Forget-Me-Not Child. Anne Bennett
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tomorrow is Saturday, so if he has kept his word your job will still be there for you.’
‘Shall you be all right?’
Mary nodded. ‘I might be better if I have less time to think.’
‘Shall you mind going back?’ Barry asked.
‘No,’ Angela said with a laugh. ‘Why should I mind? I loved my job and I know the money is needed. I can’t wait to start if you want the truth.’
‘Good,’ Mary said. ‘That’s settled then.’
The next morning Angela set off for Maitland’s Grocery Store early, fairly certain that George Maitland would be there getting ready for the first customers, and when she tapped on the door he opened it with a beam. ‘Am I pleased to see you,’ he cried, throwing the door wide. ‘Come in, come in and give me the news.’
‘Well the first thing is I would like my job back, please,’ Angela said.
George sighed in relief as Angela explained that she now felt able to leave Mary and Matt to fend for themselves and return to work. ‘They are much improved,’ she told George when he enquired after them. ‘At least,’ she added more honestly, ‘Mammy has improved. I think Daddy will never really get over it and I think he sort of blames Fin and Colm for encouraging the two younger ones to go. Mammy doesn’t and she says that tomorrow she is going to write and tell them so because you know they write regularly and we expected a letter from them after the telegram but we have heard nothing. Barry thinks they might be a little scared to write and he could be right, but anyway if that’s the case Mammy intends to remedy it.’
George nodded. ‘She’s a great woman, Mary.’
Angela nodded. ‘She is indeed and I know that more than most.’
‘But Matt hasn’t got much better you say?’
Angela shook her head and added, ‘You would hardly know what he thinks, because he seldom says anything at all and none of it good since the arrival of the telegram.’
‘No sign of him getting back to work?’ George asked. ‘That might help him get a grip on himself.’
Angela shook her head vehemently. ‘He’s not fit,’ she said. ‘Not physically I don’t mean, though he’s thinner and frailer than he was because he eats so little and has started having pains in his stomach again, but he’s had those pains for ages. Mammy thinks it’s indigestion. But I’d be more worried about his emotional state. Barry thinks he might never work again.’
‘It must be hard for you financially with Barry not out of his apprenticeship yet.’
Angela shrugged. ‘It has been hard but we have managed just about. Needs must and all that.’
‘Well I’m delighted you’re back. The customers have been asking for you. Mrs Maitland has had to come and help me at busy times.’
Angela wrinkled her nose, for Matilda Maitland had scarcely set foot in the shop since she had been working there. ‘Bet that didn’t go down too well.’
George didn’t speak, but shook his head with a smile before going on to say, ‘Well this has decided me. I have thought about it time and enough. I am putting your wages up two shillings to twelve and six.’
Angela gave a gasp. ‘Oh Mr Maitland. Are you sure?’
‘Quite sure, my dear,’ George said. ‘And I will pack you up a big bag of groceries to take home with you today and every Saturday night after we close.’
Tears were standing out in Angela’s eyes and she brushed them away impatiently and determinedly swallowed the lump in her throat as she said, ‘Thank you so much, Mr Maitland. You are very kind.’
George Maitland’s voice was gruff as he answered the girl he had grown so fond of in the two years she had been working at the shop and he said with a twinkle in his eye, ‘Not at all, my dear. I’m looking after myself, that’s all. It’s just a ploy to get more hours’ work out of you, for people can work harder if they are not hungry.’
Angela knew it wasn’t that at all but she didn’t bother arguing, but instead began removing her coat. ‘Shall we make a start then?’
‘Now? You mean start right now?’ George asked.
‘Why not now?’ Angela said. ‘I have to start sometime and it might as well be today as Saturdays were always busy and usually needed two of us.’
Angela spoke the truth as George knew well. He’d actually thought that morning that he’d probably have to ask his wife to lend a hand before the day was out. He hated asking her, because she detested serving in the shop and made that abundantly clear and was so short and abrupt when she served people that she upset some of his best customers. And now here was Angela offering him a solution. ‘Well if you’re sure?’
‘Course I am,’ Angela said. ‘Looks like I’m needed too because there’s already a queue forming outside waiting for you to open up.’
There was and George hurried to open the door. The people poured in, most only too delighted to see Angela behind the counter again.
The day passed swiftly as busy days often do. Though she assumed the family would know why she hadn’t returned home after seeing George Maitland, she found a small boy in the street who agreed to go and tell them for two ounces of monkey nuts. She had no dinner with her, but Mary realized that and sent a sandwich back with the child. Angela was very grateful and ate it in the store room as she always did.
When George returned to the shop he appeared pensive. ‘What are you thinking about so intently?’ she asked with a smile.
‘I’m thinking that it’s madness for me to go upstairs for my dinner every day while you sit in the store room eating a sandwich.’
‘Why is it?’ Angela asked. ‘I don’t mind. I’ve done that since I started here.’
‘I know, for that’s how Matilda wanted it,’ George said grimly. ‘But you will feel more able to do a full afternoon’s work with a good dinner inside you and Matilda is a good cook, I will give her that.’
Angela was quite happy with a sandwich and knew that however good the food, she wouldn’t take full enjoyment of it in the stilted atmosphere there would be, because she’d only be there on sufferance. But then she knew it would save money for them all if she was to be given her dinner at the shop. She would only need a light tea and a meal only had to be cooked for Barry when he came in from work. She knew Mary would as usual see to herself and Matt at dinner time and then they could have tea with her. That surely was more important than Matilda Maitland’s bad humour. And yet she said, ‘Mrs Maitland might not like it.’
‘You leave Matilda to me,’ George said. ‘From now on you will eat dinner with us. Agreed?’
‘If you say so, Mr Maitland,’ Angela said with an impish grin. ‘You’re the boss.’
‘Glad you realize that at least,’ said George, but he had a smile on his face as he turned the sign to OPEN and unlocked the door.
Mary cried when she unpacked the two shopping bags George had filled with groceries for them all. There were three loaves of bread that George said would only go stale if they stayed in the shop, a block of lard, and another of butter and a chunk of cheese. There was the ham and corned beef that had been left at the end of the day and a side of bacon left on the bacon slicer and a dozen eggs, and then he had added a jar of jam and a packet of biscuits. Mary could see the makings of many meals with the food George Maitland had given them and when Angela told her about the raise and the new arrangement Mary felt the nagging worry slide from her shoulders that they wouldn’t have enough to eat, heat the house and pay the rent.
‘You must take a little more for yourselves,’ she said to Angela.
Angela shook her head. ‘I don’t want anything.’