Angel of the North Read Online Free PDF Page B

port function – what about the
shipping? We can’t leave it all to women and old men.’
    ‘George is an assistant to Mr Morris, the City Engineer.’ Aunt Edie said, her voice so full of pride and awe that she might have been speaking of some sort of deity. And she had good
grounds for her pride in her son, Marie thought. Throughout his childhood George had been the sort of quiet lad that nobody took any notice of. He’d never distinguished himself at school, and
he’d had a long spell of unemployment after losing his delivery job. But to everyone’s surprise it had been the making of him. He’d used the time to go to night classes and study,
and everybody had been staggered when he’d won a scholarship to university, none more so than George himself.
    ‘When every raid is over there’s plenty of hard work for us,’ he went on. ‘Day and night.’
    ‘Don’t the military take on rescue work? Don’t they carry out demolitions?’ Charles demanded. ‘I seem to remember seeing some of our chaps doing that. I’ve
even read about it in the papers. In fact, I know some of the chaps who’ve done it, and there are long, hard days of work for them, as well as for the civilians. The military don’t
shirk anything.’
    ‘And we’re very glad of the help. But they’re not ultimately responsible for getting everything back in working order, we are. And they help when they happen to be around, and
they aren’t, always.’
    ‘Really!’ Charles bristled, and left it at that, since they had arrived at the shelter and George, ever careful of his mother, was helping her down into it.
    ‘I wonder how long we’ll be here this time?’ she said, groping her way along. ‘I hope them Londoners realize how lucky they are with their Underground. They’re a
lot safer than we are, with our three sides and a concrete top, and only one step down.’
    ‘It’s the water table, Mam,’ George said.
    ‘Well it’s a poor lookout for us, lad, whatever it is.’
    ‘I’m off to Control Headquarters,’ he said, when his mother was settled. ‘We’re a double act, you and me, Marie.’
    ‘How’s that?’ she smiled.
    ‘You bind the wounds of the people, but the city is our patient. We bind the wounds of the city. We can both look forward to plenty of hard work, I reckon.’ George glanced in
Charles’s direction. ‘Will you see Mam back home?’
    ‘We’ll see her all right, lad,’ another neighbour piped up. ‘No fears on that score.’
    ‘Jumped-up delivery boy,’ Charles muttered, glaring at George’s retreating back, ‘Binding the wounds of the city! Pompous ass! Who does he think he is?’
    ‘Shut up, Chas!’ Marie hissed, and glanced towards Aunt Edie, who showed no sign of having heard. ‘You must be very proud of George,’ Marie spoke up. ‘He’s
done well.’
    ‘I am.’ A look of anxiety clouded her face. ‘I only wish his work wasn’t so dangerous. If anything happens to him, it’ll be a bad job for me.’
    ‘He’ll be all right,’ Marie reassured her, and then thought how stupid her words were. How could she or anyone else know whether he’d be all right or not? It was just one
of those things people said that sounded kind, but was really meant to shut other people up, and make them keep their worries to themselves. She wrapped herself in her blanket and leaned on
Charles’s shoulder, listening to Aunt Edie regaling her neighbours about George and his achievements, and how highly the other gods in the city engineering department thought of him . . .
    Marie had dozed off before the first bomb jolted her awake at half-past three. At five o’clock the all clear sounded.
    ‘I’m going down to the hospital,’ she said when they left the shelter, to breath the smoke and smell the bombed city. ‘I might as well go now. I’ll take Smut home
and shut him in, and then I’m off. I’ll only feel worse if I try to snatch an hour’s sleep. I’m on an early shift anyway.’
    ‘If