The Lights of London (34 page)

‘Keep to the edge!’ shouted Tibs, although Polly was less than two feet away from her. ‘Gawd, I’m tempted to join her, Kit.’

‘You can’t!’

Tibs was about to show Kitty that yes she could, when an overbearing woman came barging past them, with a
sweating young constable – complete with helmet and heavy tunic – by her side. ‘That’s her, officer!’ she shrieked in the shrilly, excitable tones of the deeply shocked. She pointed her parasol at a woman of about twenty years of age, who was standing in the water cooling her feet.

‘Look, there! Exposing her flesh! Arrest her!’

The overheated constable dragged himself down to the shoreline and approached the young woman. ‘Sorry, miss,’ he said sheepishly – the girl was very pretty – but it is an offence for you to …’ He coughed nervously. ‘Expose certain areas of your flesh.’

‘Me ankles, d’you mean, darling? Or these?’ With that she lifted her skirt and flashed her calves at the now bug-eyed policeman.

Jack, Archie and all the other men on the beach, and quite a few of the woman, showed their appreciation by clapping or whistling, or generally cheering her along.

‘Cockney scum! I knew it!’ The woman pushed past the officer and made a grab for the girl, whose reply was to stick out her tongue and give the woman an almighty shove, sending her crashing backwards into the salty waves. Then she hitched her skirts higher still and made a run for it along the shoreline, splashing and laughing as she went.

The now completely flustered constable did his best to help the woman to her feet, but she wasn’t taking that sort of familiarity from a young whipper-snapper like him. ‘Take your hands off me, or I’ll report you to your sergeant!’ she bellowed, whacking him about the head with her sopping-wet parasol. ‘Now get off after that harlot,’ she ordered him, ‘or they’ll all be wearing bathing suits on the sands before we know it. This isn’t the continent you know.’

Tibs couldn’t resist it. ‘Good job Mummy never
tucked her frock in her drawers, eh, Polly?’

‘Sssh!’ Kitty had to restrain herself from putting her hand over Tibs’s mouth. ‘She’ll hear you.’

‘Good, she was meant to. Ugly, toffee-nosed old bitch just don’t want no one enjoying themselves, does she. Mind you, you can understand it when you look at her. Looks just like the bashed-in back end of a bloody tram.’

‘Tibs!’

‘Well, cheeky old cow, you’d think we was all common or something.’

Tibs folded her arms and stared defiantly at the dripping-wet woman who was now fighting off her harrumphing tweedy husband’s efforts to assist her in her floundering attempts to rise to her knees in the waves.

‘Have you got me valise with the bathing things in it, Jack? We’re going in.’

‘Here we go.’ Tibs helped Polly up on to the platform of the bathing machine marked
LADIES AND CHILDREN ONLY
and opened the door for her to step inside. ‘Now you hold my hand tight while the man winches it down the slope, Poll, then we’ll get changed and have a right laugh in the waves.’

Kitty clung to the side. ‘I’m not sure about this, Tibs.’

‘They don’t take you that far out. And you’re so flipping tall anyway.’

‘It’s not that.’

‘And the canopy folds down if you’re worried about your modesty.’

‘I don’t know.’

‘Blimey, Kit, we’ll have to get you back in your uniform, you’re turning back into a flaming mouse.’

‘Is Auntie Kitty really a mouse?’

‘Sometimes she is, Poll. Ooops mind, we’re moving.’
Tibs grabbed Kitty by the arm and, before she knew it, she was inside the shed-like interior of the machine, being ordered to strip down to her second-best set of unmentionables.

‘Come on, Archie. How about it.’

‘I didn’t bring anything to wear.’

‘I’m going in my long-johns. No one can see us, you step straight down into the water according to Tibs. It’ll be a laugh.’

‘I won’t if you don’t mind, boss.’

Jack looked at him standing there, like a small boy called up by the teacher to be punished for something he didn’t do. It must be that arm of his again. He was that embarrassed about it. It was a real pity, a big handsome feller like that feeling so bad about himself. ‘If you’re sure, lad.’

‘I’m sure.’

But Jack only had it partly right about Archie. He was, as always, concerned about his arm, but now more so than ever. Because he had decided his arm was the reason for Tibs being so off with him. Why else would she not want her or her little girl going anywhere near a useless thing like him? He just wished he hadn’t let her know how much he liked her. She must feel so awkward with him hanging around. But if he wasn’t too pushy, maybe she’d let him just be a friend.

