Secrets to Keep

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE





‘It’s a job, Gran, and that’s what matters.’

‘Yes, love, it is, and not to be sneezed at. But the hospital laundry! You’re worth more that.’

‘Gran, the couple of ward orderly jobs had a queue of people going for them. Someone who’s been an orderly before will get set on over me. And I can’t hang around another week, waiting to hear if I’ve been successful or not, and then find out I haven’t and lose another week’s pay. If it hadn’t been for Ruth stumping up all her wage packet to help us last week, I dread to think …

‘Anyway, it doesn’t mean to say I can’t still be on the look out for something else while I’m working at the laundry, does it? I start tomorrow morning at seven. The pay is ten shillings a week less than what I was getting at the surgery, so things are going to be tighter than usual.’

Aidy was in fact very worried about their future finances. That ten shillings a week less was the difference between having a pint of milk a day or eking it out over two days, making half a bag of coal last a week instead of three bags, turning the gas mantles down to their lowest and, after the kids went to bed, turning them off altogether and using only one candle. Meat in any guise would be a distant memory. Having to beg from the parish for clothes and shoes was a possibility.

Ruth had been sitting very quietly, listening to what was being said. She knew Aidy was worried about her cut in pay and how she was going to make what she did get go around, and Ruth’s own recent contribution wasn’t being taken into consideration since they thought that at any time she could announce she had found a place of her own and was moving out. Little did Aidy and Bertha know that Ruth herself felt so comfortable being a part of this family, she wasn’t even looking for a place, and until it was made clear to her that she had outstayed her welcome, she had no plans to. But she had had an idea for how the family’s income could be improved. It had come to her a few days ago and, after thinking about it to make sure it was workable, she was ready to impart it.

‘Could I just have a word before you go through to make a start on the dinner, Aidy dear? You see, I might have an idea for how you can improve your finances.’ That statement had Aidy sitting back down again, and she and Bertha were both looking at Ruth enquiringly. ‘Of course, a shop would be ideal though that is out of the question at the moment for obvious reasons, but we could turn the front room into one … I really have no objection to sleeping on the flock in the recess in here for this to go ahead. I’ve noticed several people around here have turned their parlours into shops. There’s a lady in Denton Street who cuts hair in hers. A lady in the street behind sells sweets; another wools and haberdashery. All we would need is some shelves put up, and the dining table could be used as a sort of counter and for displaying the goods on as well.’ She eyed them both eagerly. ‘So what do you both think of the idea?’

‘Sounds a grand idea to me,’ Aidy said enthusiastically.

‘And me too,’ said Bertha.

‘Just one question, though,’ said Aidy.

‘The same one I’m going to ask, I expect,’ said Bertha.

‘Oh, and what’s that?’ asked Ruth.

‘What are you proposing we sell?’ Bertha queried.

Ruth smiled. ‘Oh, didn’t I make that clear? Your remedies, Bertha dear.’

They both stared at her agog.

‘Do I take it you think my idea a good one then?’ she asked them.

She did not get an answer. A loud and very urgent hammering began on the back door and shouts of: ‘Aidy! Bertha! Come quick!’

Aidy reached the door first, and yanked it open to be greeted by a frenzied Ava Charman, mother of one of George’s friends, who lived in the street behind them.

Before Aidy, Bertha or Ruth could ask what the urgency was, Ava blurted, ‘It’s the old factory! Apparently a wall’s collapsed. One of the boys that was in there got out, and according to the lad, your George and my boy were amongst the kids still inside that ain’t come out. I’m on me way now but I didn’t know whether you’d heard …’

Aidy’s coat was already off the back of the door and she was pulling it on. Ruth had run off to get her nurse’s bag from her makeshift bedroom in the parlour.

Aidy ordered Bertha, ‘Gran, you stay here. Marion is next door so she’s safe.’ Then, with fear in her eyes, she demanded, ‘Where did Betty go off to when she went out earlier, do you know?’

