Shell Shocked (6 page)

“Well, last night was different.”

“Did you take your sleeping powder?” Jack asked.

“I didn't need to. You boys worry too much about me. I'm the mother and you're the children … remember?”

“We remember,” Jack said. “Speaking of which, I was thinking, if I could have
my mother's
permission, I'd like to go to the Community Hall tonight and play bingo.”

“Since when do you like playing bingo?” my mother asked.

Exactly what I was wondering myself!

“It's not really that I like bingo, but I promised some friends.”

“What type of friends?” my mother asked. There was a smile in her voice.

“Just friends.” Jack looked embarrassed.

“Girl friends?”

“They're girls who are my friends, if that's what you mean,” he protested. “You told us we should make new friends.”

“I did. Are these girls from school?”

“I met them last night at the movies,” Jack said.

I noticed how he'd answered her question without answering it. He looked over at me. He was wondering if I was going to give it away. I was pretty sure he didn't want her to know that they were actual
women
who worked in the plant, not girls from his school.

“Sure,” Mom said, “go have fun tonight playing bingo with the girls who are friends but not necessarily
girlfriends
.” Wow, if I'd teased him like that I'd have gotten a punch in the arm. “Now, how about if you two do me a favour?” she asked.

“That depends on the favour,” Jack said.

“I promised Mrs. Edwards down the street that I'd look in on her this morning. I'd like you to finish the dishes while I'm gone.”

“That we can do,” Jack offered.

She gave him a little hug and then gave me a kiss on the top of my head. She took her jacket from the hook and was gone. Now it was just Jack and me, and I finally had a chance to tell him what had happened last night.

Jack was already clearing off the table.

“Mom was lying,” I said.

“She's not going to see Mrs. Edwards?”

“I don't know anything about Mrs. Edwards. I mean about going right to sleep last night.”

“That didn't sound right to me, either,” Jack agreed. “It
usually takes her a long time to get to sleep … she was probably tossing and turning in her bed for hours.”

“She wasn't
in
her bed,” I said. “She left the house about one-thirty and she didn't get back for almost an hour.”

Jack gave me a questioning look.

“I couldn't sleep either and I heard her go out. I stayed awake until she got home.”

“And where did she go?”

“It's not like I asked her. When I heard her unlock the front door I jumped into bed so she wouldn't know that I knew she'd been out.”

“She probably went out for a walk.”

“In the middle of the night?” I asked.

“People who can't get to sleep do things like that. Besides, what other reason could there be?”

I shrugged. I couldn't think of one.

“Unless you think she was out being a Nazi spy. Do you think our mother is an enemy agent, Georgie?” He flicked me in the back with the dishcloth.

“But then why did she tell us she was sleeping?” I asked. “Why would she lie to us?”

“I don't know. She probably didn't want us to worry about her sleep problems.”

“Maybe. But I don't like being lied to,” I said. “And Mom doesn't like it either. Which reminds me, you're not going to tell her about your new friends, are you?”

“What's to tell?”

“Oh, I don't know, maybe that they're way older than you?”

“They're not that much older. I'm almost sixteen … almost seventeen, according to my school records and everything that everybody here knows.”

“You're closer to fifteen than you are to sixteen, and I think Mom knows your real age.”

“Yeah, but it's like what we were talking about. I don't have anything in common with kids my real age.”

“And what exactly do you have in common with those three?” I asked. “Besides the fact that they're older, they work and you go to school, they live in dormitories and you live with your mommy.”

“Well, you don't have to spend time with them,” Jack said. “I like Daphne and she likes me.”

“She likes the seventeen-year-old you.”

“And that's the one she's going to get.”

“What if she finds out you're not seventeen? What if Mom finds out you're going out with somebody who's two years older than you?”

“Only two people know those things—me and you. And I'm not telling anybody, and neither are you.”

“I might keep it all a secret.”

“Might?' Jack asked.

“It depends on how a certain person treats his little brother.”

“If you're not careful, the doctor is going to be treating you for a broken arm.”

“And unless you're going to break my face too, then Mom is going to find out who broke my arm and why he did it. So maybe you're the one who needs to be careful.”

Jack tried to stare me down. I didn't look away.

“Besides, it's not me you have to worry about,” I said. “In case you haven't noticed, they all work in the same plant.”

“Along with ten thousand other people. They're not on the same line, or in the same building, or even on the same shift,” Jack said. “And can you imagine our mother sharing a coffee break with any of those girls?”

That thought made me smile.

“So, you keep your mouth closed and I'll keep my fist open. Agreed?”

We shook hands on it.

“Under the B … fifteen!” the announcer called out.

I looked at my card. No fifteen. I hadn't won all night, but that wasn't surprising considering how many people were playing. There had to be close to two hundred people, and some of them were playing three or four bingo cards at the same time.

The few males in the room were either really young—kids from our school—or really old. The women were mostly about my mother's age, but there were younger ones too, like Daphne, and some who were old enough to be grandmothers or maybe great-grandmothers.

I was sitting by myself, and Juliette and Daphne were sitting with Jack on the far side of the room. Juliette had started to give me a hard time again, kidding me about the two of us dating. I'd told her that it wouldn't be happening because I needed somebody who was “more mature.” After everybody stopped laughing at her, she decided to leave me alone.

“Under the G … fifty-four!”

Again, no luck.

“Bingo!” somebody yelled out, and a chorus of groans came from around the room.

“Please wait until we check the card,” the announcer said.

That was just a formality. A runner went to check out the card.

I looked over at Jack. He and Daphne were practically intertwined, they were sitting so close together. On the way over he'd told me that he didn't want me to sit close to them. That wasn't a problem for me. Between her perfume and his aftershave—our
father's
aftershave—there was practically a haze over their table. Wasn't there
some sort of rule that you had to shave before you could use aftershave?

