Ada, I’ll bring it back to yer.’ Jean pulled a face. ‘I’m hopeless in an emergency, I go to pieces. So, coward that I am, I’ll let you go in first.’
    While Jean was running through her house to get into next door’s yard, Ada said, ‘If I ever have an accident, sunshine, don’t send for Jean, will yer? Get someone who’ll tell me a few jokes so I can laugh. Then I’ll know I’m not on me death bed.’
    ‘Jean’s got a good sense of humour,’ Hetty said. ‘She’s always got a smile on her face.’
    ‘Not today she hasn’t, sunshine, or haven’t yer noticed?’
    ‘That’s because she feels responsible for the old lady. I’d be thesame if I was in her shoes.’ Hetty wagged a finger in her friend’s face. ‘Besides, you’re a fine one to talk. Yer had a face on yer like a wet week until I put a cup of tea in front of yer. A real ray of sunshine yer would have been to someone on their deathbed, I don’t think!’
    Ada chuckled. ‘Yer don’t have to tell me that, ’cos when I looked in the mirror to comb me hair, I didn’t want to think the miserable face staring back at me was me own.’ Again she chuckled. ‘I pretended it was you, on one of yer bad days.’
    ‘You cheeky article!’ But Hetty couldn’t help smiling. ‘Even on one of me bad days, I’m a damn sight better-looking than you, queen.’
    ‘That’s a matter of opinion, sunshine,’ Ada said. ‘And there’s one way to settle the matter once and for all. When we get back from the shops, we’ll stand in front of the mirror in my house and ask, “Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?” ’
    ‘How soft you are, Ada Fenwick. That mirror over the mantelpiece in your house is cracked to blazes! I went home from your house one day thinking I looked seventy years old, with me face full of wrinkles. It was only when I happened to glance in me own mirror that I realised I didn’t have any wrinkles, it was that ruddy mirror of yours.’
    Ada put a hand across her mouth, and her eyes bulged. ‘D’yer mean I’ve gone through life thinking me face was lined and wrinkled, when really I’ve got a complexion as smooth