Chapter 27
Megan’s dog, Shep, was waiting for them by the factory gates again that evening. They were on the late shift and the night was cold and the sky was clear, with a thin segment of a new moon glowing in the darkness.
Cora shivered. The black dog seemed bothered about something. Cora whistled to him, but he kept his distance. He didn’t like a fuss made of him.
When he saw Megan he pricked up his ears and immediately turned around and headed purposefully along the road, mission accomplished, whatever the mission was.
She watched him blend into the darkness. Gladdie and Megan came through the gates together, laughing, and Enid was with them.
Enid gave Cora a smile and a wave. ‘I’ve decided to walk home with you, see what you’re up to,’ she said archly.
See what I’m up to? That was the trouble with a guilty conscience, Cora thought resentfully. You could read too much into things.
She was tired after the day’s work, longing to get away from the noise, the concentration, the rhythm, the repetition, Music While You Work, and now, her cheeks stinging with the cold slap of winter, she was longing to get back into the warmth again.
‘I’m looking forward to Saturday,’ Megan said, rubbing her hands together to warm them before plunging them into her pockets.
‘Why? What’s happening?’ Enid asked. Their footsteps echoed in the frosty street.
‘We’re going to the Angel Ballroom to jive.’
‘Can I come too?’ Enid asked eagerly.
Megan laughed at the idea. ‘You and Temperance?’
‘No, just me.’
Megan grunted and Gladdie pushed in between her and Enid. ‘Listen, you’re asking for trouble, you know.’
‘Am I?’ Enid was silent for a few moments. Then she tossed her head. ‘I just thought it would be fun. You’re always telling me it’s fun. And I’ve got my own money now so I might as well enjoy it.’
‘You don’t want to push your marriage too far, Enid. Think of your vows,’ Gladdie urged her.
Enid laughed. ‘I’d rather think of myself for a change.’
‘Fine. But what will you do when the war ends and you’re a housewife again, and Temperance won’t have you back?’
Cora and Megan glanced at each other, because it was a good point. The way things had been before the war, with the men earning and the wives looking after them, that had been the only way to live, the right way to live, that’s what they’d believed then.
‘So what if he won’t? I don’t need him to look after me any more. I can look after myself,’ Enid said. ‘I’ve found that out, at least,’ she said.
A bus passed them, lit up inside and crammed with workers and Enid turned to look at it hopefully.
Looking for Les, Cora guessed.
When they reached the fields, Cora saw a dark figure standing alone in the moonlight, angular as a scarecrow, and perfectly still.
Cora narrowed her eyes to see better, only half-listening to Gladdie’s debate on whether to go to the Angel Ballroom or the Star Hotel to dance.
As they got closer, Cora realised it was her mother, and she was pointing her shotgun at the camp.
‘Mam!’ she called out in alarm.
Jane swung the gun away from the camp and mounted the barrels towards them. They stopped where they were and stood bunched together, scared and uncertain.
‘It’s us, Mam,’ Cora said, her voice pitched high with fear.
It seemed a long time before Jane lowered the gun and broke it. ‘Shooting rabbits, I am,’ she lied as she pocketed the cartridges.