Even more nauseating than the smell was the conversation. Between the giggling—and Jack was doing his share of that—there was a steady stream of stupidity. And it wasn't just the girls. Jack seemed to have lost half his brain on the walk over.

That was enough for me. I'd played my final card. I drained the last of my soda and headed out. I wanted to get some fresh air. I thought about letting Jack know I was leaving but I didn't think he'd notice or miss me.

I walked over to the side of the building where I knew there was a bench, but skidded to a stop when I saw it was already occupied. I really wanted to find someplace to be alone. I circled around to the back where there was a set of steps to sit on. There was no one there. It was darker, away from the lights, but that was okay. I wasn't afraid of the dark. After all the noise of the bingo game it was nice to sit out in the quiet.

“How are you?”

I jumped, and my head swivelled around. There was the darkened silhouette of a man standing in the shadows, the red glow of a cigarette in his hand.

“I didn't mean to surprise you.” His voice sounded familiar.

“That's okay. I just didn't see you there.”

“Really? I thought you'd followed
me
out here, George.”

“Me? I wasn't following any ...” He'd called me George. Who did I know that knew me who would be here tonight?

“I figured you might have been given a lesson on tailing people by Bill.”

My heart leapt up into my throat. Whoever it was knew Bill. There was hardly anybody … except for maybe …

“Mr. Granger?”

He stepped out from the shadows and I could see his face. It
was
Mr. Granger!

“I'm so glad to see you!”

“It's good to see you, too.” He gave me a curious look. “So, you weren't following me?”

“I didn't notice you out here. And I didn't notice you inside before that. I guess I was too busy playing bingo.”

“And your brother was too busy playing footsies with that young lady. She started working here recently, isn't that right?”

“Yeah.”

“She must be fairly young, but still a few years older than your brother.”

“A couple … well, one year older … you know.”

He nodded. “Cover story. There are so many young women working here and so few young men that it doesn't surprise me that one of them has pounced on your
brother. You should be careful, you might be next.”

“I'll keep my eyes open for that.”

“Keeping your eyes open is a large part of my job. The head of security has to watch everything, all the time. Although that's getting harder to do.”

“What with the new people being hired, right?”

“Exactly. Despite the fact that I'm practically living here these days, I can't keep up with all the new employees being added.”

“But they must have given you some new guards, too,” I said.

“They've added more
old
guards.”

Of course I knew what he meant—most of his security people were members of the Veteran Guard.

“Some of them are the most dedicated old soldiers you'd ever want to meet. I'd trust them with my life. Makes me understand how we won the First World War. Others are just old. And with so much going on around here it would be helpful to have a couple of extra pairs of eyes at work.”

“I guess every little bit helps,” I agreed.

“I sometimes wish I could get a couple of pairs of
young
eyes to help out.”

“Young?”

“Like you and Jack,” he said. “I know you two don't miss much.”

I shook my head. “We can't do that.”

“I know,” he said. “At least, not without the permission of Camp X.”

“And our mother,” I said. “I don't think there's any way she'd ever let us do anything like that ever again.”

“No?”

“No way. She doesn't like any of this spy stuff.”

He nodded his head, but there was a strange glint in his eyes, like he really didn't believe me.

“You'd better get back in there,” Mr. Granger said. “Nobody should see the two of us talking. Not good for your cover.”

I nodded my head and started to walk away, and then stopped and turned back around. “Mr. Granger,” I called out. “If we did see something … not that we're looking for trouble or anything … we'd tell you.”

“I know you would. Say hello to your brother and mother for me.”

I'd say hello to Jack, but I thought it was best to keep this whole conversation a secret from my mother.

SOMEHOW IT SEEMED
easier to lie in bed with my eyes wide open. I was
trying
to stay awake, not fall asleep, but that way, if I fell asleep it would be okay—but if I stayed awake, I was doing what I was trying to do. It was definitely better than tossing and turning and
trying
to go to sleep.

I'd made a decision five days ago that I wasn't going to go to sleep at night until I was sure that my mother was not only home but also in bed sleeping. After I was sure she was in her bed and asleep, every night I'd check that the front door was locked. If she went for another “walk” late at night I was going to follow her. Obviously I didn't tell my mother my plan, but I also kept it from Jack.

Not that he'd have noticed. He had been out three or four times with Daphne, and whenever he was home, he really wasn't. His mind was elsewhere. He'd also been
treating me better. I wasn't sure if that was because he was “in love” or because he'd realized that he had to keep up his end of the deal so I'd help him keep his secret. Either way, I didn't think it would last long.

Mom was not particularly impressed when Jack came home with a big mark on his neck. He called it a “hickey.” Mom called it disgusting. She kept asking him to invite his
young lady
over to the house so she could meet her. Jack kept coming up with excuses. He knew when Mom finally met Daphne she'd realize that she was more
lady
than
young
. Not that seventeen was old, but compared to Jack's fifteen, it was. And the fact that she was out of school and working at the plant wouldn't be in their favour either. For me, the longer this lasted, the longer I'd be left in relative peace.

It was a little strange with Jack being mostly out of the picture. Our paths hardly crossed at school, and now with him being gone in the evenings—and not wanting me to go with him—I was more on my own than I ever remembered being. When Mom was on day shift, like she was this week and next, it wasn't so bad. It was just her and me at home after supper, and I liked that. But when she went to the evening swing shift it was going to be pretty lonely around the house. Then again, that was still weeks away. She had one and a half weeks more of days, then two weeks of midnight to eight. In three and a half
weeks this whole Jack and Daphne thing would probably be ancient history.