Chapter
20 March 1943
Ellie
was lied on the sofa, a cool wet cloth over her forehead, only days away from
giving birth
"Louis
stop it" Chrissie shouted at her brother as they walked into the living
room,
"I'm
not doing anything" Louis continued to punch Chrissie as he did before
"Louis"
Chrissie shouted
"Stop
it you two" Ellie said
"Come
on Chrissie, fight back"
"Louis
stop"
"That
is enough" Ellie raised her voice and sat up "I am exhausted, I am
over heated and I don't need any of this right now, so no more arguing and no
more fighting. Now I am about to have a baby and you two are driving me crazy.
Enough is enough" Chrissie and Louis looked at each other
"Sorry
Ellie" they both said
"That's
Ok, now I'm going to lie down upstairs" she got up and headed towards the
stairs,
"Ow,
oh god, oh my god, ahhh" Ellie screamed in pain
"Ellie,
Ellie are you ok" Chrissie and Louis came running out of the living room
"No
I'm not, ow, ow, ow" Ellie breathed heavily "I think, I think I'm in
labour, ow"
"You're
having the baby now, this is so exciting" Chrissie jumped up and down
excitedly
"Ok,
Ok Chrissie stop, ow" she breathed in and out several times "Chrissie
I need you to go get Ian, oh, ow, Louis call the doctor...number on
fridge...ahh" Ellie screamed in pain. Chrissie ran out the door to find
Ian running towards the house,
"Chrissie
I heard screaming, what's going on" he asked
"Ellie's
having the baby now" Chrissie said, Ian ran into the house, Ellie was
still on the stairs
"Ellie
breath ok, that's it, let's get you upstairs" Ian helped Ellie up the
stairs,
"Hello
this is Louis Pickard, my sister Ellie Dinsdale is having her baby" Louis
said down the phone,
"Ellie's
having the baby now, yes" Lindsey said standing on the doorway,
"Louis
is the midwife on her way" Ian shouted from the top of the stairs
"Yes
they are" Louis put the phone down
"Ok
bring them straight up when they get here" Ellie screamed from the
bedroom.
The
midwives arrived half an hour later and were shown straight upstairs. Three
hours later they left, Ian came into the living room.
"So
who wants to meet the new baby" They all looked at each other, smiled and
ran upstairs, Ian followed.
They
all quietly walked into Ellie's room. She was sat in bed her hair still damp
from sweating whilst giving birth, in her arms laid a little baby starring up
at her, wriggling a little and making cute little noises. They all gathered
around her bed,
"So
cute" Chrissie said
"Is
the baby a boy or a girl" Lindsey asked
"A
baby girl" Ellie replied smiling down at her daughter
"I'll
send a letter to your mother and let her know and I'll find out where Martin is
so you can send a picture and a letter to him" Ian left the room
"We
don't have a camera" Lindsey stated
"Actually
we do, there's one in Dads old study" Ellie replied
"Dad
has a camera" Louis looked surprised
"Yes,
it will need cleaning but it should still work, Dad always looked after
it" The baby started to cry "Lindsey past me a cushion will you"
Lindsey
pasted her a cushion and Ellie placed it under the arm that was holding the
baby, undid her top and started to nurse her baby,
"Come
on sweetheart it's dinner time" after a few minutes her daughter started
feeding,
"Why
is she sucking on your breast" Chrissie asked
"Because
it how you feed a newborn baby, I can't believe she's latched on so
quick" Ellie smiled
"Why"
Louis asked
"The
midwife told me not every baby latches on first time, sometimes it's takes a
few tries" Ellie answered
"What
are you going to name her" Lindsey asked
"I
don't know yet, I'm still thinking" Ellie said smiling down at her
daughter
"I'm home" Jennifer yelled
walking through the door, the house was silent "Hello, anybody" the
house still silent. She wondered around looking for everyone then went
upstairs. She heard voices coming from Ellie's room, she walked in, Ellie was
sat at her dressing table whilst everyone else sat on her bed,
"Hello,
I was wondering where you all where" she said walking over to Ellie
"What are you writing" she asked
"A
letter to Martin" Ellie put down her pen and stood up,
"How's
the baby" Jennifer asked
"Fine,
