Wartime on Coronation Street Read online

  ‘It looks really pretty,’ Lily agreed, secretly thinking Vera had overdone it a bit.

  ‘I wanted to look nice,’ Vera said, with a sudden coyness. ‘And you look nice too. I didn’t want to let Elsie down,’ she said and she gave a self-satisfied smile.

  Burtonwood wasn’t a long ride but by the time they arrived the dance was in full swing. The live music was blasting out through the loudspeakers and soldiers in their smart uniforms were clutching young girls in full-skirted dresses and whizzing them about the dancefloor.

  From the moment they were helped down from the truck, all of the girls were whisked away to dance and Vera hardly saw Lily or Elsie again for the rest of the evening. Vera was not much of a dancer – she had never had any lessons – and she sometimes fell over her own feet, but none of her partners seemed to mind too much. She was willing and eager to try, and what they wanted was someone to swing, jive and jitterbug with across the dancefloor to the fast numbers or to put their arms around and hold closely during the slow numbers, and Vera never refused an offer.

  By the time she had finished dancing the last waltz and the music had stopped, the crowd was beginning to thin and Vera had a sudden moment of panic, wondering what had happened to her friends and worrying about how she was going to get home. She had waved once to Elsie between dance sets when she had seen her at the bar, drinking and smoking with a particularly good-looking young man, and she had almost stepped on Lily’s toes once during a slow foxtrot but hadn’t seen either of them since so she was relieved to see Lily making her way across the dancefloor now.

  ‘I thought I’d lost you,’ Vera said, squeezing her friend’s arm.

  ‘That’s not so easy,’ Lily joked. ‘Have you had a good time?’

  ‘The best!’ Vera’s eyes shone as she wrapped her arms about her body in a huge hug. ‘I lost count of how many different soldiers I’ve danced with. I feel quite giddy. It seemed like it was going on for ever. What time is it?’

  ‘Dunno,’ Lily replied. ‘I suppose we better try and find Elsie.’

  ‘I’ve got to take my shoes off – my feet are killing me,’ Vera said.

  ‘I’m sure no one will mind. Lots of them probably want to do the same thing! Are we going to get a ride home?’

  ‘We most certainly are.’ Elsie Tanner came up behind them and squeezed Vera’s shoulder. ‘In one of them army trucks like we came in. How are you doing, girls? Have you had a good time?’

  Vera and Lily nodded enthusiastically.

  At that moment a young soldier with two stripes on his sleeve waved a clipboard in the air and shouted, ‘Anyone needing a ride back to Weatherfield please go to truck number two.’ And he pointed to the yard where a truck already had the engine running.

  ‘Come on, then, let’s go,’ Elsie said and, taking hold of Vera’s arm, steered her in the right direction to where another soldier was helping the other Weatherfield girls into the truck. ‘What do you think your mam will say when you get back?’ Elsie asked Vera as the truck made its way down the bumpy dirt track. ‘I bet she’ll be waiting up with a rolling pin.’

  Lily giggled but Vera frowned. ‘I don’t know and I almost don’t care,’ she said.

  ‘Atta girl,’ Elsie said. ‘You make sure you keep your end up.’

  ‘Honestly, I’m so tired right now I expect I’ll fall straight into bed,’ Vera said, ‘though I must remember to get in on the right side this time. I did once forget and my mam got very cross with me.’

  Lily looked puzzled. ‘How do you mean? Don’t tell me you still sleep in the same bed with your mam?’

  Vera shrugged. ‘Have done since me dad died. What’s wrong with that?’ she asked.

  ‘Nowt,’ Lily said quickly.

  ‘Any road up, it’s warmer that way.’

  Elsie snorted but didn’t say anything.

  The truck turned onto a smoothly tarmacked road and, despite the dimness of the lighting, picked up speed as there were no other cars around. Lily sat back on the bench and stretched her slim legs in front of her.

  ‘Are you glad you came?’ she asked her friend.

  Vera beamed. ‘Course I am. I only hope I can get up in time for work in the morning. I can’t afford for either me or me mam to have our wages docked.’

  ‘Why should it affect your mam if you’re late in at the factory?’ Lily was curious.

