"Now come here you little monster!" Trixie laughed, trying to keep her voice down as her charge for the afternoon ran hell for leather down the corridor, passing Sister Julienne, who had momentarily stepped from her office to stretch her legs. The Sister smiled indulgently at the pair, not concerned with the giggling child.
"Sorry Sister!" Trixie smiled, coming to a very speedy halt keeping an eye on Freddie who had stopped at the locked door in the garden realising his path was blocked. "He escaped from the sitting room!"
"Its quite alright" the Sister replied. "It's a joy to hear a child's laughter around Nonnatus, but I would be cautious though as Sister Evangelina has one of her heads and has gone for a nap".
"Chummy should be back soon, Sister" Trixie responded, knowing she needed to keep the boy quiet for a little while at least until he could be returned into his mother's care.
Sister Julienne sighed quietly. "I do feel so terrible having to ask her to come in just for a few hours in the afternoon on her day off but with everything that has been going on here recently…."
Trixie smiled and nodded. "I might take him up to the park to see the ducks" she said, as Freddie walked back towards her and took her hand. "Shall we go and see the ducks instead?" she asked. Chummy used to walk him for miles in his pram and the duck pond had always been one of his favourite places. If she remembered rightly it was the place he took his first steps on his own.
"'es please" he replied.
"Do you think you are well enough Nurse?" the Sister interjected, noting the Nurse still looked a little pale and those few pounds she had lost through illness had not started to go back on again yet.
"Oh yes Sister. I feel so much better today and the fresh air will do me no end of good". Trixie was the reason Chummy was in work on her day off. A nasty bout of the 'flu had kept her confined indoors between Nonnatus and the Vicarage but now, on the mend but still not well enough to see patients, she was on baby sitting duties for her friend. "I need to get back on my feet and fighting fit again!"
"Very well" Sister Julienne smiled. "Off to the ducks then!"
"Can we 'ave some bread for vem?"
Trixie smiled. Chummy's little boy with a full on first class East End accent. If Lady Browne were alive to see it she'd be spinning in her grave like a top.
"I do think we can find some stale bread somewhere" Sister Julienne said, taking his other hand. "Shall we all go and look in the kitchen?"
"Mum? You in?" Peter shouted as he stepped over the threshold to his parents' house, not immediately seeing her in a quick perusal of the small downstairs rooms. "Mum!?"
"Upstairs son!" he heard from somewhere above his head. "Stop yellin' like a navvy an' make us a cuppa an' I'll be down in a sec!"
He closed the front door behind him and headed towards the kitchen, greeting with the wagging tail of the family dog. "Hello mate" Peter said brushing his hand over the dog's head who proceeded to jump up and down scratching filthy paws all over his coat.
"Get down you!" he smiled, helping the dog on his way before he took his coat off and filled the kettle, retrieving two mugs from the cupboard. By the time the tea was made his mother had arrived in the kitchen, washing basket under her arm, landing it on the kitchen table with a sigh.
"Aahh!" she breathed. "A cuppa tea. Been gaspin' since I started all vat ironing!" She took the mug from her son. "No kids in ve 'ouse an' I still 'ave a mountain of ve stuff to get frew! I blames yer Dad!"
Peter smiled taking a sip from his own cup.
"So what do I owe ve pleasure ven?" his mother asked as they sat down, temporarily forgetting the ironing as she pushed the basket aside to make space so they could sit in peace.
"I came to ask a favour" he said, knowing his mother in all likelyhood would agree to his request. "Do you mind if you have Fred overnight on Friday?"
"You know you an' Camilla don' 'ave to ask" his mother replied, happy to have Freddie over any time they liked. "Any reason in particular?" she asked, curious, still so very pleased that the two were happy in each other and themselves.
There was a very good reason Peter felt. "There's a film on we've wanted to see for an age and I am off on Friday and she is owed an afternoon so I thought I might surprise her and have dinner somewhere first and then go to the pictures" he explained, looking forward to those few hours where they would hopefully be unencumbered by shifts.
"Vat's luvly an' of course you can leave ve boy wiv me an' your Dad" Irene replied. "Come an' get 'im whenevver you both are ready on Saturday. You know I always keep a bed made up for 'im".
