TERRY             Billy at school gave –

MUM                (interrupting)  Don’t give me any of that Billy nonsense. It’s always ‘Billy this’, ‘Billy that’, it’s always Billy’s fault and never yours. Where did you get it???    

TERRY            (giving in)  Down the market place.   

MUM                When? 

TERRY             Saturday night. 

MUM                Saturday night? It’s Tuesday morning now! Don’t tell me you’ve been chewing it for three days??? 

TERRY             Most of the time. 

MUM                Blimey, it’s a wonder your jaw hasn’t dropped right off, you great puddin’! Who’d you get it from? 

TERRY            (reluctantly)  A soldier. 

MUM                A Yank soldier. 

TERRY             There’s nothing wrong with that, mum. It was a reward. 

MUM                (suspicious)  A reward? What for? 

TERRY             He wanted some fish and chips, that’s all, and he asked me to go to the chippy for him. 

MUM                Why couldn’t he go himself? He had legs, didn’t he? 

TERRY             He couldn’t. He was with a girl. 

MUM                Oh, so that’s it. Now you’re running errands for some bone-idle Yank soldier who comes over here, chats up our girls and can’t be bothered to get his own chips. You should be ashamed of yourself! 

TERRY             It wasn’t like that, mum. He was dead friendly. They all are! 

MUM                Oh, they’re friendly enough all right, when they want something. 

TERRY             I told you, it wasn’t like that. There was a bunch of them, all dead friendly. Billy and me got chatting to them. One of them let Billy wear his cap for a bit. He looked a right plonker! 

MUM                What else did they give you, apart from chewing gum? 

TERRY             Nothing mum.  

MUM                (warning)  Terry ..... 

TERRY             Well, they did give us some chocolate. A Hershey bar it was called. It’s what they eat in America. Lovely it was. (pause)  And some sweets. 

MUM                I don’t want you stuffing your face with sweets all the time. They’ll rot your teeth. 

TERRY             It was only once mum, and we never get sweets, cos of rationing. 

MUM                That doesn’t mean we have to rely on Yanky handouts though. I won’t have it! 

TERRY             Sorry mum. 

MUM                What things were they talking to you about, anyway? 

TERRY             Oh, stuff about America. They all live in great big houses in New York, or on huge cowboy ranches in the Wild West. 

MUM                Oh they do, do they? And I suppose they all drive around in gold Rolls Royces with chauffeurs, and have fifteen servants waiting on them hand and foot ....... just in case they fancy some fish and chips in the middle of the night.