My New Family

Chapter Eleven: New Duties

    I wake up and Pauline is gone. Good. She's annoyed at me AGAIN. Seems to think there's something wrong with liking helping to cook. And she suspects that I took Mrs. Lorry's ring. She hasn't actually said that, but I can just tell. I quickly get ready, then realize that I'm in my uniform and change into normal clothes. 

     I hurry into the room, just in time. I eat my honey bun quickly, I just want to finish as soon as possible to get to my room and away from them. The little kids just never stop blabbing all day and it gets really annoying. Pauline looks at me again as if I'm doing a crime. She's eating her bun really slowly, taking forever. Finally she finishes and takes the others off to school. I really miss going, not because I had much in the way of friends there, but I like it, and now I'll have to finish school late, and stay home with Pauline and the older girls have told me in no uncertain terms that they don't want me tagging after them all the time. I get up to go to my room, then Philomena says, ''Evelyn! Can you bring up the dishes? I'll wash them, and Philomena will dry them and give them to you to put away.'' I nod and get to it. 

      When we have finished Pauline comes back. ''Why the long face, Evelyn?'' She asks in a joking tone. Well, does she expect me to be happy when I'm stuck home all day with no-one except Mrs. Lorry and girls who don't want to be with me, have a broken arm, can't go to school, and my father is away at war? I glare at her. ''What do you think?'' She just goes off to clean the little one's bedrooms for them without answering. I'm putting away the porridge pot, Susanna and Philomena are gone, and then I spot something glistening in the back of the cupboard. I put the pot away and pull it out. It's Mrs. Lorry's ring! I look at it. It's beautiful and reflects little bits of light all over the room. ''What are you doing Evelyn!?'' Pauline's voice says suddenly. I jump violently. ''I found Mrs. Lorry's ring! Someone's put it in the pot cupboard. Who do you think it was?'' ''You should know,'' she replies. I sigh. I go and give it to Mrs. Lorry. She is delighted, then I remember something and tell her about John sleepwalking into the kitchen the night before it disappeared. She agrees that John probably hid it in his sleep. I giggle, then go upstairs to tidy my bedroom. 

      The others are back from school and we're eating dinner. ''I heard that the Pope is really ill,'' Joey says. ''Marie, my friend from boarding school, was from Rome and she said that Pius X is a saint,'' Susanna says. ''We should pray for him, because after all, if it wasn't for him we couldn't receive Communion for years,'' Anna says. I nod. Father, in one of his letters while on the honey-moon, said that Pope Pius X was very sad because he thought a war was coming. It must be this war. He was right, and he's cured people, so I think he's definitely a saint. Then StepMama says that we have to get our bunker ready with food and blankets and things in case of bombing, and I realize just how close the war is, how terrifying, how real.

 I'm in bed and for once I feel really sleepy and fall asleep almost immediately, but not before I say three Hail Mary's for Father and Pierre and the Pope and the war.

 I wake up to the sound of crying. It's a little past midnight. Pauline is sitting up in bed and sobbing. I go over to her. ''Pauline? What's up?'' ''I'm worrying about Pierre, OK?'' ''I'm worried about Father too. Don't worry, they'll be fine.'' I hope. Pauline eventually stops sniffing and climbs back into bed with a muffled thanks. I do the same.