"You have your comb, don't you?" Mum asked, spitting on her handkerchief and rubbing it against my cheek.
"Yes. I have the comb, my stockings, my plimsolls and at least five handkerchiefs. I'll be fine, I don't need your fussing."
I pushed her hand away and rubbed the spittle from my cheek, rolling my eyes and turning away from her. The platform thronged with people. Mother's were triple-checking suitcases and labels, children were arching their necks in search of their friends or clinging onto their mother in hopes they could stay behind. Amongst the group, I spotted a few of my school friends who appeared itching to escape the embarrassing clasp of their mother's.
None of us expected to be gone for too long, and the fact that they had asked us to pack so little only confirmed that. I expected to be back home within the week and didn't quite understand why Mum had kicked up such a fuss over whether I had packed everything or if I had even the slightest speck of dust on my cheek. She had even made sure I had worn my best white blouse and pleated skirt along with a bow in my hair. The collar of the blouse dug into my throat and the bow made me feel like a child.
It felt like a lot for a train ride to the country and a few days away from home, but Mum thought it would be more than that. Of course, the war had been on the tip of everyone's tongues for months, and the evacuation order only confirmed what many people had already suspected. War was on the horizon, and the government thought it might get a little too close to home. Because of the lightness of my suitcase, I suspected they thought we would only be at war for a few days.
"Remember to be polite, say please and thank you, and to write to me. I want to hear everything about your stay and the people you're billeted with. No getting into trouble or causing fights, I need you to be on your best behaviour," Mum said. She brushed her hand over my blouse, trying to remove dirt that wasn't even there.
"Stop fussing, Mum." I pushed her hands off me. "I'll be fine. I'm a big girl, remember?"
"I know, it's just that this is a big deal and I don't want you getting yourself into trouble."
"I won't. I promise." I glanced around. "I should find out what part of the train I'm on, we'll probably be leaving soon so we can get there by dusk."
"Alright. Well, remember I love you, Sybil, remember to write, and I'll see you soon."
Mum pulled me in for a hug, her arms wrapping around my neck. She squeezed like she never wanted to let me go, and almost to where she started to cut off my air supply. I hugged her back, but only lightly, trying not to make eye contact with anyone standing on the platform. After a few seconds, I untangled her arms from around my neck and stepped backwards.
"Yes, you will. And I'll write, promise. Now I have to go."
"Be safe, I love you."
"I know."
To stop Mum from hugging me again, and embarrass me even more than she already had, I grabbed my suitcase from the ground and made my way through the crowd of people towards the back of the train. When I had moved far enough away from Mum, I pulled the bow out of my hair so I could stop looking like a child and undid the top button of my collar to breathe a little and stop my collar from digging in. Although I wanted to make a decent first impression on whoever I might be staying with, I wasn't going to be choked before we even got on the train.
I moved through the crowd to join a few of my friends, Eva, Enid and Mark, who were hanging around near the back of the train and waiting for the order for us to get on board. The only good thing about this evacuation was that I wouldn't be going on my own. Our entire class was going to be travelling together and most likely staying in the same area so we would at least know some people. Everyone else and everything would be completely new.
Eva, Enid and Mark also had their suitcases, gas masks and the labels used to keep track and identify us. None of them wore their Sunday best with a bow shoved down the band of their skirt to keep it hidden.
"Mum said not to treat the evacuation as a holiday, but the only holiday we've been on was to Brighton when I was five and that was on a bus. This is just an extended holiday," Mark said, bouncing on the balls of his feet.
"It's not really extended, we'll be back within the week," I said.
"You think the war will be over in a week, Sybil?"
"No, I just don't think it's necessary to send us away. The Great War stayed in mainland Europe, I reckon this one will be the same."
"Still, a week away from Mum is still a holiday as far as I'm concerned. I just wish Mr Martin wasn't coming. A holiday with the headmaster doesn't seem all that fun."
"If he makes us write lines, I'm getting on the train back," Eva said, laughing.
She arched her neck around and we all followed her eye line to Mr Martin, who stood near the front of the train with the conductor and several of the Women's Voluntary Services that were in charge of us. Mr Martin wore his usual brown suit and rounded spectacles that he always kept just on the tip of his nose so that he could peer down at people. He was the sort of man to get excited over a fresh pencil and not someone we wanted to be stuck with for a week whilst out in the middle of nowhere.
I looked around the platform again, trying to count just how many children they had gathered to move out of the city before the declaration of war came. Many of them were young children who clung to the legs of their mothers, tears streaming down their faces and begging for them to come too. Some of them were lucky to be travelling with their siblings, others would go with only their classmates and teachers for company. I liked the idea of a holiday away with only my friends — minus the headteacher.
"Hello everyone! Please listen carefully!" a voice said over the loudspeaker. "If you are not travelling with your child, we ask that you please leave the platform. Children, please line up with your school and be prepared to board the train!"
"If I end up sitting next to Mr Martin, I won't make it the entire train ride. There are only so many times he can explain what each one of his pencils is used for. No man needs that many pencils," Mark said.
