Bluebirds Read Online Free PDF Page A

trees on the far side and the spire of Elmbury church against the skyline.
    â€˜I don’t think I could live with your mother, Ken. I don’t think she likes me.’
    â€˜Course she does. She’s just funny about things sometimes. Set in her ways. She’s been a bit like that since Dad died.’
    â€˜I don’t think she’d want you to get married yet. And I don’t think it’d work – her and me together.’
    â€˜We could try and find a place of our own then – a room or two somewhere in the village. I could still help Mother in the shop.’
    â€˜We couldn’t afford it, Ken.’ She had turned round to face him. ‘Let’s just wait, like we always said we would. No sense in rushin’ things. We’re only eighteen, both of us. There’s plenty of time. And I want to do somethin’ else with my life first, before we settle down.’
    He had said bewildered: ‘You never used to talk like this, Winn. I’ve never heard you say anythin’ like this before.’
    â€˜I haven’t thought about it much before, to tell the truth. It’s the war’s made me think. And talkin’ to that lady at the recruitin’ place. She made me think a lot. She said things about the Women’s Air Force . . . It’s goin’ to be very important, she said – for England. She said it’d be a chance for women to do somethin’ to help win the war.’
    â€˜She wanted you to join, that’s all. Gave you a lot of sweet talk.’
    â€˜No, ’twasn’t just that. She meant it. Besides, they’ve lots of volunteers. There was a great long queue of them. No, ’twasn’t just that.’
    She had leaned her arms on the top of the five-barred gate. It had been a lovely September. The ten-acre field had looked very beautiful in the evening sunlight, with the harvest stubble like a golden carpet and the skies all pink. A cool little breeze had ruffled her hair. The rooks had been cawing away in the elms and the church clockhad chimed in the distance. It had been so peaceful that it had seemed silly to be talking about a war. Hard to believe there was one on. She had gone on looking up into the skies.
    â€˜I’ll tell you what I’d really like to do, Ken, if you promise not to laugh at me.’
    â€˜â€™Course I won’t.’
    â€˜I’d like to work with the aeroplanes – help look after the engines, an’ that. That’s why it’s got to be the Air Force, see. I love aeroplanes. I watch them fly over here when I’m out in the fields . . . Royal Air Force ones with those rings on. I’d give anythin’ to go in one. Just imagine bein’ high up there in the sky, soarin’ through the air, just like a bird. I want to do that one day, more’n anythin’.’
    Ken had stared at her, more bewildered than ever. ‘But they’d never let you. They’d never let you near an aeroplane – not to go in, nor even
touch
the engine, Winn. That’s men’s work.’
    â€˜They want women to take over men’s work. That’s what the lady told me. She said: “We’re goin’ to train you to do their work, so’s they can go to the Front. Three women to do two men’s work”, that’s what she said.’
    â€˜Not to look after the aeroplanes, though.’
    â€˜Why not?’
    He had scuffed at the earth with his foot. ‘I told you, that’s men’s work. You couldn’t do it.’
    She had said stubbornly: ‘I
could
, Ken. I’m sure I could. I’m good with machines. I can mend the Fordson and no-one’s ever taught me how. I got it goin’ once when Dad couldn’t.’
    â€˜But that’s only a tractor. Aeroplanes are a lot different. Must be. Stands to reason.’ Ken had looked miserable. ‘It don’t seem right to me, Winn, you