  ‘Cos we always go in together. We work on the same bench and she hates having to leave me to go to work on my own. She says she doesn’t trust me to get dressed properly. Just because once I forgot to put on my liberty bodice and I had my jumper on inside out.’

  Elsie sniggered. ‘Why won’t you be able to get up early?’

  ‘Because I might still have a sore head,’ Vera said, ‘like I’ve got now.’

  ‘Have you been drinking anything you shouldn’t have?’ Elsie wanted to know.

  Vera looked uncertain. ‘I suppose I might have in the stops in between the dancing. The soldiers always wanted to buy me a drink.’

  ‘Like what? What were you drinking?’

  ‘I’ve no idea. They were all so polite I left it up to them to choose, and that was a real treat. We never have anything to drink like that at home. I don’t know where they got their coupons from. But it was just so wonderful to be free the whole night without me mother watching me all the time!’ She made a sudden gesture, throwing her hands up in the air, palms open, shouting ‘Wheeee!’ and she was laughing suddenly, as if she really had been drinking.

  ‘Next time make sure you ask for something like a lemonade or a Coca-Cola,’ Elsie said, looking at the young woman carefully.

  ‘Do you think there’ll be a next time?’ Vera asked.

  ‘Why shouldn’t there be?’ Elsie said.

  ‘Because Mam will probably try and stop me.’

  ‘Then you remind her about tonight. You’ve come to no harm, have you? Now tell us more about who you were dancing with,’ Elsie said.

  ‘Yes, you said you danced with loads of GIs,’ Lily said. ‘Was there anyone special?’

  Vera’s eyes lit up and her cheeks reddened as she nodded. ‘There was one special bloke, yes,’ she said quietly.

  ‘Ooh, go on, tell us more,’ Elsie encouraged her. ‘What was he like? How old was he? Was he good-looking?’

  ‘He was lovely,’ Vera said, and she closed her eyes and put her arms out as if she were dancing. ‘He went with some other girls as well, but he kept coming back to dance with me and he bought me a lemonade shandy, I do remember that.’

  ‘Where was he from? Anywhere we’ve heard of?’ Lily asked. ‘Only some of them seem to come from places I can’t even pronounce.’ She laughed.

  ‘He comes from California. Imagine that!’ Vera said.

  ‘I think that sounds so romantic.’ Lily clasped her hands together. ‘Don’t you, Elsie?’

  ‘California’s where they make all the films. Did you know that?’ Elsie asked.

  ‘I know, he told me,’ Vera said with some pride, ‘only he called them movies. Anyway, he’s blond and very good-looking.’

  ‘Better than any of the lads who hang around Coronation Street?’ Lily’s tone was disparaging.

  ‘Oh yes, tons better,’ Vera admitted.

  ‘Are you going to see him again?’ Elsie wanted to know.

  ‘I hope so. He had to go off before the end tonight so he couldn’t see me home, but he said he’d come to Weatherfield as soon as he could get some time off. Isn’t that wonderful?’

  ‘I must admit it does sound pretty wonderful,’ Lily agreed. ‘You gave him your telephone number, I hope?’

  ‘Good heavens, no!’ Vera was horrified. ‘Could you imagine my mother’s face if she answered the phone to a Yank?’

  ‘Well, how else is he going to find you?’ Elsie said. ‘Next time give him your number and then make sure you always answer the phone.’

  ‘I told him I lived at the Mission of Glad Tidings. Surely everyone knows where that is?’

&nb
sp; Elsie tried to hide a smile at Vera’s naiveté. ‘I expect he’ll drop in as soon as he gets a chance,’ she said. ‘Will you tell your mam about him?’

  ‘Not yet,’ Vera said. ‘Knowing her she won’t believe me. She’ll think I’m making it up.’

  ‘So it’ll be a surprise when he turns up on the doorstep, then?’ Lily said.

  ‘Yes!’ Vera said emphatically. ‘And then she’ll see that I was right to go to the dance after all and there was nowt wrong in Elsie asking me.’

  ‘Exactly.’ Elsie smiled.

  ‘So, what was his name, this good-looking GI?’

  Vera suddenly looked coy. ‘I don’t know if I should tell you,’ she teased. ‘You might try to steal him.’ Elsie and Lily both laughed.

  ‘Oh, go on,’ Lily said, ‘I promise not to.’

