The Sun Will Shine Tomorrow (23 page)

Granny said, ‘I’ll have to look for the flags. Alice was saying that we should dress the windows with bunting.’

This cheered Lily up even more. ‘Can I look for the flags Granny?’

‘Of course you can Lily and you can also look for Alice’s flags. She’s got a big trunk in her lobby cupboard, just like me.’

I was grateful to her for putting a smile on Lily’s face.

She came over and put the table cover on the wooden table. ‘And what can I do to put a smile on your face, Ann?’

I gave her a rueful grin. ‘A miracle, I think, Granny.’

It was a cheery meal. Everything was still rationed but surely, from now on, everything would get easier? We would get our own place and food would be plentiful again – no more coupons and no more ration books.

The street was abuzz with people out celebrating the peace. The city councillors had put on a variety of events to commemorate VE day and it seemed as if the city was out in force.

Lily and I went to a couple of events – a street party and a small private party put on by Maddie’s mum. Lots of the streets in the town held their own parties but we went to the one on the Hilltown. We had been asked by Connie who was donating some sandwiches and home-made cakes and what a great day we had with all the children from the top of the Hilltown down to Stirling Street.

Lily sat beside Rosie and Jay while I helped Connie and some of the women to serve the party fare. Jay’s eyes were large as he surveyed the plates of fairy cakes with their thin trickle of icing but he didn’t want one of the spam sandwiches when the plate was passed around. He wanted a cake with pink icing and Lily plucked one from a plate and handed it to him. He sat gazing at it and, at the end of the party, it was still clutched in his little hand. ‘I’m keeping it for Daddy,’ he said, proudly carrying it home while Rosie looked at him with pleasure.

‘Och, you’re a really good boy to think of your Daddy.’

By now, the cake was squashed out of all recognition and looked nothing like a fairy cake but, later, Dad ate it with his cup of tea – much to Jay’s satisfaction.

Meanwhile, the party at the Pringle’s house was every bit as enjoyable if somewhat less boisterous. It was held on a cool but sunny Saturday in June. The entire family had been invited – Granny, Bella, Dad, Rosie and Jay as well as Minnie and Peter plus the Lochee crowd.

We all turned up in high spirits now that the war was over. Minnie said how wonderful it would be if Danny and Peter should turn up at the door – all the way from Europe. But this was reality and not some scene in a picture or a novel.

Minnie was still a bit doubtful about Peter’s return. ‘The reason Peter took the job in Clydebank was to get away from my mother. She was aye interfering in our marriage so what’s he going to say when he turns up and sees I’m back living near her.’

Maddie was sympathetic. ‘Oh, I expect he’ll be so glad to see you both safe and well that he’ll not bother about your mother.’

Minnie didn’t look convinced. ‘It’s not as if it’s easy to get another house. There is nothing to rent in my part of the world – at least not to my knowledge.’

I agreed with her. ‘I’ve been going round all the factors in the town but they’ve got nothing on their books – well, that’s what they’re saying.’

When we were on our own, Maddie said, ‘You should have stayed on at Roseangle, Ann – at least for a while longer.’ She sounded upset. ‘Does Minnie have any idea when Peter will be demobbed?’

I said I didn’t think so. We sat in silence and looked at the river. The sun had gone in and it looked grey and sluggish, almost as if it was going nowhere or, worse, it had nowhere to go – a bit like Lily and me.

Lily had gone off with Joy the minute we arrived – to paint, they said. Now they reappeared, clutching their sketchbooks close to their chests. Lily was much taller than Joy who had kept her small fragile-looking frame. She had a heart shaped face framed with blonde hair which gave her an angelic appearance – a look that was belied by a stubborn glint in her blue eyes. They came bounding over, eager to show us their pictures.

Both had painted a river view as seen from the bottom of the garden but I noticed how different their styles of paintings were. Joy had filled her painting with the precise shapes of the houses across the water and also the river. It looked almost like an architectural drawing. It had a colour and preciseness that was pleasing to the eye and both Maddie and her parents loved it.

Lily, however, had done hers in a freehand style that had vitality and a fluid movement and, although it could have been painted anywhere, we all knew somehow that it was the scene at the bottom of the garden, at the foot of the path that meandered between rows of vegetables that had been planted in place of the flowers of an earlier pre-war age.

