JOE AND NELLY A World War Two ghost story
CHAPTER 15

Joe hugged the plane against his chest. He searched in between and behind gravestones, and peered around the church walls. Was Nelly really gone or was she just hiding? He turned to walk back to the gate and there was Granddad. He ran to him, holding out the plane.

‘I see that you’ve found what you were looking for,’ said Granddad, with a wink.

Tucked under his arm was a battered, rusty, red and green Crawford’s shortbread tin.

‘Where did you get that from?’ Joe asked.

‘You weren’t the only one to visit the bomb site,’ Granddad replied. ’I was right behind you, every day, watching as you searched for your toys. At first, when I saw a second shadow nearby, I was bewildered – couldn’t work out what it could be – I thought it was a trick of the light. After you told me about Nelly, I realised it was her shadow, always following you around as you searched. So one day, on the off-chance, I did a bit of digging myself.

‘So it was you who found the plane!’

‘With a little bit of help from Nelly’s shadow,’ said Grandad. ’She knew where it was all long.’

Joe and Granddad rushed to catch up with Nan and Auntie Margaret. Nobody spoke. What was there to say? As they got closer to The Old Kent Road, Nan reminded them that it was well past dinner time.

‘I’m not really hungry,’ Joe said.

‘You may not have much of an appetite,’ said Nan, ‘but I’m not letting you go without any dinner. It’s a good job I keep my ration book in my handbag.’

Auntie Margaret had her ration book too; they stopped at the corner shop and bought a pig’s liver and some rashers of bacon. Nan had plenty of potatoes and onions left over from their visit to Mr Kemsley, as well as some runner beans.

Back at home, it wasn’t long before the aroma of liver, bacon and Nan’s special onion gravy wafted out of the back door to the little wall by the outhouse, where Joe sat with Granddad. Joe polished his plane with one of Nan’s dusters while Granddad puffed on his pipe.

‘What are you going to do now that Nelly’s gone?’ asked Granddad.

‘I don’t know,’ replied Joe. ‘I’m sad that I’ve lost her again but happy that she’s with her mum and dad. One thing that I have got to look forward to is school. I’ll be going to a different one in September. Will you test me on my tables and spellings?’

‘I don’t mind testing you, Joe,’ said Granddad, ’but I should imagine that some of your mates will be back by August. ‘You’ll be down at the park and kicking a ball about with them before you know it. Don’t worry about school. You’ve got books and comics to read, a collection of model planes and a tin full of toy soldiers, as well as your marbles.’ Granddad smiled. ‘And you don’t want to lose your marbles again.’

‘The marbles remind me of Nelly,’ Joe said. ‘She found the first one, my champion with the purple and red swirl. I can’t believe I won’t see her again.’

Granddad tried to cheer Joe up by challenging him to a game of marbles. He drew a circle with a piece of chalk and in the centre he made an ‘X’ with the kimmies. They shared out the rest of the marbles evenly but agreed that they wouldn’t be playing for keepsies. They stayed in the back yard all afternoon, marbles glittering in the July sun, only stopping once for a cup of tea and a plate of broken biscuits. Joe even forgot to sit on the stairs to wait for Mum. By the time she came home, Joe had beaten Granddad at every game, helped Nan lay the table and was sitting by the wireless, listening to the news. But there was nothing new from Belgium.

The high point of the evening was another chapter of Swallows and Amazons before going to sleep. They were reading it at such a pace, taking turns to read a chapter each, that Mum asked Joe to choose another one to read next. He took out the pile of books and considered the covers, turning them over, reading the first and last pages. He couldn’t make his mind up. It was a toss-up between The Sword in the Stone, all about Merlin and Arthur before he became king, and The Midnight Folk by John Masefield. In the end, he let Mum choose.