in fact" Ellie walked over to the bed and picked up the little baby
Chrissie was holding "Say hello to your little baby niece"
"Oh
my god you had the baby, oh she is so cute, can I hold her" Jennifer's
voice went all high and squeaky
"Of
course Jenny" Ellie handed the baby over to her
"Aww,
she is so beautiful, what's her name"
"I
haven't got one yet, I don't know what to choose, there are so many names like
Brenda, Dorothy, Pamela, Mary, Alice and I don't like any of them, are you
listening" Jennifer had been cooing over the baby as Ellie had been
talking
"Yes
of course I'm listening, you don't like any of the names"
"Can
I hold the baby now, I was meant to be next" Lindsey asked
"In
a minute sweetie" Ian told her
"I
may have a name for her" Jennifer said rocking the baby back and forth
"What
names that" Ellie asked
"Bonnie"
"Bonnie"
Ellie thought about it for a minute "Bonnie Dinsdale, I like it" She
looked up at Jennifer "how did you come up with that" she asked
"Well
it was the name of Mrs Latham's daughter, here you go Lindsey" Jennifer
handed the baby to Lindsey
"How
do you know that Jenny" Chrissie asked
"She
came into the shop today after teaching at the other farm, I asked, she told
me"
"Well
I like the name Bonnie and now I have the name she kind of looks like a Bonnie,
Hello Bonnie" Ellie leaned over to talk to her daughter who smiled when
she heard her name.
"Look
at this mess, we're never going to find the camera in here" Chrissie said
as she stood in the doorway to her father's study with Lindsey
"This
is worse than the mess Dad made when the doctor told him Mum had died"
They both stared at the mess
"Well
don't just stand there girls, the cameras not going to find itself. I've
finished my letter, all I need now is a photo to send...Whoa I forgot how messy
it was in here" Ellie joined Chrissie and Lindsey at the door, Bonnie in
her arms,
"You
think" Chrissie and Lindsey said together
"This
is certainly no place for a new born baby, good luck girls" and with that
Ellie turned and walked to the living room
"We're
never going to find the camera in here"
"I
know Lindsey I've already said that"
"How's it going girls" Ian
entered the study. Lindsey and Chrissie stared at him unimpressed "not
good then" he continued
"You
try looking for a camera in this mess" Lindsey put a pile of papers on the
table whilst Chrissie was looking though draws,
"We've
been looking for two hours and found nothing but papers, oh I found it"
Chrissie held up the camera. A hour and a half later Ian and Louis had locked
themselves in the darkroom Patrick had created years ago,
"I
didn't know Dad had a darkroom" Chrissie said as she sat on the sofa
holding baby Bonnie
"Dad
created it when we first moved here at the end of the twenties, just before
Louis was born. Dad always had a keen interest in photography, Ooo look at this
picture of Louis as a baby" Ellie showed her a picture of Louis as she
looked though the photo albums that had been found in the study,
"Haha
he was chubby. Why did we move here in the first place" she asked
"Dad
inherited the farm when his Dad died"
"Dad
grew up here"
"Yes
he did and the village we know today didn't exists when dad was a kid just a
little shop in the middle of nowhere. Granddad was a big softy you know, didn't
have the heart to kill his animals for meat so he turned it into a dairy farm,
it was Dad who started selling to the meat farm to make a bit more money, after
Granddad changed the farm they barely made ends meet, we use to have lots of
animals, pigs, horses, lots more chickens but granddad sold them on to make money
and only left us with cows, sheep and the four chickens" Ellie was looking
at photos of the farm in its former glory "It took Dad years to get the
farm to the way it is now then he went to war, we don't even grow corn or wheat
in the fields anymore"
"I
didn't know any of this" Chrissie said sadly
"It's
ok, you are young after all"
"I
know but dad's not here to tell me the rest of it"
"I
know but I know most of it, I can always tell you, I know it's not the same as
Dad but at least you get to hear it"
Chrissie
smiled.
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