SPOILERS!!!
The book takes us on a journey through Charles's childhood and youth. I have to say that I love Laura. She is a courageous mother who works many hours laundering for many neighbours to give Charles a good life. Thanks to the money Charlie left her, she manages to move to their own home and buy a piano for Charles, as the vicar's daughter teaches him, and he even joins the choir.
Laura silently complains that as Charles grows up, he becomes more and more private, and she misses him. Charles becomes friends with Ginger and Joe Luke. We discover that Ginger is gay, and he and Charles have kissed once, and Ginger often hints that Charles is attracted to Joe Luke. At the end of primary school Charles is upset because his mother has found him a job because she thinks it makes no sense for him to go on studying. It is simply the way of life she knows.
When the war breaks out, Charles volunteers for the navy. To his mother's dismay, he passes his medical and is told to wait. His call-up papers do not come through for several months, and Joe and Ginger are alreay in the front. When he finally is called up, his position is as a coder on a ship. After training and passing his exams, he is assignes to a boat, and he becomes friends with a big sailor, Cushty. His first problem is that he gets seasick, and everybody tells him that it will pass, but it doesn't. So he is sent to a post in Gibraltar, and then Malta. Charles and Cushty get reacquainted here, and during an air raid Charles is outside, and Cushty warns him just before a bomb drops. Both Charles and Cushty are wounded lightly, and a local woman takes them to a flat where Charles patches up Cushty. Charles is upset after earlier in the day he witnessed one of the sailors die, and he starts crying. Cushty comforts him, and that night they become intimate, the first time for Charles.
I find it interesting to see Charles become homesick now that he is away. He used to dream of leaving Launceston. And he makes reference to his mother, appreciating her now that she is not there for him.
In Launceston Laura has taken in two nine-year-old twin brothers. This is the second time he has had an evacuee. The first time she took in a young girl, Gertie, and her baby. Yet, Gertie left without even saying goodbye when she admitted to being in love with Charles.
The town has received American GIs, and the population is surprised to see many black officers. There is trouble between white and black GIs, and the military police have to mediate. The people in Launceston are against th idea of segregation of the Americans, and they organise events for the black GIs. In a event to collect funds for the Red Cross, Laura meets Captain Amos Barnes, and they hit it off. Amos is divorced, and he wants to take Laura out to dinner. That night Laura has arranged for a babysitter for the twins, but when Amos arrives, the babysitter is late. Fearing they may lose their booking, Laura tells him to go ahead of her. When the babysitter arrives, Laura rushes to the pub where they will have dinner, but Amos is not there. Then the owner tells her that something terrible has happened. Amos arrived and was ordering a drink at the bar, which was crowded by white GIs. Suddenly, a heavy chair flew in the air and hit him. It seems that Amos hit the floor as well, and he died. Laura is shocked, and she goes to talk to the military police, volunteering to answer any questions they have, but no questions are asked, and Amos's death is never investigated. Laura decides to write to his ex-wife and children, wanting to give them something other than the cold telegram she thinks they will receive.
I have to say that I am loving the book. I have my doubts about it, but I am finding it so interesting.
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