The following day, Joe was thrilled to replace out that Grandad and Uncle Tom had planned a big surprise. They had bought cinema tickets to the early evening showing of Champagne Charlie with Tommy Trinder and Stanley Holloway. The whole gang went. The actors were big favourites with everyone, as they were both Londoners. Mum and Auntie Margaret were happy because the film was a musical and it was even more interesting because it was all about the old time music hall, where Nan had been a dancer long before she had Mum.

Joe, however, was mesmerised by the British Pathé newsreel. It showed General Eisenhower in France. The general looked distinguished in his peaked cap and smart uniform, smoking a cigarette with the troops, who looked happy to see him. But this news was from France; Joe was hoping to replace out more about what was happening in Belgium. There was another newsreel about ‘London under the flying bomb’ and the Doodlebug Express. Under the cover of cinema darkness, Joe sneaked a look at Granddad, hoping that he had forgotten about sending him away again.

All of a sudden, a huge gasp filled the cinema: an attempt had been made to assassinate Adolf Hitler. Joe watched the black and white pictures of the Fuehrer’s bombed headquarters and Hitler greeting Mussolini with an injured arm. There was so much excited speculation about what might happen next, that Joe had to strain to hear the main feature film.

On the way home, everyone talked over each other. They were hopeful that the war would come to an end soon and Joe was encouraged by the good mood they took home with them. But it didn’t last long. As they turned the final corner into Lovegrove Street, Joe spotted Uncle Bill waiting on the doorstep in his uniform. There was no smart red car parked outside and he didn’t have his kit bag. Nan and Granddad exchanged looks. As they approached the front door, Mum’s face grew pale.

Joe couldn’t understand why he was bundled up the stairs to bed when it was still light outside. He could hear voices downstairs. Nobody was crying, so Uncle Bill couldn’t have brought bad news. Joe struggled to settle down. He waited for ages for Mum but she didn’t come to bed, so he got out and crept across the landing to the top of the stairs.

He strained to hear the hushed voices through the parlour door. He heard the word ‘injuries’ a few times and then he clearly heard Granddad say, ‘I know it’s taken our minds off things, but I’m so glad the Nelly situation has been resolved.’

‘But it hasn’t really,’ said Nan. ‘We may have found her body but we still don’t know why Harry and Rose locked her out of the house.’

Mum said, ‘They didn’t lock her out.’

Everything went silent for a while.

‘How do you know?’ asked Nan.

‘I feel responsible, in a way,’ said Mum. ‘I was so angry with Rose for keeping Nelly in London when she had the opportunity to be evacuated to Wales with Joe. Harry wanted her to go and they rowed about it enough. I tried to persuade her – we argued about it right up to the day they were due to leave and I was furious with the stunt she pulled.’

‘What stunt?’

‘She faked Nelly’s suspected scarlet fever by strapping a hot water bottle to her underneath the layers of spare clothes she was wearing and painting on a few red spots.’

Joe couldn’t believe it – so that was why Nelly didn’t get on the train.

Mum continued. ’I kept my mouth shut but Rose and I fell out over it and we never spoke again. Harry couldn’t understand why our friendship ended. On the morning of the explosion, I went out to the garden to hang a few bits on the line. I saw Harry by their back door with his tool box. I asked him what he was doing and he said that he was about to fix the faulty catch on their back door – Rose had locked herself out the day before and he’d promised to get it done while she was out with Nelly.

We got talking about the children. He asked how Joe was getting on and I let it slip – I told him about the hot water bottle. He just went pale, packed up his tools and that was the last I saw of him. I feel so guilty.’

‘You mean, he never actually fixed the door?’

‘Yes. When Nelly shut the door that day, it was the faulty catch that locked her out.’

Granddad said, ‘Harry must have realised and gone back in. His body was found inside the back door.’

Silence fell again. Joe pictured Nelly with her bird birthmark, rattling the handle on the back door....

When Granddad went upstairs to sort out some bedding to make up the settee for Uncle Bill, he found Joe fast asleep on the half-way stair. He carried him back up to the bedroom and sat on the edge of the bed, watching his chest rise and fall.