‘Well, what’s wrong with that?’ Ernie demanded. ‘It’s what’s happening in no end of families, especially in Ireland, they tell me. My friend Euan has left his family in Dublin and come over to work for the railways because he couldn’t get work over there. So you see it’ll be the same for Dana; I bet she sends most of her wages off to this Castletara you’ve mentioned.’
Polly gave a crow of triumph. ‘Now that’s where you’re bleedin’ well wrong! She doesn’t send so much as a penny piece home. She doesn’t write to her mam and her mam doesn’t write to her and if that isn’t odd I don’t know
what is! Besides, the McBrides don’t live in a big city like Dublin. I’m sure I’ve told you over and over that they live in a place called Castletara; their home is called that and so is the village which means they must be quite rich, or if not rich at least well-to-do. But if they don’t need financial help then why on earth did Dana ever leave home? Until the last dream I would’ve said she was really happy, because after the earlier dreams she sang around the house and told me little bits about her life at Castletara. Well,’ she amended, ‘I asked questions and she answered them. She won’t do that any more, though; she just changes the subject or bolts into another room. Honestly, Ern, she won’t tell me what’s wrong and she won’t go home, not even for a week. I told her she was working too hard and needed a little holiday. I said a week at Castletara would set her up for whatever is to come – because of course we’re all convinced it’s going to be war, aren’t we? But she just tightens her lips and shakes her head and when I said she wasn’t herself and needed a break she told me to mind my own business, speaking so sharply that I could only stare. Honestly, Ern, it’s not a bit like the old Dana. So now you’ve heard what’s worrying me, what do you think?’
Ernie scowled down at the backs of his hands resting on his knees. ‘You can’t force someone to confide in you,’ he said thoughtfully. ‘Still, it’s no use pretending I can tell you what’s up because I just don’t know Dana well enough. But I do know you, Polly Smith! You’ve got an idea, haven’t you?’
Polly beamed at him. ‘Yes I have. I’ve got a week’s holiday due to me … well, it isn’t exactly due, it’s just that what with conscription coming in last month and
Bruce waiting for his call-up papers for the air force the Freeways would rather we got a bit of holiday before all sorts of new restrictions are put in force.’ She put a small hand over Ernie’s fingers and squeezed gently. ‘If she won’t go to Ireland then I mean to do so. I shall tell her I’m going to the Peak District because she knows I’ve always wanted to see the limestone caverns and underground rivers, but really I shall get on the ferry and go to this Castletara place and find out just what’s going on. After all Dana has been away now for three years or more; things must have changed in ways she can’t possibly know about. Only, darling Ernie, I can’t go alone. Please, please, please will you come with me?’
Slowly a big smile spread across Ernie’s face, but then it faded and he shook his head regretfully. ‘Sorry, queen. I’d give a lot to be able to say yes, but I reckon me boss would have me guts for garters if I did. You know how hard we’ve been working …’
‘I do, and that’s a good reason to press for a few days off,’ Polly said eagerly. She put her head on one side and gave Ernie her sweetest smile. ‘Please, Ernie; you’ve told me many times how useful you are, because you understand engines in a way the other blokes don’t,’ she said coaxingly. ‘You could promise to do double shifts to make up the time you’d be off. I suppose you could say you would take a week without pay, because you’ve done so much overtime lately that you must be rolling in gelt. Oh, Ernie, I’m sure if Jake will let me go off for a week then your boss would do as much for you.’
‘He might, but then again he mightn’t and I don’t want him to think I’m the kind of fellow to take time off just because the weather’s so good,’ Ernie said. ‘But look,
chuck, you’ll be perfectly all right on your own. I’ll see you safe aboard the Irish ferry and once you get off on the other side all you have to do is ask someone the way to Castletara. You’ll mebbe have to catch a bus or a train but you’re a sensible kid, you’ll find out which stop you need and gerroff at the right place. Then you’ll be home and dry in no time at all, just see if you ain’t.’
Polly sighed, conquering an almost irresistible desire to snarl at Ernie that from what she had gleaned from her friend, Castletara was a good journey from Dublin. Lacking any information other than that her friend’s home was on the outskirts of a tiny village and not too far from the sea, she realised that it might take her several days just to reach the place. Once there, of course, she supposed doubtfully, she might be able to discover just why Dana had left home. Once she knew that, she hoped to be able to persuade her friend to go back to Ireland herself, but if not at least to write home and tell them she was well, had a good job and would go back one day. But when she voiced these thoughts to Ernie he shook his head.
