Beowulf

cut them out of coloured paper and stuck them up in school with cardboard supports. If you poked a brick you were surprised that it did not crumple like a balloon. Even the bus seemed to have lost its authority; it came tearing down the empty road at the pace of a little car.
Ruby was the first to get on as it stopped. She pushed her way forward, for her favourite place was vacant, behind the driver. As she sat down, another woman in the next row looked up, greeted her, and came over to sit beside her in the neighbouring seat.
“Why, Mrs. Gates,” Ruby said joyfully, “I ’aven’t seen you for weeks! ’Ow are things your way, quiet?”
Mrs. Gates was as plump as Ruby was thin. She clasped her umbrella as if it were a steering wheel. The black fur circlet on her collar was thin and almost rubbed bare at the neckline.
“We didn’t ’ave no bombs, but we ’ad some gunfires. It’s a wonder we’re any of us alive.”
“It is!” Ruby spoke feelingly, groping for her coppers as the conductor came along. “Last week, it must ’ave been about seven. No, I mustn’t tell stories, it was not much after six. Anyway, Ed had come in but I was sitting on the floor under the table, for the noise was something terrible, when I ’eard a commotion. I wondered what they were ’ip ’ip ’ooraying about and I says to mee ’usband, somebody’s shouting at us. Go on, Mate, ’ee says, you’re getting nervous. I’m not, I says, there’s someone at the door. After a while ’ee gets up and opens it and there’s a bobby. ‘Pack up,’ the bobby says, quickly, ‘there’s a bomb in the next garden. ‘Urry and I’ll take you down to the Centre.’”
Mrs. Gates swayed her umbrella to and fro. “A bomb, Mrs. Clark, ’ow awful!”
“Yes, mee ’usband says, but what about mee tea? I’m not moving till I’ve ’ad a bite to eat. Mee ’usband’s not brave but ’ee’s not nervous like, being in the Navy the last war.”
“You didn’t wait, did you?”
“Yes, but the bobby didn’t. I’d got Ed a nice bit of cod, and ’ee ’ad that and two cups of tea. Come along, mee girl, ’ee says then, we’d better ’op it, but we didn’t go up to the Centre, we went to Middleton’s shelter at the top of the road.”
“And did the bomb explode?”
“No, we was lucky. They moved it the next day. Maybe it was the rain; it poured all night, for I kept waking up and ’earing it, though they do say water make century bombs worse.”
“Centuries?”
“Yes, them fire bombs.” They were both nearly jolted from their seats as the bus pulled up suddenly. “Got a new driver on the route today. Suppose they took the young ones for the Army?”
“They don’t care what they do to you, these days. Seems as if we none of us ’ad any rights. I’ve ’ad a bit of trouble meeself since I saw you last.” Mrs. Gates leaned back luxuriously, visibly happy to have found an audience on so long a trip.
“Oh, dear, nothing bad, I ’ope.” Ruby, having got her own story over, wedged her bag at the side and settled down to listen. She liked to have a bit of gossip to tell Ed over supper in the evening.
“I ’ad a slight operation like, at the ’ospital.”
“And you was looking so well in the summer!” There it was, Ruby thought, what was to happen, happened; you could not dodge your fate. The pillars on the houses they were passing looked like the pipes you saw, piled up for road repairs, and the steps reminded her of soap. There was something spiritless about this terrace that had once been wealthy and now belonged to the empire of converted flats. They were without the conveniences of modern buildings and lacked the cheerful warmth of her own kitchen. She looked up at Mrs. Gates.
“The doctor said it was them oats.”
“Oats!” Ruby was genuinely surprised. “I never ’eard before as they did anyone any ’arm.”
“I ’ad pains.” Her companion’s voice was flat and final. “’Orrible pains. But you know what I’m like, I don’t want to make no fuss nor push meeself forward. I’d rest and rest but it didn’t seem to make no difference. My gentleman’s away so I could put mee feet up too of an h’afternoon.”
“Called up, is ’ee?”
“Same as; ’ee’s in one of them Ministry places as ’as been h’evacuated. But resting didn’t seem to ’elp so at last I went and saw mee doctor. ’Ee says to me, ‘Why, Mrs. Gates, ’owever did you get yerself into such a state? ’Ow …” the bus jolted again to another sudden stop and the handle of her umbrella flew forward against the window. “… ’e’s a learner, ’e is. Can’t ever ’ave got ’is licence.”
“Debridge,” said Ruby, rising to her feet and inspecting the roadway in front of them. “In a way, they clear it up quicker than you’d think.”
“Well, mee doctor, ’ee’s a nice young feller, no, you couldn’t call ’im young exactly, ’ee’s middle-aged like, ’ee says, ‘I’ll call up the ’ospital at once, Miss Gates. It’s deep inside and it’s pricked mee finger but I can’t get at it.’”
“My dear, whatever was it?”
“I says, ‘Well I don’t want you to think I came to you for nothing, I thought I could cure meeself with care and suchlike, but it didn’t seem no use.’”
“There’s things you can’t do for yerself.”
“So up I went to the ’ospital and they put me under the h’eether, and let me tell you, Mrs. Clark, science is beautiful. Yes, in the old days they’d ’ave ’ad to ’ave cut me, but today they used a sort of tube, well, it was a magnet like, and they drew it out.”
“Drew what out?”
“A tooth.”
“A tooth, Mrs. Gates, but I didn’t know you ’ad any. I thought you ’ad yours done when I had