Face ashen, Bertha helplessly shrugged. ‘Sometimes she goes to a friend’s house. Sometimes she plays with other gels, skipping and hopscotch and whatnot, in the jetty. But sometimes … well, they all play together, girls and boys, so she could … Oh, Aidy, she could be with George, trapped inside the factory!’

Ruth, her coat on and carrying her bag, had returned by now. Aidy grabbed her arm and pulled her outside to join Ava Charman. Without a word passed between them they ran off in the direction of the disused factory.

As they rounded a corner and the factory came into sight, they all stopped abruptly to stare at it in shock. The evening was a dark one, the only light coming from two flickering gas lamps to the front of the building and from a three-quarter moon in a cloudless sky. The rest of the dilapidated building was still standing but one of the gabled walls was gone, the bricks now lying in a huge mound on the ground and scattered round about. A section of the roof had come down too, taking part of the second floor with it.

Aidy gasped, horror-stricken. Her brother was possibly under that mound of bricks, her sister too. She just had to hope and pray, with every ounce of her being, that they had been playing on the other side of the factory when the collapse had happened.

She noticed no one was standing beside her and looked down to see that Ava had collapsed in shock in a dead faint. Ruth was kneeling over, administering first aid.

A lone policeman was standing guard in front of the building. Plenty of people seemed to be milling around, talking amongst themselves, but no one seemed to be doing anything by way of searching for survivors. Aidy dashed up to a group of people, demanding, ‘Is anyone in the building yet, searching for the kids who might have been playing there when the wall went down? Has anyone fetched the doctor in case … in case?’ She could not bring herself to say in case he was needed to deal with the injured.

She was told, ‘Copper said he’d been instructed not to let anyone in the building until the others arrive and decide what’s to be done. They shouldn’t be long. I thought I saw the doctor arrive a few minutes ago but I can’t see him around now …

‘I was the one who first raised the alarm. I was just about to pass by the factory on me way home from work when, without warning, the far wall suddenly came down. Just like someone had stuck a stick of dynamite under it and blown it up. I ain’t never seen so much dust. Look at me, I’m covered in it. And then part of the roof and second floor came down almost straight after. Bloody place has been a death trap for years. It should have been bulldozed to the ground long ago. Anyway, it ain’t safe in there, that’s why no one’s gone inside yet until the police set up a search party. Someone else said there could possibly be some kids in there. Well, if they were still able they’d have come out by now, so if there are any in there, it don’t look good for ’em, does it?’

Aidy was barely listening. She couldn’t stand here, knowing her brother or sister or some other poor children were trapped and frightened and needing help. She rushed back to Ruth, still trying to revive the unconscious Ava, and snatched up her nursing bag.

Ruth caught sight of this out of the corner of her eye and demanded, ‘What are you up to with my bag, Aidy?’

‘I might need it, Ruth. I can’t wait around for the Cavalry to arrive when my brother and sister could be in there needing help. I’m going inside to look for them.’

In the far-off distance the clamour of a police siren could be heard.

Ruth cried, ‘No, wait, Aidy! That’s the police on their …’

Her words fell on deaf ears. Aidy was already running off towards the ruined building, her mind racing as she weighed up the best way to get inside.

She mustn’t let the policeman on guard see her or he’d stop her. To make her way inside by clambering over the mound of bricks could prove counterproductive as they were loose and, should anyone be trapped under them, she could cause further hurt. The double door at the front was chained and padlocked shut, so that was out. The glass in the windows at the front was all broken and jagged. She’d cut herself to ribbons getting in that way … besides, she couldn’t do it without the policeman on guard seeing her. Then she realised that the children had to have been able to get in somehow. Hopefully their access point was through a door or window in the gabled wall still standing and not the one that had collapsed.

Making her way to the left side of the building, when the policeman was looking the other way, Aidy kicked up her heels and darted down the path that ran the length of the building on this side. It was choked with weeds and muddy underfoot. In no time her only pair of shoes was clogged with mud and sharp brambles were ripping her stockings to shreds and scratching her legs, but she didn’t care, too set on finding a way inside and safely locating her brother and sister.

