him.
‘When I have made the dessert, piled it up suitably in the best trifle dishes and put the whipped cream on top, I shall take a very sharp knife and cut this into tiny, tiny squares and scatter them over the cream in a kind of cascade.’
‘That will look lovely,’ he said, nodding slowly. ‘Clever Ma.’
‘Can’t take the credit, Johnny. It was Cathy read it in a magazine and wrote to me about it. Just hope it’ll taste as good as it looks.’
‘Of course it will. It always does. Ritchie says he doesn’t know how you do it. He thinks your food is great. He says his Ma is always complaining she can’t get this and can’t get that. That’s why he never asks me to go there. You don’t mind, do you?’ he added, suddenly looking anxious.
‘Mind what?’ she asked, puzzled.
‘Ritchie coming here and me never going there.It’s not really fair on you with rationing.’
‘Of course, I don’t mind. He’s your friend, so he’s welcome, even if I didn’t like him as much as I do. Are the pair of you doing one last night tonight?’
He nodded vigorously.
‘It’s been great going down to the mill every night these holidays. We’ve both learnt such a lot. It’s one thing building model planes, Ma, and it was a good start, but seeing the actual things they’re making down there, like the torpedo airtails, is just so different. And the really big thing is that a few of them are working on a real plane, a plane I mustn’t mention, even to you, because its not official in the first place. But they’re working on a prototype. They’re hoping to have something to test by the end of the summer.’
‘A plane? In Walkers? But surely there’s not enough room with all those pillars. I think I’ve only been in it once, long before it closed as a mill, but I can’t imagine how you’d get a plane in there.’
‘Depends on the plane, Ma. STOLs are small to begin with and you can easily work on the wings and the tailplane on their own and then put it together later. It’s all wood and very light, Canadian silver birch …’
He broke off as she raised her hand.
‘Please, sir, what’s a stall?’
He shook his head, his bright blue eyes shining with merriment.
‘S. T. O. L.’ he spelt out. ‘It means Short Take Off and Landing planes and they are very good at
not
stalling, that’s why they’re used as spotter planes. They’re designed to cope with small fields enclosed by trees, places where there’s no space for a runway, however small.’
Emily listened, following as well as she could the technical language that now came to him so easily. He’d always been good about explaining what she didn’t know. Putting up her hand was one of their jokes, but she didn’t like interrupting all the time. Often, she’d just memorise the unfamiliar words and look them up in the dictionary afterwards. But there were two problems with doing that. How did you spell a word you’d never seen or heard before? And what did she do if it was one of the many new technical developments the war had brought about and the word for it wasn’t in any dictionary?
‘Did I tell you, Ma,’ he said suddenly, ‘that Ritchie’s father says he’s giving us both some extra money for all the cleaning up we’ve done while we we’ve been fire-watching? Job specification didn’t say we had to clear up any pockets of sawdust we found, but we thought it was a hazard, so we did. That’ll be a bit extra and I’m going to save it for my kit,’ he said, looking pleased with himself. ‘The stuff the RAF don’t provide,’ he added, when he saw her doubtful glance.
Emily nodded and tried hard not to let herselfreact to that word ‘kit’. Such a simple word, but look what it meant. Johnny going away. Johnny not tramping into the kitchen full of sleep in the mornings before school. Johnny not spreading his books and papers across the dining room table to work for his exams.
She pulled herself up short and focused on the
‘When I have made the dessert, piled it up suitably in the best trifle dishes and put the whipped cream on top, I shall take a very sharp knife and cut this into tiny, tiny squares and scatter them over the cream in a kind of cascade.’
‘That will look lovely,’ he said, nodding slowly. ‘Clever Ma.’
‘Can’t take the credit, Johnny. It was Cathy read it in a magazine and wrote to me about it. Just hope it’ll taste as good as it looks.’
‘Of course it will. It always does. Ritchie says he doesn’t know how you do it. He thinks your food is great. He says his Ma is always complaining she can’t get this and can’t get that. That’s why he never asks me to go there. You don’t mind, do you?’ he added, suddenly looking anxious.
‘Mind what?’ she asked, puzzled.
‘Ritchie coming here and me never going there.It’s not really fair on you with rationing.’
‘Of course, I don’t mind. He’s your friend, so he’s welcome, even if I didn’t like him as much as I do. Are the pair of you doing one last night tonight?’
He nodded vigorously.
‘It’s been great going down to the mill every night these holidays. We’ve both learnt such a lot. It’s one thing building model planes, Ma, and it was a good start, but seeing the actual things they’re making down there, like the torpedo airtails, is just so different. And the really big thing is that a few of them are working on a real plane, a plane I mustn’t mention, even to you, because its not official in the first place. But they’re working on a prototype. They’re hoping to have something to test by the end of the summer.’
‘A plane? In Walkers? But surely there’s not enough room with all those pillars. I think I’ve only been in it once, long before it closed as a mill, but I can’t imagine how you’d get a plane in there.’
‘Depends on the plane, Ma. STOLs are small to begin with and you can easily work on the wings and the tailplane on their own and then put it together later. It’s all wood and very light, Canadian silver birch …’
He broke off as she raised her hand.
‘Please, sir, what’s a stall?’
He shook his head, his bright blue eyes shining with merriment.
‘S. T. O. L.’ he spelt out. ‘It means Short Take Off and Landing planes and they are very good at
not
stalling, that’s why they’re used as spotter planes. They’re designed to cope with small fields enclosed by trees, places where there’s no space for a runway, however small.’
Emily listened, following as well as she could the technical language that now came to him so easily. He’d always been good about explaining what she didn’t know. Putting up her hand was one of their jokes, but she didn’t like interrupting all the time. Often, she’d just memorise the unfamiliar words and look them up in the dictionary afterwards. But there were two problems with doing that. How did you spell a word you’d never seen or heard before? And what did she do if it was one of the many new technical developments the war had brought about and the word for it wasn’t in any dictionary?
‘Did I tell you, Ma,’ he said suddenly, ‘that Ritchie’s father says he’s giving us both some extra money for all the cleaning up we’ve done while we we’ve been fire-watching? Job specification didn’t say we had to clear up any pockets of sawdust we found, but we thought it was a hazard, so we did. That’ll be a bit extra and I’m going to save it for my kit,’ he said, looking pleased with himself. ‘The stuff the RAF don’t provide,’ he added, when he saw her doubtful glance.
Emily nodded and tried hard not to let herselfreact to that word ‘kit’. Such a simple word, but look what it meant. Johnny going away. Johnny not tramping into the kitchen full of sleep in the mornings before school. Johnny not spreading his books and papers across the dining room table to work for his exams.
She pulled herself up short and focused on the
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