A Liverpool Lass

A Liverpool Lass by Katie Flynn

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Authors: Katie Flynn
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make the best of things so far as they were able.
    Nellie’s second meeting with Davy had been just before Christmas. They wandered round Lewis’s, a wonderland of coloured lights, tinsel and Christmas trees with cottonwool snow, and bought each other a gift: socks for Davy, gloves for Nell. He called her Nell, said Nellie wasn’t right for her, kissed her beneath the mistletoe, cuddled her up warm against his rough serge dufflecoat and told her about his family Christmas. A goose, cooked to a crackling golden brown, a pudding all aflame, after dinner a walk along the shore to pick up driftwood for the fire, then home for tea – ham from the family pig slaughtered at the backend of each year, baked apples stuffed with sultanas, and a fruit cake, rich and soggy. Games round the fire, an aunt playing the piano whilst the family sang the old songs until it was time for bed.
    Just being loved by Davy had made her Christmas marvellously merry; she thought of the Evans in their cottage and knew Davy would rather be with her – had he not said so? She and Lilac laughed about everything: the non-existent presents for the children, save for coloured texts handed out by the board of governors, the meagre dinner with a tiny slice of overcooked bird and the thin gravy, the pudding which was nearly all bread and suet.
    Besides, after that they went back to Coronation Court and had their tea with the family, and Charlie’s Bessie felt queasy when the pudding came round and Charlie blushed and they all made jokes and even Nellie realised at last that Bessie was pregnant, and promised to knit a nice woolly coat for Baby McDowell.
    Thinking of Christmas and the kiss under the mistletoe made Nellie think about Davy’s last visit, anApril visit when he had brought Lilac a beautiful hoop and taught her to bowl it along the pavement with a little stick; how the three of them had laughed over the antics of that hoop with Lilac in charge, how it had reeled like a drunk, dizzying slowly along the pavement until it tipped into the gutter, spinning round slower and slower until it dropped with a clatter.
    Davy had been in Liverpool for two whole days, and each evening she had managed to see him. They had watched the Punch & Judy outside the St George’s Hall, shouting encouragement to the Toby dog, the Crocodile, anyone. They had gone to the Gem, Nellie’s first visit to a picture house, and watched Mary Pick-ford and Owen Moore in a film called Caprice , whilst holding hands in the dark. After a while Davy put his arm round Nellie and she leaned her cheek on his shoulder. In the interval they ate cream ices and bought salted peanuts to take home to Lilac, who was denied the treat because she was too young, Miss Maria thought, for evening outings.
    And now it was summer again, the July weather proving warm and pleasant. And Davy would surely be docking in Liverpool soon, to load his coaster, and they would meet, and kiss ... her whole body shivered with delighted anticipation. How she loved him, how she longed for his presence, that slow, delightful smile, the way his hair curled tightly, the nice shape of his head ...
    A bell rang sharply somewhere and Nellie, abruptly restored to the present, made for the kitchen to collect the last jug of watered milk. Tonight, she thought, Lilac and me will practise our times-tables and then I’ll read to her from Simple Susan and we can do a bit of writing if I can find some spare paper, somewhere. Tomorrow I must be nice to the postman, just in case there’s a letter, and smile at the paper boy, because hesometimes finds us scraps of newsprint without writing on. And at the weekend we’ll go back home, me and Lilac, to see if Bessie’s had the baby yet ... I’ll take my knitting ... oh goodness, school’s out ... run, Nellie!
    ‘Mrs Ransom, I’m real worried; Lilac never come for her tea and one of the girls said Miss Hicks had kept her late for ... well, for something she done wrong. So I went

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