Rosie Goes to War Read Online Free PDF Page B

Any minute now I’ll wake up, I’m bound to. This can’t go on forever, can it?
    â€˜What?’ Nelly looks angry again.
    Oh crap, now I’ve annoyed her. Mum says I’m good at sulky and ungrateful. I suppose I must sound pretty rude. It’s probably not a good idea to upset anyone while I’m stuck here. Especially not if Nelly’s anything like Great-aunt Eleanor.
    â€˜Sorry. I meant to say thank you.’
    â€˜Ooh,’ says May. ‘Ain’t she posh? I think we should call her Queenie, don’t you, Nell?’
    â€˜No!’ I say. ‘I’m Rosie.’
    â€˜Yeah, but we’ve already got Rose Brown, Rosie Jackson, and Rosa Hodgson. So you’ll have to be Queenie, or we’ll get all mixed up. Anyway, Rose is a boring name, ain’t it?’
    â€˜I quite like it, actually,’ I say.
    May giggles again. Nelly smirks, and says: ‘Hark at you – “actually”! Well, like May says, no one wants another Rose in our crowd. So like it or not, Miss Fancy Pants, from now on you’re Queenie.’
    I close my eyes, and take a deep breath. I don’t like it at all, but I can hardly explain why to these girls. This is not good.
    â€˜I hope you don’t want sugar in your tea,’ says May. ‘We stopped taking it ’cause we kept running out by the middle of the week. So we save up our rations and make a cake every now and then. We’ve got a lovely Christmas cake ready. It’s been soaked in our Dad’s Navy Rum, so it’ll be right tasty.’
    â€˜Christmas?’
    â€˜Are you Jewish, then?’ asks Nelly. ‘Like the Cohens?’
    â€˜No,’ I say. What is she on about? ‘I’m Church of England.’
    May puts a cup of tea on the table. ‘Here you go, Queenie. Get that down you. So how come you don’t know about Christmas?’
    â€˜I do know about Christmas,’ I say. ‘I was just wondering why you’ve made your cake so early.’
    Nelly frowns. ‘Early? What are you talking about? It’s only just over a fortnight away.’
    â€˜Wh-what’s today’s date?’ I ask.
    â€˜It’s the 8 th of December, of course.’
    The familiar sick, dizzy feeling comes back. I take a deep breath, hoping I’m not going to faint or anything. I glance down at the table, and for a moment – just a split-second – I can see Gran’s white tablecloth and coffee mugs and biscuit tin.
    Then it’s gone and I’m looking at the heavy brown cover and an old fashioned cup and saucer in front of me. I pick up the cup with shaking hands and sip the hot tea.
    Even that tastes different. I put it down again.
    I glance at the paper on the table. It’s not like any newspaper I’ve ever seen.
    The pictures are in black and white, and the words are printed really close together. But like all newspapers, the date is printed at the top of the front page.
    Sunday, 8 th December 1940.

CHAPTER FOUR
    I stand up. The chair scrapes on the tiled floor. May and Nelly look at me curiously. I need to get out of here before I completely lose it. ‘I have to go.’
    â€˜Go where?’ asks May.
    That stops me in my tracks. Where can I go? I don’t know how I got here, so I’ve no idea how to get back. My instincts are all screaming that the mirror’s got something to do with it, but I’ve walked past it a million times before and this has never happened, so I might be wrong. I can hardly go and stand there, staring at it with these two watching me, can I? I mean, they’ll think I’m really, really vain, won’t they?
    What I do know, is that I’m in Gran’s house. This is the place I keep seeing out of the corner of my eye, or when I go dizzy. So, that must mean the girls are Gran and Great-aunt Eleanor. I can’t believe I didn’t realise before.
    Should I tell them who I am? Hi, I’m May’s