A Sister's War by Molly Green (the reading strategies book txt) 📕

all allow me to carry on—’ Dora Dummitt took a mouthful of tea and spluttered.

‘What the hell—?’ She rushed to the hand bowl and with a horrible retching, spat it out. She spun round to Ronnie, her eyes streaming with tears. ‘What did you put in my tea, miss?’

‘Two teaspoons of sugar, like you asked.’

‘Show me,’ Dora demanded.

Ronnie picked up a small dish.

‘That’s SALT!’ Dora practically screamed. ‘You stupid girl.’

‘I’m awfully sorry,’ Ronnie said, looking contrite. ‘I don’t know how it could have happened, but it was difficult to see what I was doing in this light.’

‘Well, see it don’t happen again.’ Dora flung the contents of the mug in the hand bowl. The girls silently watched as Dora poured some water from the kettle into the mug and swished it round before taking up the teapot. She turned and glared at Ronnie. ‘If yer can’t see, stick yer finger in the bowl and taste it next time, ter be sure.’

Ronnie hid a smile. That was exactly what she had done.

Chapter Six

Wearily, Ronnie followed the other trainees as they climbed up the cabin steps and onto the dry dock to listen to Dora issuing more instructions. If anything, it was raining even harder now. Ronnie turned the collar up of her still wet raincoat as far as it would go, but heavy drops remorselessly found their way inside and dripped down her neck. Dora didn’t seem to mind that she, too, was getting soaked.

The old bat is probably used to it, Ronnie thought. She probably doesn’t even notice.

‘The boats have the same blackout rules as cars and buses, so always pull the curtains over yer portholes at night,’ Dora was saying. ‘And in winter when we’re workin’ we have ter learn ter see in the dark. The headlight on the front of the boat – always make sure the dynamo’s charged the battery. We need all the light we can get through the tunnels … and we get quite a few of ’em,’ Dora added with a malicious laugh. ‘So where were we? Oh, yes. The locks. We’ll go through the procedure once more, and then again, until everyone feels they can be trusted ter work one theirselves.’

Ronnie thought the day would never come to an end. She was frozen and her stomach was rolling from only the tea and a cheese sandwich from the canteen at noon, the cheese so thinly sliced she could hardly taste it. How could Miss Dummitt possibly show them anything more in the pouring rain?

‘All right, that’s enough ’til mornin’,’ Dora said, making Ronnie jump. ‘Weather should be drier then. We’ll call it a day as it’s yer first one and if no one objects, we’ll get a fish ’n’ chip supper as I don’t suppose anyone feels like cookin’. I’ll pay in one go and yer can all pay me back termorrer when yer can see inside yer purses.’

There was a delighted murmur of assent.

‘But first I’m goin’ ter show yer how ter light the fires,’ Dora said. ‘If we don’t do it before we leave, you’ll find out how cold it’ll be when we come back – enough ter freeze a bat’s balls off.’ She gave a throaty chuckle.

As soon as Ronnie stepped inside the fish and chip shop the fat-filled warm air from the two deep fryers greeted her. What a comforting smell! Even better were the tables set out with knives and forks on the wooden surface where a dozen people were already eating. She almost cried with relief that she would soon be eating a delicious meal. She took her place in the long queue, noticing Dora was at the front.

‘Salt and vinegar?’ the boy behind the counter asked when Ronnie finally moved to the front. He didn’t even look up but carried on filling another order.

‘Oh, yes, please,’ Ronnie said. ‘I’m with Dora Dummitt’s group.’

The boy glanced towards the table where Jessica and Angela were tipping their suppers onto large white plates. Dora was eating hers straight out of the newspaper. He nodded and tossed a piece of fish and a good shovelful of chips onto a thick white plate, shook some salt over the meal and dribbled vinegar on the chips.

‘There y’are, miss.’

Ronnie thanked him and joined the others.

‘We’ll eat first,’ Dora said, her mouth full of chips, ‘and then I want ter run through a few things while we’re all here together in the warm.’

For ten minutes there was very little chatter as each of them tucked into the fish and chips. Dora was the first to finish. She wiped a sleeve over her greasy mouth.

‘Right, you lot. I need ter go over the bed situation again for the next few weeks of trainin’. As yer know, there’s really only room to sleep two in the motor and the same goes for the butty, which yer now know is mainly used for carryin’ cargo. But while we’re trainin’ there’s just about room to put three of yous in each boat.’ She paused, a triumphant gleam in her eye. ‘There’s a small double foldin’ bed so two of yous’ll have ter get cosy in that – just pull it down from the cupboard next to the foldin’ table.’ She grinned. ‘The third one – choose the smallest of yous – sleeps on the long bench. Yer head goes in the open cupboard. Should be some pillows ’n’ all in there.’

Jessica grimaced.

‘Anything wrong, Jess?’ Dora pounced.

‘No, not at all,’ Jessica said quickly. ‘I was just wondering where you’ll sleep.’

‘Me?’ Dora pointed to herself with that grin again. ‘There’s barely room fer three, let alone four of us, in the boats, so I allus put up at the nearest pub. They all know me by now.’

Letting us all know how comfortable she’s going to be, Ronnie thought scornfully, even though it wouldn’t appeal to her at all to sleep over the top of some smoky pub. She’d prefer the boat any day of the week.

‘Termorrer we’ll have