The Orphans of Halfpenny Street

‘Don’t worry about Sister. It’s the monthly meeting; she’s always a bit touchy on those days,’ Sally said, eyes bright with amusement as she sank down with her own tea and a vaguely gingery ginger biscuit made by the kitchen staff. ‘She’s not a bad old stick, you know. She can be harsh, and she’s strict to work for, but she really cares for these kids deep down.’

‘Yes, I do know,’ Michelle said, the last of her ill temper vanishing as she looked at her colleague. ‘Are you going out tonight? A few of us are visiting the Odeon in Bethnal Green. We can get a bus that takes you right outside the door, and it’s Gone With the Wind this week – it’s come back again.’

‘Oh, I’ve seen that,’ Sally sighed dreamily. ‘It was lovely and I’d love to see it again – but I’m going dancing at the Pally with my brother Jim, Madge and Brenda tonight …’

‘Who is Madge?’

‘Jim and Madge have been courting for two years,’ Sally said. ‘She would’ve got married ages ago, but he’s saving up so that they can start off right with a decent house and proper furniture. He says he’s never going to settle for a dump like we had before we got re-housed. We’ve got a lovely modern council house now, much better than the old back-to-back houses they’ve replaced. In some ways Hitler did us a favour, bombing the area. It meant the council had to get us moved so that they could pull the lot down – so we were first on the list.’

‘We’re still stuck in a two-up and two-down back-to-back with no bathroom. Hitler missed us, though the houses in the next street got a direct hit.’

Sally Rush’s family were lucky. One of the council’s first projects after the war had been to clear the area where they had lived: a small cluster of six old houses close to the Docks. It was just the start of a huge clearance scheme, which was going to take years and hundreds of thousands of pounds to complete. The problem was that the furnaces couldn’t produce enough bricks, and timber was scarce, and so in a lot of areas they were putting up temporary prefabs.

‘What do you think of all the fuss about Princess Elizabeth’s wedding?’ Sally said, glancing at the newspaper lying on the table next to her. ‘Fancy her going to marry Philip Mountbatten. He’s the son of a Greek prince, isn’t he? – and very handsome …’

‘Yes, he looks nice,’ Michelle agreed. ‘I wish I’d been there outside the palace when it was announced in July. They say the crowds went mad with delight at the news.’

‘I wonder what she’ll do about a wedding dress. You have to save coupons for ages to buy a proper gown. I know there’s a little more material about now, but she will need yards and yards.’

‘Oh, I expect they’ll find some extra coupons for her – she deserves it. I reckon the whole royal family have been bricks. They could have gone off to the wilds of Scotland and been safe in one of their big houses, but they chose to stay here with the rest of us.’

‘Yes, I love the King – he’s so like everyone’s favourite family doctor …’

‘Sally! You can’t say that about the King!’

‘Why not? He’s kind and comforting and I don’t think he would mind.’

‘Probably not,’ Michelle agreed, smiling, then, ‘What about going dancing together another week?’

Whatever Sally was about to answer was lost as they heard a child’s scream of rage and then the door of the staff room was flung open and a rather scruffy-looking boy with red hair rushed in followed by Alice Cobb, another of the carers. A little plumper than the other two, she was very pretty. She was wearing a big rubber apron over her uniform and it was obvious that her intention had been to bathe the lad. Her pretty face was blotched with red, her soft fair hair sticking to her forehead, and she was obviously feeling hot and bothered.

The lad looked angry rather than frightened, and seeing a cake knife lying on the table, picked it up and held it in front of him like a weapon as Alice advanced on him purposefully.

‘Put that down, Billy,’ Alice said in a severe tone. ‘You’ve been told you have to have a bath when you’re admitted for the first time. Nurse needs to examine you to make sure …’ She gave a little scream and flinched back as he made a threatening gesture at her. ‘I shall tell Sister on you and she’ll send you to a home for bad boys. We don’t want the likes of you here.’

‘What do you think you’re doing, Billy Baggins?’ Sally asked and got calmly to her feet. ‘You should be ashamed. Your father would skin you if he saw you threaten Nurse like that …’

‘He ain’t around to skin me no more,’ Billy said but grinned and lowered his arm. ‘Wot you doin’ ’ere, Sally Rush?’

‘I work here, that’s what,’ she said. ‘Give me the knife, Billy. You know you’re not going to use it. You’re not a bad boy so don’t be a dafty.’

