Wingspan – Chapter 4

It was beginning to get dark when Diana realised that she must have been walking for over 5 miles now. She had no idea where she was – she could see the airfield in the distance – she supposed that she was three or four miles away from the RAF station, as she knew that the airfield had to be at least a mile square in size. With no other options apart from returning home, and something inside Diana had snapped. No longer was she going to suffer demurely in silence! She dearly loved her mother and even her sister, but by keeping everything normal, she did them more harm than good. At least, that’s what Diana reasoned to herself, trying to allay her fears that she was simply being selfish.
As the light from the watchman’s tin hut grew stronger, Diana felt almost cheerful. At last, she had room to think and to feel! At last, she felt free! She luckily had some money with her, as she had taken her purse with her (meagre) savings in it in case it was needed in the search for Iris; as it happened, she could now spend that money on herself. She intended to ask the watchman for directions to the nearest inn, where she would spend the night and send a telegram home in the morning – the police station and Sam’s house were connected to the telephone system, but she would rather not go through there. She was coming up the path to the watchman’s tin hut when she heard a woman’s laugh coming from within. Diana froze where she was; she turned to leave, but as she did the door opened and a woman with wild, curly hair and a rosy complexion was standing there with a well-loved letter in her hand.

“What do you want, love? Sorry if I startled you; come in, you’ll catch your death out there!” The woman was dressed in a dark-coloured uniform; the light was too poor to make it out clearly. Diana hesitated for a moment (remembering what her mother had taught her about trusting strangers) but the chill wind whistling in her ears made her relent, and follow the strange woman into her little hut. Once Diana was inside, the glow from the lamps told her that this curly-haired, cheerful-looking woman was in fact the watchman; or watchwoman, rather. Astonished that there might be another woman in the country who shared her fascination with aeroplanes, and that the woman might actually be employed in that area, she was lost for words. Her train of thought was broken by the woman’s chirpy voice; she didn’t sound as if she was from this area – perhaps from up in the North, somewhere? “Would you like some tea, duck? It’s proper chilly out there now! What did you say your name was?” the woman was asking her.

“I hadn’t said – it’s Diana, Diana Walker.”

“I’m Sally, Sally Parkes and I’m the watchwoman here – well, if you hadn’t already guessed! What were you after?”

“I was wondering if you could tell me where the nearest inn was – I’m afraid I’ve been rather silly, not getting home before dark and I need somewhere to spend the night. You see I-I’m…I’m – oh, oh!” Diana cried, as she broke down into floods of tears, Sally putting her arms around her and clucking in a motherly fashion. “There, there love, it can’t be all that bad! Why, you’re dressed so nice and you’ve got such good manners, you must have been brought up right; it can’t be your ma and pa that’s made you so upset! Who or what has got you into such a state?”

“It’s my sister! She’s a good-for-nothing layabout and I can’t stand living with her!” Diana hiccupped and wiped her now reddened eyes. “Do you know, she stayed out all night and came home blind drunk! I couldn’t believe it, she’s a disgrace to our family! I know I’m no saint but I’d never behave like that!”

“Well love, in a way you are,” Sally answered, cautiously. “You may not be sozzled but you’re planning on staying out all night, aren’t you? Your poor mother will still worry, and I don’t think your sister’s behaviour will be changed by you making the situation at home even more vexing; she’s using wild living to escape something, though what it is I couldn’t tell you.” Sally squeezed Diana’s arm tenderly and smiled at her. “I understand why you’re so angry at your sister, love, but this isn’t the way to solve your problems. Now, I say that you finish your tea and head back home. Apologise to your mother for storming out the way you did, go to bed and straighten your problems out in the morning. There’s nothing like sleeping on a predicament to bring some better perception on how to deal with it!” Diana nodded, drained her teacup and stood up, smoothing out her wrinkled clothes. She made a funny, sudden gesture; however, she then gave in to her feelings, giving Sally a hug. Sally looked startled at first but then relaxed, hugging Sally back. “You’re a good girl, Diana; I know you won’t turn out like your sister. Your sister isn’t as lucky as you, however; she needs your compassion. Promise me you’ll come back and see me once you’ve made things right again?” Diana smiled at her. “Of course! I am such a silly girl, running away! You’ve given me such wise advice; I shall definitely come back once everything has settled down, and I’m sure we will become fast friends!” Diana gave Sally another squeeze, before adjusting her coat and striding out into the cool, dark night.

