Nine Days

Annabel cooks at home, following recipes from Women’s Weekly on how to make mock meat dishes. Even though the war is over, strict rationing is still in place—many countries were left devastated, so certain food products are impossible to come by. She sets one end of their table with two plates and chairs. The other end she keeps covered with books or magazines—anything to cover the empty places where her other family members should be. Her father is already midway through his third bottle of alcohol in the afternoon, but he remains enthusiastic about her attempt at mock sausage and mock chutney and thanks her for the meal.

When they are finished, Annabel’s father asks if she has any money to spare him for drink, but she lies and tells him they are completely out. It’s barely a lie, since they don’t even have enough money to see them through the week. During the war, Annabel worked in a munitions factory and made better money, but now that the men are back, all the factory work went back to them, and she and her father are destitute again.

Annabel’s father laments not being able to take care of her and being a terrible father, and she tries to convince him it’s okay; she knows he drinks out of pain. They do this routine every single night. In time, he’ll start to pass out, and she’ll either help him to his bed, or if he’s too drunk and lands in the hallway, she’ll make sure he’s not injured and then set him up with pillow and blanket on the floor. Today, he starts to fade, so Annabel half-carries him to his armchair to sleep there. As he falls asleep, Annabel tells him that she’s going for a walk and then going to a dance with Francis. Her father says Francis is harmless, though he doesn’t trust Kip, and falls asleep.

As Annabel gets ready to go out with Francis, she reflects that she doesn’t entirely understand their relationship. Francis is firm, serious, mature, seemingly perfect, works in the law office. No one other than Francis has ever called on Annabel in her life, and she’s not entirely sure what Francis sees in her. She’s met Kip briefly a few times since he came home from the war, knows he works with the photographer at the newspaper, but she doesn’t know him and doesn’t ever think about him. Francis arrives and asks if he could speak with her father, but Annabel tells him he’s already asleep and they leave together.

They walk together by the river, outside of Richmond. Annabel thinks this part of the river looks beautiful, but Francis can never sit still long enough to admire it. He talks about his work at the law office and mentions that his mother Jean would’ve liked Annabel, except that she’s dead now. Annabel recalls silently that Jean was despised by most when she died, “on account of Connie.” Francis asks after Annabel’s father—apparently not truly aware of his condition—and wonders if he wouldn’t be better off on his own. Annabel isn’t sure what Francis means, but feels she can’t just leave him, especially since he raised her on his own after her mother died in childbirth.

Francis tells Annabel that he has a gift for her, and shows her an amethyst pendant. It’s the most beautiful thing she’s ever seen. Francis tells her about how an old lady gave it to him after he spent hours charitably helping her with yard work, as he was often in the habit of doing as a boy He tells the pendant comes all the way from Europe, and the old lady received it from some member of a royal family. Annabel believes him and, overjoyed to be with such an honorable man, puts the pendant around her neck.

Annabel and Francis take a tram to a massive, elaborate dance hall filled with people their age. Francis goes to visit with some friends, and from a distance Annabel sees him swig from a silver flask, like her own father. Millie and Jos, girls she knew years ago, visit with Annabel, and their lavish dresses remind her of her own poverty. However, they’re both stunned at Annabel’s beautiful pendant, but when she tells them that Francis gave it to her, they seem concerned, especially since Annabel and Francis aren’t engaged. Jos’s brother Mac approaches them, wearing a soldier’s uniform. Annabel hasn’t seen him in years. When he asks her to dance, Annabel tells him he’d love to.

While they are dancing and catching up, Francis angrily approaches and tells Annabel they are going to leave. Mac confronts Francis, also chiding him for remaining a civilian during the war, and it seems there may be a fight. Just as the tension between them seems about to break into violence, Kip arrives, wearing his own uniform, on the pretense of catching up with Mac like he was an old friend. Kip puts a guiding hand on Mac’s back and holds his arm out graciously for Annabel, who threads hers through his and leads them away from the gathered crowd, with Francis following furiously behind.

Kip and Mac chat about the war. When Jos catches up to them, she remarks that Kip joined up rather late, but Mac defends him, stating that Kip’s station in Borneo saw plenty of hard fighting, even late in the war. Kip “looks Jos square in the face” and tells her that he had to wait for Jean to die, especially because Jean was so reviled by their community after Connie’s death and the inquest that she wouldn’t even get out of bed. Francis and Jos seem ashamed, and Annabel is surprised to hear Kip speak so plainly about this shameful part of their family’s past.

Mac asks what happened to Jack Husting, and Kip answers that he was killed in North Africa. The crowd goes silent as they all remember their own lost loved ones. Annabel observes that there are holes in the crowd everywhere, people that ought to be there but aren’t. “That’s what war means,” she reflects.

Jos breaks the silence, pointing out Annabel’s pendant from Francis. Kip is surprised by its obvious value, but when he asks where Francis got it, Francis goes suddenly silent. Annabel believes he is just being shy, so she starts to explain about the charitable work he used to do for old women. Francis tries to stop her from speaking, but Mac has already heard it. Mac remarks that Francis certainly has an active imagination, and thinks it ironic that Francis now works in law; perhaps he’ll pay Francis’s boss a visit. Francis takes Annabel outside.

Francis and Annabel are alone outside. Francis paces back and forth angrily, but Annabel still does not understand what happened. Francis accuses her of running her mouth and insists that even she should know “how to act like a lady instead of a fishwife.” Annabel is stunned and deeply offended. Kip arrives again and tries to convince Francis to go inside and try chatting up a different girl. Annabel tells him there’s no need to intervene, but Kip insists he wants to keep Francis from saying anything he’ll regret. Francis again demeans her for her poverty. Annabel is furious and decides she’ll walk home, but first starts to unclasp the pendant from her neck.

Kip tells Annabel she shouldn’t give back the pendant, since it was a gift, but Francis wants it back to give to some other girl. Kip decides that he’ll buy it from Francis—though Francis demands an inordinate sum—by making payments out of his monthly salary for two years, so that Annabel can keep the valuable jewelry. Kip takes Annabel by the hand and asks her to let him be generous to her, and then takes the pendant and refastens it around her neck, his hand brushing her skin. Francis calls Kip a “bloody idiot.”

Francis goes back into the dance, and Kip and Annabel walk in the quiet dark before taking the train back to Richmond. When Annabel enters her house, she wakes her father. He stumbles outside to urinate before collapsing into bed. She knows his drinking is killing him; he won’t be alive much longer. As Annabel helps him undress and get settled, she asks him why he doesn’t trust Kip. As her father rolls over and passes out once more, he mumbles, “Take you away from me.”