off and get pregnant myself. But the thing that hurts the most is that Cameo didn’t tell me. I can at least understand that Mother and Father, however painfully, were trying to do their best, but Cameo had no reason on earth not to tell me the truth.’
‘Weren’t you very close?’ I said.
‘We were terribly close, always,’ she said. ‘She was a wonderful sister.’
And then as so often happens, the Admiral pulled up a chair, and Aunt Coral turned her attention to the come hither of her de collage. He himself had changed into a gaye cravat to come down to the pool side. It is difficult at times for us to talk at all, living in a public house.
Coral’s Commonplace: Volume 2
Cuttings from the Willow Lodge School Reports, Autumn Term 1935:
Sue
Tuesday 19 May
T ODAY I INADVERTENTLY discovered the way to get Icarus’s attention. The morning was breathtaking, one of those mornings when everyone is singing, and with Loudolle back at college I’d been reinstated on the toaster. Anyway, I had an accident with the frother which was turned the wrong way up and milk spurted out on my top. I had to borrow one of Michael’s from her gym bag, which was a sort of a bra-cum-vest. I put a clean apron over the top of it but much of my cleeverage showed. Icarus couldn’t keep away from me, helping me with the buttering and worrying about the toast. Delia says Icarus’s what’s known in the classics as a tit man, which I always thought meant some sort of idiot.
With the extra money from Loudolle’s Easter time, Mrs Fry has decided to start opening the Toastie at luncheons as a jacket potato bar, and she’s invested in some new ovens. She also wants to branch into Bistro for the evenings. This has given me the perfect opportunity to become a full time girl, and help carry the can at Green Place.
All the full time girls are called ‘Potato Maids’ and she has had it professionally sewn on our pinnys. I like to think that looking back years from now my grandchildren will say that Nana Sue had to support herself before she was published, and had many jobs including canteen apprentice and potato maid.
I am finding Joe somewhat irksome because he’s always following me around at work or writing soppy poems at Group, which make Aunt Coral and Delia behave badly. The more he tries to make love to me, the more I feel attracted to Icarus. It’s the strange occasional quirk of love that the more someone loves you, the more you go off them. I wonder whether I should try to pretend I don’t love Icarus and see if that would help.
At least I have managed to bond with Michael. She reminds me so much of Aileen. Like Aileen, Michael’s mother is her father’s second wife, and like Aileen, Michael’s got scattered siblings.
Aileen and I were like sisters to each other when we were growing up in Titford. But of course we weren’t sisters and it was hard to say goodbye at the end of a top notch day’s play. So we made our own telephones out of old tin cans, with a hole drilled in the end for string to be poked through like phone wire, and we hung out of our respective windows, two houses apart and pretended to be on the phone. It did make my mum laugh.
There have been so many times when I have wished for those days again. Whoever said ‘be careful what you wish for cos you’ll get it’ was a liar.
Coral’s Commonplace: Volume 2
Green Place, Nov 6 1935
(Age 13)
Home news
It was bitterly cold today, especially inside. I woke very early to sunrays spread on the horizon like a fan; these are known as corpuscular rays, such as the ones that shine through the trees at sunset.
Cameo had cut the arms off my ball gown while I was asleep, so we went out to Crimson and Hopper this afternoon to buy me another. Cameo said she did it because she was feeling unhinged, and was eaten up with worry over a rare infection believed to be spread by paperclips. Mother was not calm. It took twenty-five minutes for us to talk Cameo past the
‘Weren’t you very close?’ I said.
‘We were terribly close, always,’ she said. ‘She was a wonderful sister.’
And then as so often happens, the Admiral pulled up a chair, and Aunt Coral turned her attention to the come hither of her de collage. He himself had changed into a gaye cravat to come down to the pool side. It is difficult at times for us to talk at all, living in a public house.
Coral’s Commonplace: Volume 2
Cuttings from the Willow Lodge School Reports, Autumn Term 1935:
Sue
Tuesday 19 May
T ODAY I INADVERTENTLY discovered the way to get Icarus’s attention. The morning was breathtaking, one of those mornings when everyone is singing, and with Loudolle back at college I’d been reinstated on the toaster. Anyway, I had an accident with the frother which was turned the wrong way up and milk spurted out on my top. I had to borrow one of Michael’s from her gym bag, which was a sort of a bra-cum-vest. I put a clean apron over the top of it but much of my cleeverage showed. Icarus couldn’t keep away from me, helping me with the buttering and worrying about the toast. Delia says Icarus’s what’s known in the classics as a tit man, which I always thought meant some sort of idiot.
With the extra money from Loudolle’s Easter time, Mrs Fry has decided to start opening the Toastie at luncheons as a jacket potato bar, and she’s invested in some new ovens. She also wants to branch into Bistro for the evenings. This has given me the perfect opportunity to become a full time girl, and help carry the can at Green Place.
All the full time girls are called ‘Potato Maids’ and she has had it professionally sewn on our pinnys. I like to think that looking back years from now my grandchildren will say that Nana Sue had to support herself before she was published, and had many jobs including canteen apprentice and potato maid.
I am finding Joe somewhat irksome because he’s always following me around at work or writing soppy poems at Group, which make Aunt Coral and Delia behave badly. The more he tries to make love to me, the more I feel attracted to Icarus. It’s the strange occasional quirk of love that the more someone loves you, the more you go off them. I wonder whether I should try to pretend I don’t love Icarus and see if that would help.
At least I have managed to bond with Michael. She reminds me so much of Aileen. Like Aileen, Michael’s mother is her father’s second wife, and like Aileen, Michael’s got scattered siblings.
Aileen and I were like sisters to each other when we were growing up in Titford. But of course we weren’t sisters and it was hard to say goodbye at the end of a top notch day’s play. So we made our own telephones out of old tin cans, with a hole drilled in the end for string to be poked through like phone wire, and we hung out of our respective windows, two houses apart and pretended to be on the phone. It did make my mum laugh.
There have been so many times when I have wished for those days again. Whoever said ‘be careful what you wish for cos you’ll get it’ was a liar.
Coral’s Commonplace: Volume 2
Green Place, Nov 6 1935
(Age 13)
Home news
It was bitterly cold today, especially inside. I woke very early to sunrays spread on the horizon like a fan; these are known as corpuscular rays, such as the ones that shine through the trees at sunset.
Cameo had cut the arms off my ball gown while I was asleep, so we went out to Crimson and Hopper this afternoon to buy me another. Cameo said she did it because she was feeling unhinged, and was eaten up with worry over a rare infection believed to be spread by paperclips. Mother was not calm. It took twenty-five minutes for us to talk Cameo past the
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