The Girls They Left Behind Read Online Free PDF

now and he felt the first shock of explosion as bombs fell in the harbour and the Dockyard. The old woman whimpered and clutched him and he forgot to be gentle and dragged her along the
    street, ignoring the shopping bag that she had dropped.
    ‘Me rations! Me rations!’ she wept as she stumbled along,
    but Frank was concerned only with getting her indoors. I hope to God she didn’t lock the front door, he thought as they reached it, and breathed a sigh of relief as it swung open at his touch. He pushed her inside.
    ‘Have you got a shelter?’
    ‘No. We’re a sixer, see, we couldn’t have no Anderson, I dunno why. Something to do with the waterpipes in the gardens, they come through every sixth house. My daughter’s hubby says we’ll have to make do under the stairs, they say that’s the safest place, don’t they…’ Her voice faltered as Frank pushed her along the narrow passage. The space beneath the stairs had been boxed in as a big cupboard, with an old mattress shoved inside to sit on. He bent and thrust the old lady inside, then scrambled in beside her as another explosion shook the house.
    ‘Here, that was close.’ She seemed to be recovering a little now that she was home. Together, they crouched on the floor in the dimness, listening to the roar of planes overhead and the thunder of the exploding bombs.
    ‘It’s bad, innit,’ the old woman whispered. ‘They’re going to bomb us out of our own homes. They’re going to keep on bombing till there’s none of us left and then they’re going to
    take our homes away and live in ‘em and do what they like.’ She began to cry again. ‘It’s not fair. It’s not fair. Not after what we went through before. I lost my husband in the last lot, killed in action he was, to make England a land fit for heroes to live in, and what good did it do? Tell me that, eh?’
    `Ssh.’ Frank found her hand and patted it. ‘Don’t think about it now. It’s happening and we’ve just got to live through it and not let it get us down.’ But he spoke absently, for his thoughts were with Jess and the children. For God’s sake, he thought, don’t let those boys be out roaming the streets in this lot. And he made up his mind that they would be sent back to the safety of the countryside as soon as possible.
    The explosions rocked around them. What’s happening out there? he wondered. I ought to get out there and help.
    He began to crawl out of the cupboard. ‘I’ve got to go now, love. You stay here till they sound the Raiders Passed signal and your daughter gets back, then you have a nice cup of tea.
    You’ll be all right here.’ He hoped it was true.
    She clutched him with feeble fingers, entreating him to stay, but he gently disentangled her hands. ‘You stay here. You’re safe here,’ he repeated, and stood up, ducking again immediately as an explosion thundered almost overhead and he heard the sound of breaking glass and falling masonry. For a moment, he hesitated. He could have his head blown off the minute he stepped through the front door.
    But someone was going to get killed anyway, in this lot. Probably hundreds, maybe thousands of people. And others would be hurt, and buried under collapsed buildings, needing help.
    The next explosion was closer still. It sounded as if it were almost next door. The window of the room he was in shattered, glass flying everywhere, and if he hadn’t ducked he would have been peppered with it, slashed to pieces perhaps. But this time the thought of scrambling back into the safety of the home-made shelter didn’t enter his head. Without another word to the old woman, who was now whimpering with terror, he wrenched open the door and ran along the passage to the street.
    Whatever was happening out there, he had to be part of it. He couldn’t stay here while his own family and home were in
    danger, somewhere across the city, and he couldn’t take shelter when he had a duty to do.
    The front door was still ajar. He pulled