Free A Cuppa Tea and an Aspirin by Helen Forrester

Number Nine came out from his mother’s skirts and was fed piece by piece by her so that he did not abandon any of it on the floor. He ate with gusto, pushing the bits into his mouth with grubby fingers.
    The older children looked longingly at what remained of the loaves, but knew better than to ask for more. Their mothers carefully wrapped the remains in sheets of newspaper and put the bundles inside the brown bags again, to be kept for the members of the family who were absent.
    For the first time since arriving home, Martha relaxed in the chair she owned, while her friend continued to recline on the mattress. The night was drawing in and the only light was from the fire; the little room was cosy.
    After eating their bread, the children had decided that the stairs were a bus; Bridie forgot her blood-stains and appointed herself bus conductor andTommy became the driver. Their noisy altercations over unpaid imaginary fares were a contented background, broken occasionally by muttered curses, as tenants from the upper floors pushed resignedly by them to get to their rooms.
    â€˜Hisself didn’t come home at dinnertime?’ Mary Margaret inquired of Martha.
    â€˜Patrick? No.’
    â€˜Maybe there’s another boat in?’
    â€˜Could be.’ Martha nodded.
    â€˜If he is working, it’ll be his third day this week, won’t it?’
    Martha agreed doubtfully. Then she said, with a wistful sigh as she remembered that she had to pay the moneylender on Saturday, ‘I hope he is working, not just hanging around somewhere. But he did tell me that there’s been more ships this last two months than there’s been for a long time.’
    â€˜Now, why would that be?’ asked Mary Margaret.
    â€˜He thinks there’s a war coming – and the warehouses is being filled up – in case. A lot of grain went into the terminal last week, he said. And maybe it’s true – you could hear the trains shunting all night, as they moved out.’ She made a wry mouth. ‘It’d take a lot more stuff coming in, it would, to give him a chance at a full week. There’s so many men fighting for work.’ She shrugged. ‘Idon’t need to tell you – there’s half a dozen in these very courts.’
    â€˜There’ll be fewer men soon, Martha. Did you hear They’ve closed off Court No. 2?’ asked Mary Margaret. ‘I suppose they’ll pull it down one of these days, like they done the other courts.’
    â€˜They’ve closed it? Jaysus Mary!’
    â€˜Oh, aye, They have. Thomas says there’s more kids in that court than in any other one, and he said they’re dead set to get them out of it. It’s going to be all boarded up, and everybody’s to be moved out come Friday.
    â€˜You must have noticed they’ve been emptying houses there for a while, and boarding them up.’ Mary Margaret hitched her shawl closer round herself, and then went on, ‘I remember your sister saying. And they were real hard on a family which opened up one room again and camped in it – the rent man told on them, and they got marching orders real quick. Alice Flynn upstairs told me.’
    â€˜Where are they all going to live?’ asked Martha in a shocked whisper, as the implications of this piece of news sank in. ‘Me sister Maria’s lived there all her married life, as you know. She must have known. She never told me.’
    â€˜Well, you had that fight with her not too long back – and I’ve not noticed her visiting us muchlately,’ Mary Margaret replied with a sly grin, and then continued, ‘Most of them is going to Norris Green. Some is going into Corporation flats in the city. They decided to do it quick. Don’t ask me why. Maybe the kids was getting sick.’
    Martha did not have Mary Margaret’s calm acceptance regarding the deeds of Them. She exclaimed in horror, shaking her head in