Page 12 of The Stolen Child

‘I am sorry,’ Elsie whispered. ‘I should have gone out to meet Reggie on my own.’

Reggie was also a resident of their orphanage, but lived in the boy’s block across the courtyard. The staff did an admirable job keeping the boys and girls separate, but they were no match for hormonal teenagers in the first flush of love. Plus, when Elsie decided to do something, there was little that anyone could do to deter her. No matter the consequence.

They’d sneaked out earlier tonight once it was lights out in their dormitories. Sally’s job was to keep watch while Elsie and Reggie stole thirty minutes together.

‘We need to get back to bed,’ Elsie whispered, and they moved silently to the staircase and began creeping to their dormitory, one step at a time. Elsie warned Sally to avoid the loose step halfway up, which always told tales. It was only when they were in the safety of their dormitory that Sally relaxed. Soft snores filled the room from the six other girls who they shared with. They quickly undressed, climbing into their regulation fleeced nightdresses.

‘That was too close,’ Sally said, still holding on to her annoyance. She shivered as her body hit the cold sheets. The weather had turned icy this week, and the temperatures had dropped to almost freezing. Elsie climbed in beside Sally as she’d done most nights since arriving at the orphanage.

Elsie smiled weakly at her friend, and pulled the blankets tightly over them.

‘I’m sick of always being the sensible one, looking out for you when you mess up. It’s not fair, Elsie. You are alone if you decide to have more moonlit rendezvous. I mean it. You can count me out,’ Sally whispered crossly. Then she continued, softer now, ‘You do know that you are not the first to fall for Reggie’s charms. He broke Rebecca’s heart last month. You heard her crying into her pillow every night. Honestly, it would be best to stay away from him.’

Elsie’s face slid into a smile, and she sighed dreamily. ‘If you had been kissed like I was tonight, you wouldn’t have asked me to make that promise.’ Then she winked and added, ‘Plus, who can blame Reggie for dumping Rebecca. She gave him a headache with all her moaning. It’s too cold. I don’t like the rain. It’s too dark.’ Elsie mimicked Rebecca’s nasal twang to perfection. She had an ear for accents and could copy most.

Sally’s lips curled into a smile as she tried to suppress a giggle. She couldn’t help it – she had no choice but to forgive Elsie immediately.

‘I knew you’d understand, Sally. I swear, I’ll lose my mind if I have to do one more day in this existence without the prospect of a fun diversion,’ Elsie declared.

Life in the orphanage was bleak, from when the bell rang out to wake the residents to when the bell rang for the last time, signalling lights out.

Then Elsie propped her head up on her arm and whispered, ‘And don’t worry about me. I know that Reggie and I ain’t no Romeo and Juliet. I have no intention of falling for him. He’s fun – that’s all. A stopgap until I meet the right man when I leave this dump.’

‘Do you think I’ll meet someone one day too?’ Sally asked, her eyes glistening dreamily as she bought into the fantasy of life outside the orphanage. Unlike Elsie, Sally had only read about romance in books and magazines.

Elsie cupped Sally’s chin in her hand. ‘You are so pretty, Sally Fox. The boys will be falling at your feet. We’ll marry two brothers, or best friends at least, and we can live in houses next door to each other.’

‘The brothers will be tall, dark and handsome,’ Sally added.

‘Wouldn’t want them any other way,’ Elsie agreed.

‘Will we have children?’ Sally asked.

‘You’ll have at least four children. You’re born to be a mother.’

‘What about you, Elsie?’ Sally asked, watching her friend closely.

Elsie’s eyes glistened. ‘I’ll have a baby boy. With sparkling blue eyes, and a mop of curly blond hair. He’ll be my everything.’ She ended on a whisper. Then, sitting up straight, she added in a stronger voice, ‘And you’ll have your own hairdressing salon, Sally. I’ll work in one of those skyscrapers. The ones with plush offices in London.’

Sally smiled as she listened to their favourite daydream. And while Sally didn’t know what her future would turn out like, she knew one thing for sure. She would never follow in her mother’s footsteps. Falling for every wrong un who looked in her direction before becoming pregnant with a child she could never care for. Dumping them in an orphanage without a backwards glance.

Her anger at her mother caught her off-guard some days. And occasionally her grief and loss pierced her heart into so many tiny pieces that she didn’t think it could ever be remade.

‘We’ll give our children the life we never had,’ Sally said firmly. ‘And they’ll grow up to be as close as you and I are.’

Elsie clasped her hand and nodded fervently. ‘That’s right, treacle.’ Then she shivered in the icy room. ‘I don’t want to get into my own bed.’

‘Housemother doesn’t like us to share a bed,’ Sally said, worried, her brow furrowed as she glanced at the closed door, half expecting it to open. ‘We were lucky to get away with tonight.’

‘You’re right,’ Elsie said. ‘I’ll get out in a minute. Tell you what, how about I sing our song before I go?’

It had been years since Elsie had sung to her, and Sally knew her friend was trying to make amends for their near miss tonight, but Sally didn’t mind. She loved hearing Elsie’s pretty voice in her ear, singing ‘you are my sunshine’ until Sally fell asleep, dreaming of a life outside the orphanage with love, marriage and a family.

THEN

July 1983

Kimberly