‘It’s none of my business, chuck; none of yours either,’ he assured her. ‘I don’t think you ought to interfere, and that’s God’s truth. You already know what Dana’s like over these here dreams of hers: she don’t like the feeling that you’re spying on her …’
‘Hey up! I’ve never spied on anyone in me life,’ Polly said indignantly. ‘Just you take that back, Ernie Frost, or I’ll box your ears till they ring! If you share a bedroom with someone who talks in their sleep you ain’t got no choice but to hear what they say. Oh, Ernie, please say you’ll come with me. I dussen’t go alone.’
‘Well, I suppose I could ask …’ Ernie began, whereupon Polly put both arms round his neck, kissed him violently, and hugged him, nearly strangling him at the same time.
‘Oh, thank you, thank you, Ernie. You see, I’ve lived all me life in Liverpool. The furthest away I’ve ever got is when you and Ralph took me and Dana off to New Brighton for the day. Oh, and we went to that farm on the Wirral, fruit picking. But Ireland’s a foreign country; they don’t even talk like us, and I’ve never been on a great big boat …’
‘Ship, you mean,’ Ernie said absently. ‘I know the Irish have their own language, but I believe they only use it in the country districts and they all speak English as well. Now listen, Poll, I’ll see what the boss says and let you know as soon as I know meself, which will be on Monday. What shift are you on?’
‘I’m cleaning on Monday; the whole circle all to myself,’ Polly said rather gloomily. ‘Then I’m giving a hand in the cafeteria because Brenda’s been and gone and signed up for the ATS. I thought it’d be dead easy to replace her – she’s one of the waitresses, you know – but Jake told me it’s not so. The factories pay awful well and there’s a lot of glamour attached to a uniform so he’s finding it quite difficult to get staff.’
‘Then it’s real good of him to let you take a week off. Just when is that week, anyway?’ Ernie asked, suddenly suspicious. He pointed an accusing finger at Polly. ‘It would be just like you to tease me and bribe me into taking a week’s holiday only to find out that Jake couldn’t spare you after all.’
Polly felt her cheeks grow warm. Ernie had described something which was far too near the truth for her liking,
and she saw that she would have to come clean. ‘Now that’s not fair, Ernie,’ she said reproachfully. ‘When have I ever let you down?’
‘At least half a dozen times. Once when we’d planned to go to Prince’s Park to watch a cricket match, then when you said you’d take me to Seaforth Sands to see where you thought your great-grandpa had once had an allotment. Then there was the time …’
‘Shut up, Ernie! That was all ages ago, when we were both working at the Willows, and none of them were my fault. It were all Ma Haggerty sayin’ she didn’t need me one minute and loading me up with work the next. Now come on, be honest! When have I let you down myself, not through no fault of my own?’
‘Poll, you’re avoiding the question,’ Ernie said severely. ‘Have you or have you not been given leave to go off on this wild goose chase? And if you have, when does your time off start and finish? It may not matter to you but it’ll matter to my boss, I’m tellin’ you.’
Polly sighed deeply; she could feel the hot colour rushing up her neck and into her cheeks and guessed that Ernie would notice it too. ‘The thing is, Ernie, I couldn’t ask Jake or Ralph for definite dates until I knew what time your boss would let you have off. But Jake said almost any time until the school holidays started, so that means sometime in the next month, ’cos I think the kids break up around the middle of July.’ She leaned across and gave his hand a squeeze. ‘If you’ll ask your boss when you get into work on Monday morning and come round to the Freeway as soon as you can on Monday evening to let me know, then I’ll confirm the dates you’ve been given with Jake and we can start looking up sailings
and train times and things.’ Highly daring, she flung her arm round his neck once more and kissed his cheek. ‘You will come with me, won’t you?’ she pleaded. ‘And you’ll tell everyone we’re off to the Peak District? Because you know how it is – if you tell one person the truth it will get back to Dana sure as eggs is eggs.’
‘I’ll do my best,’ Ernie said, and was rewarded with another ecstatic hug, ‘But I don’t think we ought to tell folk we’re going to the Peak District, because when we come back someone is bound to ask about our holiday and trip us up. Better say Wales; we used to go to Rhyl on school trips when I were a lad and before you came to the Willows a group of us went on a climbing holiday in Snowdonia. We had a great time. Wish we could really go there,’ he ended wistfully.
But for Polly it was quite sufficient that he appeared to have accepted her request for his company. She gave him one last hug and jumped up. ‘You’re the best pal a girl could have,’ she said, taking his hands and pulling him to his feet. ‘If you’ll walk me home I’ll make you a nice cup of cocoa so you’ll sleep like a top, and we’ll tell Dana the holiday is on.’
Ernie sighed, but slipped an arm round her waist. ‘I’ll walk you home and tell Dana and anyone else a load of lies since it’s what you want,’ he said. ‘But don’t forget, my little deceiver, that we shan’t know for certain whether I can get the time off until I’ve spoke to Mr Reynold.’
