(Tony and Freda are seated at the table, eating breakfast. Tony is reading the newspaper.)

TONY BRIGGS
(laughing)
It says here that the Jerries attacked a port on the northwest coast last night. I wonder where that could have been...Wigan...

(Freda is deep in thought and does not seem to hear a word he says. Finally, though, she turns to him and smiles.)

FREDA ASHTON
What's it like in the WRENS*?

*[Women's Royal Naval Service]

TONY
(surprised)
Ah! Well, I did volunteer for the WRENS. They wouldn’t have me. Don't know why. Um, defective eyesight, I think.

(Freda nods her head, restless and only half listening to her cousin.)

TONY
You're not thinking of joining the WRENS, are you?

FREDA
Oh, you know...

TONY
What's the matter, Fred?

FREDA
Well, everybody else is going. The house seems empty with Phil away, and David never comes, and Robert's going off to sea, and Margaret's going back to teaching next term. She'll be stuck in the front room, marking books.

TONY
How's she coping these days?

FREDA
Oh, you know Margaret. She was born to cope.

TONY
Any news?

FREDA
What sort of news?

TONY
Well... You know, people do turn up.

FREDA
Rotten old war. It's changing everything.

TONY
Yeah, it's not just the war, though, is it? I mean, things would be changed anyway. I mean, people grow up and go away. People die.

(Freda changes the subject to something more pleasant.)

FREDA
Are you coming back here...after? To Liverpool, I mean.

TONY
Ah, it's hard to say, really. I... I don't know... Depends.
(laughing)
I'm not sure if I'm capable of earning a living outside the family business. It's a cold, hard world out there, Fred.

 

(from "The End of the Beginning" by John Finch)