Ruby's War by Johanna Winard

I’ve been taking some things for my daughter. She’s in hospital.’
    The windows of the bus had been taped over, and Con was beginning to wonder how they would know when they’d arrived at the pub, when the conductress came down from the top deck.
    â€˜Where you off to, lads?’ she asked.
    â€˜We’d like to go to the pub called the Railway Inn, please, miss,’ Bo said.
    â€˜You off for a drink?’ she asked. ‘That’s thrupp’nce each, lads, please.’
    Each man fumbled in the darkness with the unfamiliar money. The girl shone her torch on their hands, taking three large brown coins out from each soldier. As she picked through the coins in his cupped palms, Con noticed that her red fingernails were chipped and her hands were grubby. It was hard to see her face, but he could make out a cap perched on top of a mass of dark hair. In the half-light her curls took on a strange bluish tinge. As the girl was punching out their tickets, the bus swayed and she grabbed the rail.
    â€˜Nearly had me on your knee there,’ she laughed. ‘I’ll give you a shout when we get to the Railway.’
    â€˜Here, never mind him,’ an old man on a nearby seat shouted. ‘Come and sit on my knee.’
    â€˜You’re not as good-looking, Walter,’ the woman with the basket said, and Con could hear the girl chuckle and the other passengers’ good-natured laughter around him in the darkness.
    â€˜Here we are,’ the conductress shouted, from the middle of the bus. ‘The next one’s yours.’
    As the dark shape moved off, they heard the hissing and clanking from the railway siding.
    â€˜I guess it must be over here,’ Holt said. ‘I saw the sidings just before the landlord shouted.’
    â€˜That’s right,’ Bo said, ‘they were blowing their hooters.’
    Con followed the sound of his friends’ voices. These people with their shabby clothes and funny accents might stare, but he thought they meant to be friendly. He’d found them hard to understand, but the white men at the bus stop and the conductress called them all ‘lads’ not ‘boys’ and there was warmth in their tone, not contempt.
    â€˜Do you reckon anybody can sit where they want here?’ Wes asked, as they reached the pub door.
    Â 
    By the time Granddad arrived home from work, Ruby had washed all the clothes and put them on the line. Jenny didn’t come home for tea, so she and Granddad ate alone and listened to the news on the radio. When she’d cleared away the pots, Granddad spread his newspaper out on the table and settled down to read before he went on fire-watching duty at the church.
    â€˜Looks like our lads have given Jerry a beating again,’ he called to her in the kitchen. ‘That’s the idea. If we keep hitting their factories like this, it’s bound to hurt production. It says it were a main centre for their engineering that was hit. Made parts for aircraft, warships, heavy guns, all sorts.’
    Ruby put the food she’d made for him on the table. It wasn’t much, but by stretching out two thin slices of ham and some onion she’d managed to fill the sandwiches forhis breakfast, together with a couple of twists of tea and sugar so that he could make a warm drink in the chilly sacristy.
    â€˜It’s me and Johnny on at the church tonight,’ he said, taking his coat from its hook near the door and squashing the carefully made sandwiches into the pocket. ‘It’s not too bad. You can usually get your head down. Only trouble is, Johnny snores. Sounds like an old engine. The other night, I was well away. He wakened me up. Reckoned he could see a ghost. Turned out, it was the reflection from the sanctuary light. It reflects on the wooden panels at the back of the altar, see. Johnny swore it was moving. I said I’d meet him at the Railway for one first. You’ll be all right