Surely the building couldn’t extend much further back, she thought. She seemed to have gone miles down this path, but in fact it was a dozen or so yards. The only light she had to guide her was the moon’s eerie glow and it was very difficult for her to see anything ahead. Then suddenly she came across it. A door in the wall, hanging open. This must be where the children got in.

Aidy gingerly walked through it. Once inside she stopped to take stock of her surroundings. It was almost pitch black as she had no moonlight in here to help her. Across a wide expanse of floor she could make out the dark sky, some stars twinkling where The wall used to be. All around her objects of different shapes and sizes loomed eerily. If she had been expecting a huge bare room and the children to be sitting safely in the middle, waiting patiently for her to arrive, then she was disappointed.

Where did she begin her search? Then the obvious struck her. Why not call out and see if she got any response? Taking a deep breath, she hollered at the top of her voice: ‘George! Betty! Anyone else here?’ And she repeated her call again. Then she listened.

Her heart raced. She felt sure she heard a muffled, ‘Over here.’

She hollered again, ‘Did someone shout out?’

A muffled voice came back. ‘Yes. Over here. And hurry!’

The voice seemed to have come from somewhere towards the middle of the room but below her, which didn’t make sense to Aidy. She was worried, though, as although the voice had been muffled, she could tell it had belonged to an adult male, not a child.

Outside the sound of a police siren nearing the factory could be heard. Better late than never, she thought.

Tentatively, with eyes now accustomed to the dark, she picked her way around and over objects like old discarded tin drums, work trolleys, beams from the ceiling … and what was this? … an old rusting mangle minus its rollers. Obviously people had been dumping their rubbish in here. Along with the objects, she began to come across scattered bricks from the fallen wall. She stopped short at the sound of a loud groan and a cracking sound coming from nearby. It was apparent to Aidy that the rest of the building wouldn’t be standing for much longer.

A few yards further on she stopped and hollered again, ‘Am I near you yet?’

The muffled voice, a bit clearer to her now, called back, ‘A bit further in! Be careful to look for a hole in the floor.’

‘Are you near the hole in the floor?’ she hollered.

‘We’re down it,’ came the answer.

Whoever it was, they were down in the basement of the building!

‘Keep calling to me and I’ll head towards your voice,’ Aidy shouted out.

To the continued call of … this way … this way … this way … she headed in the direction of the voice, being careful to avoid any obstacles and look out for the hole in the floor.

Then she came upon it. She had expected a perfectly round hole, for some reason, but this had jagged edges and was about the size of the kitchen table. She got on her knees, inched her way gingerly to the side and peered down. She hadn’t expected to see anything so was shocked to find a candle lighting the space below, which looked like it had once been a small store room as in the corner were stacked several old tea chests and a couple of discarded office items. Four faces were visible, ghost-like in the flickering candlelight bouncing off them. Two faces in particular caused her a sigh of relief. ‘George … Betty! You’re alive. Oh, thank God.’

George shouted back, ‘I told the doctor yer’d come looking for us soon as you heard what’s happened, and I was right.’

Doc! Her eyes met those of her previous employer. So that was where the candle had come from. Doctors always carried them in case they needed light in an emergency.

Before she had a chance to ask how come he was in there with the children or why in fact the children had come to be in the basement, Ty shouted up to her in a commanding tone, ‘We need to get these children out of here quickly before any more of the building comes down. This is a small room we’re in and the door is jammed solid. We can’t get out that way. There’s no other way out of here except back through the ceiling – the way we fell in.’

The sound of the police siren was much louder. Their arrival could be only moments away.

‘I’ll go and fetch help,’ Aidy told him.

There was a loud groaning noise from above, and nearby a crash resounded. Another part of the roof had come down nearby.

‘There’s no time for that,’ Ty cried back. ‘One of the boys has broken his leg and is in danger of going into shock. We need to get him out first. I’ve given him a dose of laudanum so he can’t feel much at the moment and he’s pretty dopey.’

