(Jean, Sheila, Margaret, and John George are in the Ashtons' Anderson shelter.)

SHEILA ASHTON
Well, I'd like it cleared up by tonight. Otherwise, I shan't come around here again.

JEAN ASHTON
Don't talk like that.

SHEILA
No, I mean it. Now, please, Mum... You've always been straight with me.

JEAN
(sighing)
People are talking about you and that...that man who gives you a lift sometimes.

SHEILA
What? Bob O'Connell?

JEAN
If that's his name, yes.

SHEILA
Look, he gives me a lift home from the NAAFI now and again because I get tired. And I like a chat, particularly with somebody who's a bit left out and on their own...like I am. I went to the pictures with him last week, as a matter of fact. Why shouldn't I? It didn't amount to anything. He certainly meant no harm.

JEAN
It's... It's what it might lead to, love, that's it.

SHEILA
How do I know what David gets up to when he's away from me? What about that letter I had?

JEAN
Letter?

SHEILA
It's funny. You'd think wrong of me, but never of him, would you?

JEAN
That's not true.

SHEILA
I suppose you think you know him better than anybody does.

JEAN
I used to think I did. I suppose most mothers like to think that about their sons. I hope I'm not stupid enough to believe I couldn't be wrong. You... You said something about a letter.

SHEILA
Oh, it was nothing...just something a crank wrote.

JEAN
About David?

SHEILA
I wonder if you'd have believed it.

JEAN
What did it say?

SHEILA
No, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have mentioned it. It's all forgotten. It's all in the past.

 

(from "One of Ours" by Leslie Sands)