Gladys giggled. Then, looking up at Maisie, she found herself mesmerised by her eyes. Each one was framed by the thickest, darkest, most luscious curled lashes she had ever seen.
‘Like ’em?’ Maisie asked, batting them seductively. ‘I bought them myself. Now let me introduce you. That’s Joycie and Eileen – they’re sisters – and Rita their cousin. Over there’s Ruthie, Annie, Blanche and Joanie,’ she said, pointing to girls who looked no more than 14 or 15 themselves and who gave her a friendly nod. ‘And that’s the other Annie, Dolly, the two Lils and Ivy the cleaner,’ she added, waving to some women who looked very grown-up. They must be in their early twenties at least, thought Gladys.
‘That cheeky bugger working on the scrap paper is Alex,’ Maisie said, ‘and the reel boys are Robbie, Johnny, Barry and Joey – he’s that sweet one over there who’s lame in one leg. A word of advice – don’t get stuck behind a reel with Robbie or you’ll find his hands wandering where they shouldn’t.’
‘Oh no they won’t,’ said Gladys confidently, ‘or he’ll get a clout from me.’ Inwardly she felt relieved that there were some lads here she could have a laugh with, amid all the glamour girls. She had grown up with four brothers, and most of her friends in Plaistow were male.
Gladys soon discovered that working in the Blue Room was far from strenuous, and after twenty minutes or so she began to realise that the hardest thing about it was keeping her concentration. She found it was perfectly possible to take her eyes off the job for several minutes at a time and look around for something more entertaining to do – as long as she turned back quickly enough when Julie McTaggart came past on patrol, or Miss Smith appeared on her daily round. Since the other girls appeared to be terrified of Miss Smith, a shout of ‘The Dragon’s coming!’ went up from the person nearest the door as soon as she approached, and the warning was quickly passed around the floor.
The best opportunity for fun came from the reel boys who, working on a floor full of girls, were in a permanent good mood. When Barry went past with a reel of paper, Gladys fell into easy conversation with him. ‘They left you room to grow in that, have they?’ he teased, pointing to her outfit.
‘Oi you, don’t be cheeky,’ she retorted. ‘I’m not so skinny I couldn’t lift one of those reels of yours.’
‘Nah, girls can’t do it. That’s why you need us strong men around,’ he joked.
‘Oh yeah?’ she said. ‘Pass me one then, and let’s see.’
As she turned towards him, away from her machine, Gladys felt something tugging at the back of her right thigh. Maisie’s warning about Robbie’s wandering hands flashed into her head, and she quickly looked over her shoulder, her fist clenched in readiness to deliver the promised clout.
To her surprise, there was no one there. Instead, she looked down with horror to see that the machine was giving her dungarees the alteration they so desperately required, wrapping the baggy material round and round a spindle and making them increasingly tight.
‘Barry, help me!’ Gladys said, turning back to him while frantically clutching at her behind.
‘Oh, so you’ve changed your mind now, have you?’ he joked. ‘You girls do need my help after all?’
‘No, you don’t understand – I’m being sucked into the machine!’ she cried, pulling at the material with all her might and feeling it slip, bit by bit, through her fingers.
‘Yeah, nice try,’ laughed Barry, turning away with his reel.
‘It’s cutting off my blood flow!’ Gladys hollered, her face bright red with the effort of resisting the machine. Her right trouser leg was now at least as figure-hugging as those of the other Blue Room girls, and it was getting tighter by the second. She could feel a creeping numbness at the top of her thigh.
Barry dropped the reel he was holding, which went careering along the floor leaving reams of paper in its wake, and grabbed her around the waist. ‘Let’s pull at the same time,’ he said. ‘Maybe we can rip the material.’
Gladys nodded.
‘Ready? One … two … three!’
They both yanked as hard as they could, but the factory-issue dungarees were sturdy. Gladys herself was now pressed right up against the machine. ‘It’s going to swallow me,’ she gulped.
Other girls ran over to see what the commotion was about and one of them began to scream.
‘Turn off the machine!’ shouted Barry.
‘But we can’t – we’re not allowed,’ said Maisie, flustered.
‘Turn it off now!’ screamed Gladys, silencing them all.
One of the other reel boys ran round to where a big red button waited, ready for the unthinkable act. He slammed his hand down hard and the machine whirred briefly before coming to a final, juddering halt. The spindle gave up its claim on Gladys’s trouser leg and she pulled it free, feeling the blood rushing back all the way down to her foot. She gave the machine a heartfelt kick of retaliation.
‘What do you think you’re doing?’ Julie McTaggart shouted, rushing out of the office. ‘And how dare you turn off this machine!’
Gladys opened her mouth to protest, but Julie didn’t give her a chance to answer.
‘Get to Miss Smith’s office immediately,’ she told her.
The other girls stared at Gladys as if she had just been handed a death sentence.
‘Good luck,’ whispered Maisie, anxiously.
‘The rest of you, back to work,’ snapped Julie, and they all hurried off to their machines.
Inside the Personnel Office the two Betties were typing away, but there was no sign of Miss Smith.
‘Oh, hello,’ said Betty Phillips. ‘We didn’t expect to see you again so soon.’
‘I couldn’t stay away,’ quipped Gladys, bitterly.
Miss Smith marched into the room and took her seat behind the desk, leaving Gladys standing awkwardly before her. ‘So what have you done? I’m waiting,’ she demanded.
‘They had to turn off my machine,’ Gladys admitted. ‘But it weren’t my fault! I only looked away for a second, and my trousers got sucked in.’
‘You shouldn’t have looked away at all,’ Miss Smith told her sternly. ‘Not only is it extremely dangerous, but if the machine has to be stopped then the company loses money.’
Gladys looked at the floor. ‘It would never have happened if they’d given me the right size uniform,’ she muttered bitterly.
‘I think you’ve forgotten my fourth rule,’ said Miss Smith.
‘What’s that?’ asked Gladys, struggling to recall anything before the life-threatening incident.
‘No cheek,’ said Miss Smith, firmly.
When Gladys returned to the Blue Room, the girls were astonished to see her. ‘We all thought The Dragon was going to sack you,’ Maisie whispered. ‘How come you’re still here?’
‘I dunno. Beginner’s luck?’ shrugged Gladys.
When break time finally came, the girls invited her to come with them for breakfast at the café across the road. ‘You don’t want to bother with the canteen here, it’s too dear,’ Maisie told her.
They joined a gaggle all heading across the road, some of them dressed in dungarees and checked shirts like her own but in a lighter blue. ‘Those are the Hesser