Free One Blue Moon by Catrin Collier

forward was up.
    ‘Me, Gina, Tony and Angelo are going to the pictures. It’s a good one,’ Tina wheedled. ‘Want to come?’
    ‘No thanks. Not tonight. I’ll come to the café with you and see if my uncle’s there, then I’d better get going. I want to see how Maud is.’
    ‘Do you think her mother would mind if Gina and I called in tomorrow to see how’s she’s doing?’
    ‘Maud would like to see you,’ Diana answered evasively.
    ‘What will you do, Di?’ Tina asked, with her hand on the café door. ‘I mean if he ... if he ...’
    ‘Tries anything?’ Diana supplied the words for her.
    Tina nodded.
    ‘Deal with him,’ Diana said flatly. ‘I’ve eaten his sort for breakfast before now.’
    ‘Have you really?’ Tina’s eyes were enormous.
    ‘A girl has to know how to take care of herself. Especially when she leaves home,’ Diana said airily.
    ‘Well I wouldn’t like to be alone in that shop all day with Ben Springer.’ Tina pushed the door open. ‘Hey, guess what?’ she shouted, stealing Diana’s thunder. ‘Diana’s got a job,’
    ‘Six o’clock, Ronnie.’ Gina shut the till with a bang and left her chair.
    ‘You know the rules. No leaving until the next shift comes in.’ Ronnie picked up a rag and began idly to polish the steam off the tea urn.
    ‘Come on, have a heart.’
    ‘Off to the pictures, are we?’ He looked from Gina and Tina to his brothers, who were hovering behind the curtain that covered the kitchen door.
    ‘There’s a musical on in the White Palace,’ Tina bubbled, showing more enthusiasm than she had done all day. ‘The Lady of the Rose. It has a full soundtrack. Vivienne Segal and Waiter Pidgeon are in it. Vivienne plays a bride and Alma said her wedding dress is simply stunning. Gorgeous! The best she’s ever seen ...’ Tina’s voice trailed off as she saw a strange glint in Ronnie’s eyes.
    ‘If the main picture is so good, you won’t mind missing the second feature, or the cartoon, or even the Pathé newsreel,’ he said heartlessly.
    ‘Come on, Ronnie,’ Tony pleaded. ‘It’s quiet now, and we’ve all worked ...’
    ‘Worked! Worked!’ Ronnie repeated incredulously. ‘Not one of you knows the meaning of the word.’
    ‘Ronnie, Papa said if we put in a full day we could finish at six,’ Angelo interrupted.
    ‘Don’t see me finishing at six, do you?’ Ronnie crossed his arms and glared at them.
    ‘You’re different.’ Tina’s temper flared.
    ‘May I ask how, little sister?’ Ronnie demanded. ‘Pray tell me, are there new rules governing the eldest in the family now?’
    ‘This is your business, not ours. Papa gave it to you ...’
    ‘Papa gave it to me? Gave it to me?’ he repeated as though he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. ‘Let me tell you something Miss Know-it-all. I built this café up from nothing, by sheer hard work. By working seventeen-hour days when I was a damned sight younger than you ...’
    ‘And you’ve a lot more to show for it than the rest of us,’ Tony intervened, elbowing Tina out of the way before the argument grew uglier.
    ‘I suppose you’re going to the pictures too?’ Ronnie asked Tony belligerently.
    ‘Papa said the girls could go, if Angelo and I went with them.’
    ‘The sooner you go to the seminary the better.’
    Tony was about to retort that he didn’t want to go to the seminary at all, but managed to bite his tongue.
    ‘If you and Angelo both go, who’s going to work in the kitchen tonight?’ Ronnie asked softly.
    ‘You’ve got help coming in.’ Angelo untied his apron.
    ‘Only Alma, and she’s a waitress. What happens if we get busy?’
    ‘You were the one who told Papa that you didn’t want to replace Bruno when he went to Italy.’
    ‘Only because the fool will want a job when he comes back.’
    ‘He said he wasn’t coming back,’ Tina chimed in irritatingly.
    ‘One month in that backwater of Bardi is more than any man can stand,’ Ronnie insisted