That was when Aidy fully took in the scene below, or as much as the flickering candlelight would allow. She could make out that George, a gash on his cheek caked in drying blood, was sitting on the floor with Ava’s son Brian’s head in his lap. A battered-looking Betty crouched to one side, holding the boy’s hand. The boy himself was limp and still, his eyes shut. Ty had fashioned a very crude splint on his right leg from two bits of discarded wood and a bandage from his black bag, which lay open to one side of him. Blood was seeping through the bandage.

While she had been taking in the scene, Ty had already dragged three of the empty chests from the corner of the room and put them under the hole, two side by side and the other on top. While she watched, he clambered up on the top box and tested it for strength. Seeming satisfied it would hold his weight, he jumped down to gather the half-comatose child in his arms, then lifted him high enough to gently place him on the top tea chest.

Aidy knew what Ty was expecting her to do. Dropping the nurse’s bag she was holding to one side of the hole, she lay down then swung her top half so that it projected over the void beneath. She just hoped the edge didn’t give way under her.

Meanwhile Ty had clambered back up on the tea chest, balanced himself on it, bent down and tentatively lifted the boy up in his arms. The action caused the tea chest to wobble and she could hear the wood crack.

Aidy gasped, fearing the chest, or one of the two below it, was about to give way under the weight it was supporting. It seemed to be holding. Taking a deep breath, Ty heaved the limp child up in his arms as far as he could above his head, crying to Aidy, ‘Grab him, quickly. I can’t hold him up for long …’

Aidy reached down as far as she could, her aim being to grab hold of the waistband of the boy’s trousers and haul him up. But it was just out of her grasp. Hurriedly she inched her way a little further over the hole, mindful that if she wasn’t careful she could topple over into it, and mindful too that Ty’s strength must be giving out. She reached down again. This time she did manage to grab hold of the boy’s waistband, and with a strength she didn’t realise she had, heaved him up with all her might.

As she pulled him through the hole, a jagged piece of wood pierced the boy’s thigh and broke off as she pulled him clear, to virtually throw him down on the solid floor beside her, leaving a piece at least two inches long protruding from his leg. Thankfully the dose of laudanum the doctor had given him had rendered him unable to feel the pain of his new injury or from his broken leg.

Aidy looked back down the hole to see that Ty now had Betty in his arms. Once he saw she was ready to receive another child, he heaved her up to stand on his shoulders. With Ty’s arms clamped around her legs, Betty stretched up her arms to her sister. Reaching down, Aidy grabbed hold of her hands and heaved her up so the child could grab her shoulders then pull herself up from there.

Next came George. With him being the heaviest of the three, it took her every ounce of her strength to heave him up through the hole. Aidy pretended not to notice as he was coming through that the edge of the floor she was lying on was moving beneath her and she heard the sound of breaking wood.

As George cleared the hole enough to scramble the rest of the way out himself, she ordered him and Betty to drag Brian further away from the hole.

Then, coming from across the other side of the building where she had come in, she heard a shout. ‘Anyone there?’

‘Over here!’ she hollered.

As they were dragging Brian away from the hole, George and Betty both bellowed over to the rescue party in unison, ‘Over here!’

A loud rumbling sound came from above. Aidy’s heart was hammering. The whole building was going to come down any minute … She looked back down into the hole and cried urgently to Ty, who had now clambered off the chests and back on to firm ground: ‘You next, Doc, come on.’ To stress her point, she reached down her arms to him.

He called back up, ‘I’m too much for you to lift. You’ll never manage. I’ll have to wait for the men to arrive and pull me out.’

The rumbling from above resounded again.

Aidy flashed a look to where the children were and, to her relief, saw that three policemen had reached them. Each had one of the children in his arms and was hurrying off.

There was a rending sound above her.

She looked back down the hole and cried, ‘There’s no time to wait, Doc. I’m sure the main roof is about to come down. Come on, we’ve got to give it a …’

Her voice trailed off as, with a shriek of timber, a roof beam fell in. At the same time, the weakened floor beneath her gave way and Aidy felt herself falling, letting out a scream of shock as she plummeted down the hole.