Translate from the beginning of line 1 to line 10 « …Nell thought it was Percy.”

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The first person they knew that came home on leave was Bill Monroe from Emerald Street and he was followed by a boy from Park Grove Street and one from over Eldon Terrace, which seemed unfair as Albert had joined up before any of them. There was a big to-do one day because Bill Monroe hadn’t gone back when he should have done and they sent in military policemen to take him back. His mother barred the front door with a broom handle and had to be lifted out of the way by the military policeman, one at each elbow, and Nell, who happened to be walking home from work in Emerald Street at the time, was reminded of Percy’s funeral.

She had a further shock when an ordinary, civilian policeman appeared from nowhere and for a second Nell thought it was Percy. For a ridiculous moment she wondered if he’d come back to ask her why there was a little pearl and garnet ring on her engagement finger instead of the sapphire chips he’d given her which were now wrapped in tissue paper and put at the back of her drawer.

Bill Monroe was hauled off eventually and Nell didn’t linger on the street. She felt embarrassed for him because she’d seen the look of terror on his face and thought how awful it must be to be such a coward and how unpatriotic as well - and she was surprised how many women came up to Mrs Monroe, who has raging and shouting and crying on her doorstep, and told her that she’d done the right thing.

Frank came home after the second battle of Ypres¹; he’d been in hospital in Southport with a septic foot and was given a few days’ leave before going back to the Front. It was odd because before the war they’d hardly known him yet now he seemed like an old friend and when he came knocking at the back door they both hugged him and made him stay to tea. Nell ran out and got herrings and Lillian cut bread and put out jam and even Rachel asked how he was doing. But when they were all sat round the table, drinking their tea from the best service, the one that had gold rims and little blue forget-me-nots, Frank found himself unexpectedly tongue-died. He had thought there were a lot of things about the war he wanted to tell them but was surprised to discover that the neat triangles of bread and jam and the prettiness of the little blue forget-me-nots somehow precluded him from talking about trench foot and rats, let alone the many different ways of dying he had witnessed. The smell of death clearly had no place in the parlour of Lowther Street, with the snowy cloth on the table and the glass-bead fringed lamp and the two sisters who had such soft, lovely hair that Frank ached to bury his face in it. He was thinking all these things while chewing his bread and casing around desperately for conversation, until with a nervous gulp from the gild and forget-me-nots he said, “That’s a grand cup, you should taste the tea we get” and told them about the chlorinated water in the trenches. When he saw the look of horror on their faces he left ashamed that he’d ever wanted to talk about death.

They, in turn, told him about Billy Monroe and he tut-tutted² in the right places although secretly he wished he had a mother who could somehow –anyhow- prevent him having to return to the Front because Franck knew he was going to die if he went back to the war. He listened politely while they told him about all the things they were doing – they showed him their knitting – they’d stopped knitting for the Belgians and now they were knitting socks for soldiers, and Nell told him about her new job, making uniforms, where she’d just been made a forewoman because of her experience with hats, and Lillian was working as a conductress on the trams and Franck raised both eyebrows and said, ‘Never!’ because he couldn’t imagine a woman conductress and Lillian giggled. The two sisters were so full of life that in the end the war was left more or less unspoken of, except, of course, to say that Jack was well and sent his love and that he hadn’t seen Albert at all but he was a lot safer behind the big guns in the artillery than he would be in the trenches.

And Rachel, the toad in the corner, unexpectedly spoke up and said, “It must be dreadful in those trenches” and Franck shrugged and smiled and said, ‘Oh, it’s not too bad really, Mrs Barker,’ and took another drink from his forget-me-not cup.

Kate Atkinson, Behind the Scenes at the Museum, 1995.

¹ the second battle of Ypres: 1915
² he tut-tutted: he made a sound to show his disapproval

traduction

Parmi les personnes qu’ils connaissaient, le premier qui rentra en permission fut Bill Monroe d’Emerald Street, puis ce fut le tour d’un garçon de Park Grove Street, puis d’un autre du côté d’Eldon Terrace, ce qui parut injuste puisqu’Albert s’était engagé bien avant eux. Un jour, il y eut un esclandre parce que Bill Monroe n’était pas retourné au front alors qu’il aurait dû, donc ils envoyèrent la police militaire pour aller le chercher. Sa mère avait bloqué la porte d’entrée avec un manche à balai et les policiers durent la soulever par les coudes pour entrer dans la maison ; et à ce moment-là, Nell, qui passait par Emerald Street en rentrant du travail, se remémora l’enterrement de Percy.

Elle fut d’autant plus choquée lorsqu’elle vit, sorti de nulle part, un simple policier qu’elle prit pour Percy l’espace d’un instant.