‘You don’t mind if I go in, like?’ Jack asked him.

‘Course not. I’ll go and have a scout around.’

‘Good idea. Find a good shellfish place. We can’t go to the seaside without having a shrimp-and-winkle tea, can we?’

As Archie walked away, off the sands, he could hear the sound of Tibs shrieking with laughter and of Jack calling after him, ‘See you by the bandstand at the pier
entrance in about half an hour.’ Archie felt too choked to look round.

It was actually over an hour later when they eventually found Archie leaning against the bandstand waiting for them. ‘I’ve got this for the little one, if that’s all right,’ he said, handing Polly a little cloth sailor doll.

‘Say thank you,’ said Tibs flatly. ‘Now put it down while I dry your hair off.’

She rubbed furiously at the ends of Polly’s ringlets, stuffed the towel back into her bulging bag and handed it, without a word, to Jack. ‘There. Now, what can we do next? I don’t feel you’ve seen very much.’

She saw Jack’s face drop as he envisioned being made to traipse around yet more airless, crowded streets.

‘Don’t worry, Jack. No more shops. I was thinking of somewhere far more interesting. Wait till you see this, Poll.’

Tibs led them down a road beside the Britannia pub to a small fairground by the Marine Gardens. ‘Look up there,’ she said and pointed triumphantly to a wooden structure that rose 110 feet above them. ‘Only opened last year. Sal told me about it.’

‘You’ve not seen Blackpool Tower, lass,’ snorted Jack smugly.

‘And you’ve not seen the Observation Tower once it gets moving.’

‘Is it safe?’ asked Kitty, watching the platform, packed with people, as it began to revolve slowly and then rise jerkily, but inexorably, towards the flag-topped summit.

As the platform came to a shuddering stop, everyone stumbled to one side, including Kitty who, of course, had been persuaded by Tibs to go up with the rest of them. She staggered against Jack who, putting out his
hands to save her, caught her about the waist.

They looked at each other for a long, gulp-making moment, before Kitty, fumbling about with her boater and her dignity, pulled herself upright and brushed down her skirts. ‘Sorry,’ she said from under the brim of her now straightened hat.

‘Why?’ asked Jack. ‘I enjoyed it.’

‘Look, look at that!’ Kitty shouted a bit too loudly and pointed haphazardly at the sights of Southend-on-Sea laid out below them like paintings on a picture postcard.

Tibs was tempted, but her friend was too easy a target for teasing, so instead, she went to her aid. ‘Look what Auntie Kitty’s showing you, Poll,’ she said. ‘Look down there. There’s the Marine Gardens. See all the people whirling round and round on the dancing platform? And look at the chairoplanes and the scenic railway. And all the pretty flowers and trees. And the swan boats and the rifle ranges. And there’s the coconut shy and the fortune teller’s tent.’

Polly, clutching her sailor doll, looked down, not understanding, but, being with her mum, loving it all.

‘And there’s a pony-riding track and all sorts of other things. What would you like to do when we get back down there?’

‘I know what I want to do, Archie,’ said Jack, determined to include him.

‘What’s that, boss?’ he asked.

‘There was a shop in, what was that street called? That one down by the front.’ He pointed.

‘Er …’

‘Marine Parade,’ cut in Tibs. She rolled her eyes at Kit. ‘There’s one or two shops down there actually, Jack. Which one did you have in mind?’

‘The photographer’s. I was thinking, those frames
you got from the pawnbroker’s. We’ve not done anything about them.’

It didn’t take much to persuade Tibs that they should go into Dawson’s Photographic Studios; she loved the idea of having her picture done with Polly, but Kitty was more reticent.

‘It looks a bit posh,’ she said uneasily.

‘So? We’re as good as anyone, ain’t we? And so’s our money.’

‘Tibs is right,’ said Jack, ‘and I’m paying. This is my treat. So go on, in you go, and let’s see you smile.’

Kitty needed more convincing than that, so Jack asked the others to go inside while he had a word with her.

Within ten minutes, Kitty walked into the studio.

Smiling!

It was soporifically warm in there. The photographer refused to open any windows in case the potted palms and draperies – just two of his many and varied props, which ranged from the classical to the downright exotic – were disturbed by the wind and so might prevent him from capturing the true artistry of his compositions.

But Tibs didn’t care, she loved it, posing first alone, with a whole range of columns, backdrops and different hats, then with Polly and then with Kitty. Next, Kitty was cajoled by Jack – with surprising ease, thought Tibs, after all that fuss – into having her own solo portrait done.

