Authors: The Handkerchief Tree
‘How did it go?’ she asked when she and Shona were out in the street. ‘Not that you’ll be able to tell.’
‘I think it was OK, but you’re right, I don’t have any idea.’ Shona looked gloomily down George Street, at all the carefree passers-by, none of whom would have to wait for a letter as she must do. ‘Did you see that pretty lassie in the shop? Dressed in navy blue?’
‘I can’t say I noticed. What about her?’
‘She was another one for the job. I thought she looked well to do. Why would she want to work in a shop?’
‘Because it’s a flower shop, Shona. It’s not like a grocer’s or a sweet shop – it has what you want, hasn’t it? The promise of a career?’
‘Yes, I do want that.’
‘Well, let’s hope that came across at your interview. But however things go, you have a great deal ahead of you, anyway. Your birthday. Your move to lodgings. Your farewell to the Lodge. How d’you feel about that?’
‘Never thought I’d say this,’ Shona answered, after a pause, ‘but I’m going to miss it. Quite a lot.’
Everyone was having birthdays, or so it seemed. Cassie had hers, Mavis Maxwell had hers, Archie Smith and his cronies had theirs, which meant that celebratory iced buns – the Lodge didn’t run to large cakes – were becoming a regular event at tea time. Only Shona’s birthday – due in late June – was yet to come, and she wasn’t interested in having buns or little presents, or anything. Just one letter from Maybel’s Flowers would do. As long as it contained good news.
On the morning of her birthday, she was on wires again at breakfast waiting for the post, though she put on a good act of being perfectly happy with the cards she’d already been given. One from Cassie, of course, another from Mavis, several from other girls in her class, and one from Archie Smith, who waved and grinned when she looked over to thank him. There was also the usual card from Miss Bryce – she sent one to all leavers on their last birthdays at the Lodge – and one from Miss Ruddick, again wishing Shona good luck. If I am lucky, Shona thought, it’ll be partly due to her.
There was no sign of any sort of luck, however, when the post finally came, for all it contained for Shona were cards from Mrs Hope, Kitty and Mrs Gow.
‘Oh, what a shame!’ Cassie commented as she and Shona set out for one of their last days at school. ‘It would have been a grand present if you could’ve got good news on your birthday.’
‘But if I’d got bad news, it would have spoiled my birthday,’ Shona replied, trying to put a brave face on her disappointment. ‘Might still, eh? If the letter comes by second post.’
‘Don’t think about it,’ Cassie advised. ‘Just remember, tomorrow we are leaving school. Can you believe it?’
‘And the next day I’ll probably be job hunting. I can believe that.’
But there was to be no more job hunting for Shona. When she returned from school that afternoon, Miss Donner informed her that there was a letter for her, come by second post.
‘A letter?’ whispered Shona. ‘Where is it?’
‘I have it here.’ Miss Donner put the envelope into her hand with a sympathetic smile, for she, like most at the Lodge, knew what Shona had been waiting for. ‘Come on, be brave. Open it!’
‘Aye, open it,’ said Cassie, almost as excited as Shona herself.
‘Might no’ be the one.’ Shona was looking at the typewritten envelope. She knew it
was
the one.
‘Want me to open it?’ asked Miss Donner.
‘No, no, I’ll open it.’
Tearing open the envelope, Shona pulled out the typewritten sheet it contained. And turned pale.
‘Oh, dear,’ sighed Cassie.
‘Bad news?’ asked Miss Donner.
‘Good news.’ Shona’s colour was rushing back. ‘Oh, Cassie – Miss Donner – I’ve got it! I’ve got the job! They want me to start week after next. Oh, I must tell Miss Ruddick!’
‘Miss Bryce first,’ Miss Donner warned, then gave Shona a sudden hug. ‘Well done, Shona! We’re so pleased for you.’
‘Aye, Shona, we are, we are,’ Cassie cried, taking a turn at hugging her. ‘You got your grand birthday present after all, eh?’
It was her best ever birthday, Shona decided, apart from those she’d had when she was a wee girl and both her parents had been alive. She remembered them well. There’d been little gifts – her toy rabbit had been one – and a cake her mother would have baked with icing and candles; other children invited in to play all the old games. She’d never wanted her birthday to end then, but of course things were different at the Lodge, where birthdays passed without any great celebration. There were the iced buns and cards from those who knew you best; otherwise the special days were much like any others.
