Open Writing

During the war, although sweets were rationed, we used to be able to buy Lucky Bags. These were bags containing a few dubious items of confectionary, which passed for sweets, and a couple of novelty items, such as a tin-whistle, or a squeaker, which you blew out, and they squeaked, and had a feather on the end.

Frequently the bags contained half-masks, some of them funny. There were pretty ones, which the girls loved, but the majority of them were downright grotesque - hardly suitable for children really, and quite frightening.

One day someone produced the upper half of what looked like a clown mask. Anyway, it had a red blob on either cheek, and one on the end of the nose. The eyebrows were joined - a thick, elongated M, over a pair of narrow, crafty eyes. The upper lip was a hideous bright red grimace, which extended from ear to ear. From this dangled a cardboard cigarette. When the mask was on the wearer, the effect was pretty awful, and of course the boys loved it.

When poor Georgie put it on, he looked terrible. With his pendulous lower lip, ever open mouth and big, gappy teeth, the effect was awful. All the boys started shouting "Whoo-whoo!", sounding like a crowd of ghouls and ghosts.

Children's humour is anarchic, and that's all this was really, kids letting off steam as loudly and exuberantly as possible. But in the evening dusk, it must have looked and sounded dreadful. The girls screeching in mock terror, and in the midst of it all Georgie wearing that grotesque mask, looking like a bizarre Lord of Misrule. He didn't realise what he looked like; he thought it was all a game, with him as the main participant. Before we knew what was happening, there were a number of angry adults on the scene. Like the rest of the children, I slipped off home, and then forgot all about it.

It was winter so it was some considerable time before I realised that Georgie wasn't around anymore. I saw Peter one day and asked him if Georgie was ill. He looked embarrassed. "We really shouldn't have done that, all that larking about with that stupid mask"

"Why? Did Georgie get into trouble because of us?"

Peter looked red-faced and angry, and I got a sinking feeling in my stomach, you know, like when you realise that you are in trouble, but don't quite know why.

"Too right he got punished. My aunty Eva says they've put him away."

This couldn't be true. "They can't have put him in prison, he didn't do anything wrong. They don't put people in prison for wearing masks, do they?" This was terrible.

Peter was looking exasperated, as though I'd gone too far. "No, you twit, being put away is what they do with people who aren't too bright, and might be a nuisance to other people."

"But it was us that were being a nuisance that night, not Georgie. All he did was wear that horrible mask."

"That was what we told his mother, after the grown-ups told us off."

"Told you off? Nobody told me off."

Peter's face was a picture of abject resignation. "No! It was just the boys that got that telling off, for frightening you girls, as per usual. Anyway, it's no use going on about it. Georgie's gone and he's not coming back."

Very soon we forgot all about Georgie. A few months later, because the war was going well, and the German bombers now left London alone, Peter stopped living with Mrs. Austin, his Auntie, and returned home to his parents in London. Not long after that the war ended.

The years passed. I grew up and joined the Women's Royal Army Corps, but not for very long. I soon met Hugh, and we were married. After that, the years seemed to blend and blur. We quickly had our two children, and then we lived for three years in Malaysia.

When we returned to England, everything seemed to have changed. We visited my mother in my old home. It felt good to be there. Yes, my mother was older but she hadn't changed. We chatted about old friends and neighbours.

Suddenly she lifted her finger and shook it at me. "You'll never guess who I saw the other day. No you'd never guess in a million years. I saw Georgie Bennett. There I knew that would surprise you."

Surprise me, I was amazed, "Where was this, Mum?"

My mother looked full of herself, her eyes shining with delight, and she laughed like a young girl. "It was over at Chelford." Chelford was where my eldest sister lived. Georgie Bennett would hardly be visiting Eve, I didn't realise she knew he existed.

"Yes, Mum, but where did you see him?"

"We went for a walk over the fields past this place where these men were playing football, and there was Georgie, kicking the ball up the field. It's an epileptic's colony. That's where I saw him. He looked so healthy and happy. Really fit and well."

I realised he must still be an epileptic, but it seemed to me that Georgie was having a far happier existence than he'd ever known before. Perhaps we'd done him a favour letting him wear that awful mask, and getting him put away.

Suddenly I felt a lightness of spirit, like bubbles rising in champagne. Impulsively I said, "God bless Georgie!", and my mother nodded and smiled and lifted her tea cup. At that moment I felt that something really worthwhile and wonderful had happened in my life.