Steps One Shots (ish)

Coming Home (Evacuees part 3)

Setting - not long after the end of the Second World War - around November 1945. Lee is now 16, Lisa and Faye are 15/16, H is 15, Claire 14. Faye's sister is 19.

"I almost can't believe it!" Lisa said. "I mean it's been so long!"
Faye sighed as she looked round at her stuff. She wasn't really sure how she'd get it all home in the case she'd brought with her all those years ago, but she was excited that in a week she'd be going home to her parents. Despite the excitement, she hated the fact that she was going to have to say goodbye to the four people who had become her siblings over the time she was here. "I missed them so much. But I'll miss you and the other three so much too!"
Lisa smiled. "I'll miss you too! We can write to each other and we could meet up. Maybe we could come and see Claire and Lee in the future when we're adults."
"They could come t' London and we could show them around our favourite places!" Ian added, darting in through the door to the girls' room. He was excited so managing to be everywhere at once, they were used to that from Ian by now.
"Actually that'd be cool." Lisa replied with a laugh.
"Lisa do you not just feel odd that we've seen each other grow up for so long but not watched our own siblings like we should have? And I'm going back to my sister who's an adult now!" Faye said, practically on the verge of tears that she'd missed out on being beside her sister for most of their teenage years.
"I'm more worried 'bout our parents! They've hardly seen us since we were 9!" Ian said.
"Yeah true... I'm glad mama and aunty Amy came to visit us a bit as otherwise they might never find us on the platform now!" Lisa replied.
Faye bit her lip. She'd seen her mother only a handful of times since she'd left London, and her dad a couple of times, and she was so worried they wouldn't know what she looked like now. She'd grown and been through so many changes since they'd waved their tearful little girl, clutching her teddy's paw and trunk with one hand and her sister's hand with the other, goodbye on a train platform six years ago, and she was now a young woman rather than a girl. She certainly thought she looked quite different and Clare had been through a phase where she often commented how changed Faye looked between meetings. Would their parents still see her as the little girl they'd loved but lost? Or would they see her as who she was and allow her most of the freedoms she'd enjoyed here so much? She could only imagine what it would be like. When they'd first found out that morning they'd be going home Faye had even worried Clare wouldn't want to come back, and would instead elect to stay behind in the sweet little village they'd become so used to, rather than go back to the stuffy London streets they'd grown up on, but Clare had assured Faye she'd come back to London with the others, for she was quite set on being a nurse and there was no-where to do that in their village. And so Faye had known it wouldn't be so bad, as Clare still completely knew and understood her, even if they had lived apart so long.

"Are you guys going to try and pack everything?" Ian asked, crashing back into their room a while later.
"I want to try, definitely the clothes as I've grown so much since I was home!" Faye replied.
"I need to take my books so I can read at home as well." Lisa added.
"Well how do you plan on packing everything? I mean the cases we brought with us were small and there's so much." He questioned.
"I haven't thought that far." Lisa confessed.
Faye shrugged. "Me either."
Ian sighed and headed back to his room.

*****

With days to go until their move home, packing was in full force for each of the London children. They'd stuffed as much as they could in their old trunks they'd brought with them so long ago, and were now hunting for old bags they could use to store other belonging into that would make them easier to carry between completing chores for Mrs Richards.
"I don't want you to go." Claire pouted one night at dinner. "You guys are my friends, and my sisters and other brother."
"I'll miss you guys that's for sure." Faye said, tucking a loose lock of hair behind her ear and trying to avoid looking at the Richards. She'd fallen in love with her mish-matched evacuee family and she hated the fact she felt like she was breaking their hearts by leaving. Every time she looked at them she was brought to the verge of tears again. She half saw Claire as that sweet curious little girl that she'd been when they met and half as the young woman she was becoming and it was strange. She supposed that must be how Clare had felt watching her go through the same sort of change. She saw Lee as a big brother she could almost always cry to when she was sad (apart from that one occasion where she'd had to go to her sister for emotional support where Lee wouldn't be able to begin to understand what she was feeling).
"I'll miss you three." Claire replied. "You really must stay in touch! I'm sure mummy and Lee would love to hear about what you're doing."
"Maybe if you're ever passing you could pay a visit hey?" Mrs Richards said with a smile.
Lee just smiled wordlessly, though he too was feeling quite tearful that in a matter of days he'd be alone with just his mum and sister again, but he kept it bundled up inside well. It was what he usually did, showing emotions wasn't something he was famed for in the family. He'd grown so used to the bubbly blonde bouncing round the house, the hyperactive boy and the forever talkative girl that he wasn't sure the house would ever feel the same once they got on that train back to London.
"Come on, let's not upset each other. We've a few days left together yet." Mrs Richards announced, observing many of the children looked on the verge of tears.