Wingspan – Chapter 3

Diana hurried down the street and rapped smartly on the door, pulling away a few flakes of peeling blue paint as she did. Her friend Sam opened the door, rubbing his eyes sleepily. Sam worked down at Hollis’ farm, and it was harvest time so the lads were kept working until late into the night. He was a gentle giant of a boy, seventeen years old and a strapping young man already. Soft strawberry blond hair was now beginning to get floppy as Sam’s yearly May-day crew cut was growing out. Fine ginger bristles were surrounding his mouth, and he was beginning to gain some muscle to fill out his once gangly frame. Diana’s determined, yet frightened hazel eyes met Sam’s bright blue ones and she broke down, sobbing onto a startled Sam’s shirt. “Di! Whatever’s the matter?” he cried, patting her awkwardly on the back. “Oh Sam, Sam, it’s the most terrible thing! Iris has run away!” she replied, gulping back tears and clumsily wiping her eyes.
“Run away! Whatever for? She’s not in trouble, is she?”
“No more than usual,” Diana sighed. “No, Mother and I have no idea why she’s gone – all we know is that her bed was empty this morning. Mother has gone to alert Sergeant Davis to the situation, and I came to you to see if you could help me look for her. I know you have your bicycle – I don’t suppose you could spare it?” Diana asked, uncertainly. “Of course I can help! Come in, I’ll get you some tea; you look like you need it! I’ll grab my things and then we can go and look for her,” Sam replied, a note of anxiety in his voice now.

He pulled Diana into the house and sat her down at the scrubbed kitchen table. Sam lived in the house with his ailing, bed-bound mother; since his father died, he was now the sole breadwinner. The vicar’s daughter came twice a week to clean and keep the house in order – there had been talk of Sam and her marrying, but Diana refused to believe it. Sam had clearly been preparing breakfast – the tea in the pot was still hot, and Diana poured herself a cup, adding plenty of milk and sugar. Sam clearly knew her well; she had needed it. She could hear him bustling round the house, getting his things together and finding the key to his bicycle chain. He was probably her best friend in the village, although Diana being Diana, she was far too private to allow anyone to know her too well. She loved Sam like the brother she had never had – and seeing how her own flesh-and-blood sister had turned out, she was wary of getting to close to Sam, no matter how lovely he was. And he was lovely! After her father had died nigh on three years ago, he was the only one who truly understood, and was invaluable in helping Diana and her family keep going.

“Sam? Sam?” an anxious voice called out. It was Sam’s mother, Mrs Wexford. Diana drained her cup of tea, and rounded the corner into Mrs Wexford’s room. A delicate, frail old lady, her snowy hair framed her rosy, but wrinkled face; her veined and knotted hands perched like elderly birds on top of the patchwork quilt. “Mrs Wexford, ma’am! Sam is just getting ready to help me on an errand, we will be back soon. Do you need anything?” Diana enquired. “Why hello, dear! I was just wondering if Sam could fetch me some tea; it is dreadfully cold in here!” the old lady replied. Diana privately thought that it was very warm in the room, but she knew that elderly people were wont to get colder than their younger counterparts, so she told Mrs Wexford that she would be happy to fetch a cup of tea. On returning to the room with the tea, she heard such a shout from the lane that she nearly dropped the cup! She quickly handed Mrs Wexford her tea and hurried outside.