‘She wanted me ter take orf me clothes in front of ’er!’ he retorted indignantly. ‘Then she yelled at me when I kicked her shins so I hopped it …’ He looked at the cakes on the table. ‘Blimey, they look good. I ain’t had nuthin’ decent since me nanna went in the hospital.’

‘Well, you can have a corned beef sandwich with pickle and a rock cake when you’ve had your bath,’ Sally said. ‘Come on, I shan’t look at your willie so you can stop making a dafty of yourself. You don’t want to go where they give you nothing but bread and water, do you?’

‘Nah.’ He gave in and passed her the cake knife by its handle. ‘I reckon I don’t mind you givin’ me a bath – if yer promise not ter look.’

‘I promise,’ Sally said but didn’t give way to the smile that Michelle knew was hovering. ‘Nurse might have to examine you if you’ve got sores but she’ll let you keep your underpants on.’

‘Ain’t got none. Ain’t got no sores neither. Me nanna made sure of that when she looked after me. I ’ad a bath only last month, afore she went in the ’ospital.’

‘You will have clean pants now. Your clothes need a good boil, so you’ll be issued with new things. Clothes that fit. You’d like that, wouldn’t you?’

‘Suppose so …’ He stared at her, clearly still reluctant, but when Alice took off her apron and handed it to Sally, he submitted, asking as they headed to the bathrooms, ‘You promise you’ll give me that sandwich and a cake?’

Michelle smiled at Alice as she flopped down in an empty chair and kicked off her shoes, sympathising with her friend. ‘Sally has a way with the stubborn ones, doesn’t she?’

‘He took offence when I asked him if he had lice …’

‘A lot of the kids think you’re looking down on them if you ask questions like that, you know. He looked scruffy but that was mainly those old clothes. I should think his grandmother kept him clean until she was taken into hospital. Is she still alive?’

‘I’ve no idea,’ Alice said. ‘I only know Constable Sallis brought him in. He said he’d been found wandering the streets and the magistrate said he should come here if we could take him, while they decide what to do with him. I suppose they are waiting to see if his family can be found – Constable Sallis said he has a brother but he’s gone missing.’

‘Probably in trouble with the law,’ Michelle said and stood up. ‘I think I’ll go and see how Sally is getting on – but first I need to look in at last night’s new arrivals. Are you coming to the cinema this evening?’

‘No. I’ve got the afternoon off and then I’m on again for the evening shift tonight. I wish I was coming. I wanted to see that film. I missed it last time and I shall probably miss it this time as well.’

‘If you want, I’ll swap duties with you,’ Michelle offered. ‘I don’t mind, Alice, honest.’

‘I daren’t. Sister Beatrice would have my guts for garters if she caught you doing my job. Thanks for offering though, you’re a mate. Why don’t you come round ours on Sunday? We could go for a walk in the park and have tea out. Anything to get away from our house when the kids are home.’

‘All right, I’d like that,’ Michelle said. ‘Cheer up, love, you did your best and some of the kids we get are that stubborn.’

‘That one is – he’ll end up getting the cane off of Sister if he doesn’t watch it.’

Michelle nodded and left her. She doubted whether Sister Beatrice would have minded if they changed duties, if she’d even noticed, but Alice was too often in trouble to risk it. Shrugging, she turned her steps towards the isolation ward. She thought the elder boy, whose name was Dick, probably just had a bit of a chill, but she was glad she’d acted quickly. The last thing they needed was for an infectious disease to spread through the home. She was sure that Sally was all right; she was better at managing the children than Alice.

Going into the ward, she checked as she saw that Sister Beatrice was sitting by the eldest boy’s bed. She was wearing a white apron to cover her habit and checking her patient’s pulse. Looking up as Michelle approached, she nodded her approval.

‘Well spotted, Staff Nurse Michelle. Dick has the early stages of chicken pox. I hope we may avoid an outbreak because of your prompt action, though I think his brother and sister have probably taken it from him. I’m putting you in charge of them and taking you off other duties. You can choose one of the carers to help you and you two will be the only ones other than myself to enter the ward. Remember your hand washing routine, and you must change your apron in the side room before leaving, and send your clothes to the dirty laundry, so that you do not carry the infection to the other nurses.’

‘Yes, Sister,’ Michelle said. ‘I don’t mind giving up my evening off if it will help.’