  ‘Well, he’s called Ronald, that’s nice, isn’t it? It’s my favourite name,’ Vera said, not attempting to disguise the boastful note in her voice.

  ‘I think that’s a smashing name,’ Elsie agreed.

  ‘Ronald Reagan,’ Vera said triumphantly. ‘Now, how’s that for a grand-sounding name?’

  The cheek of the woman! Ena Sharples sat at the vestry table letting anger fire her blood as she fingered the note she had just picked up, though she had no idea what time it had been written. All she knew was that when she came home Vera was out and Lily had gone too. The note had been scribbled on a piece of card torn from the last box of Weetabix breakfast cereal that had been in their almost-bare food cupboard and she recognized Vera’s scrawl and dreadful spelling, immediately. ‘Gone to a danse at the solgers base,’ she read. ‘Don’t wory, I’m with Elsie Tanner. Might be home late. See you later. V.’

  She’d read it so many times she knew it by heart and she tore it into shreds that she fed into the dying embers of the fire that smouldered in the grate. With Elsie Tanner indeed! The gall of that woman to entice my daughter away from her own home, when I bet she knew I’d be out, Ena thought, her rage exploding once more.

  Ena’s first reaction was that she should wait up until they got home and confront Elsie, while at the same time banning Vera from ever speaking to the wretched woman again. But the more she thought about it the more she realized that that would probably make matters worse. Despite her age, Vera was obviously going through the rebellious stage that affected most girls when they hit adolescence. But as Vera was no longer an adolescent, to keep opposing her directly as she had done in the past was probably not a good idea.

  Right now, what Vera needed was to be distracted, her attention diverted to other things, and there was only one way to deal with the problem. What better way than to find her a husband? Someone she could marry quickly, who would give her babies. That would keep her occupied and Ena would no longer have to worry. Marriage would not only keep her out of trouble but would remove her from the influence of the Elsie Tanners of this world.

  The more Ena thought about it, the more she liked the idea and she began thinking about the men she knew who might make a suitable husband. It didn’t take her too long to settle on Eric Bowman and she smiled with satisfaction. Then she switched off the light and went to bed; it might be best to let Vera think she had won this round.

  Vera wasn’t sure what kind of a welcome she expected when the truck dropped her off outside the Mission, for Ena always had something to say by way of a greeting whenever Vera went out, but she wasn’t expecting the silence that she did find. She had, at the least, expected her mother to be sitting at the table, looking grim, her face buried in a newspaper. But there was nothing. No shouting, no angry face.

  She still felt buoyed up by the excitement of the evening and it had temporarily made her lose her fear, for all she could think about was telling her mother about the people she’d met and the wonderful time she had had. But now, all that would have to wait until morning. Vera crept around the vestry as quietly as she could and, undressing quickly, crawled into bed. She could hear the deep breathing noises coming from Ena’s side and thought about the considerable victory she had won tonight.

  It would never have occurred to her to think that the snores might not be genuine …

  Vera was disappointed when more than a week went by and there was still no sign of Private Ronald Reagan. Ena had never asked her whether she’d enjoyed the dance and she hadn’t managed to pluck up the courage to tell her about it. It had all seemed so different by the next morning and her bravado had evaporated. But now, when her mother repeatedly asked her what was wrong and why she was looking down in the dumps, she eventually ventured to tell her about the soldier she’d met and how it now looked like he had let her down. But if she had hoped for some sympathy she was to be even more disappointed, for Ena’s first response was to hoot with laughter. She then proceeded to shout at her daughter, like she usually did, and hit her about the head with a rolled-up newspaper.

  ‘You’re soft in the head, you, just like I’ve always said,’ Ena sneered. ‘How could you be so stupid as to believe him, a GI? Ronald Reagan, indeed! Pah! And I thought you were supposed to be a cinemagoer.’ But she didn’t bother to explain what she meant by that.

  ‘Maybe he’s ill. Or maybe he couldn’t find the Mission,’ Vera whimpered, all bravado gone.

  ‘If you believe that you’ll believe anything!’ Ena tossed her head angrily. ‘I’ve told you before not to trust folk so easily.’

  ‘Maybe I should try to go to his barracks. I could ask Elsie how to get there. She’ll know how I can find him.’

