East End Angel Read Online Free PDF Page A

the clippie announced, the driver would pull over and everyone must run to the nearest cover. Today was only their third outing in daylight. They had stopped at a coconut shy and Jim had knocked three coconuts from the stands. He’d won her a little green china ashtray with ‘Margate’ written on the side. The rest of their time they’d spent in their room making up for lost time. In the evenings they’d gone out, strolled arm in arm through the darkened streets and exchanged kisses on the seafront benches. Tomorrow they were going home and Pearl was wishing their holiday could go on for ever.
    ‘It was called the Astoria,’ continued the clippie, holding on to the seat rail as the driver pulled away from the kerb. ‘Before it was bombed, me and my old man used to go there. The seats were lovely, covered in soft material and nice and roomy. All three cinemas were built in the thirties, this one and the Regal and the Dreamland. I saw me first film at the Regal. The Camels Are Coming with Jack Hulbert, it was.’ She sighed and pushed back her uniform cap. ‘Now I’ve only got a pile of rubble to remind me. I lost me husband last year, at Dunkirk.’
    ‘Oh, I’m so sorry,’ Pearl said sadly.
    ‘Rotten luck,’ nodded Jim.
    Pearl clutched Jim’s hand even tighter. If it wasn’t for his job he too could have been at Dunkirk, or even up in the air during the Battle of Britain. Or he could have been in a ship somewhere, in danger of being torpedoed, like Ricky. The thought of him had intruded again, and determinedly she put him out of mind. She had her Jim beside her and that was what mattered. His work on bombed sites and underground was dangerous, but the chances of survival were much higher than being in the services. They had everything to live for, a future mapped out.
    ‘Still, you two young things look happy enough,’ said the clippie with a mischievous smile. ‘You on leave, son?’
    ‘It’s our honeymoon.’ Pearl blushed.
    ‘That don’t take much guessing,’ the woman smiled. ‘Well, make it last as long as you can. String it out before your bloke has to go back.’ She gave them a wink and made her way to the seats at the front where two soldiers sat. It was clear they were rookies as they were talking about the camp close by.
    ‘She thought I was enlisted,’ Jim groaned as the bus picked up speed and he stared at the two soldiers. ‘I feel rotten when I think I ain’t on me toes for Britain. Blokes like them are risking their lives for the country.’
    ‘But so are you,’ Pearl insisted, pushing back the wave of hair that fell over her face. ‘Like them flats you was on a couple of weeks ago. You had to make sure they didn’t collapse. If I’d known you were climbing all over them, I’d have had kittens.’
    ‘Not the same as fighting, though.’
    Pearl looked worried. ‘Jim, don’t keep talking like this. You’re doing your bit for the war effort.’
    ‘She assumed I was on leave,’ he mumbled under his breath as if he hadn’t heard her.
    ‘Jim, I don’t want you drafted away,’ she insisted. ‘With your job as an engineer, you can stay at home. You said that was what you wanted too.’
    He put his arm round her. ‘Thing is, I fight with me conscience,’ he admitted, rubbing his chin. ‘Any man could do what I do with a bit of training.’
    ‘No, they couldn’t,’ Pearl objected. ‘And I should know, as I type out all the papers that are relevant to your work. There ain’t many engineers with your experience. When a call comes through from the LCC, it’s you and your blokes they want, because they can rely on you to put London back together again.’
    He kissed her forehead lightly. ‘I’ll pay you later.’
    She smiled wistfully. ‘You can joke, but it’s taken you ten years to learn your trade. And what about all the stuff you did before the war? All those diagram things you helped to put in the Underground.’
    He laughed. ‘Diaphragms, you mean.’
    ‘Yes,