Staying with Paulette and Madame Zelda was quite a relief. The card games were fun, and they gave me my tea and settled me down for the night. Everyone thought it was best if I didn’t go home, especially me. I had seen the Perfumed Lady drunk before, but this time it was different somehow. In the past, she’d always seemed to be having a good time for most of it and things turned a bit sour just at the end. You know, as if she’d been to a really, really good party and it was only the aftermath of cleaning up the glasses and the brimming ashtrays that took the edge off it. Her drinking had always seemed to be like that, a lot of razzle and a bit of tidying up at the end.
But not this time. This time there was screaming, crying, puking and bugs and snakes that weren’t really there. Even Auntie Maggie and Uncle Bert seemed helpless in the face of it. I kept getting flashes of her naked and huddled. She had often seemed helpless but this time she had seemed hopeless too. And her arms – I kept seeing her arms. They were so thin, like sticks they were, and they reminded me of the pictures I had seen of the people Hitler had kept in those terrible camps that nobody thought I ought to know about. Her arms were almost as thin as theirs but nobody had starved her; she must have starved herself. So I was glad I didn’t have to go home that night. I wanted to be with people who didn’t see snakes and bugs coming out of the walls and who laughed when they played cards.
I don’t know when Luigi and Mr Herbert left because I was tucked up in the spare bed by then. Paulette had nipped home for my pyjamas, toothbrush, clean drawers for the morning and my teddy. I know that they stayed for a while after I’d settled down because I heard their laughter coming from the living room. I also heard Sharky join the party. He must have come back to his office rather than go home to wherever it was he lived. I heard Madame Zelda tell him it was a good thing he was around, and that the Perfumed Lady had turned up. She reminded him that Charlie Fluck was expected tomorrow around teatime and suggested that it might be an idea if he made himself available for that particular meeting.
‘Worry not, dear lady, I have not forgotten,’ I heard him say. ‘Neither would I miss it for all the tea in China or, better still, all the brandy in France.’ He mumbled something about how all the brandy in France was maybe going too far but that Chinese tea certainly wouldn’t keep him away. Then he joined the others in the living room and I nodded off.
It was funny waking up in a strange bed in a strange room. I had just got used to being home from Aggie and now I was away again. It took me a minute to realize that I was merely next door. I lay quietly for a while, trying to hear what was going on, if anything. Judging by the noises from the street, the world was awake and doing, but there was no indication that Paulette and Madame Zelda were. I was thinking about this when my bladder urged me into action. I crept out of my room and was hailed by a cheery Paulette.
‘Morning, sweet’eart. What do you fancy for your breakfast? Toast and egg do you? Why don’t you join that lazy old bag when you’ve had your pee and I’ll bring it in to you?’
I guessed, correctly as it turned out, that the ‘lazy old bag’ was Madame Zelda. When I opened the door to her bedroom, she was leaning back against a whole mound of pillows and looking smug.
‘Hello, Rosie dear. Jump in. Paulette won’t be long. We heard she got the job at Joe Lyon’s. Letter came first thing. So she’s practisin’ her waitressin’ on us. Do you reckon she can get it all in ’ere without spillin’ a drop? I bet her she couldn’t and now she’s tryin’ to prove me wrong. I ain’t as daft as I’m cabbage lookin’. Can’t remember the last time I had breakfast in bed.’ She gave me a huge wink and patted the bit of bed beside her and heaved a contented sigh. I didn’t hang about. I jumped in with her and waited like Lady Muck in miniature.
Paulette won the bet. She didn’t spill a drop or misplace a crumb. But when I demanded that Madame Zelda pay up, they both turned bright red. Paulette began to giggle when I went to get Madame Zelda’s purse, but when she tried to explain I couldn’t really understand because of all their huffing and puffing. Paulette tried to say something about not betting actual money but Madame Zelda hit her with a pillow and I joined in. In the end there were crumbs and tea all over the bed, so we reckoned that nobody had won the bet after all.
* * *
Paulette had to go to Joe Lyon’s to be fitted for her uniform and to watch the others so that she would be ready to start work on the following day. They told her to be there for half past eleven so that she could watch the busy dinner time. She was really nervous but we helped her choose her clothes and do her hair so that she would arrive looking smart and confident.
We also promised to go to her Corner House for our dinner so that she would see some friendly faces. At least, Madame Zelda promised and I said I’d come too if Auntie Maggie and Uncle Bert would let me. Paulette thought it would be better if Madame Zelda did the checking next door, ‘just in case’. I didn’t trouble to ask what she meant by that. I knew. It was in case my mum was performing again. I didn’t need persuading to stay behind. I made myself useful clearing up the wreckage from our pillow fight and Madame Zelda washed, dressed and went next door.
She was gone about half an hour and returned with clean clothes, permission for me to spend the day with her and the latest news. It seemed that my mum had finally settled down and that they had managed to get her sober enough to understand she had an appointment that she couldn’t get out of with Charlie Fluck at four o’clock. To make sure that she stayed put and sober, everyone except Madame Zelda, Paulette and Mr Herbert was taking it in turns to stay with her. Mr Herbert had his shop to run and Madame Zelda had me to look after.
We went with Paulette to Marble Arch, left her at the corner and promised to be back at one for our dinner. Then we headed to the park, stopping only long enough to buy some bread to feed to the ducks. We had a lovely time, and so did the ducks.