‘You may decide the shifts as you please, but no one else is to enter until the infectious stage is over. Chicken pox is not normally dangerous, but I do not want half the children in the home going down with it or the staff. We just couldn’t cope with such an outbreak. I take it that you’ve had it yourself?’

‘Yes, Sister. I know Sally has had it but I think she has plans for this evening.’

‘One of you must be around all night,’ Sister Beatrice said. ‘Take it in turns, but I expect both of you to remain here. You can get some rest in the room next door, but I don’t want this boy neglected. In his state it could be dangerous – he is seriously undernourished. He will not fight off the infection as well as a healthy child would.’

‘Yes, I know,’ Michelle said. ‘I am quite happy to stay this evening, and for as long as you think it necessary …’ She wasn’t sure that Sally would feel the same, but she would much rather work with her than any of the other carers.

‘Good, that is what I like to hear. I shall send Miss Rush to you.’

Michelle watched as Sister left the room. Sister had been bathing Dick’s forehead, and Michelle took over, wringing the cloth out in the cool water as the boy moaned and writhed, obviously feverish and in pain. He hardly seemed aware of her, calling out and begging someone not to hit him.

Michelle’s heart felt as if it were being squeezed. How could these people be so cruel to their children? She’d learned from the younger boy that their own father had died three years ago, and the man who had lived with them was an unofficial stepfather. No doubt their mother was under this man’s domination, powerless to stop him beating the children – but he wouldn’t do so again, because now they were here and safe. By the way the little girl wept for her mother, she at least couldn’t have been entirely bad, just weak and unable to protect her children from the unsuitable men she had living in her home. Unfortunately, it was something they saw over and over again and it never failed to make Michelle angry.

Little Susie was whimpering again. Michelle went to comfort her and saw the telltale signs of red spots on her face. She had taken the sickness too, though it looked as if Jake was all right so far. He got out of his own bed and came to stand by the side of his sister’s.

‘She’s got it too, ain’t she?’

‘I’m afraid she has, but she isn’t quite as bad as Dick.’ Michelle looked at him anxiously, because he was the most undernourished of them all, his spirit much stronger than his poor little body. ‘How are you – any headache or feeling hot?’

‘Nah, I never get nuffin’ like the others,’ Jake said proudly. ‘Shall I sit wiv me sister?’

‘You get back in bed, there’s a good lad,’ Michelle said. ‘Would you like some comics to look at? I’m sure we’ve got some Rupert Bear copies in the cupboard somewhere, or there might be a Beano … one about an ancient caveman?’

‘I’d rather ’ave an adventure story,’ Jake said, ‘but if there ain’t none the comics will do.’

‘I’ll have a look in a minute, after I get Susie to swallow this draught …’

‘Wot is it?’ he asked, looking interested. ‘Susie don’t like medicine, but Ma always takes an Aspro for ’er ’eadaches.’

‘It’s just a special medicine we use in hospital but you can’t buy in the shops – that will stop her feeling so bad, helps to cool the fever. You can’t use Aspirin for children with chicken pox, you see.’ She held the glass to the little girl’s lips, but Susie had clamped them shut and refused to swallow.

‘You ’ave ter be firm wiv her,’ Jake said, leaning over and pinching his sister’s nose so that she was forced to open her mouth and gulp the mixture down. ‘That’s wot me dad used ter do wiv me when I were a nipper. He were a good ’un, me dad. We were all right afore he died …’

Michelle smiled as he retired to his bed, lying on top of it in the striped cotton pyjamas the home had supplied. She would find something for him to read if she had to send one of the carers out to buy him an adventure story.

Sally entered the ward just as Michelle was looking in the cupboard for the promised comics. The nurse turned her head, giving her colleague a wry smile.

‘Are you furious with me for picking you to help?’

‘No, of course not,’ Sally said. ‘I’ve rung my sister Brenda at her office and told her I shan’t be going dancing with them tonight. We can share the nursing.’ She looked at Dick as he flung out his arms and muttered something unintelligible. ‘Are they all ill?’

‘Jake says he is feeling all right,’ Michelle said, pouncing on a pile of comics and two much-read Biggles books in triumph. ‘I knew we had this somewhere. Give them to Jake; it will save him from being bored for a while.’

