Chapter Three

      Maxine took the tram to Bold Street where Pearl lived, still in two minds how much to lend her. Her cousin’s lodgings consisted of two rooms and a shared bathroom above a fish and chip shop. As she approached the building she noticed four lads huddled together on top of a pile of planks on the shop’s windowsill, poring over a newspaper. She hid a smile. They couldn’t have been more than eight or nine, she thought, but they were intently reading the headlines. They didn’t even look up as she brushed past them and entered the shop. The stale smell of fried dripping immediately filled her nostrils.

      ‘We haven’t seen you for a time, young Maxine,’ Mr Rowe glanced up from his deep-fat frying pan, his face red from the heat and his greying moustache bristling as he beamed at her.

      ‘I’ve been very busy at the hospital and don’t get a lot of time off.’

      ‘How’s that husband of yours?’

      Maxine sighed. ‘I haven’t heard for the past two weeks so can only hope he’s all right.’ She needed to change the subject quickly. ‘Do you know if Pearl’s in?’

      ‘Far as I know.’ He deftly removed some sizzling pieces of fish and laid them out in the warming cabinet. ‘She’s already been in for her lunch.’ He nodded. ‘Go on through, love.’

      Maxine stepped through the back of the shop and climbed a flight of stairs. She could still hear muffled sounds of the traffic inside the building, but even though Pearl’s rooms were in the centre of a noisy commercial district she couldn’t help feeling a twinge of envy. Pearl lived on her own – answerable to no one. She did exactly what she wanted and blow everyone else. She’d been expelled from school for smoking and her parents had had no control over her whatsoever. Maxine believed her aunt and uncle were secretly relieved when their daughter was off their hands. But Pearl hadn’t until now been able to fulfil her dream of going on the stage. Her parents had done their best to persuade her to learn shorthand and typewriting but being in an office was the last thing Pearl was going to do. Instead she’d accepted a job in the haberdashery department of Woolworth’s, much to their shame.

      She and Pearl were different in every way, Maxine mused, but they’d always been friends, against both mothers’ wishes. Her mother was forever warning Maxine that Pearl was a bad influence and not to spend too long in her company.

      Guiltily, she realised she hadn’t visited Pearl since her wedding, though the lapse was nothing to do with her mother’s comments. Maxine had had several months of nights at the hospital and it had been difficult to fit in social visits with trying to sleep in the daytime – almost impossible in a small terraced house.

      Bits of lino were missing on some of the treads of the second flight of stairs to Pearl’s quarters, and once Maxine caught her heel, ripping it a little further. A baby cried and the smell of soiled babies’ napkins from one of the first-floor flats wafted up, but she was used to worse when she walked through the babies’ ward. She knocked and instantly the door opened. There stood Pearl looking lovely as always in a navy straight skirt that slimmed her eager curves and a bright pink top with scooped neckline and short sleeves. High heels raised her a little nearer Maxine’s height. Her grin nearly split her face in two.

      ‘Max! What a lovely surprise. I didn’t expect you to come over this quickly. You’re lucky I’m here. Come on in.’

      She stood aside while Maxine brushed past her into the one large room with a kitchenette at one end. Pearl had a bedroom and use of a box room off the landing, and shared a bathroom with the family downstairs. Although Pearl kept it clean enough, the room was terribly untidy; so different from the way Maxine’s house-proud mother kept her home. She mustn’t compare. This was homely and friendly, which Maxine didn’t always feel in her own house.

      ‘Take your jacket off. I’ll make some tea. Or would you like something stronger?’ Her cousin sent her a mischievous smile. ‘A gin and orange?’

      ‘No, thanks. But tea would be lovely.’

      Pearl filled the kettle and put it on to boil, all the while talking to Maxine.

      ‘Nursing seems to suit you.’ She turned to have a closer look at her cousin. ‘Or is it married life you’ve taken to?’ she asked, a chuckle escaping her full lips. ‘Can’t believe it’s been nearly a year since the wedding when I last saw you.’

      ‘I could count on two hands how many days Johnny and I have spent together,’ Maxine said, ruefully.

      ‘Yeah, but what about the nights? That’s the bit I want to hear about.’

      Maxine laughed. ‘I don’t think it’s all people make out.’

      ‘Hmm … maybe not, if it’s not with the right person.’ Pearl frowned as she measured out one-and-a-half level teaspoons of tea in the pot and poured the boiling water over the leaves. She popped a tea cosy over the teapot and looked up. ‘I always thought Johnny was more a brother than a boyfriend. No one was more surprised than me when I got the invitation to say you were marrying him. Sounded like a hurried decision to me. I even wondered if you’d got a pea in the pod.’

      Maxine couldn’t help laughing. Pearl always prided herself on calling a spade a spade.

      ‘Not then or now,’ she said. ‘I’ve little time for that, though Johnny would love it if I did. But I want to continue my training and eventually do my finals before I even think about starting a family.’

      She felt Pearl give her a sharp look. ‘And how does Johnny feel about that?’

      ‘He’s not keen,’ Maxine admitted. ‘But I think I’ve talked him round.’

      Pearl shook her head. ‘It’s impossible to talk any man round,’ she said firmly as she set out the tea tray.

      ‘Let me help,’ Maxine offered.

      ‘No, you sit there. I know what it’s like to be on your feet all day.’ Pearl brought the tray over and poured out the two cups. ‘Biscuit?’

      Maxine shook her head. ‘I had an early supper in the canteen.’ She paused. ‘Anyway, enough of me. It’s you I’ve come to talk about.’

      ‘You got my letter?’ Pearl sucked in her breath as though bracing herself for her cousin’s answer.