Eve of the Isle by Carol Rivers

them stay. She had her savings in her pocket, the two shillings from the cottage. It was a waste to spend it on gin. But it was the only way of keeping a roof over their heads.
    Eve listened to the raised voices in the early hours of the morning. She guessed that Harold must have come home and a fight ensued. Joan had said he would be in a bad mood. And all because of a missed dinner! Would Harold come into their room? And if Joan was tipsy would it make matters worse? Eve felt responsible.
    She listened, holding her breath and staring at thedoor in the dark, fearing that either Joan or Harold might burst through it. It seemed like hours before the voices subsided and peace reigned. Well, it wasn’t quite peace as she could hear muffled noises coming from the tenement block. Some were children crying, others were distant but with the same note of aggression as the Slygos’. Doors banged and thumps echoed along the balcony. Fortunately there was no one above them to bang on the ceiling, only the birds and the mice.
    Eve felt dirty and her hair and skin still reeked of the sewers. After today it was a smell ingrained in her nose. She could now imagine what the Great Stink had been like and her sympathies went to the victims, even though they were all now relegated to history.
    They had all washed tonight but their clothes were contaminated. The clean ones they had managed to salvage from upstairs were almost as bad as their dirty ones. The stink had got into them. Even though they had managed to shovel and sweep the worst of the mud and debris out into the gutters and down the drains, there was still a lot left. The clean water from the hose hadn’t cleared it away. As many times as the floors were washed down, the filth seemed to return through the nooks and crannies.
    Her dreams were filled with water. It was rising up to the windows of the tenement. She was trying to wake the twins and Peg, but they were fast asleep. Then she was being chased along the dark streets. Harold’s sweating face was close and he pulled her down. Oncemore she was in water. Filthy water, with the smell of death in her nostrils. She was sinking below the surface and lay on the bottom of the river. Her hair had turned into long green ribbons of seaweed and the body next to her was the man she had seen in the morgue.
    â€˜Eve, Eve, wake up.’
    She sat up, the slip she was wearing soaked through. Her shawl had fallen away and she was shivering in the cold night air.
    â€˜You were dreaming, ducks.’
    â€˜I was drowning.’ She shuddered as Peg pulled the shawl round her. ‘And I saw that dead man again. He was lying beside me on the riverbed.’
    â€˜It was only a dream, a nightmare. Gawd love you, gel, no wonder, after all you’ve been through.’
    Eve looked round the dark room. There was no light creeping through the window. ‘Is it morning?’
    â€˜No.’ Peg sat on the end of the squeaky bed. A glowing red end denoted a cigarette. Soon after the smell of tobacco filled the room.
    â€˜Did I wake you?’ Eve asked in concern.
    â€˜No, I wasn’t asleep.’
    â€˜Did you hear Joan and Harold?’
    â€˜Yes, they were going hammer and tongs.’
    â€˜She said he would be angry.’
    Peg inhaled throatily and coughed. ‘Do you reckon she was drunk?’
    Eve sighed. ‘I hope not. She said she would only have a nightcap.’
    â€˜Bet she wanted us gone. You bought it to keep her happy, didn’t you?’
    â€˜I thought it was the only way. Now I’m not so sure.’
    â€˜Oh, stop worrying, girl. She ain’t worth the effort.’
    But Eve had decided that at whatever cost, she had to keep Joan happy. ‘Tomorrow we’ll be back for six. We can do a lot at the cottage before then.’
    She knew it was more important than ever that they keep a roof over their heads. From what she had seen at the cottage today, there would be no early