Sally took the pile of comics and sat on the edge of Jake’s bed, smiling as he grabbed them eagerly. Clearly he’d been taught to read at school, even though he probably wouldn’t have had much help from his mother. ‘My brother likes these Biggles books. He still reads them even though he’s grown up and I bring them in for the children when he’s finished with them, though Sister would have my guts for garters if she knew …’ Sister Beatrice didn’t like books and comics brought into the sick ward, because of the germs they might hold. She thought the violence portrayed in some of the comics unacceptable.

‘I shan’t tell her,’ Jake said solemnly and drew a finger across his throat. ‘I’m awful thirsty, miss.’

‘Do we have any lemon barley in the rest room?’ Sally asked Michelle.

‘There’s bound to be something – and you can put the kettle on and make us a cup of tea …’ Michelle pulled back the covers and smoothed her cool cloth over Susie’s heated body, dried her gently and applied calamine lotion to the spots to help stop the itching.

Sally went into the next room and filled a kettle for their tea, but when she looked in the cupboard there was nothing to make a drink for the thirsty little boy. Michelle looked impatient when she told her.

‘Oh, for goodness’ sake, can’t the kitchen staff ever do their job properly? You’ll have to take off your apron and wash your hands, then go down there …’

Just as Sally was about to obey, there was a knock at the door. Discovering one of the kitchen girls with a loaded trolley, including a jug of iced lemon barley, some milk in a jug and a bottle of concentrated orange squash, she laughed.

‘You must be psychic,’ she said. ‘I was just coming to fetch some of this.’

‘Sister Beatrice told me to bring this to you – and I’m to bring another jug up before I go off for the evening.’

Carrying the loaded tray to a table, Sally set it down and filled a glass for the thirsty child. Then she went through to the little room next door just as the kettle boiled. She made a pot of tea and took back two steaming mugs.

‘Fancy Sister Beatrice thinking of all this,’ she said as she put Michelle’s tea on a table and sipped her own.

‘She’s very efficient,’ Michelle said. ‘Just don’t get on the wrong side of her, that’s all …’

‘Well, I think she’s a brick,’ Sally said, sipping her tea, ‘but I wouldn’t dare tell her so.’

Michelle smiled, finished her tea and went back to Dick, who was tossing from side to side again. Poor little boy, he was really feeling very ill and it was no wonder that Sister was worried about him. In cases where the patient was already weakened, chicken pox might lead to pneumonia, and Dick just wasn’t strong enough to go through that; none of them were.

FIVE

Alice left St Saviour’s at just after eleven that evening, shivering a little because it had turned colder and her coat was thin, almost threadbare in places. She was saving for a new one from the market, but there was always a crisis at home and her mother needed most of Alice’s wages. Although she didn’t really grudge the money, it made her as mad as fire when her father got drunk on pay night, having spent more than half of what he earned all week. The rows in their house on a Friday night were awful, and she was glad that she could get out of it because she was working the late shift.

She walked quickly, wishing that she could have afforded to catch the tram that would take her to the end of their road, which was not far from Commercial Street. She had to cross over the wide thoroughfare, which, during the day, was always choked with traffic, horses and carts, buses and lorries, delivering goods to the shops. Her way took her down Brushfield Street towards Gun Street and Artillery Lane, where her family were housed in part of an old town house that had been turned into multiple dwellings by the landlord. To reach home she would have to pass the ugly building that served as a night refuge for women; these destitutes were always poorly dressed and often drunk, their faces grey with the exhaustion that came from poverty. Nearby was what Alice knew to be one of the finest Georgian shop-fronts left over from a grander past, because this area had once been most respectable. London was such a hotchpotch of the ugly and the beautiful, sometimes standing side by side.

As she turned the corner, Alice thought about the home she shared with her parents and brothers and sister, which was within walking distance of Halfpenny Street. The house had once been a large property but was now partitioned off with entrances to the front and rear; the latter reached through a narrow passage at the side. All six of her family were crowded into three rooms, with a tiny scullery; the only toilet was in the back yard and shared by two other families. The stench from the old-fashioned closet on a warm night was almost unbearable and Alice never used it, preferring a pot behind the screen, which she emptied in the morning before leaving for work, averting her head and trying not to breathe as she did so. She and her sister Mavis, who was just a year younger and working in the cardboard factory, shared one half of the front bedroom. Behind a curtain hung from a thin brass rail her two younger brothers, Saul and Joseph, slept in one small bed, head to tail. If Alice woke in the night it was usually to the sound of her brothers quarrelling.

