Forget-Me-Not Child. Anne Bennett

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СКАЧАТЬ glad of her lightening the atmosphere, even slightly, for the whole family had seemed steeped in misery, and it was hard to leave them like that, but they had a boat to catch. Mary stood on the pavement and waved till they turned down Bristol Street and so were out of sight. Then she came in, gave a sigh, plopped in a chair and burst into tears, wiping her eyes with her apron.

      Finbarr and Colm’s departure had left a gaping hole in the family and they maybe were aware of that but they certainly knew how their mother would worry and so they wrote a letter while on the ship just saying that they were well and quite excited and on course for America. They hadn’t expected to be able to do that but it was a practice on some ships to encourage it, even providing the paper, envelopes and pens, since it was known it helped homesickness for many of the passengers, at least in steerage or third class, who were often not there through choice but forced through poverty and unemployment to make for the Brave New World.

      The next letter came after they had met up with Frankie and his uncle and were taken to share a bedroom in Aiden’s quite sizeable home. Finbarr wrote:

       Before we came to America we had to go to a place called Ellis Island to see if we were free from disease. We were prodded and poked and examined and in the end the doctor said I was fit enough but needed more flesh on my bones. Colm was told the same and we were mighty glad because if you fail that medical you’re sent back. We were asked questions, general knowledge sort of thing, and an account of why we have come to America and we found the Christian Brothers had beat enough knowledge into us for us to be able to give a good enough account of ourselves.

      Colm wrote:

       From Ellis Island you can see the New York skyline and all the skyscrapers some of the fellows on the ship had told us about. What a sight it was. And dominating the waterfront was the huge Statue of Liberty. Liberty that burns in the heart of every Irish man. This is truly the land of the Free and neither of us can wait to experience that.

      ‘They seem happy enough anyway,’ Matt said. ‘So far at least.’

      And they continued to be fine as they described the long straight streets of New York that had numbers instead of names and the shops and the buildings that towered above them till you could almost feel they were actually scraping the sky. They described the tramcars and the trains that run underground that the Americans called the subway and they talked of the job they did building motor cars.

      Mary wished they wouldn’t write in such glowing terms of the great life they were leading for she saw the same restlessness in her two younger sons, which intensified when Gerry finished his apprenticeship in 1909 and was immediately laid off. Angela knew that Mary was worried they would want to follow their brothers to America, but she also knew how tight the financial budget was. Maybe if she got a job and could contribute a bit and things were a little easier they would stay.

      In 1910 Angela would be fourteen and could leave school but as her birthday was in early April it was after Easter before she could leave school and only then if she had a job to go to, otherwise she had to stay until July. From the experience her brothers had had she knew any job might be difficult to find.

      ‘I don’t like the thought of you in a factory anyway,’ Mary said in early March.

      ‘Mammy, I don’t think I can be that fussy,’ Angela said. ‘Think of the way Finbarr and Colm searched for employment and they were willing to do anything and in the end they had to go to America to get a good job. Maybe,’ she added with a grin at Mary, ‘I should try that too?’

      ‘Don’t even joke about that,’ Mary said. ‘We’ll keep looking. There must be something and we have got time yet.’

      It was Norah who told her about the vacancy at George Maitland’s grocery shop. It was a little out of the way for them, but she had gone visiting an old neighbour who had moved there and seen the card in the window.

      ‘People around said he had a boy helping him but he caught rheumatic fever. They did think at one time the boy wasn’t going to make it but when it was obvious he was going to recover George Maitland didn’t advertise his position in case he wanted to come back to work, so my friend said. She said, “He’s a decent sort that way, George.” He even had his crabbed wife to help him a time or two but she insulted more than she served, my friend said, and if she was more in the shop in general and not just when he was short handed people would go elsewhere for their groceries.’

      Angela wrinkled her nose. ‘She doesn’t sound very nice. But if the boy is recovering, I don’t see why he’s advertising now for someone new.’

      ‘That’s it,’ Norah said. ‘Apparently he is as well as he ever will be, but he’s left with a weak heart and the doctor said the work in the shop is too strenuous for him, so as he can’t go back there’s a vacancy. Do you know the shop I’m talking about?’

      Angela nodded, ‘I’ll go up tomorrow.’

      ‘What about school?’ Mary asked.

      ‘I think this is more important,’ Angela said. ‘Jobs are snapped up these days and it’s nearly holidays anyway and if I secure this job my school days are numbered and I’ll be earning money almost straight away.’

      Mary couldn’t argue with that. ‘I think you do right. We’ll sort out the school later and I hope you get it.’

      So early the next morning George Maitland turned as the bell tinkled and saw one of the most beautiful girls he had ever seen standing in his shop. She had white-blonde hair and the most vivid blue eyes and when she smiled at him it was as if someone had turned a light on inside her.

      Angela in her turn saw an oldish man in his late fifties, if she had to hazard a guess. He had a pleasant face rather than a handsome one for he had a large nose and a wide and generous mouth set in slightly sallow skin. He had plenty of hair but it was a bit like pepper and salt in colour and matched his big, bushy eyebrows. Beneath those eyebrows were the softest kindest eyes she had seen in a long time and he said, ‘Can I help you?’

      ‘Yes, please,’ Angela said. ‘I’ve come about the ad.’

      ‘The ad?’

      ‘Yes it’s in the window,’ Angela said. ‘About a shop assistant.’

      ‘You want to work in the shop?’ George said. He had never thought about employing a girl before but there was no rule against it and he realized he would like to see that pleasant and attractive face every day.

      ‘It’s five and a half days a week,’ he said. ‘All day Saturday and half day Wednesday, that all right?’

      ‘That’s fine, sir,’ Angela said, hardly daring to believe that this man was going to employ her. She could go home and put a smile on Mary’s face, because it was nearly the holidays so she could start work straight away. ‘Thank you, sir,’ she added and wondered if it was bad form to ask about wages. She needed to know, but wouldn’t like to scupper her chances.

      George wondered if she knew how expressive her face was. He was surprised she hadn’t asked straight away what she was to be paid when he told her the hours she would be working, but knew from her face she was working up to do it now.

      And so he forestalled her. ‘And the wages are ten and six a week,’ he said, knowing if he had employed a boy he would have started him on twelve and six.

      However, Angela didn’t know that and ten shillings and sixpence СКАЧАТЬ