Chapter Eight

Aggie sat near the fire with her mother, trying to darn the top of a shirt collar for Charlie and although Mary Blair knew the devotion of her eldest child and she was pleased, she was also worried.

“Aggie, why don’t you go out more and enjoy yourself? You’re only young once, you know,” she pleaded, but Aggie continued to sew, smiling at her mother’s concern for her welfare.

“I’m fine, Mammy. Really I am . . . You mustn’t worry about me.”

She spoke with such confidence and self-assurance that Mary wondered if perhaps there was some young man somewhere in the life of her lovely daughter. Aggie was always a quiet girl and didn’t talk much about her own life. She was hard-working and selfless and Mary knew that she would make a good wife for some young man. They continued to work together quietly and the flames from the fire played shadows across the wall behind them.

“Mammy” ...It was Aggie who broke the silence.

“Yes, Love. What is it?”

There was a continued moment of silence before Aggie spoke again.

“I don’t know, Mammy. Maybe I’m silly or something, but I worry for Charlie.”

Mary stopped darning the sock that she held in her hand and looked intently at her daughter, for her own thoughts were not far removed from those she had just heard. Aggie continued. “He’s so carefree and that’s how it should be with a fella but he still worries me. Willie is different altogether and I don’t feel the same anxieties for him. I love them both the same, you understand, but I worry more for Charlie.”

“I think I know what you mean, Aggie and how you feel, but there’s nothing you can do about the way people are made. We are all different and that’s how it should be.”

A cinder sparked into flame and cast an orange glow across Aggie’s face. Her fine, delicate features stood out in silhouette.

“Aye . . . You’re right Mammy. I love you all but I can’t help the way I feel. I’m just daft. I told you that.”

“No ... You’re not daft at all, my Darling. You’re a good girl, but don’t worry so much. Charlie will make his own way in life. He’ll do his own thing. You may be sure of that.”

Mary spoke with reassurance, but her Celtic mind was in tune with Aggie and she too had many worries of which she had never spoken. She had always been somewhat psychic in her outlook to life and it had served her cruelly, many times in the past. She shuddered as she took up her darning again and hoped that Aggie did not possess that Celtic streak which caused more worry than it was worth. She patted Aggie’s knee and they continued to sit together with their thoughts in silence a silence broken only by the crackling of the flames that licked the coals and cast their gruesome shadows across the room.

***

“Hello Mammy.” Sadie burst into the room with Meggie, to disturb the solitude of the two women who sat there. “I couldn’t get an interview this afternoon, so we went to the pictures instead.”

Mary sighed and looked at Aggie. There was such a contrast of natures in her daughters.

“Can I have a heat?” asked Meggie as she rubbed her hands briskly and shuffled nearer the fire. “Come on, you two Move over.”

Sadie made her appeal and they all huddled together in the welcoming warmth of the fireglow. Aggie rose up and excused herself, saying that she had something to do that evening as she had an evening off from the factory. She left the room and put on her coat and hat, wrapping a scarf around her neck, since the girls had looked so cold when they had come in.

“See you,” she called out and left the house.

Sadie and Meggie looked at each other inquisitively before the latter moved nearer to her mother

“What’s Aggie goin’ out for, Mammy?” she asked, but Mary Blair did not hear the question. She was thinking about Aggie’s thoughts about Charlie.

“Mammy Meggie asked you a question. Didn’t you hear her?”

Mary pressed her forefinger and thumb to the bridge of her nose.

“I’m sorry I was thinking about something else. What did you say, Darling?”

Meggie giggled and hunched her shoulders.

“Has our Aggie got a boyfriend, d’ye think? It’s not like her to go out at this time in the evening, except to the factory ... is it, Mammy?” she asked, but Sadie was annoyed at her sister’s question even if she herself was inquisitive.

“I wouldn’t worry about Aggie, if I was you Meggie ... She is the oldest and she should be able to do what she likes. Well, that’s what I think anyway,” Sadie said in Aggie’s defence, but she looked to her mother, hoping that she might throw some light onto her elder sister’s mysterious movements. “Nobody asks you where you’re going or what you’re doing, do they?” she continued as she glared at Meggie.

Meggie ignored the admonition and pushed her hair back casually from her face as she tucked it in behind her ears and her thoughts returned to the events of the evening and to the Movie they had just seen. She moved away from the heat of the fire and swayed across the room, followed by her sister, each with their hands in the air, mimicking the stars that they felt they already knew well, Sadie was sure she did, if Meggie had her doubts

“Oooh! Wasn’t Tyrone Power just great in that part, Meggie. He’s so handsome. Isn’t he married to that French actress what’s her name?”

“Annabella ... I think that’s her name, Sadie.”

Sadie swooned in her own private ecstasy and closed her eyes to savour the joy for as long as she could.

“Hold me in your arms, my Darling and press your sweet sensual lips to my ear’ole,” she giggled as Mary scolded light-heartedly.

“You’re a daft one an’ that’s for sure, Sadie Blair,” she said and Sadie returned her comment with a profound bow.

“I could be acting opposite him in a few years from now,” she said without opening her eyes to look where she was going as she nearly fell into the fire.

“Ooops! Be careful there. Tyrone won’t appreciate you if your skin looks like toast will he?”

“You just wait an’ see, Mrs. Blair. I’m no’ gonna stay at that kipper factory, even if I do get the offer of the job and my skin gets the full beauty treatment. I’m going places, I am,” she snorted and Mary and Meggie looked at each other and sighed.

“We need some more coal for the fire, before it gets too low, Greta Garbo if you don’t mind “ Mary prompted, but Sadie studied her nails and pretended that she hadn’t heard. Meggie brought the coal and piled it on top of the already dying cinders. A light flickered and then went out ... and the fire died.

“Put the poker under the rails there.”

Meggie knelt in front of the grate and blew hard into the dead embers, but her efforts were fruitless. She tried the poker experience as Mary had suggested, but all she achieved was a face-full of dust and Sadie laughed.

“I’m going to bed to keep warm,” she announced and unhooked her suspenders to remove her stockings, gazing at her legs as she undressed and sighing into her dreams again.

“The gorgeous Tyrone could be doin’ this for me, this time next year,” she said and giggled happily as she made her way to bed.

“Keep my side warm for me Sadie, will you?” Meggie shouted as she stood at the kitchen sink. “It’ll take me hours to get this soot off my face.”