Free Connie’s Courage by Annie Groves

their seats and stretch their legs, and when the four girls were entertained by an enterprising young man who came and stood in front of them, and provided an impromptu show of his own devising – complete with a song extolling their beauty – everyone around them started to clap and cheer.
    The good-natured atmosphere couldn’t help but lift your spirits, Josie announced.
    â€˜It’s a pity it’s so full, otherwise we could have done a bit of dancing ourselves, up at the back,’ Vera complained.
    All four of them exchanged slightly wistful looks, but their disappointment at not being able to dance was soon forgotten, when the curtain went up on the second half of the show.
    Ella Shields came on first, dressed in her male clothes, and sang, ‘Burlington Bertie from Bow’, to catcalls and yells of encouragement and approval from the audience.
    When everyone else got to their feet to join in the final chorus, so did the four girls, singing the familiar words at the top of their voices.
    Red in the face and happy, they waited expectantly for Vera’s handsome singer to appear.
    When he did, his appearance was enough to cause an impressed silence to fall over the theatre, followed by a soft, muted sound, which was a sigh of pleasure from the whole of the female audience.
    â€˜Oh, isn’t he handsome,’ Mavis whispered in awe.
    â€˜Told you so,’ Vera announced smugly.
    In mutual silence, the girls focused on the stage, watching the man standing there as he took the part of a swell out on London town for the night. When his act had finished, the applause was so loud it hurt the ears.
    â€˜Oh, I did enjoy this evening,’ Mavis exclaimed happily when the four of them got off the bus outside the Infirmary, and linked arms.
    Mischievously Connie started to sing a few words from one of the numbers, whereupon Vera started to mimic the dance steps performed by the chorus girls.
    Within a few seconds, the four of them had given in to their high spirits and were singing and dancing their way down the street, and enjoying the spontaneous applause of a couple of young men who stopped to watch them.
    â€˜Do you think he wouldn’t have died if they hadn’t cut off his leg?’
    â€˜Josie, will you please give it a rest. I’m sick of hearing about it.’
    Even Connie felt that Vera was being unsympathetic when she saw the tears filming Josie’s eyes.
    â€˜It wasn’t like someone dying on the ward, Vera,’ she felt obliged to point out. ‘Josie and I were there in the operating theatre when Mr Clegg amputated the man’s leg.’
    â€˜Connie, please don’t!’ Josie begged.
    There was a greenish tinge under her pale skin and Mavis, too, was looking slightly pale. Connie, on the other hand, had found that her fascination with the operating procedure had overcome any squeamishness she might have felt. And Sister had certainly moved smartly when she realised that Josie was going to faint, Connie reflected mentally.
    They were sitting in the large room which was referred to as the recreation room, and as Josie started to talk again about the awfulness of the patient’s death on the operating table, Connie glanced absently round the room. There was a piano in one corner, but, as yet, Connie had never seen anyone playing it.
    â€˜This will cheer you up, Josie,’ she announced, as she got up and walked over to it, sitting down on the stool and folding back the top. On top of the keys was a notice saying, ‘This piano is not to be played without permission!’
    â€˜What are you doing?’ Josie demanded.
    For a moment Connie hesitated, and then she pushed the notice behind a sheet of music and announced, ‘I’m going to play some cheerful music to drown out the sound of you going on about the amputation.’
    â€˜You can play?’
    Suddenly, not just her three friends, but also several other girls who were also