Not this year, though. This year, Shona’s fifteenth birthday was one she knew she would always remember as the day she’d heard she’d got the job at Maybel’s. So many congratulations, so many good wishes, from Miss Bryce and all the staff, from the girls Shona knew and even some of the boys, Archie Smith being one, of course, because everybody realized that Shona had done something rather remarkable: turned down the idea of domestic service and found herself a job in a shop that was no ordinary shop but a business of prestige, where she could learn a craft that was just what she wanted. Lucky girl, then! But most knew luck was only a part of it.
‘I couldn’t have done it without you,’ Shona told Miss Ruddick sincerely. ‘You set me on the way, helping me with my letter and everything. And then you kept cheering me up and telling me to be confident. In the end, I was! Sort of.’
‘No, no, Shona, you got that job on your own efforts,’ Miss Ruddick told her. ‘I couldn’t be there for your interview and that’s where you must have impressed Mrs May. I have the feeling that you’re going to do really well – you’ll be running the business before you know it!’
‘I don’t see Mrs May letting anybody else do that,’ Shona said with a smile. ‘I bet even Mr May doesn’t get much of a say, but I don’t really know what he’s like. I won’t meet him till next week.’
‘When you’ll be fully absorbed into your new job, but tomorrow it’s your last day at school – you’ll be feeling strange about that. Everyone remembers their last day at school.’
‘Aye, it’ll be strange.’ Shona was looking thoughtful, picturing it. ‘Even stranger when we all leave here, eh? Cassie to her new place, Archie to the navy, me to my lodgings. I hope we don’t cry when we say goodbye!’
‘If you do, you’ll soon stop,’ Miss Ruddick said dryly. ‘You’ll be too excited about your new life to think too much about the old.’
When the leaving day came, though, there were a few tears: mostly from the girls, though a few boys, too, were feeling sentimental about the place where they’d all at one time felt lost and had gradually come to know. They had settled, made friends, accepted the life it gave them, and if they were keen now to begin new lives, they couldn’t just forget the Lodge, the nearest thing any of them had had to a home.
‘We’ll be all right,’ Shona murmured to Cassie as they gathered in the hall for a last word from Miss Bryce. ‘If you get sad, think about no’ wearing orphanage uniform any more.’
‘I’ll still be wearing uniform,’ Cassie murmured, ‘but it’ll be different. The print dresses are nice. I’ve seen ’em, and the black ones are really smart.’
‘You’ll keep in touch?’ Shona just had time to ask before Miss Bryce arrived, accompanied by Miss Ruddick and other members of staff. ‘We’ll write to each other, eh?’
‘Sure we will,’ Cassie agreed, her blue eyes fixed on Miss Bryce, who was looking around her leavers with one of those smiles of hers that was neither warm nor cold. Imagine, some of them were thinking, after today she would no longer be a part of their lives. Someone else would be in charge, but Miss Bryce, whose very name had had such power, would be of no importance – at least, not to them. That took some believing, eh?
Perhaps, when she began to speak, they’d decided to wait to believe it tomorrow, for with her so-strong voice and definite manner, she could still hold their attention. Especially when she was saying quite nice things, praising them for their contribution to Edina Lodge and hoping that they’d remember all they’d been taught there about values and the right way to live in the world outside. Now it was time to say goodbye and they must go their separate ways. She and all the staff wished them the very best for the future, and if they ever wanted to come back, whether it be for advice or just to say hello, they’d be very welcome.
As she paused and stood back everyone clapped, including the staff, after which it was time for the shaking of hands and saying goodbye – to Mr Glegg, Miss Donner, Miss Anderson, Matron, Miss Ruddick and, of course, Miss Bryce herself, who had a special word for everyone.
For Shona, it was ‘congratulations’ again, which made her feel good, and then it was Cassie’s turn, followed by the irrepressible Archie Smith’s, while Shona moved away to speak again to Miss Ruddick. ‘Will you come to the flower shop some time?’ she asked quickly, for she had seen Mrs Hope, who’d come to meet her, bobbing on the steps outside.
‘Of course I will,’ Miss Ruddick said warmly. ‘I’ll look forward to following your progress. Now, have you got all your stuff, then?’
‘Yes, thanks, there’s no’ much.’
Shona, buttoning on her orphanage raincoat, which she would need to wear until she could afford something new, picked up her small case and holdall and waved to Mrs Hope. ‘I’ll away, then,’ she finished awkwardly. ‘Don’t forget to visit the shop, eh?’
‘I won’t!’ cried Miss Ruddick and Shona, with Cassie at her side, joined the other leavers milling on the drive.
‘There’s just one thing I want to do, Mrs Hope,’ Shona whispered. ‘Would you mind waiting a few minutes?’
