Post by misspurdy on Apr 30, 2008 10:03:40 GMT -5
They followed the farmer inside the house. The door gave a loud screech when they opened it. They stepped to a small, almost empty hall. It was weird to be in a house again when two last months have been spent only at tents or outside. The house looked kind of shabby and colorless, but everything was perfectly clean. Jane looked around little disappointed. She would had known what to do with the house: lots of curtains, lots of carpets, lots of bright colors, lots of flowers and paintings. The house could had been prettier but at least it had a roof.
Charlie: Well, there isn't a welcome committee here.
Everyone took their shoes off and felt embarrassed because of their dirty clothes and sweaty palms. Charlie gave Jane her "don't-touch-anywhere"-look. Then they stepped in to a short hallway which lead to the kitchen. You could smell the delicious scent of meat and potatoes even from the hall. There was shut door between hallway and the kitchen. Charlie was already opening the door when Jane took a hold of her hand.
Charlie: What are you..
Jane: Shh! Listen....
Some woman (probably farmer's wife): WHAT?!
Farmer: Chicken, please....
Woman (yep, farmer's wife): You did WHAT?!
Farmer: Chicken, please, try to understand....You should have seen those girls, so pr-....poor and all alone. They came here to help around, you know, because of all the fighting around. Their husbands can't fight, they don't have any place to go.
Farmer's wife: Oh, what you were thinking! Bringing in two girls...and their HUSBANDS?! How do you think I'm gonna get along with four mouths more to feed! And where are you gonna put them?! They certainly can't live at the house, goodness knows what kind of fleas they might have!
Jane: Ohhhh....*Charlie puts her hand over her mouth and runs her head through her short hair.*
Farmer: They are not going to cause any trouble for you chicken, they look like girls who are used to work. I'm sure they'll come useful. If not here, then at the town. There is plenty of job around, you know that. You haven't even met the girls, they are sent by the government. We need to support the government, you know that. And their husbands can help me around here. You know that we need some extra help around when Tommy left to fight as well.
*Jane and Charlie look each other.*
Girls *whisper*: Tommy?!
Farmer's wife: *more relaxingly* Well....
Jerry *whisper*: I think it's time for us to step out.
Dean *whisper*: Used to work, huh?
Jane *loud whisper*: You be quiet!
Charlie *quietly*: I don't think our usual routine won't impress her...
Jane: It's always worth to try, isn't it? Come on Charlie-chicken *they giggle quietly* where is your British pride? Come on chick, smile at me a little. That's it lovely, you give them that exact smile and that lemon-swallowed old cow can't resist you. And you two, hide the grin. Dean, help Jer walk. He has to limb, remember?
She flashes her eyelashes, licks her lips and puts a smile on her face. Charlie smiles too although she isn't really sure should she laugh or cry. But they couldn't do much than try to please. They needed this, they had to try.
Dean: Showtime.
Jane opened the door and they stepped in.
The farmer's wife didn't try to hide her astonishment when they walked in. She blinked after blink, her mouth was just a thin line when she bit her lip. She wasn't as old as they though but the look of her face said: "I've seen everything." She had very thin face, line-like mouth and pointing brown eyes. Actually she reminded Charlie about a snake which lived at her uncle David's country house when she was little. The snake lived under the house and nobody had never seen it but uncle knew it lived there somewhere. Her mother had nagged and nagged him to kill it but the snake wasn't that stupid, it never came out like it had known that someone was after it. She was scared of snakes and wanted to keep the lights on all night so Charlie couldn't sleep at all. At the same night Charlie was laying awake because of the light when everybody else were sleeping peacefully. Then she saw it. The snake. It crawled from a little crack between boards of the floor. Normally Charlie would had been scared. She was laying on the floor, just a few inches away from the snake. She didn't know was the snake poisonous or not. But it didn't look dangerous and she was so tired that she couldn't had been caring less. The snake looked at her almost sympathetically, almost like it would had known that it was the reason why Charlie couldn't sleep. They spent ages just looking at each other, snake and her. Then she started to get sleepy, so sleepy that she close her eyes and when she opened them again the whole room was dark, someone or something had turned out the lights. At the morning everybody were blaming each other, who did what and who did that. Her mother was hysterical, screaming and screaming. Everybody said that they hadn't turned out the lights, including Charlie. But she didn't tell anyone that the snake turned the lights off. They wouldn't had believed anyway. And she never told where the snake came from, uncle David had spent ages shutting every slightest crack of the house that the snake wouldn't get in or out. It's funny how you can remember things like that, after all these years. That was just a year before her parents were killed, she never met uncle David again. Later she heard that he was actually a friend of her parents, not related to her. Why did she still call her uncle?
Was she missing a family so much or was she just tired?
Jane acted like there wouldn't had been any talk about fleas and gave her the prettiest smile she could. Although her manners could had been better, she could be the sweetest little angel there was when she wanted something. And she wanted to win over the old lady that they could stay there.
Jane: How do you do ma'am. My name is Jane Martin and this is my husband Dean.
Dean gives the farmer's wife the charming smile only he can do and her face crumpled like she was thinking should she smile back or not. Girls couldn't be happier, this was working.
Jane: And this is my friend Charli...
*Farmer's wife looked suspiciously at her*
Charlie: Charlotte, Charlotte Lewis. And this is my husband Jerry. Lovely to meet you ma'am and thank you for being so kind to us, taking in strangers.
Jerry smiled at her also and they all noticed that her face lit in a little smile. Almost not a smile at all, but you could see it if you looked really closely.
Farmer's wife: How do you do, I'm Melissa Schmidt. This is my husband Harry.
