Last Updated on September 30, 2024 by Tom Kane
Chapter Three
Like Father, Like Daughter
Catterick Garrison, England, June 1926
“Why are we leaving?” The girl’s question, under normal circumstances, would have been valid, but there was nothing normal about the way the British army worked. You did as you were told and you went where they sent you. And if it meant uprooting your family, so be it.
The girl’s mother smiled at her daughter, in that indulgent way mothers do. “Because the army wants daddy to work in Egypt.”
The girl sighed. She sat next to her mother on the family sofa in their army supplied house in Catterick. She looked up at her mother and smiled back. Then she looked at her father and scowled. “Why don’t you leave the army and then we can stay here.”
“It’s not as simple as that, Jessie. Besides, the army owns this house. So even if I left the army we would have to move.”
“We can live in France,” Jessie said.
“It won’t be for long, Jessie,” her mother said.
“But we liked it in France,” Jessie said, almost pleading.
“The army…”
“It’s always the army, daddy.”
“That’s who pays my wages and lets us buy such a lovely house in France.”
Jessie scowled, thoughts racing through her head, desperately trying to think of something that would make the army see sense and let them stay in Catterick. But nothing came to her.
“When are we leaving?”
Jessie’s mother stroked her daughter’s arm. “At the end of the week. And as a special surprise, your uncle Nev will be joining us in Egypt later in the year.”
Jessie almost squealed with excitement. “Will he live with us,” she shouted.
Albert smiled. “No, he will have his own quarters. But he won’t be far away, so you’ll see a lot of him.”
Jessie clapped her hand excitedly.
“Now, we have almost finished packing everything away,” Ruth Fordham said, “and in a week we will take a train to Liverpool. We sail on 15th June on The Empress and disembark at Aboukir Bay, Alexandria, in Egypt. Then we travel for a few hours overland to Cairo. It’s going to be exciting, Jessie. A new country. New people. And you will make lots of new friends at the English school in Cairo.”
Jessie looked at her mother, then again at her father. The excitement of seeing her uncle again had passed. “I think I want to go to bed. I’m tired.”
After Jessie left the room to go to the bathroom, her father moved over to sit next to his wife.
“Is it me, Ruth?”
“What do you mean.”
“It is so tiring, just talking to the girl. And she always runs away when things get tough. She never stands her ground.”
Ruth Fordham smiled. “She’s single minded, just like her father. As for not standing her ground, she did what any general would do when facing overwhelming odds. Retreat, re-group and fight another day. She never surrenders, just moves sideways away from the issue, for a while.”
“Not at all like you then.”
“No, she’s her father’s girl. And I’ll bet you were the same at her age.”
Albert Fordham kissed his wife on the cheek. “Time for bed, I think. We have a busy week ahead of us.”
Copyright © Tom Kane 2022
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Chapters 1-2: http://fictionbooks.online/walking-away-from-midnight-sample-chapters-1-2
Chapter 3: http://fictionbooks.online/historical-fiction-walking-away-from-midnight-sample-chapter-3
