Shattered Dreams by Vivienne Dockerty

to dawn on her who she might be.
    “I believe you may be able to get a message to my son. I’m Mrs Dockerty. Could you please tell Eddie that his father is ill and it’s imperative that he comes back home to be with him. Thank you Miss Wilson.” With that Irene’s future mother-in-law walked back to wait for the lift.
    She was left with a feeling of disbelief. What an arrogant woman. She had known that Irene was Eddie’s intended, but she couldn’t even be bothered to make some kind of effort towards her.
    Irene, who was always slow to anger, felt her face begin to go hot and her body trembled with emotion. Give Eddie a message indeed. Who did his mother think she was, a telegraph woman?
    It spoilt her day. The pleasure she’d had when she saw that her wigwags were selling and picking out a present for the baby didn’t make up for the distress she felt by meeting Eddie’s mother in the way she had. She was still feeling bitter as she climbed onto the bus that evening to Wallasey. No one deserved that kind of treatment just because she was the girlfriend of her son.
    Eddie wasn’t in when she got back to Peartree Cottage. No one was at home, but her mother had left a note on the kitchen table saying that her Dad had been rushed into hospital, as he couldn’t get his breath. All thoughts of the sour-faced woman flew out of Irene’s head as she ran the mile and a half to Victoria Hospital, only to find when she got there that her lovely father was dead.
    Her mother was inconsolable. She babbled inconsequentially of how she had never loved him enough, how she hadn’t really wanted to marry him because she had been in love with somebody else. Irene put it down to the grief that mother was feeling, after watching her terrified husband trying to get air into his lungs. She brought her mother back home in a taxi, which both could ill afford.
    Eddie was waiting for them on their return, neatly scrubbed from his ablutions in the water butt outside. Peartree Cottage had neither bathroom, gas or electricity and kettles had to be boiled on the kitchen fire if anyone wanted a wash. He had known something was wrong because he had seen Lily’s note when he had got in from work. He couldn’t read the note because Eddie couldn’t read, having spent a lot of time as a truant in his childhood, but he knew the word Irene at the beginning and Mother at the end.
    He made the two sobbing women a comforting cup of tea, then set about frying eggs and bacon for everyone’s supper. Irene and Lily said they couldn’t eat, but Eddie insisted that they ate something, because they would need to keep their strength up over the next few days.
    After they had finished their meal and Lily decided she would go to her bedroom, Irene suddenly remembered that she had promised her Aunt Miriam that she would be home on the ten o’ clock bus.
    “Eddie,” she cried. “I can’t leave my mother, I won’t be able to go to work tomorrow either, but Aunt Miriam will be worrying where I’ve got to. Oh I wish we had a telephone.”
    “I’ll go if you want and stay at your aunt’s tonight, then if you write me a note I’ll drop it through the Co-op letterbox on my way to work in the morning. They’ll understand why you’ve not gone in.”
    “Oh thank you, Eddie, and what shall we do about Isabel, she’ll have to be told that Papa has gone?”
    “You’ll have to send her a letter or maybe we could tell her together when we go over on Sunday.”
    “I don’t know what to do, Eddie. I suppose a letter will be a shock to her, though, so perhaps we’ll wait until Sunday. You’re such a comfort, Eddie, thanks.” She leaned over and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
    “Well I suppose I’d better be off then. Strange to be going back to the village and not seeing my parents anymore.”
    “Eddie, oh Eddie, I’m sorry, I’ve forgotten to give you a message. Your mother came into the store today and told me to tell you that your father’s