Imelda looked up at her blankly for a moment before she quickly turned over the sheet she was looking at and said sardonically, ‘Oh, so you have decided after all to grace us with your presence?’
Aidy blurted, ‘I’m so sorry I was late back this afternoon, Mrs Hardwick, but you see …’
Imelda held up a warning hand to stop her. ‘You’ve been absent without permission. That on its own is a sackable offence, but on top of your poor performance lately … well, I have no choice but to dismiss you.’
Aidy froze. She couldn’t lose her job. How was she going to support her family? A vision of the workhouse reared up before her and she cried out, ‘Oh, please, please, Mrs Hardwick, give me another chance. Once you’ve heard my reason for being late back …’
Imelda cut in, ‘You’re not dead, Aidy, so there’s no excuse for you not being at your bench. If I am seen to let you get away with flouting company rules, the other women will be expecting the same treatment. Worse than that even, if my bosses find out I’m not doing my job properly, I could lose it.’ Especially in light of what is going on, she thought. She might have a soft spot for Aidy but not at the expense of her own job. ‘Your wages and cards have been made up for you, ready to collect on your way out.’
Colleen was mortified when Aidy returned to her machine to collect her personal belongings. She’d thought that her friend and work colleague was in for a good dressing down, but the sack! Not wanting to face the same situation if she was caught slacking, she hurriedly assured Aidy she would pass on her goodbyes to the rest of her colleagues, Aidy herself being too upset and humiliated due the circumstances. They promised they would get together as often as time allowed them to, but both knew that as matters stood that was a tall order.
Aidy walked off the factory floor carrying her handbag, her face stricken with worry. An uncertain future faced her and her family with no wage coming in. She was acutely conscious that many of the other workers were looking at her with understanding and pity.
She needed to find a replacement job as soon as possible, though she knew the odds were stacked against her in the current work climate. She wasn’t expected home for about another hour, so decided to use that time checking shop window cards and vacancies posted outside factories in the vicinity, praying that a firm had a job she was capable of doing.
It proved to be a fruitless search. No vacancies for skilled machinists were posted on any of the factory notice boards, and the shop jobs she saw did not pay a wage anywhere near what she needed to keep a roof over her family’s head and them all fed.
When Aidy arrived home she found Marion huddled under the blanket beside Bertha on the sofa. Bertha herself, although still dopey from the effects of shock and the morphine she had taken earlier, was struggling to listen to a story Marion was reading to her out of a tattered children’s book. George and a friend were on the rug in front of the range, swapping cigarette cards. There was no sign of Betty. Worried about her serious predicament and what could happen to them all if she didn’t resolve it, despite herself, Aidy took her frustration out on George and Marion.
‘Couldn’t either of you have set the table for dinner?’ she barked at them. She then told George’s friend, ‘You’d better get off home before your mother comes looking for you.’ At her tone of voice the boy grabbed his cards and scarpered out like the devil was on his tail. Then she ordered George, ‘Clear those cards away and go and fill the water jug.’ He didn’t need another telling. She turned to address Marion next, ‘Stop mithering Gran. Can’t you see she’s not well? Go and find something useful to do.’
Tears filled Marion’s eyes. ‘But I was only …’
‘I don’t care what you were only doing. I said, get off the sofa and leave Gran in peace! You can set the table.’ She had a headache building at the thought of her siblings getting under her feet while she was trying to get the meal. ‘Look, I’ll collect the water and set the table, you both just go out and play, but