  Now Ena raised her hand in the threatening gesture Vera was used to. She took a step forwards and Vera instinctively jumped out of the way though she knew Ena was unlikely to actually strike her.

  ‘Don’t you let me hear you talk about that barracks ever again!’ Ena shouted. ‘And if I catch you going anywhere near that floozy of an Elsie Tanner, I swear I’ll—’ She clenched her fists in frustration though she didn’t finish the sentence, but Vera’s behaviour had made her more determined than ever to seek out Eric Bowman.

  Vera was astonished at the strength of feeling behind Ena’s outburst about Elsie and could only stare at her mother, open-mouthed.

  ‘It’s not Elsie’s fault he’s not shown up,’ she said eventually, though so softly she couldn’t be sure that Ena had heard. ‘And I had a lovely time at the dance,’ she said more boldly, though Ena’s stern glare made her stand well back. ‘I thought you’d be pleased for me. It’s not as though it’s my fault that it’s not turned out well – I wasn’t to know.’ Then she turned and ran, shutting the bedroom door before she let the pent-up tears of frustration and humiliation cascade down her cheeks.

  Chapter 2

  ‘I hear you’re on the lookout for a fella.’ Elsie Tanner approached Ena Sharples with a cheeky sparkle in her eye when they were in the Rovers Return one night, several days after the dance fiasco. ‘Looking for some poor sucker you can trick into becoming an unsuspecting bridegroom, are you?’

  Ena had, of course, confided her plans to her cronies, and they’d relished spreading the gossip.

  Ena’s brow wrinkled and she opened her mouth to protest but Elsie got in first. ‘Not for yourself, of course; I realize you’re a bit long in the tooth for that.’ Elsie fingered her own low-cut blouse to reveal even more cleavage than usual and patted her heavily reddened curls. She paused long enough to giggle at Ena’s outraged expression but not long enough to let Ena get a word in. ‘You want someone for your poor lass who you’ve tried to keep hidden away all this time, wrapped up in cotton wool. God knows you’ve done your best to protect her from the world, all these years, like some kind of sleeping beauty.’ Elsie was gratified to see Ena’s face blush scarlet and her eyes practically bulge out of their sockets. ‘I suppose you think that getting her married off will keep her out of harm’s way?’ she said with a laugh. ‘But first you’ve got to find a Prince Charming who’s willing to take her on. Not that there’s owt wrong with Vera, she’s a good lass. It’s you he’d be wan
ting to steer clear of.’

  ‘I’ll thank you to keep your nose out of our family business, Elsie Tanner!’ Ena snapped, and she stood up to confront Elsie, stretching to her full height. ‘Haven’t you done enough harm already?’

  Elsie’s eyes widened for a moment in feigned innocence then glinted as her brow furrowed. ‘And I’ll thank you to keep a civil tongue in your head, Mrs Sharples. Though I doubt you’ll find a prince hanging around Weatherfield these days, certainly not one willing to wake your daughter up with a kiss. Not that the poor girl will know which end is up by the time you’ve done with her.’ She gave a short laugh. ‘You’ll have sucked all the life out of her so that she won’t know how to have a good time. I feel sorry for the lass, is all I can say, and the sooner she gets out of your clutches the better.’

  ‘Your sympathy is wasted, Elsie Tanner.’ Ena practically spat the name out. ‘My daughter’s perfectly capable of having a good time – in her own way.’

  ‘What, like she did at the dance I took her to at the American base?’ Elsie emphasized the words tauntingly. ‘From the way she behaved I reckon it’s the first grown-up treat she’s ever had, but do you know what? She was no different from any of the other young lasses there. It’s only a pity you weren’t there to see it, but I made sure she had a good time.’ Elsie fumbled in her handbag and turned away to light a cigarette, then she turned back to face Ena one more time, almost puffing the smoke in her face. ‘Although I say it myself, I think it was the best night of her young life.’

  Elsie was gratified when Ena’s cheeks puffed out, displaying her obvious anger. ‘And I’ll tell you something else for nothing,’ Elsie said, with a satisfied smile, ‘your Vera’s not half the dimwit you like to make her out to be. All she needs is the chance to have a bit of fun with friends of her own age, not live gathering dust in a mission hall.’