"We'll get seats together. Come on." Enid grabbed Marks' hand and dragged him through the crowd of people towards the line that had started to form behind Mr Martin.
"Those two get more sickening with each passing day," Eva said. She shook her head and looped her arm through mine, the two of us moving through the crowd to the line.
The platform thinned, with parents leaving their children and others off to other platforms to find their school teachers. Almost every school in our area had gathered at the train station for evacuation for the country before they had even declared war. It looked like such a large undertaking, but a completely unnecessary one as far as I was concerned. There wouldn't be any children left in the city if they kept this up.
They lined our school up towards the back of the train with a school for younger children towards the front. Many of the younger ones were still crying, their noses running and their cheeks flushed from the screaming. Their teachers were running up and down the line with handkerchiefs, cleaning snotty noses and encouraging them to think of it as more of a holiday than the last time they might see their parents. They were being told to treat it as a holiday and we were told to treat it as anything but.
"It's not fair that the younger ones get to treat this as a holiday and we don't," I said to Eva, still staring at the little ones.
"Let's face it, they'll get to continue with school and we won't. We're not required to stay in school anymore, so we'll probably be roped in to help since all the young men will be shipped off to war. We're fourteen and our childhood is over," Eva said.
"Mum wanted me to sit for the school certificate in a few years."
"I'm sure you can do it after the war."
"Maybe. This is still a holiday, even if we have to clean up after the cows."
"I'd take cow manure over Mr Kelly's Mathematics lessons any day of the week."
"At least you're good at Mathematics."
"Still, the man had one tone — boring. He probably puts himself to sleep." Eva cleared her throat. "And to find the square root of four, we must ... we must ..." She rolled her head backwards and snored loudly.
I laughed, which quickly turned into a snort so that I had to slap my hands over my face to suppress the giggling and to stop myself from snorting again. Eva couldn't meet my eye without the two of us collapsing in a fit of giggles. Mark and Enid, who were in front of us in the line, were also shaking from laughter but they were doing a better job at concealing it then we were. At the front of the line, Mr Martin peered around the students in front of us and pulled a face at the sight of us showing him up. He should have been used to it.
After a little while, Mr Martin waved us onto the train, ticking us all off on his list to make sure we were all there. The man loved lists the same way he loved pencils, and the two went hand in hand. He waved the four of us on board, offering a look of disapproval for our behaviour in front of the other students as we passed him. Eva glanced at me when she climbed on board and I had to look away before I started laughing and Mr Martin forced me to sit with him.
We found a group of seats near each other and I placed my suitcase on the floor, but close enough so I could reach it when I got hungry. Mum had made a stack of sandwiches for me to eat on the train ride down there, and I intended to start eating them the moment we left the platform. I could hear the laughter and joking from the front of the train, the younger ones clearly having got over their shock the moment they stepped foot on the train. Most of us had never been on a train before.
"Remember, you are all representatives of the school and you must behave with dignity and respect not just on this train but during the time you will be away, however long that might be. You are to be polite, respectful and above all else, thankful that these people have offered their homes to you in these otherwise trying times. I do not want to hear reports of vandalism, dangerous activity, or abhorrent behaviour towards anyone. Is that understood?" Mr Martin asked, standing at the front of the carriage and looking down at us all over his glasses.
"Yes, Mr Martin," we echoed.
"Good. These are going to be hard times for everyone and as some of our older children, you are expected to help where you can and do your bit to thank those who are kindly offering in order to help you. One person's bad behaviour will reflect on all of you and all of those who are having to leave their families before the outbreak of war. You must make your family proud of you through your actions whilst away."
Mark looked at us and rolled his eyes. "Two bob someone gets in trouble the second we arrive," he whispered.
"My money's on Oliver," Eva said, turning towards the back of the train where Oliver had started elbowing Paul.
"That's a bet you know you're going to win, Mark. Oliver always breaks the rules," I said.
"That's why I made the bet. More money for me."
I shook my head and slowly reached down to my suitcase without making any noise. The longer Mr Martin talked, the hungrier I became, and I could almost smell Mum's sandwiches through the battered leather. Mr Martin was too busy talking to notice me unlatch the suitcase and pull out the paper bag that held a large array of sandwiches. I tried to disguise the rustling of the bag when I closed the suitcase and placed them on my lap. Enid looked at me and raised an eyebrow.
"Right, now that that's done, we should be leaving soon," Mr Martin said.
"Finally."
With that, a loud whistle blew, and the train pulled forward, chugging out of the station and taking all of us to the middle of nowhere.
~~~
A/N - Hello and welome to my brand new Historical Fiction! I'm so excited for this one and I hope you guys will feel the same way once we get into the meat of the story!
First chapter thoughts? What do you think of Sybil? Or any of the other characters for that matter.
Let me know in the comments and don't forget to vote if you enjoyed! You can add the story to your reading list so you never miss an update!
First Published - March 16th, 2020