doing that and you’ll soon have no shoes left at all,’ he warned. Elsie tucked her feet away behind the pedals when he said that, not wanting to draw attention to the fact that there wasn’t much left of her shoes as it was, without them having to act as bicycle brakes.
She was so grateful for all his teaching, she thought she should offer him something in return. So she showed him how she and her sister often sneaked into the cinema for free of an evening.
‘I’m surprised you and your mates don’t know about it already. It’s somewhere to go when the weather’s bad.’
‘I’ve never been mithered to go to the cinema,’ he said. ‘Me mam took me a few times when I was little. But she only wanted to see soppy love stories. You know the sort. Lots of mushy kissing.’
Elsie stared at him, her mouth open. He looked a little sheepish as he grinned. ‘It’s one thing doing it, quite another having to watch others at it. So I stopped going.’
But once Elsie had introduced him to the likes of Billy the Kid and Roy Rogers, he changed his mind. Randolph Scott became his particular hero and after that he was happy to go with her to see pretty much any action film.
Whilst it wasn’t easy for them to find time to go out together, they did see each other every night at the Butcher’s Arms. Whenever she could, Elsie waited for him so they could stroll home together. If it wasn’t too cold, they would sit out on the Field for a while, smoking one of Stan’s roll-ups between them. One evening they came to the waste ground to find it looking quite different. Two or three small mounds had appeared that definitely hadn’t been there before.
‘What the hell’s this?’ Elsie asked, poking at one of them. Although it was sticking up quite a way out of the ground, when they peered inside it was possible to see from the light of the nearby gas lamp that it had been dug out of the mud so that part of it sloped down underground. It was dark inside and smelt of freshly dug earth.
‘It looks like it could be used as some sort of shelter in case there is actually going to be a war. They say the Germans have bombs that they would drop on us, if they can. I’ve read about it in the papers,’ Stan said.
Elsie was sceptical. ‘You bloody men, that’s all you ever think about. Why can’t you get it into your thick heads that there’s not going to be a war?’
Stan shrugged. ‘I dunno. We can’t be sure, Else. There still might be one. Then we’d all need one of these.’
‘If there was a war, I can tell you I wouldn’t fancy being holed up in one of them for very long,’ Elsie said. ‘You can’t fit many people in there, for a start. You’d need one for each of us or a bloody great big one for everybody in the street.’
‘I suppose each family could have their own.’
‘Oh yes, and where the hell would they put it?’
‘In the back garden.’
‘And who the hell’s got one of them?’ Elsie wanted to know. She was thinking of Back Gas Street and wondering where all the residents would go. In the midden off the courtyard?
‘That’s true,’ Stan said. ‘Not many folk in these parts have got that much room.’
‘Never mind that. The blooming thing itself is scary. It would make me feel like one of those animals that you see in books. Don’t they live in little tunnels like this? What do you call them? Is it badgers or something?’
‘It wouldn’t matter what it made you feel like, let me tell you if the bloody Germans did start dropping bombs on us we’d be glad of having one, even if we had to crawl into it.’
‘Frankly, I wouldn’t mind if someone bombed our house,’ Elsie said. ‘It’s about the best thing that could happen to it. It’s no better than a mudhole right now.’
‘Yeah,’ Stan said with a rueful snigger, ‘I know what you mean. It’s true of a lot of places round here.’
Elsie smiled. ‘Can you imagine – the kids would be like pigs in clover if these things started popping up all over the show! They’d want to be playing hide and seek in them all the time.’
‘True, and you couldn’t blame them.’ Stan went to investigate the little tunnel more closely. He ducked into the entrance. ‘You can just about stand up in it.’ He chuckled. ‘I can think of better uses than kids’ games.’ He stepped further inside, but not before he had grabbed hold of Elsie’s hand to take her with him. Then he pulled the tin door over the entrance.
Elsie was stunned into silence for a moment as they were plunged into pitch darkness. Before she could say anything, Stan covered her mouth with his own. She giggled as she sensed his hand groping under her skirt. Feeling him hard against her, she immediately began fumbling with his buttons.
It was over very quickly. Elsie hardly had time to catch her breath. It felt so amazingly daring; although the door was closed and no one could see them, they were practically standing in the street. Elsie started to laugh but it turned into a coughing fit and she lunged for the entrance and fresh air, with Stan hurriedly trying to straighten her clothing as she emerged into the yellowy gas light. She was still choking but Stan was right behind her, slapping her on the back. Then he fastened his own buttons before putting his arms round her.
‘Our secret,’ he whispered into her ear. ‘This is only between you and me.’
The idea of having such a secret with someone as special as Stan thrilled Elsie. Which was why she was so upset to discover that it didn’t remain a secret very long.
One night after work a few days later she went home with her friend Aggie. It was something they liked to do when Aggie’s family were all out and they had the place to themselves. They would sit together on the couch in the front room swapping stories and feeling proper grown-up. Elsie had told her friend lots about her new boyfriend and Aggie had been thrilled to share in Elsie’s excitement about her birthday present and the trip to the moors. But tonight when they sat down in front of the fire, Aggie wasn’t her usual smiling self. In fact she had a frighteningly serious look on her face.
‘Is summat up, Aggs?’ Elsie asked. ‘You know you can tell me, whatever it is. By the look on your face, anyone’d think the dog ate your dinner.’ Elsie nudged her friend, trying to chivvy her into a smile.
But Aggie didn’t smile. Her forehead puckered into a frown. She didn’t answer immediately and when she did, she refused to look directly at Elsie. ‘There’s something I’ve got to tell you,’ she began, as if Elsie hadn’t spoken. ‘It’s about Stan, and I think you should know.’
‘Why, what’s up wi’ ’im?’ Elsie was beginning to feel anxious now.
‘I mean, I know you two have been doing a spot of courting,’ Aggie said hesitantly.
‘I don’t know as I would say we were courting.’ Elsie relaxed a little and grinned. ‘Not yet awhile.’
‘No, well, you know what I mean. You have been sort of “stepping out”.’
‘Good God, Aggie, that makes it sound dead posh. It’s just me and him … like. Well, we work together at night in the pub. He walks me home afterwards. You know …’
‘No, that’s just it. That’s the point. I don’t know.’
‘You don’t know what? Now you’re talking in bloody riddles.’
Aggie hesitated, then said, ‘I suppose what I’m really asking is, do you know him well enough to trust him?’
‘Course I do. I don’t know about courting, but he is me boyfriend, isn’t he? He bought me a birthday present an’ all.’ Elsie jutted her chin out defiantly.
‘I know about that and you’ve said nice things about him.’
‘Well, I like him, why shouldn’t I? It’s only natural.’
‘It’s