Her parents had the smaller bedroom at the back, and since the walls were painfully thin it was possible to hear what went on when they retired for the night. If they weren’t shouting at each other the bed springs would be pounding, Alice’s mother protesting unfairly at what she termed her lout of a husband’s brutality, because he wasn’t a violent man. To Alice’s knowledge, he’d never hit her mother and it was more likely that she would use her rolling pin on him.

Sometimes, Alice wished that her father would leave home again, for his sake, because she couldn’t bear to see him looking so miserable. He wasn’t all bad; she knew it was her mother’s tongue that drove him to the drink and wondered why he stayed, yet she knew his leaving would not improve her mother’s temper. Mrs Cobb was a scold with a nasty tongue and she used it on her family and neighbours, quarrelling regularly with everyone that shared the crumbling building.

Houses like theirs ought to have been pulled down long since. The council had talked about it long before the war but nothing was ever done. Even Hitler hadn’t obliged them by dropping a bomb on the place, though his Luftwaffe had left gaping holes everywhere you looked.

Why couldn’t her family be moved to one of those smashing new council houses like Sally Rush’s lived in? Alice envied them their warm home – and it wasn’t just the lovely new stove that made Sally’s home seem warm. Her parents didn’t row all the time.

If only she could find somewhere else to live, Alice thought. She’d asked Sister Beatrice if she could have a room in the Nurse’s Home, but had been told that she lived too close to need it. It wasn’t the walking she minded, though on cold nights it was far enough, but she longed for some peace and privacy.

‘Where are you off to at this hour, then?’ Accosted by a voice she knew, Alice refused to turn round, though she fluffed up her hair, wanting to look her best even though she ought to ignore him. She didn’t want anything to do with Jack Shaw, because he was no good. He might have film star looks with his black hair, slicked down with Brylcreem, and bold blue eyes, and he always had money in his pocket to spend, but that was only because he ran with the local bad boys. Alice’s father had warned her when he’d seen her talking to Jack once, and since then she’d tried to avoid speaking to him.

‘Aw, don’t be like that, Alice luv,’ Jack said, coming up to her and swinging her round to face him. ‘Why are yer avoiding me these days?’

‘I don’t want anything to do with the likes of you, Jack Shaw. I keep meself out of trouble – and you’re bad news.’

‘Now where did you get that idea?’ Jack said, grinning at her. They were standing in the light of a street lamp, giving him a yellowish and slightly malevolent look as he gazed down into her face. ‘I could be good news for a girl like you. I’m going places, Alice, and I might take you with me if you’re nice to me.’

‘Go away and leave me alone,’ she said sharply. ‘I’ve asked you politely, but if you persist I’ll scream.’

Jack laughed, seeming delighted with her resistance. ‘A fat lot of good that will do you round ’ere,’ he teased. ‘There’s girls screamin’ all the time, most of ’em because they like it – they make out they don’t want it, but they do … just like you do, Alice Cobb.’

‘You just shut your filthy mouth,’ Alice said fiercely. ‘I know how to protect myself and I’ll kick you where it hurts if you touch me.’

‘She’s a feisty one,’ Jack said and his grin broadened. ‘Maybe that’s why I like you, Alice. You ain’t easy. I know you ain’t been with anyone and that’s why I’m interested. If you went out with me, you’d soon see I’m a proper gent. Jack Shaw knows how to treat a girl right. I’ll give you a good time, and I’m not talking about a quick one up against the wall either. I’ll take you to a dance or a nightclub and dinner – and then we’ll go back to my place. I’ve got somewhere really cosy but I only take special girls there.’

‘I don’t want to be one of your special girls,’ Alice said. She glared at him as he edged closer and then made a grab for her. Even though she tried to escape, he had her in his arms, pressed hard against him as his mouth closed over hers. His kiss surprised her, because she’d expected the kind of slobbery mess that some of the lads at school had tried on with her; instead his mouth was firm but soft, exploring hers sweetly in a way that made her heart jerk with fright because it aroused new feelings. His tongue explored the shape of her lips, trying to force entry but she kept it firmly shut and suddenly brought her knee up sharply. He yelled as she made contact with him and jerked back, clearly hurt and shocked. ‘I warned you. Just stay away from me, Jack. That was just a friendly reminder, next time I’ll really hurt you.’