Far From Home. Anne Bennett

smart uniform and spent ages in front of the mirror in the cloakroom where they changed getting it just so, and she especially liked the jaunty little cap that she set to the side of her head and secured with kirby grips. She didn’t even mind serving out the ice creams and drinks where her good humour and ready smile endeared her to many, and sometimes she collected a good few tips. Each week the tips were counted out and spread out amongst them all, and that did mean that there were usually a couple of shillings extra to add to the twelve and six she got as a trainee to take home to Kate, but Kate allowed her to keep the extra and gave her another two shillings to add to it, and Sally was pleased enough with that.

      As Sally was working most evenings, Susie and Kate started back on their old routine of going to the pictures at least once a week, sometimes to the Plaza where they would see Sally, and sometimes further afield, and also going back to the dances because Sally was usually working on a Friday anyway.

      Kate was soon aware that things had changed while she’d been out of the scene for a bit. Nick and Susie were being seen as a couple, and she was soon aware of Nick’s resentment towards her. Susie had told him that Kate’s sister had moved in and was staying with her, and he had thought that might lessen Kate’s dependence on Susie. Susie said it wasn’t like that, but to appease him she did promise that something would be decided by the New Year.

      Christmas was only around the corner, and one day as the girls settled themselves in the tram on their way to work, Susie asked Kate if Sally still liked her job. ‘Loves it,’ Kate said. ‘I imagine she thinks she has died and gone to heaven.’

      ‘She certainly has a smile that near splits her face in two whenever we go there to see a film,’ Susie said. ‘But doesn’t she mind seeing the same film over and over? I think that would really get on my wick after a while.’

      ‘Are you kidding?’ Kate said. ‘She can’t seem to get enough of the silver screen. I know what you mean – I would get bored too after a while – but it suits Sally well enough. She gets on well with the other usherettes too. She says a fair few of them are young like she is and they have great fun together sometimes. This is what she missed in Ireland, you see: friends her own age. She’s told me she used to get very lonely.’

      ‘Yeah, I see that,’ Susie said. ‘That would get anyone down after a while, I would imagine. And talking of Ireland, has there still been no movement from your mother?’

      Kate shook her head. ‘Every week she writes to me and never even asks about Sally and if I tell her anything she ignores it. She never even acknowledges the postal orders I send her.’

      ‘Postal orders?’

      ‘Yes,’ Kate said. ‘Every week I send her a two-shilling postal order. It’s not my money, it’s Sally’s. She’s paying back the money she took, but she is afraid to send it direct to Mammy in case she burns her letters or something without opening them.’

      ‘Would she do that?’

      ‘Oh, easily, I would say, if she was mad enough,’ Kate said. ‘She never replies to anything Sally sends anyway. When she started her job she wrote and told Mammy all about it, but she never got as much as a line back. She wrote again the next week and the next, but she has given up now.’

      ‘Well, I should imagine that it’s hard to keep writing and getting no reply.’

      ‘Yeah, I’d say so.’

      ‘Maybe when she pays back all the money, your mother will relent?’

      Kate sighed. ‘Maybe,’ she said, but she said it doubtfully, and Susie asked, ‘Does Sally still get upset about it?’

      ‘Not now so much,’ Kate said. ‘But she used to, as you know, and that’s possibly leading to another problem.’

      ‘How’s that?’

      ‘Well, she was crying one day at work and the trainee projectionist, a young man she said is called Phil Reynard heard her, and in her words was “very kind” to her. Next thing they are walking out together.’

      ‘Gosh, she’s a quick worker.’

      ‘I’ll say.’

      ‘Well, what’s wrong with that?’ Susie said, laughing at the look on Kate’s face.

      ‘Well, it’s just that she’s only … she’s just …’

      ‘She’s nearly seventeen,’ Susie said. ‘And a very pretty girl. Oh, come on, Kate,’ she burst out. ‘You might think there is only one man on the planet, but you can’t expect Sally to feel the same. I should imagine she was taught right from wrong, as we all were, so what are you worried about?’

      ‘I don’t want to have to police my sister,’ Kate said. ‘That should be my mother’s job.’

      ‘Well, she’s not going to do that, is she? She’s made that clear.’

      ‘I know,’ Kate agreed with a sigh. ‘And the point is, if she did relent now, I think Sally would refuse to go home anyway. Even before this Phil Reynard, she was enjoying Birmingham a great deal. He is just another thing to keep her here, and so after Christmas we really must look for a larger place.’

      ‘I can see that,’ Susie said. ‘I’ll help you look, if you like.’

      ‘Thanks,’ Kate said, getting to her feet as the bus pulled into their stop. ‘I just might hold you to it.’

      FIVE

      Kate knew that if this antagonism her mother had for Sally was to abate, even slightly, then surely Christmas was the time to build bridges and heal wounds. Though she doubted that Sally would want to return to Ireland to live, she knew she hated being on such bad terms with their parents. And so Kate wrote her mother a long letter and mentioned Sally a lot and said how helpful she was and how mature she was becoming and told her that she was enjoying her work as an usherette at the cinema and hoped it would help thaw her mother’s anger a little.

      Sally thought the same way as Kate did, and was more than glad of the tips she was getting, which had increased slightly as Christmas drew nearer, because the extra money meant she was able to buy her mother the softest cardigan in pale blue and a rugged navy blue jumper for her father and a spinning top for James. She packed them up with a card in plenty of time, but she never had any acknowledgement that they had even been received.

      Philomena did write to Kate, though, and thanked her for the presents she had sent: a pair of warm slippers for both parents and a small toy horse and cart for her brother. Other news in the letter sent consternation running through Kate, though, and she couldn’t wait to get to the tram stop that morning and discuss it with Susie.

      It was the day before Christmas Eve and the first thing Susie said as they got on the tram was, ‘Has Sally heard anything from your mother?’

      Kate shook her head. ‘I did hope that Mammy would relent with Christmas approaching,’ she said. ‘After all, Sally has paid back nearly all the money she took and she has said how truly sorry she was, still is, and she also sent them lovely presents.’

      ‘There’s always tomorrow,’ Susie reminded her friend.

      Kate shook her head. ‘I think that she would have heard before this. Mammy sent me a long letter inside the Christmas card telling me all the news and when I had read that for a moment or two I wished I hadn’t.’

      ‘Why?’ Susie cried. ‘What on earth did she say to you?’

      ‘She told me that Tim is walking out with a girl called Maggie Mulligan,’ Kate said miserably, and added, ‘Maybe you might remember Maggie? She was about our age.’

      Susie thought for a minute and said, ‘Wasn’t she the girl whose plaits were always coming unravelled?’

      ‘That’s the one,’ Kate said with a rueful smile. ‘The schoolmaster used to say that by the time the bell rang at the end of the day she looked as if she’d been pulled