Like sisters

Elizabeth and Dolly knew from an early age they were not like the other girls around them. While Elizabeth climbed the trees in her family's backyard, Dolly would sit fidgeting in church.

Elizabeth was loud, outspoken, and boorish as her mother would say, every time the ladies from the local WI came round for tea. How she had longed to have a daughter who she could put in dresses and tie her hair in little bows; but Liz as her dad called her preferred to be on the farm, driving the tractor and herding the cows, along with her two brothers.

Dolly on the other hand had a rather stern mother and even stricter father, being a priest he didn't believe in girls behaving like men. He scowled at the girls in the land army as they walked through the village and insisted they all wore dresses to church. Dolly thought they were amazing and wondered what it would be like to wear trousers instead of these itchy socks that had to be pulled up every five minutes.

Elizabeth skipped along the country road that morning, on her way to school, in her overalls that she took from her older brother; They were patched up but still slightly worn at the knees, hair tucked under a cap and streaks on her face where her mother had tried to attack her with a flannel as she fled out the door. Whistling to herself she thought about what a good day it would be in the warm sunshine as it streamed through the leaves and danced on the pavement.

The tweets of the small birds in the trees and occasional rustling of the undergrowth was replaced with a slow, loud, murmuring sound, somewhere behind and above. The birds responded and shot from their branches as Elizabeth strained to look through the canopy, to see where the noise was coming from. The aeroplane cut through the air overhead making Elizabeth cover her ears, it seemed so low that it had cut the top of the trees. Looking up with amazement as it shot past, she looked for the bullseye's on the wings, she loved aeroplanes and wanted to be a pilot. The words rushed in to her head like an unconscious thought. There was no bullseyes, there was no bullseyes, there was no… the words cut abruptly in her head as the guns fired, followed by a loud bang, and the fire and smoke started to rise in the distance.

Huddled in a hedge at the side of the road, covering her ears. Staring at the flames, she looked in shock as the sound came closer and louder, before disappearing over the canopy. Her heart raced, tears streamed down her face, her legs wanted to run, but her body did not want to move. She stood out of the hedge, leaving her lunch and books on the floor. Her legs started to run on their own, carrying her along at a pace she didn't know she could do, all the way back to her door.

She burst through the door into the kitchen barely able to catch her breath, tear stained face and red cheeked from running. Her mother looked at her, startled, dropped the plate she held in her hands and shook her buy her shoulders. “What happened! Tell me!”, Through sobbing breaths with the wind knocked out of her she pointed to the village, “The town is on fire! Aeroplane, not ours! I ran home! Mum the town is on fire!”.

Her mother whipped off her pinny and ran to the backdoor, standing on a bucket, she franticly waved the pinny to get her husband's attention. It hadn't occurred to Elizabeth her father in the field could be a target or that the fire could spread, or that her fathers help could be needed in the village. Her father jumped down from the tractor, gathered the boys and workers, then ran for the relative safety of the house.

When they got there her mother handed them cups of water, explained quickly as she gathered some bits, and they all left running to the village to offer assistance. Elizabeth sat at the table and wept.

Dolly had been woken by her mother, washed and was brought downstairs for breakfast. Her father sat at the table reading the newspaper while he ate his boiled eggs and toast, Dolly greeted him as she sat to enjoy her breakfast while her mother started doing her hair. Dolly fidgeted and pulled away as her mother brushed and smoothed her hair into tight, neat, pigtails before curling them and tying on her blue bows, that matched her blue dress for school.

Somewhere in the distance a loud bang was heard, her father shot out of his chair and ran to the door to look out across the fields into the distance to see if he could spot anything. Then the bells of the fire engine started ringing down the lane past the house. A dark blue police car, bells ringing pulled into the front yard as Dolly's mother stuffed her in her coat and grabbed a basket from the side. There was a loud excited conversation on the door step between the police officer and her father; he ran to grab his bible and coat, while Dolly was ushered out the door and into their car, almost tripping over her school trunk, that waited by the door.

The car took off fast following the police officer, pushing dolly back in her seat as her father sped through the lanes lined with hedges and trees towards the village. A strange glow started to enter through the front window as they neared the village, Dolly craned her neck round the back of her fathers seat to see out of the window. Shock swept across her face as she saw the flames rising into the sky, where the butchers had once stood. Men franticly passed buckets of water and poured them on the surrounding area, as well as the green grousers next door.

Her mother and father lept from the car, running to where people laid on blankets on the ground. Grabbing the corners along with other women they carried people out of the way of danger and laid them on the ground next to the car. Dolly sat in shock as she saw her father check them over and then either put a blanket over their head or direct the women to start bandaging and covering wounds. When Dolly could no longer stand to look she sat back in her seat and stared at her hands in her lap.

She sat motionless for what seemed an eternity before she finally fell asleep, on the backseat of the car. When she woke up they were just pulling into the drive of the church, her parents silent in what they had just seen. Without talking, they opened the doors, her mother took her hand and walked her to the house. Her father went to the church.

Once inside her mother set her down in the living room, Dolly took her pram from the corner and began to play. When her mother returned, she had washed and changed, in her hand she held a plain pinafore dress. Changing Dolly and taking down her hair she didn't say a word, before going to the kitchen to start dinner.

Elizabeth had fallen asleep in a puddle of tears before going to her room to read a book. Looking outside now she could see the sun dip below the horizon, she raised off her bed and headed to the kitchen. Looking at the clock it was already, five-thirty and no one was home, she filled the sink with cold water and began to peel the potatoes, knowing they would be hungry, tired, and exhausted when they returned.

The big cook pot was on the stove with potato's, mutton and vegetables boiling away nicely when her family returned. Her tired mother looked at the pot gave a small rye smile and hugged Elizabeth before heading to her room. They were all very quiet even while getting changed from their black, soot laden clothes.

Elizabeth set the table and placed the bowls by the stove. One by one they all appeared at the table and were handed a warm bowl of stew. Elizabeth looked from one face to the other, not expecting praise but some words, sound, anything. The silence was deafening, it was as if they would not open their mouths apart from to eat, scared of the words that might come out or the conversation that she was not there to hear.

After dinner, she was ushered off to her room for the evening while everyone stayed at the table. Above the clinks of her mother doing the dishes she could hear raised voices and hushed tones but none of it reached her in a way she could understand what was going on. Before she fell asleep, the last sound she remembers is hearing her mother quietly crying as her father comforted her.