‘Of course not, pet. Have you forgotten something?’
‘I just want to say another goodbye.’
Away went Shona, as Mrs Hope and Cassie looked on, mystified, until a light of recognition shone in Cassie’s face. ‘I know where she’s gone,’ she told Mrs Hope. ‘To see that tree she likes, eh? Och, she’s going to miss it.’
Shona, gazing at the Handkerchief Tree, was thinking the same. Even without its load of mysterious flowers, which had now passed, it was still beautiful and meant so much to her that she really didn’t want to say goodbye at all. Perhaps she wouldn’t. She’d just come back from time to time, to visit the Lodge and her tree again. Yes, that was what she’d do. Having made her decision, it was easy enough to run back to Mrs Hope and Cassie, who had now been joined by Archie, sporting a great kitbag on his shoulder and whose eyes were fixed on Shona.
‘I thought you’d disappeared!’ he cried. ‘I’ve been waiting to say goodbye.’
‘Archie, that’s nice. Sorry, I just had to have another look at the garden.’
‘And that tree you like,’ he said with a grin. ‘What a crazy lassie you are, then! Listen, if I write, will you write back? I’ll send you my address, eh?’
‘You don’t know mine.’
‘I do.’ He gave a last grin. ‘This lady here gave it me.’
‘That was all right, eh?’ asked Mrs Hope, smiling, and Shona said it was. What else could she say?
‘You going for a tram?’ she asked.
Archie shook his head. ‘I’ve got transport coming,’ he said grandly. ‘The navy’s that keen to get me, they’re sending a truck.’ He laughed, then hesitated. ‘You lassies take care, then?’
‘Don’t worry, they will,’ said Mrs Hope, picking up Shona’s canvas bag. ‘Cassie, can I carry something for you?’
‘No, thanks, I’ve just the one bag.’
‘Let’s away, then.’
Following others making their way down the drive, the three of them – Mrs Hope, Shona and Cassie – set off under Archie’s watching eyes, though just for a moment the two girls paused and looked back at the Lodge. There it was then, the place that had been their home for so long. And yes, Shona thought, it had been a home to them in the end. Within its limits, it had been a good place to live, and they could say that on the whole they’d been lucky. Now it was a chapter that was closed, and they were on their own, to make of their lives what they could.
Turning back, they gave a last wave to Archie and began to step quickly down the drive that would lead to the road and the trams. As they reached the security gate, a Royal Navy truck came through and put on speed as it moved away. Archie’s transport had arrived!
‘Didn’t know whether to believe him or not, did you?’ Cassie whispered, and Shona and Mrs Hope smiled.
‘Seemingly, he’s going to be on his way, just like us,’ said Shona.
Where to, though? They might think they knew, but none of them could be sure how would it be.
‘I see our tram!’ Mrs Hope cried when they’d almost reached the stop on the main road. ‘Cassie, yours will be along soon, eh?’
‘Yes, you go!’ cried Cassie. ‘Don’t wait for me.’
And as their tram clanked to a stop, Mrs Hope and Shona ran fast and climbed aboard, waving back to Cassie until the tram had moved away and she was out of sight.
‘Now, take some bacon, Shona, please do,’ begged Mrs Gow, standing at her stove with a frying pan at the ready and a paper of bacon rashers in her hand. ‘All you’ve had is ma porridge and it’ll no’ see you through the morning, eh? Why no’ try a bit o’ bacon, then?’
‘Honestly, Mrs Gow, I’ve had plenty,’ Shona told her, rising from the kitchen table. ‘And I’ll have to go: I don’t want to be late at the shop.’
‘As though you’d ever be late!’ Mrs Gow shook her fair head. ‘Every morning since you started you’ve been dying to get to work. I’ve never seen any lassie so keen.’
‘Why, this is only my fifth day!’ Shona exclaimed, laughing. ‘Being keen – might wear off, eh?’
‘No’ with you, pet. You’ve found what you wanted, seems to me.’
‘And me. Thanks, Mrs Gow, that was grand. I’ll just get my coat.’
Standing in front of the mirror by the front door, Shona, wearing the dark green blouse and skirt worn by the girls at the florist’s, checked her appearance. Hair well brushed, face shining clean, skirt straight, blouse freshly ironed – yes, she looked all right. Had to make sure, Mrs May being so particular how her assistants appeared to the public. Even if it was a windy morning, you were expected to arrive without a hair out of place. That was how she was herself, of course – always immaculate, even wearing an apron and working so hard alongside her husband in the back room.