To her horror, she saw her errant sister not dead in a ditch or captured by pirates, but dressed in a most immodest sequinned number and reeking of vodka. Iris was singing one of those vulgar new dance-tunes at the top of her voice and Diana could see that her face was painted – she looked like a strumpet! Without a second thought, she strode over to her sister and gave her a good clip round the ear. “Diana!” Iris screeched. “What are you doing? I’m only having fuhhn,” Iris slurred. “You are drunk,” Diana hissed. “You have made a fool of yourself and our family. How can you be so selfish?”

“At least I enjoy myself! You just work, work, work – Saint Diana, no one could work as hard as you!”

“Get back to the house so that our mother can stop worrying herself silly! Even I was terrified that you’d been attacked or worse. Shows what a fool I was to worry about you!” Diana shouted. She promptly turned on her heel, and marched right out of the village, not looking over her shoulder at her bedraggled sister (who had now made her way to their house), not even once.

Wingspan – Chapter 2

As Diana woke to the sound of the milkman delivering their daily pints, hooves from the handsome bay horse hammering a tattoo across the cobbled street, she noticed that the room next to her was eerily silent. Iris occupied that bedroom, and as she was late to rise of a morning, Diana could usually hear her snoring as she got herself ready for the day. However, today there was no noise at all. Slipping on her house-coat, Diana padded across the hallway to her sister’s room and gave the door a sharp rap. Silence. Worrying that Iris had got hold of some dreadful, potent home-brewed vodka and was passed out (or worse), Diana turned the handle and let herself into the room. Iris’ bed was suspiciously neat and tidy, and there were no discarded stockings or film-star magazines or cigarettes littering the floor. Instead, there was simply a tatty paperback on the bedside table (Diana rolled her eyes at the folded page instead of a bookmark) and a pillow had hastily been stuffed into the bed so as to look like a sleeping person. Realising that her sister’s bed had not been slept in that night, Diana dashed down the hallway to her mother’s room and hammered on the door.

“Mother!”

“Hmm?” Mrs Walker yawned. “What is it, dear?”

“Iris has been out all night!” Diana cried, real fear for her sister’s safety creeping into her mind for the first time. Her mother opened the door, curls in disarray all around her careworn face. Her eyes wide with apprehension, she looked at her eldest daughter in shock. “What do you mean, ‘out all night’?” Mrs Walker answered worriedly. Iris had been known to go to some wild parties, but she had always been home before morning until now! Diana looked truly frightened now. “Mother, I just checked her room when I didn’t hear her in there this morning! Her bed has not been slept in, and she’s stuffed a pillow into her bed so she clearly intended for this to happen! That wicked girl!” Diana exclaimed angrily as she cursed her sister for being such an ungrateful wretch.

“Diana!” her mother cried out in shock. “Your sister is missing! This is no time for bitterness or jealousy – we must find her. I shall contact the police; you look in her room to see if there are any clues to her whereabouts.” Glancing at the fierce look on her daughter’s face, Mrs Walker cried “Don’t for one moment think that I am not angry with Iris! She is still my daughter and your sister, however, and I would forget all this anger in a moment if she would only come home safe and sound!” Mrs Walker cut herself off sharply, before bursting into violent tears. Diana looked shamefaced, and put her arms around her mother. “There there, Mother: I am sure that we will find Iris! I am just so cross with the silly goose for putting us through such hurt, time and again! I shall always love her for she is my sister, even if I occasionally want to box her ears!” Mrs Walker sniffed and wiped her eyes on the corner of her robe, before hugging Diana and going back into her room. “I shall get dressed,” she said, “and then I shall contact Sergeant Davis at the police station. We will find that girl!”

