Time Goes By Read Online Free PDF Page B

Flowers in their freshness from garden and field
…’ they all sang, and the organist carried on playing until all the flowers had been presented.
    ‘What a lovely idea,’ said Aunty Win, and Kathy thought she could see a tear in the corner of her eye, although she looked very happy.
    Shirley dashed across at the end of the service. ‘Hello, Kathy … Have you asked your aunty if you can come for tea tomorrow?’
    ‘Yes, she has asked me,’ said Aunty Win, ‘and of course she can go … It’s very kind of you,’ she said to Mrs Morris, Shirley’s mother. ‘Thank you very much.’
    ‘It’s no trouble,’ said Mrs Morris. ‘We love having Kathy, and my husband will bring her home afterwards.’
    They said goodbye and Kathy and her aunt walked home, leaving Mrs Morris and Shirley to wait for Graham.
    ‘It’s going to be a busy week, Kathy,’ Aunty Win told her. ‘You’re out for tea tomorrow; it’s Brownies on Tuesday; and on Wednesday the drama group is meeting to cast the new play.’
    ‘Are you going to have a big part, Aunty Win?’ asked Kathy. She had gone to see the last one with her daddy. Aunty Win had taken the part of the mother and had had a lot of words to remember. Kathy hadn’t understood it all, but she knew that her aunt had done it very well.
    ‘I’m not sure,’ smiled her aunt. ‘I’ll just have to wait and see. There are a lot more ladies as well as me.’
    ‘But they’re not as good,’ said Kathy, loyally.
    Aunty Win laughed. ‘And then on Thursday it’s your open evening at school, isn’t it, dear? Your dad and I will be going to see Miss Roberts and find out how you’re getting on.’
    ‘Yes, we’ve been doing all sorts of special things to make a nice display on the walls,’ said Kathy.
    ‘Yes, I shall look forward to seeing that. All in all, a very busy week ahead,’ said Aunty Win.

Chapter Four
    K athy loved going to tea at Shirley’s home. It was a small house, nowhere near as big as the hotel where she lived. It was only a few minutes’ walk from Holmleigh in a street of what Shirley told her were called semi-detached houses; that meant that their house was joined on to the one next door.
    There was a small garden at the front with a tiny rectangle of grass and flowers growing round it. The garden at the back was not much bigger, but Kathy thought it must be lovely to have a garden at all. At Holmleigh there was just a paved area at the front and a form where the visitors could sit. And at the back it was just a yard with a coal shed, a wash house and an outside lavatory. But they did have three toilets inside the house as well, which were necessary for the visitors. 
    There was a small bathroom upstairs at Shirley’s, and three bedrooms. One of them was very tiny and that was where Shirley’s brother, Graham, slept. Shirley said he grumbled because she had a bigger bedroom, but that was because she had to share with her little sister, Brenda, who was three years old. And Mr and Mrs Morris slept in the other one.
    Kathy had slept in lots of different bedrooms at her home, depending on whether or not there were visitors staying there. During the winter she had quite a nice-sized bedroom on the first landing, but she liked it best in the summer when she sometimes slept in one of the attic bedrooms. The ceiling sloped right down to the floor at the front and you had to kneel down to look out of the window. It was a lovely view, though, right across everybody else’s rooftops. She could see Blackpool Tower, and the tiniest glimpse of the sea, sparkling blue if the sun was shining or a dingy grey if it wasn’t.
    They had a bathroom now at Holmleigh, but it had only been built last year, onto the kitchen at the back of the house. It was just for the use of the family, but there were washbasins in all the visitors’ bedrooms. Aunty Win had told her that those had only been put in a few years ago. Until then the visitors had used big bowls and jugs that her aunt