Jack then suggested that Tibs might have one done with Archie.

Archie squirmed.
‘Jack.’

Tibs looked levelly at Archie and said, ‘I don’t think so, Jack. It’s getting too hot and uncomfortable in here. And Polly’s getting tired. Come on, Poll, let’s go and
wait in the fresh air while Uncle Jack sorts it all out with the man.’

Kitty frowned as Tibs led Polly outside. Couldn’t she see how hurtful she was being?

‘There, that’s all done,’ said Jack, tucking the receipt inside his hatband. ‘He’ll send the pictures to us within the week with a bit of luck.’ He put his boater back on and surveyed the now cheerless-looking group who surrounded him. It was all going too well for him to let this happen. ‘Right, now how about a ride on one of those brakes opposite that pub over there?’ He squinted his eyes and shielded them with his hand against the still strong afternoon sun. ‘The sign says it’s, let’s see, an hour’s round trip to Shoebury.’

Kitty went to say something, but Tibs got in first. ‘An hour’s too long.’

‘Well,’ he suggested, casting around for what other attractions had caught his eye. ‘Let’s go on the pier instead. We could go on that Electric Tram ride. That only takes five minutes. Or we could have a stroll along the lower deck and watch the fishermen. Or even have a look at the Pavilion. See what sort of show they’ve got on.’

‘Look, Jack. It’s been a long day. Polly’ll be getting fretful.’

Jack looked at Kitty, who shrugged for want of a better comment to make. ‘Maybe we’d better be getting home,’ he said. ‘But before we do, let’s round it all off with a nice shrimp-and-winkle tea.’

‘Maybe,’ muttered Tibs, tempted by the idea. ‘It’d be a shame to go home without a bit of shellfish.’

‘That’s what I said to Archie,’ Jack said, encouraging him with a smile. ‘And you went off to find a good one for us while we were in the sea, didn’t you?

‘That’s right, I found a really good place.’

‘Well, it had better not be too dear,’ sniffed Tibs.

‘I’m glad Tibs asked us to come back on this earlier boat,’ said Jack, leaning on the rail next to Kitty. ‘I’m as whacked out as young Polly.’ He looked along the rows of people either side of them, all standing admiring the glorious colours of the setting sun. ‘And we’d have missed this smashing view if we’d have caught the later one.’

‘Jack,’ said Kitty quietly. ‘Where’s Archie?’

He laughed fondly. ‘Having his hair cut if you can believe it. I just hope the boat don’t start rocking or he’ll wind up looking like a convict.’ He took out a cigarette and took his time trying to light it against the breeze. ‘I was disappointed Tibs didn’t want her picture done with him.’

‘Were you?’

So Jack had noticed how Tibs was behaving towards him as well.

‘I was. It would have been a good excuse to have had one done with you.’

Kitty felt herself colour. ‘I’d have liked that,’ she said quietly.

Jack grinned and flicked the spent match over the side and into the water. He turned to face her. Maybe he could risk just a little peck on the cheek.

‘Jack,’ she said.

‘Yes, Kit.’

‘While Tibs is taking Polly to the you-know-where …’

‘Yes?’

‘Will you tell me something?’

This was getting promising. ‘You name it, lass.’

‘Have you noticed anything sort of, well, strange about Tibs lately?’

Bugger! ‘Well, she does seem a bit on edge. But I suppose it’s having young Polly with her. Having to make up for all that time they lost together: We all waste too much time in our lives.’ He lifted his chin towards the horizon and blew a plume of smoke into the air. ‘I mean, just look at that sky. It’s beautiful. But how often do we bother to look at the sunset? To look up at the sky when we’re walking along the street.’

‘If we all did that,’ said Tibs, who had just come up behind him, ‘we’d wind up stepping in great steaming piles of horse shit.’

There wasn’t much that either Jack or Kitty felt they could say in reply to that, so they just stood there, looking awkwardly about them.

It was with relief that Jack saw Archie appear among the crowds.

‘Well, Archibald,’ Jack said, flicking his cigarette butt the same way as the match. ‘That is a very smart haircut.’

‘Glad you like it,’ said Archie, then he leaned forward and said to Polly, ‘Did you like them sugar mice I got you?’

She nodded enthusiastically.

‘And do you like liquorice comfits?’ he asked. ‘And bull’s-eyes?’

Polly’s eyes widened at the thought of these new delights. ‘I don’t know.’

Archie looked at Tibs for permission to take her to buy them.