"Thanks Mum" Peter replied, grateful as ever for his mother's seemingly endless understanding and space under her roof for her only grandson to date.
"So 'ows work?" Irene asked. She had not seen her son in over a week and whilst for some that might be no time at all, she was more used to seeing him day in day out, even if it was five minutes passing in the market or over for a quick cup of tea.
"Oh, still there!" Peter joked. "Can't seem to shake these nights shifts!" That was the reason he wanted them to go out on Friday to spend a few precious hours together before life took over again.
"Do you still 'ave to go up to Burdett Road on your rounds?" Irene asked seeing her son shake his head in response.
"Not any more. Why?" he questioned, thankful that he hadn't had that road on his beat for a while as it was nothing but half demolished buildings and kids climbing the piles of rubble and inevitably relying on Police Officers when they had climbed too high and realised they could not get down. Either that or the Police were picking kids up when they were throwing bricks and other ephemera at windows and each other and more often that not at the Police themselves.
"Oh I was just up vere ve ovverday" she said. "Went to see Rose Robinson. 'er Thomas' wife 'as just 'ad 'er first grand-daughter an' jus' went to say 'ello to vem all" she concluded.
"Was she okay?" he asked, remembering the Robinson family and Tommy who had been the year below him in school when the Robinsons' lived over in Bow.
"Oh yes. Full of ve joys of spring". Irene paused for a moment, wondering whether to mention what she thought she saw on her trip. It was only a glance but it was enough to set her mind whirring and wondering. Perhaps she would leave it just this once; perhaps he didn't need to know. After all the past was the past and there was so much to look forward to now in the future that yes, just this time he might not need to know. "Its jus' its changed so much up vere an' I knew you you used to 'ave to go up vere" she finished, hoping it sounded natural. "I was jus' wonderin' vats all".
Peter smiled at his mother. "Camilla alright? I ain't seen her for a while" she asked, deliberately diverting onto what, with Freddie, was her son's favourite subject.
"She's fine Mum" he responded. "Perfect".
Away at Nonnatus, the subject of the visit to grandma, Freddie, was so engrossed in his colouring books fresh from his trip to the ducks that he didn't notice Fred Senior sit in front of him across the kitchen table.
"Vat's a rarver nice picture vere young Fred" the older man noted; the paper filled with bright colours and the crayons stacked haphazardly to one side.
"I got a cat an' a tree an' ve sky is goin' to be blue" the boy replied proudly, "but ve pens naughty". Freddie picked up the blue crayon to show his companion and sure enough it was as blunt as you like. Naughty though? He certainly had a way with words just like his mother.
"I fink I can solve vat" Fred announced. "Come on" he said standing up, knowing precisely where he could find something to sharpen it with. "A trip to my shed is in order I fink".
Just away under the arch that led under the railway bridge, the figure stood. Now the shopkeeper had said Nonnatus had moved to somewhere around here but could she find this place? Fifteen, almost sixteen years ago now, and she could have walked around here blindfolded and still found the location precisely.
Stepping a pace or two closer to the arch a small figure, a child who must have been about three or four with fair hair flying in the breeze, shot past her and she almost knocked into him; or him into her.
"Sorry sweetheart" the older gentleman trying to run after him breathed. "Little 'uns a wild 'un!"
"That's alright" the woman replied. Granddad looking after his grandson. How sweet. "I don't suppose you could direct me to Nonnatus House? I was told it was around here but I have completely lost my bearings!"
"Of course pet" Fred replied, looking ahead to Freddie, who was running around the yard in circles. "Its just vat very one vere" he replied, pointing through the railway arch at the large building directly ahead of him. "Jus' ring ve bell an' one of ve Sisters or ve Nurses will let you in".
"Thank you" she smiled, stepping of the the pavement towards her destination.
"Pleasure" Fred replied. "Come on Freddie!" he had to yell. "Shed's vis way!"
What Fred did not notice was that the woman didn't enter Nonnatus or indeed ring the bell to summon one of its occupants. She merely stood examining the brickwork, eyes wandering over its facade from ground to roof and back again.
"Perhaps another day" she thought as she turned and walked away.