Free A Child's Voice Calling by Maggie Bennett

Maudie!’ cried Mabel in dismay. She had not seen her friend for some time. ‘Was it from a market stall?’ she asked, remembering how Maudie used to crawl under the street traders’ displays to pick up fruit and whatever scraps might have fallen.
    ‘Nah! She was ’elpin’ ’erself from the kitchens o’ toffs’ ’ouses up Belgravy way – y’know, them posh places!’
    Mabel clasped Walter more tightly as she asked, ‘And what about her poor little brother Teddy?’
    ‘Dunno. She was after summat to feed ’im on, I s’pose.’
    Tears filled Mabel’s eyes at the thought of her friend’s desperate plight. What would happen to Maudie and her brother now?
    ‘What’s the matter with Walter, Mabel?’ asked Alice suddenly. ‘His mouth’s open an’ his eyes are all funny – oh, Mabel,
look
! Is he . . . is he dead?’ Her voice rose to a scream of fear. ‘He’s dead, he’s
dead
!’
    ‘Sh, Alice,
sh
, be quiet, ye’ll wake Mummy. He’s . . . he’s just asleep, that’s all.’
    But her fingers trembled and she felt sick at heart as she carefully pulled back the blanket from thelittle grey face. The body was still warm against hers but limp and lifeless. It was true. His heartbeat and breathing had stopped. Walter Court lay dead in his sister’s arms, five weeks before his second birthday.
    Alice and Georgie began to wail in unison, while Albert stared open-mouthed at Mabel’s stricken face. She stifled the cry that rose to her own throat, knowing that she had to be brave for the rest of them and especially for her mother. ‘Albert! Run next door and fetch Mrs Bull – tell her to hurry up and get here before poor Mummy comes downstairs – oh, quick, be quick! And Alice, you go for Dr Knowles!’
    ‘Hush, Mabel, hush, hush, my child, you mustn’t blame yourself, I won’t have it. You did all that a good nurse could do for him.’
    ‘But I promised I’d look after him, Dr Knowles, an’ he died – he
died
, an’ I couldn’t save him!’
    Dr Knowles had never before seen Mabel Court give way like this, and he was touched to the heart by her grief and self-reproach. ‘My dear, there are times when nothing can be done – when there’s nothing
anyone
can do to save someone we love. Listen! I’m certain that Walter would not have lived as long as he did if it hadn’t been for your devoted care. No sick child was ever better served. Hush, Mabel, hush, my dear.’
    At the little gathering after the funeral the doctor tried to emphasise to Jack and Annie Court the importance of Mabel’s immediate return to school. ‘She’s an exceptionally bright girl, and must not be allowed to waste her time doing chores and running errands, however willing she may be,’ he told them, but Annie’s only response was to burst into helplesstears once again over the loss of her baby and Jack Court’s sullen mutter was hardly encouraging. Mrs Mimi Court shrugged her plump shoulders at the doctor and told him that he had better speak to Mabel herself, or he’d be wasting his breath in this house.
    The doctor stared at her for a moment, wondering why she made him think of a case he’d had a couple of years back, a single girl who’d threatened to kill herself because she was expecting a child; he’d directed her to a Salvation Army refuge for girls in her condition and when he’d met her a few months later she was no longer expecting. She’d told him about a woman . . . and he had decided not to know. Mabel’s grandmother had seen him looking at her, because she quickly took her leave, saying that there was nothing more she could do.
    Knowles found Mabel in the kitchen with Mrs Bull who was telling her that Walter had always been a little angel and not long for this sad world. ‘I said as much, soon’s I saw the poor little mite, di’n’t I, Mabel, my duck? And now ’e’s gorn back to ’eaven agin to be wiv the other little angels, so yer mustn’t cry.’
    Mabel’s eyes brightened at the sight of