They went back to Temperance Court together but when Dana seconded Polly’s invitation to have cocoa and biscuits with them Ernie shook his head. ‘Polly always swears cocoa makes her sleep and I don’t mean to nod
off on the way back to my digs,’ he explained. ‘I shall need all my wits about me when I face Mr Reynold on Monday morning to ask for time off.’
Dana nodded. ‘I told Polly it wouldn’t be easy for you because the work you do is important,’ she said. ‘But as Jake keeps telling us, it’s only a matter of time before we’re at war and once that happens holidays will be a thing of the past. Oh, once they get themselves organised it’ll be different, but at first it’ll be chaotic. So if you can go off and enjoy yourselves, you do it. I’ve told Jake I’ll stand in for Polly whenever the cafeteria is quiet, which is mostly when the films are actually showing, and that’s when Polly is busiest, of course.’ She grinned at him. ‘Good luck! Come and tell us when Mr Reynold has given you dates, then Polly will be able to put in for time off officially, and I’m sure she’ll get it. Ralph is talking about joining the RAF and Jake is looking for a really responsible manager so that he can join the forces as well. They’re only conscripting men in their early twenties so far and he thinks it will be a while before they get round to older blokes, but he says he means to be prepared.’
‘Right. Then as soon as I know for certain, which should be when I leave work on Monday, I’ll come straight to the Freeway and we can begin to make our plans,’ Ernie said. He gave the girls a mock salute. ‘Goodnight, ladies!’
All the way back to his lodgings Ernie hugged himself with glee. It had worked out just as he had hoped. Two or three weeks ago he had been complaining at work that his darling Polly did not seem to take him seriously. True, she was very young, but he was not a lot older
himself, so if he knew that Polly Smith was the only girl for him why could she not see that he, Ernie, was her only possible mate? This had made some of the younger apprentices jeer and tell him that he might as well play the field, enjoy himself whilst Polly did not feel she had any claim on him. Others suggested that some of the girls working in the offices or the big canteen at the aircraft factory might be glad to walk out with him. ‘’Cos once there’s blokes in uniform milling around, taking over the dance halls and cinemas, splashing money about and impressing every little floozie in the city, you’ll be hard pressed to get any girl,’ one of the lads said. ‘Jimmy’s right: play the field, feller, while you’ve got the chance.’
But one of the older men gave him different advice. ‘Play hard to get; act cool towards her. Don’t be fighting for kisses and hugs, hold back a bit. Don’t you listen to those youngsters, because they don’t understand that there are some fellers who truly only want one girl and no other, and the way to get that one girl is to pretend you aren’t that bothered, because girls is contrary critters. What they can have without effort they don’t want, but what won’t fall in their hands like a ripe plum they’ll move heaven and earth to get. I’m experienced; it was how I got my old woman, by playing hard to get, and though we’ve been wed twenty years I’d not change her for Bette Davis, Jean Harlow and DD rolled into one.’
Ernie, who rather liked Danielle Darrieux – she reminded him of Polly – agreed rather doubtfully to give it a try and now he realised his friend had spoken wisely. Polly had never been so loving, so eager for his company. Oh, he understood that she had been sweet because she wanted him to go to Ireland with her, but she had hugged
and kissed him without his so much as stretching out a hand to her, and though the kisses had fallen on his neck and the side of his face they had been delicious to one previously starved of any display of affection. And she actually wanted him to accompany her on this ridiculous quest to learn about Dana’s past! She had realised that this would take considerably more time than she had at first envisaged and Ernie thought that the week in Ireland would be sheer heaven – and what about the nights! Polly had assured him she had money saved up for rail fares and such and Ernie himself meant to withdraw his savings, which were not inconsiderable, and purchase a money belt from Paddy’s market. But there were the nights. He and Polly simply could not afford to take a room each in a lodging house; would she consent to sharing? Ernie felt a delicious anticipatory shiver at the thought and was immediately ashamed. He reminded himself that he would not dream of taking advantage; he would carry a bedroll for himself and tell Polly to bring one too, and if the weather remained as good as it was at present they would sleep under hedges, or in haystacks or barns, wash themselves in streams or ponds and eat as frugally as possible. Satisfied on this score, Ernie jumped on the bus which took the workers to the pleasantly wooded countryside where the factory had been built. To be as near his job as possible, he and a couple of pals had a room-share in the suburbs, and once in his own bedroom he undressed and got into bed, still glowing with happiness. He would show Polly how much he loved her, would comfort her if they failed to find Castletara and would, he was certain, bring her home more aware of his good points than she had ever been before.