LITMIR.BIZ

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Now she seemed to hold her almost personally responsible for her father’s death, and Lizzie found her constant verbal attacks hard to take. She didn’t bother complaining, for she knew it would get her nowhere. Grown-up decisions, she knew, often made little sense, but there was no point arguing with them.

      But there was no skipping off now to play with Maura Mahon, for Kathy was firm. Sheelagh, she said, needed her cousin. Maura didn’t understand Lizzie’s sudden devotion to a girl she’d always professed to detest and so thought she was being huffy with her, and Lizzie could have been upset about it if she’d had time.

      But the point was, her free time was limited, for her mammy and Aunt Rose and Aunt Maggie, all heavily pregnant, needed her to give a hand. And then there was Auntie Bridie at the door: could Lizzie go a message or help turn the mangle for her, or scrub the step or wash the pots? Poor wee Sheelagh wasn’t able to give her a hand at all, she was too upset, but Lizzie was a grand girl altogether and Bridie was sure she didn’t mind and she must be a fine help to her mother, and Lizzie was pig sick about the whole thing.

      Rose’s pains started in the early hours of Friday morning, just five days after the beginning of the summer holidays. The first Lizzie and her mother knew of it was when Mary walked in the entry door just as they’d finished breakfast holding Nuala and Peter by the hand. ‘Has she started then?’ Kathy said.

      ‘This long while, and no sign yet,’ Mary said. ‘I’ve been over there half the night. We could do with you if you can come. Bella Amis is after fetching the doctor.’

      ‘The doctor?’ Kathy echoed, hardly able to believe it. Bella Amis was the midwife, and all most women needed. To have a doctor usually meant trouble. Lizzie’s eyes had opened wide in surprise and noticing them, Kathy, with a glance at Rose’s two bemused children, asked quietly, ‘Is she bad?’

      ‘Bad enough,’ Mary answered shortly. ‘I must get back. I wondered, could Lizzie mind the weans?’

      ‘Of course,’ Kathy said, answering for her daughter.

      There was a click as the entry door opened again and Sheelagh slunk into the room. Lizzie’s heart sank.

      ‘And here’s Sheelagh to help you,’ Mary said, handing Lizzie a list, ration books and a purse. ‘You can fetch your aunt’s rations first, and I’ve put an extra sixpence in the purse so you can get a wee treat for yourself.’ She passed over the shopping bags to Lizzie and added, ‘When you’ve done that, take them out for the day. To the park or somewhere, to get them out of the way for now.’

      ‘Can I take them down the Bull Ring?’

      ‘Aye, that’s a good idea,’ Mary said. ‘Anywhere will do, and there’s plenty to see in the Bull Ring.’

      As the door closed on the two women, Nuala began to cry and Peter’s eyes were very bright and shiny, and Lizzie realised they were both very frightened without knowing why. She bent down and put her arms around them. ‘Don’t cry,’ she said. ‘Soon you’ll have a wee baby brother or sister, and that’s nothing to cry over.’

      The children looked at her in astonishment, and Lizzie realised they probably hadn’t even known their mother was expecting. She certainly didn’t look as though she was; whereas Lizzie’s own mother and her Aunt Maggie resembled a couple of huge whales, Rose hadn’t changed her shape that much at all. She thought they might have picked up something in the adults’ conversation, but it was obvious from their amazement at what she said that they hadn’t.

      ‘Baby?’ Nuala said, her tears forgotten.

      ‘A baby,’ Peter said. ‘Is Mammy having a baby?’

      ‘She surely is,’ Lizzie answered. ‘D’you want a wee boy or a wee girl?’

      ‘A boy,’ Peter said stoutly. ‘Girls are stupid.’ He glanced over at his sister and added, ‘Nuala’s stupid.’

      ‘No she isn’t,’ Lizzie said, but she laughed at the determined look on Peter’s face. ‘She’s just wee. You were much the same at her age.’

      Peter looked as if he might dispute that, so before he was able to, Lizzie said, ‘Come on, let’s get the rations fetched and then we can have the rest of the day.’

      She picked Nuala up to dump her in the pram that her grandma had left outside the door, and said to Sheelagh, ‘You coming?’

      ‘I don’t think so,’ Sheelagh said. ‘Shopping with weans is not my idea of fun, but I’ll go down to the Bull Ring with you later.’

      ‘Oh, please yourself,’ Lizzie said in exasperation.

      She strapped Nuala in her pram and stuck her tongue out at Sheelagh before going off down the road.

      Pickering’s grocery store lay one side of the O’Malley home, and Morcroft’s the other, and people went to whichever one they were registered at. As Rose was registered at Morcroft’s, that was where Lizzie went. There was a queue as always, Lizzie noticed. She parked Nuala’s pram outside and went in, holding Peter by the hand.

      She saw Maura Mahon just in front of her and smiled at her, but Maura pretended not to see her, so she sidled up alongside. ‘Hello, Maura,’ she said.

      ‘Oh, hello,’ Maura said, and then, letting her eyes scan the shop, remarked sarcastically, ‘Sheelagh’s not with you?’

      Lizzie flushed. ‘Don’t be like that. I told you how it is. My mammy makes me take her about with me.’

      ‘Well, where is she today, then?’

      ‘She wouldn’t come. I was sent to fetch Aunt Rose’s rations, but only to get the weans out of the way, ’cos my aunt’s started,’ Lizzie said. ‘After that I’m to take them down the Bull Ring, and you can bet our Sheelagh wants to come there.’

      ‘Oh, I’d love to go down the Bull Ring,’ Maura said. Maura, like Lizzie, often went down there with her mother, usually late on Saturday afternoon to catch the bargains in meat and vegetables, and it was always entertaining. Lately, though, Kathy had been too tired for the trek, so Lizzie herself hadn’t been for a few weeks. Suddenly a spirit of mischief seized her. Why shouldn’t she go now, just her and Maura? If she didn’t go back to the house, Sheelagh would never know.

      ‘Let’s go together,’ she said. ‘Now.’

      ‘Just us?’

      ‘And the weans,’ Lizzie said. ‘I must take them, but they’ll be no trouble.’

      ‘What about the rations?’ Maura said. ‘And your Sheelagh?’

      ‘Grandma’s not waiting on the rations, I know,’ Lizzie said, and added rudely, ‘As for Sheelagh, she can…she can go to the devil, for all I care.’

      ‘Och, Lizzie, what would Father Flaherty say?’ Maura said, and the girls’ spluttering laughter caught the attention of Mr Morcroft.

      ‘Now then, you two, what’s to do?’ he said.

      Lizzie handed over the list, the ration books and the shopping bags, and Mrs Morcroft, looking over her husband’s shoulder, said, ‘Is your aunt bad again, pet?’

      ‘She’s having the baby, I think,’ Lizzie said. ‘Only it’s taking a while. I have to keep the weans away from the house.’

      ‘God, but hasn’t she had a tough time of it?’ Mrs Morcroft said. ‘And you’re a grand girl, Lizzie, to be minding the children. Leave the bags and list here and we’ll make them up for you.’ She leant into the till, extracted a threepenny bit and gave it to Lizzie. ‘And that’s for yourself,’ she said, ‘for being such a good girl.’

      Lizzie smiled and thanked her, and added it to the sixpence her gran had given her, then waited while Maura collected her purchases. They had to go back to Maura’s house to deliver the groceries and ask Mrs Mahon if Maura could go to the Bull Ring with Lizzie. This suited Lizzie, for Maura lived just off Bell Barn

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