Free The River Folk by Margaret Dickinson Page A

corner.’
    Bessie nodded excitedly. ‘Yes, yes, it is. It swirls round that corner and you think it’s going to come up and over the bank.’
    ‘Wouldn’t be the first time,’ Minnie muttered and then, her excitement rising too, she clutched Bessie’s hand and said, ‘Here it comes, Bessie. Here it comes.’
    The tidal wave, foaming at the crest, swept majestically up the river, rippling up the banks on either side and rocking the boats moored at the wharves. Behind the first wave front, which raised the level of the whole river until the tide ebbed, came smaller ripples, the whelps, like young following their mother.
    ‘I don’t like it,’ Mary Ann cried, clinging to Bessie.
    ‘Don’t be silly, it won’t hurt you.’ For once Bessie was irritated by the girl’s childishness. Nevertheless, she held on tightly to the girl’s hand, afraid that Mary Ann might try to get away and, in so doing, topple into the water. ‘Don’t you think it’s lovely? Just look at that big wave. Come all the way from the North Sea, that has, Mary Ann. Right up our river for miles and miles.’
    The water surged just below where they were standing and splashed up the steps, sending spray on to their feet.
    ‘I don’t like it,’ the girl wailed. She pulled herself out of Bessie’s grasp, turned to scramble back up the steps and pushed her way through the watchers.
    ‘Mary Ann, wait. Wait for me,’ Bessie cried and turned to follow her, but felt Minnie’s hand restrain her.
    ‘Let her go, Bess. She’ll find her way home. It’s only across River Road. Don’t let her spoil your fun. We shan’t see another one like this for a while. Just you enjoy it.’
    Bessie turned back towards the river, but Mary Ann being so silly had spoiled her excitement and her pleasure, and the wave was gone now, leaving only ripples in its wake. The onlookers began to disperse.
    ‘I suppose,’ Bessie said to Minnie, thinking aloud, her generous nature forgiving the girl’s foolishness already, ‘I shouldn’t have expected her to love the river like we do, Min. The Aegir can be a bit frightening if you’ve never seen anything like it before.’
    ‘I ’spect she’s not used to the water,’ Minnie suggested.
    Bessie shook her head. ‘Probably not. She told me she’d never even seen the sea.’
    ‘There you are then,’ Minnie said, as if that explained everything.
    The two friends reached the top of the steps and turned to smile at each other.
    ‘I’d better go and find her and see if she’s all right,’ Bessie said as they approached Waterman’s Yard.
    Minnie sniffed. ‘She’ll be all right, Bess. Do you know, I’ve never seen you fuss after anyone so much in all me life? An’ that’s saying summat.’
    ‘Mebbe it’s because I’ve never had a little girl of me own,’ Bessie said wistfully.
    ‘That little madam’s got you wrapped around her little finger, Bess. You want to watch it.’
    But Bessie only smiled.
    A week later, Elsie Clark was still not home from the hospital and Mary Ann continued to stay with the Ruddick family.
    ‘What gets me, Bert,’ Bessie murmured sadly as they lay side by side in bed, ‘is that Mary Ann doesn’t seem bothered about either of them. Her dad or her mam. Now ’im, I can understand, but you’d’ve thought she’d have wanted to go to see her mother in the hospital.’
    ‘I thought you took her on Sunday afternoon?’ Bert murmured sleepily.
    ‘I did, but I nearly had to drag her there.’
    ‘Wasn’t she pleased to see her mam when you got there then?’
    There was a moment’s silence whilst Bessie lay staring into the blackness, thinking. ‘I suppose so,’ she said at last. ‘But it was odd. Not like I’d have expected a young girl to act when she hadn’t seen her mam for several days. I mean, I wouldn’t have liked my lads to act like that if I was in hospital, Bert.’
    Bert’s soft chuckle came through the darkness. ‘Bess, my angel, if you were ever in hospital –