Both girls were obviously talented but I was gratified when Mr Pringle looked at Lily’s painting for a second time and gazed after her as she went into the house with Joy to get a drink.

Then Hattie came out into the garden with Rosie and Jay. Dad hadn’t managed to come and, because George was ill, Kit and the family hadn’t come either. Rosie was worried that Jay might damage something in the house or in the garden so she kept him near by her and stayed close to Hattie who, with her stern eye, could make him stay quiet. This was a family joke and Bella often said it was this sternness that had kept the gregarious Graham at bay but I never laughed when Bella trotted out this assumption on her visits to the Overgate.

I somehow knew the situation was more complex. Graham had certainly changed since I first met him – that time when I thought he looked like Arthur Askey. Now he looked haunted and I didn’t know what had caused it and nor, I suspected, did Hattie.

The sun came out again and Maddie turned her face upwards. ‘What a wonderful feeling it is to feel the sun on your face and know the war is over.’ She gazed over to where Daniel was playing with Peter. Jay had been allowed to join them and they had two large tinplate trucks which they kept filling with earth before transporting it to another patch of earth where they duly tipped their loads on to a giant mound. The boys were grubby but obviously happy.

Maddie turned away from the sun. ‘Minnie, Peter knew his son before he went away, didn’t he?’

‘Aye, he did. He was just a wee bairn then but his father was there.’

Maddie looked worried. ‘Danny doesn’t know about Daniel – at least I don’t think he does. I wonder how Daniel will be when they meet?’

Minnie said, ‘Och, he’ll be fine, Maddie. They’ll soon get to know one another.’

Just then, a cloud passed over the sun and I shivered. Please God, I prayed silently, don’t let anything mar Danny’s homecoming. Thankfully, Mrs Pringle called from the open door to come inside for our tea and we all trooped inside while Maddie, Rosie and Minnie took their boys off to the bathroom to clean them up.

A long trestle table covered by a couple of white cloths was laid with plates of sandwiches and small cakes were displayed along its length but taking centre stage in the middle was a glass bowl filled with pear slices. As luxuries went, this was the tops. We all gazed at it with wide eyes, wondering who had brought this luxurious item. Mrs Pringle, wiping her hands on her apron, said, ‘I’ve been saving this big tin of pears until the war was over. I bought it in 1940 but I think the pears will taste all right.’

Granny said, ‘You should have kept them, Mrs Pringle – rationing isn’t over yet.’

Mrs Pringle laughed. ‘No – we’re eating them today, to celebrate the war’s end.’

Even though there was just a mouthful for each person, they tasted delicious and three lucky boys all got a bit more. This was a taste from the days before the war and hopefully a taste of things to come.

We sat and talked of our hopes for the future. How we would spend our time when there were no longer any queues for anything. Oh, the joy, we said. During this happy chatter, my mind drifted off to our homeless state. Granny didn’t really have the room for us now that Lily was growing up and I couldn’t think where else to look for a house.

I caught sight of Hattie and I realised she was also away in a world of her own and, judging by her expression, these thoughts were similar to my own – uncertain and unhappy. I must have a word with her, I promised myself. Then she saw me looking at her and she gave me such a glare that I cancelled my last thought. Whatever was bothering her was obviously a secret known only to herself. Well, I didn’t blame her. We were all living in worrying times – and for some folk it was worse than for others.

I gladly turned my attention back to the world of rationing. Mrs Pringle was hoping the shops would now keep food that had long since vanished from the shelves. Foods like butter, jam and real eggs hadn’t really vanished but had been in such short supply that they were severely rationed. However, bananas, apples, oranges and onions had all but disappeared.

The day was such a success that it was over too soon and we all made our way homewards. Minnie was unhappy. ‘My mother will be moaning about getting Peter into his bed.’ She looked me straight in the eye. ‘Och, Ann, do you ever wish you were a thousand miles away?’

I said I did but it didn’t help to wish for the unattainable.

‘When Peter gets demobbed, Minnie, you’ll be happy. Maybe Lipton’s will give him another shop to manage – somewhere that hasn’t suffered bomb damage.’

