Chapter 43
The following morning it was foggy out, and as she walked to work, Cora had the sensation that her familiar world had disappeared and she was totally and frighteningly alone.
During the night it had occurred to her that Les might want nothing to do with Enid now. No harm done! She put her clothes in the locker and changed into her clean overalls, slid her feet into rubber-soled shoes and tucked her hair into a turban.
Enid came in, looking for her. She had blue smudges under her eyes and a fragile look about her, as if she hadn’t slept at all. ‘I’m sorry about last night, Cora.’ She chewed the inside of her cheek. ‘Temperance shouldn’t have dragged you into it.’
‘It wasn’t like that – he came looking for you, that’s all. It was cruel of you, you know, letting him find you like that.’
‘Crueller still not to be honest, don’t you think?’
‘What do you mean?’
Enid sighed. ‘Why won’t you understand? I’ve got a chance to have a different sort of life with Les.’
It hurt Cora to hear her say that. ‘You still ought to act decently towards Temperance,’ she said. ‘Can’t you try to make it work?’
‘Cora, what difference does it make to you what I do?’ she asked, her voice breaking.
‘You’ll fall in love and get married and I’ll still be stuck here with him, the rest of my life stretching in front of me, and spend it putting my domestic training skills to good use.
I can’t do it. I know now what I’ve been missing.
Excuse me. I need to talk to Les before the shift starts. ’
Cora joined the queue to be checked for anything metallic that might cause a spark – hair grips, jewellery, something she might have overlooked.
She was deemed clean, and as she went into the filling shop she saw Enid looking at the cards by the clocking-in machine. Cora glanced at the time. If he was coming, he would have been in by now.
Enid looked at the time, too. ‘Have you heard from Les?’ she called over to Winifred, the overlooker.
‘He’s not in.’ Winifred smirked. ‘Worn him out, have you, Enid?’
‘I don’t know what you mean.’
‘Please yourself,’ Winifred said, amused.
Enid went back to dets and Cora stood at her bench and started filling the shells.
It was going to work out for the best, she realised with relief, because Les had made his decision, by the looks of it, and he was doing the decent thing by putting a stop to the affair.
After all, Les hadn’t been looking for trouble, he’d been looking for fun.
True, it was cowardly of him not to turn up and tell Enid to her face, but that wasn’t the point, was it?
‘Cora?’
Winifred was standing over her, jolting her out of her thoughts.
‘Enid’s falling behind and she’s in a state. I want you to take over and she can work here, just until you catch up.’
Cora hated dets. ‘Why me? Please, can’t someone else do it?’
‘You work fast,’ Winifred said. ‘Don’t look like that, it’s just for now, Cora, until she pulls herself together. That Les! She’s not the first to fall for him and I daresay she won’t be the last. Come on.’
Cora left her workbench reluctantly and followed Winifred.
Enid was sitting at her bench in the dets section, her head bowed as if it was too heavy for her neck. Her lips were moving as she counted out the detonators. One two three four five.
Her job was to put them in the box, counting them into twenties so that they were ready to go into the bombs.
She put the box in front of her and glanced up quickly, as though she sensed him, or as if she still expected to see him at any moment. One two three four five, she mouthed.
‘Wait here until she finishes that box,’ Winifred told Cora, ‘and then you take over.’
‘All right.’
Cora saw that Enid’s hands were shaking. Poor Enid, she thought.
One two three – Enid picked up the detonators in her trembling hands.
Suddenly there was a huge dazzling flash.
Cora felt a scorching burn of light and heat, as if the sun had fallen in. The factory walls bleached white and in the brightness of the blast all the women workers were reduced to black shapes, and Enid was flying, weightless, into endless night.