Farmer gave them little embarrassed look and girls kept the pretty smile on although they would had wanted to giggle. They were afraid that they couldn't pronounce their name properly so they decided to call the farm's couple Mr. and Mrs.Smith.
Mrs.Smith: Well, we need some help around so you couldn't had chosen a better time. You can live at the barn, where we keep the hay. It isn't much but at least it's warm in there. We keep the cows at the first floor of the barn but I hope that's not a problem?
Jane was going to say that she had the most annoying and nose-running hay-fever of the century and she was not going to sleep even near animals: she hadn't never seen a cow really close and there was no way that was going to hap-....
Charlie put her hand over her mouth again before she could say a thing and smiled at Mrs.Smith.
Charlie: No problem, not a problem at all.
Mrs.Smith: Lovely. Well, let's talk about the work later. Are you hungry?
*They all look at each other and within few seconds almost scream: YES!*
Later girls are cleaning the hay-part of the barn, trying to fit in some empty space where to walk. They decided to sleep on the hay, at least it was pretty comfortable place to sleep. Mr.Smith took Dean and Jer to get the cows in and girls were tired but full of food and clean as ever. Mrs.Smith told them to get a bath and Jane locked the bathroom door before Charlie would get there first. She didn't want to stay at the kitchen with Mrs.Smith, somehow that woman was creeping her out. She didn't listen when Charlie banged the door and demanded to let her use the tub first, then she opened the door and closed it again as quickly as she opened it. They were both kidding around like two little girls again, almost like back in London. They didn't care that the tub was actually really old and rusty and the water was almost cold: at least they could wash. It was weird to see a clean face at mirror. They both looked so different after all the scrubbing, much younger. When they saw what they looked like they calmed down and sat at the edge of the tub, Charlie combing Jane's hair and then Jane combing hers.
Jane: Hey, Charlie?
Charlie: Hmm?
Jane: You think what's going to happen to us? I mean, we can't stay here forever.
Charlie: I think about that all the time. I don't know. We'll see what happens, is this town safe or not and is there any respectable street around here.
Jane: You mean...Ouch! Don't pull that hard! I don't have much of a hair right now but I'll let you know when I want to get rid of it thank you.
Charlie: Sorry, but blame yourself. What have you done to this hair, it's like a birds nest! Even mine doesn't look like this! And yeah, I mean it. We have been quiet for way too long. We should go to sing again sometime. It would be great!
Jane: I know, but...
Charlie: But what?
Jane: Nothing.
After that Mrs.Smith showed them the barn and after Mr.Smith had taken Jerry and Dean, she told girls the rules: no loud noises, no staying up through the night. They should help around the house and do babysitting, even if they would get some kind of a job at the town. Girls looked at each other. They didn't know that Smiths had children. There wasn't a single sign of children around the house, not a single one. Weird.
Mrs.Smith: We have two daughters, Irene and Sophie. They are both ill, that's why they are in bed. Are you good with kids?
Girls looked at each other again, Charlie tried not to burst out laughing.
Charlie: Let's just say that we learn fast.
Mrs.Smith: I see. Well, can you cook?
Jane pointed at Charlie and said: If you need some bacon and beans, there is your girl.
Mrs.Smith: That's...lovely. Well, you can start cleaning the barn for yourselves. We don't have any extra beds yet but if you work hard enough...
Girls nodded and kept on saying 'thank you' and 'that's just fine.' The complaining started at the minute they were left alone. They hid the car inside the barn, under the hay. Jane kept coughing but Charlie still didn't let her get away from work.
Jane: What a creepy dame! And she looks like a snake! The supervisor was a saint comparing to HER!
Charlie: Jane Evel-...Jane Martin, you are the most immature, graceless, ungrateful...
Jane: Oh gimme a break saint-Charlotte, this place is straight from a horror movie and you know it. Did you notice the look of her eyes? She looked us like we would be two tasty mice and she a big blood-hungry cat. She will use us as her own personal slaves for ages and then call the police, I'm sure of that.
Charlie: Oh, don't be ridiculous. SHE is a real saint, taking strangers in to her house, especially the ones like you...
Jane: Her BARN. She won't even let us go near that house! And we must scrub ourselves to the barn like there wouldn't be no tomorrow that we wouldn't get our fleas to their precious cows.
Charlie: Jane! *giggles*
Jane: And this place stinks as well! I swear I'm never gonna go near a cow after we get out of here.
Charlie: Jane, that's enough alrea-.....
They hear a sound of a motor. Then they hear a car coming to the yard. It's a soldier car, like the one they had. It stopped to the yard and two men in uniforms stepped out. They didn't know them. Mrs.Smith came out while drying her hands to her apron. Thank goodness they hid their car before anything happened. Still the floor seemed to disappear under Charlie's feet and Jane was pale and quiet, shaking all over.
Charlie: *whispers* Get down, quickly.
They both climbed in hays, crying silently, praying silently, holding each others hands like there wouldn't be no tomorrow.
Jane *prays*: Please, don't let them get us, don't let them get us...
Charlie *prays*: Please help us, anyone, please.....
They don't know how long they were under all that hay - it seemed like hours. Then they heard a sound of a motor again. The car drove away. Girls waited for a while before they came out, then they went along cleaning, not saying a word.
Later Mrs.Smith came to the barn with some blankets and pillows and girls dared to ask about the solders.
Mrs.Smith smiled like there wouldn't be a single thing to worry in the world and said: Oh, them. They just asked a way to town.
Girls looked at each other but didn't say a thing. They felt so relieved. But when they turned their backs, Mrs.Smith kept on smiling.