She gave a mirthless laugh. ‘Like the Hilltown or Overgate branch.’

I didn’t want to lie to her or raise her hopes. ‘Would that be so awful?’

‘No, it wouldn’t matter where he worked as long as we could be miles and miles away from my mother but that doesn’t seem likely, does it?’

There was nothing I could say to that so I sensibly stayed silent. Maybe a miracle would happen, I thought. Peter would get a small branch in some town that had escaped the Luftwaffe’s bombs – a place like … My mind gave up. I wasn’t an expert on the bombing map of Scotland except to know Dundee had been a lucky city. Everyone said so. Maybe other places had also been as fortunate as us.

Before Minnie left to climb the Hawkhill, Granny said, ‘I know houses are like gold dust, Minnie, but try and get something as far away from your mother as possible.’

And I’ll take your small poky flat Minnie, I thought. Mrs McFarlane wouldn’t bother me. The afternoon had turned really cool and we were glad to be indoors. I asked Lily to show me her painting again and once more I was struck with its luminous quality.

‘Mr Pringle said when he got Joy’s painting framed he would get mine done as well, Ann, and I want you have it.’

When we got back, Granny went through to see Alice so I knew she wouldn’t hear me. I didn’t want to hurt her feelings by talking about another house. ‘We’ll put it on the wall when we get a place of our own,’ I promised her. ‘But, until then, we’ll put it on Granny’s wall.’

As the summer days progressed from the high hopes of May, it was becoming clear that things weren’t getting better but worse.

Then, in August, came the news of the Japanese surrender but at a terrible cost. Even Joe was shocked by the dreadful atom bomb devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He shook his head in dismay when the papers printed the full horror of this terrible new weapon devised by the Americans.

Connie said that an irretrievable step towards the destruction of the world had been taken – words that made my heart grow cold. What kind of a place would it be for Lily and all the children growing up in this new peaceful world? What on earth would they inherit?

The atom bomb was on everyone’s lips. People had seen the suffering of people as portrayed in the papers and on the cinema newsreels. I always thought of Chris Portland when watching these. Was he still taking photographs of all the devastated cities both here and abroad?

I hadn’t seen Kathleen for some time and I promised myself I would visit her soon. The food queues seemed to grow longer and the potato shortage earlier in the year hadn’t helped the housewife’s constant quest to make healthy, tasty meals from hardly anything.

People had grown used to queuing during the war but now that it was over, folk thought the rations should be scrapped. The faces in the daily queues got longer and more disgruntled as the summer wore on. The women stood with empty baskets and were grateful for a couple of slices of corned beef along with their meat ration. One small consolation was the increase in the tea ration from two ounces to two and a half ounces.

There was still no sign of Danny or Peter. And, thankfully as far as Kathleen was concerned, Sammy was also in the vast throng of soldiers waiting for their release day. Servicemen were being demobbed every week and they arrived at the railway stations, wearing their new dark, pinstriped suits. Granny said they looked like the American gangsters we saw in the films at our weekly visit to the pictures.

Maddie was becoming downhearted. After the euphoria of VE Day and the victory party at her house that was now becoming a distant memory, the days passed in a blur of waiting. All over the country, families were being reunited but not, it seemed, in our small corner of the world.

Then, at the end of September, Peter arrived in his gangster suit to be reunited with Minnie and his son. She came to see us the next morning with her news. Seemingly, Peter had gone to Clydebank and found the whole area demolished. ‘Luckily he met our old neighbours – the couple who made us go to the shelter the night of the bombing – and they told him we had come back to Dundee to live.’ She sounded out of breath with all her rushing around to spread the good news. ‘Peter says it’s quite all right to work in the Dundee branch of Lipton’s but he’s hoping for another transfer in a year or so. When I mentioned my mother’s interference, he said he would sort it out.’

I was so pleased for her and I knew Peter would be glad to be home at last from the horrors of the war.

Granny said, ‘Have your old neighbours got a house in Clydebank, Minnie?’

She nodded. ‘Aye they were lucky and managed to get another place but there’s loads of folk still homeless.’ She turned her face and she looked so happy that I almost cried. ‘Oh, we’re so happy to have him back – Peter and me. His dad said they would go to the next football game and do lots of things together to make up for all the lost years.’