A New Dream by Maggie Ford (world of reading .TXT) 📕

Julia smiled. Of course she wouldn’t attack Virginia. She’d secured the filing clerk’s vacancy after all. The pay wasn’t all that good, even for a junior, but it was something. James wasn’t allowing himself to be put down either. At this moment he was out searching for work, as he did every day. He’d had several opportunities but nothing so far had come of them.

Julia wanted to shout back, ‘At least he’s not giving up!’ but held her tongue. There was no point in further upsetting her mother who sat with one hand to her brow.

But the petulant voice continued, ‘And living here is like living in hell! The weather’s so hot and I can’t even have the window open because of the traffic noise!’

When there was no response from her sister she kept quiet, leaving Julia to sigh at the memory of the lovely peaceful road they’d had to move away from. The shared bedroom in the flat overlooked Bethnal Green Road and was constantly invaded by noise. As well as cars and lorries, they could hear the occasional clip-clop of the few remaining horse-drawn vans and carts delivering coal, milk and bread, and the voices of people shopping. She understood Stephanie’s frustration for she too was frustrated by it. She had always enjoyed shopping in busy streets, especially the West End, but having to endure the constant sounds of busy shoppers and street traders below one’s own windows was maddening. Of course, she acknowledged, she was frequently one of them herself these days.

To get to the Bethnal Green Road shops meant going down the narrow alleyway beside the haberdasher’s shop underneath their flat. The alley was usually cluttered with cardboard boxes and other rubbish from the second-hand shop on the other side of it. She hated that dingy alleyway as much as she did having to pass the first shop before the main road, also dark and dingy, with windows that looked as if they hadn’t been washed for years.

A musty odour issued from its doorway, the interior so dark against the outside daylight that, if she did glance in, she could see nothing but the dim shapes of one or two people seemingly in deep conversation. She’d never seen anyone who looked as if they might be a ‘real’ customer enter or leave. What did the shop sell? The only merchandise displayed in the two small, grubby windows consisted of dated, cheap and showy jewellery and a few items of clothing that appeared to be stage costumes; nothing to attract an ordinary shopper’s gaze. She’d never yet set eyes on the owner nor wanted to. In fact the place gave her the shudders as she hurried by.

Another two weeks passed. James at last found a job in a bank, with prospects of being promoted to a junior clerk if he did well. Julia would have rejoiced if Stephanie had been as successful. But Stephanie continued to linger about the flat moaning that everything she’d been offered was too lowly to accept and that Julia had no right to complain when she had done nothing herself to find employment.

Most of her time seemed to be spent lolling on the bed she shared with Julia, reading love stories in cheap books and magazines which Julia knew her mother was paying for from the little she still had left of her own money.

‘You shouldn’t indulge her,’ Julia finally told Victoria one Monday morning after she’d noticed a couple of coins being furtively passed from mother to daughter.

Victoria shrugged. ‘That’s what mothers are for, dear, to make their children feel loved and indulged every once in a while.’

Julia smiled tolerantly. ‘Mothers are meant to guide their children not give way to them.’

‘It’s hard on her.’

‘It’s hard on all of us, but we’ve got to get used to it.’ Any second she expected a query as to why she herself was doing nothing about helping towards the family income. Her mother had stayed silent so far, but Julia knew she was probably thinking along the same lines as Stephanie.

She knew they had a point. Soon she’d have to do something about the material she had salvaged before it became an even greater source of irritation to those trying to relax in one small room of an evening. James usually went to his own room, in search of solitude. Neither was their mother ever long out of bed, glad to retire and forget her circumstances, usually quickly followed by Virginia, eager to cuddle up to her.

Left alone, more often than not she and Stephanie ended up picking over the old sore of joblessness, needling each other in whispers until they too were glad of bed and, with backs to each other, sought the solace of sleep. It certainly wasn’t the best of existences, leaving her constantly pining for the old days.

This morning, on her way to the bakers around the corner in Bethnal Green Road, she was still thinking of their life and all the problems it was presenting, trying to console herself that many were far worse off with this new wave of unemployment. At least for her family there was still some money left from their better days – if they went carefully.

Emerging from the alleyway, Julia as always quickened her pace past the shop downstairs but to her dismay she saw the door open and a young man emerge. Before she could look away he smiled at her and nodded.

‘Good morning.’

Good manners demanded that she return the nod and she mumbled a response, immediately prompting him to step clear of the door. ‘You’re a member of the family who’ve recently moved into the top flat,’ he stated.

His voice held no trace of the Cockney accent she had come to expect in this area. Instead he spoke very well. ‘I’ve noticed you passing on several occasions. How are you finding it up there?’

There was no chance now to hurry on by. No matter how much she