Wingspan – Chapter 1

Diana Walker looked out at the airfield and sighed. Her sister was playing some of that new American dance-band music much too loudly in the next room, and between that and the housekeeper singing maudlin Irish ballads whilst battling with the laundry it was difficult to hear herself think. ‘Stupid family, stupid house!’ she cried, and shut herself out of the house with a slam of the door. She tramped through the kitchen garden in a huff, not even bothering to avoid crunching snails underneath her tough boots as she usually did. She worked in an ironmonger’s four days a week and she loathed having to leave her little realm of methodical, ordered, interesting occupation every Friday. Her employer, Mr Newman, was an efficient little man with a neat moustache and kept his shop in a similarly shipshape manner. It was a world away from her cluttered shambles of a home – she could hardly believe that they both resided on the same planet, let alone the same village. Unfortunately every week as Mr Newman prepared for his Shabbat day of rest, Diana had to prepare for chaos.

Her sister Iris, unfortunately, did not share Diana’s taste for the calm and tidy. Whilst Diana’s room had a book-case full of the classics and a few quality modern novels, and some prints of Mr Burne-Jones’ serene stained-glass angels on the walls, entering Iris’ cosy attic room was like visiting some souk or bazaar from a far-off land. Apart from the usual debris of young women such as discarded stockings and film-star magazines and those awful cigarettes girls everywhere now seemed to smoke, Iris had somehow accumulated a quantity of more unusual bedroom décor such as silk damask throws, Chinese paper lanterns, a comb with an elaborate ivory handle, and the most beautiful fox-fur stole. Diana didn’t dare ask how Iris how she had got all of these things – she suspected that she wouldn’t like the answer very much. Whilst Diana worked for most of the week at her (admittedly most enjoyable) job, Iris was at an expensive finishing school – the latest attempt by their poor mother to knock some sense into the silly girl, and likely to use up the last of what little money they had saved. Iris had been thrown out of her boarding school for ‘inappropriate behaviour’, and again Diana dreaded to think what that entailed.

Oh Mother. She was such a dear, kind woman but Diana wondered (impertinently she supposed) if what Iris needed more than money lavished on her air-headed ways wasn’t simply some tough love. Diana simply could not comprehend how two sisters could be innately so different – if she could earn a wage, and live up to her responsibilities, why could Iris not do the same? There had been nothing stopping her from working hard at school and achieving something, rather than frittering away her (admittedly considerable) talents on, from what had been whispered around the village, cocktails, jazz and dissolute living. Her mother was too proud to take up work, protesting that ladies of her class simply did not do such a thing, leaving Diana to bring home the bacon – of course, there was never any talk of Iris doing the same. Unless something changed, they would have to let the housekeeper go and live in much reduced circumstances, and Diana shuddered at the thought of her father seeing them in such a situation. No, she thought as she walked along the path to the airfield, not caring that aeroplanes circled just a few miles away; no, she could not let her family fall into ruin! Her sister was worrying wild to say the least, but she was not a total degenerate, and certainly Diana could not tolerate the thought of ladies of their standing living in a hovel.

Rain started to fall, spotting her grey worsted coat with little dark patches and speckling her skirts. Mud was caking her boots, but Diana cared very little about any of those things. She had never been particularly concerned about her appearance – being clean and tidy was good enough for her, and she was not as bothered as she should be when that didn’t happen. She cared a lot more about the state of her mind and soul than her body – she took pains to read widely, though avoiding the cheaper sort of novel that was so popular at that time. Unlike her sister, she made the effort to exercise the muscle of her mind that the Good Lord gave her, and was unruffled by any accusations that she was a blue-stocking. If she was, then that was better than being a debauched layabout! Diana paused for a moment to watch the aeroplanes soar above her. She had always admired their sleek birdlike forms, their neat tails, their graceful wings. How she longed to be as free as they were! Though they were but wood and metal, they were truly alive in their liberated existence – free to be what they were created to be, flying in the boundless blue. If only she could do that! Then shame crept into her heart. How selfish she was – she could not abandon her family simply on the whims of a foolish daydream! But still those feelings of being caged like a songbird persisted, and that night she could not sleep for thinking about them.

Hello world!

Hi, this is my NaNoWriMo Blog! I will be posting about my successes and defeats along the way, and hopefully some excerpts from my novel!