While the Storm Rages, page 2
Only weeks earlier, Maudie had been raging, ‘That stupid dog is constantly under my feet, tripping me up on purpose, just so she can eat whatever I’m cooking.’
Neither Dad nor Noah would have it, naturally. ‘She just wants to be close to you,’ they’d said.
‘Close to me? Only time she leaves me alone is when I go out to the lav, and that’s only because I bolt the door.’
‘She just wants to spare your dignity,’ said Dad, winking at Noah.
‘We both know that’s not true,’ replied Mum. ‘That dog was put on this earth for one reason alone. To eat anything I slave over cooking.’
‘Rubbish,’ said Dad, before whispering something to Noah about how Winn had better taste than that.
‘Rubbish you say?’ spat Mum. ‘I came back from the lav today to find her on the counter with her head in my mixing bowl.’
‘You expect us to believe that?’ said Dad. ‘How do you think she got up there?’
‘She managed to move a chair and climb up. It was there, pushed up against the cupboard.’
Dad and Noah both laughed. ‘And how did she do that? She’s a dog.’
Maudie felt her face flush. ‘Pushed it with her nose? Built a bloomin’ rope ladder? I don’t know. All I know is the bowl was empty when I got back and two hours later I had several piles of flamin’ dog sick to clean up. Not that you two beggars care.’
Dad always knew when it was time to make amends, and usually left Noah to cuddle Winn (who remained seemingly oblivious to the allegations levelled at her), while he talked Mum down from sending the dog to fend for herself on the streets.
Today was different. Mum was already flustered when Noah strolled in from school and sent Winn into her usual euphoric frenzy. It didn’t help that Winn’s exuberance saw her crash into the kitchen table and dislodge a teacup that smashed into a hundred pieces.
‘For the love of God!’ Mum cried, as Winn stopped barking long enough to lap up the cold tea. ‘Noah, get that animal out of my sight before I take up taxidermy as a new hobby.’
Noah laughed unhelpfully, fussing Winn under her collar. ‘She won’t stand still long enough to be stuffed, will you, girl? No you won’t.’
That was it for Mum.
‘I mean it, Noah!!’ she roared, before the anger on her face collapsed into a look of sheer, undiluted despair. Tears appeared and fell so quickly that Noah did something he rarely did, he put his mother before the dog. He pushed Winn into her basket and dashed to Mum.
‘What is it?’ he asked, though he feared the answer instantly. It couldn’t be Dad. It couldn’t, could it? He’d have barely been handed a rifle by now. And anyway, he thought, we aren’t at war. Not yet.
‘There’s been an announcement,’ Mum said. ‘From the Prime Minister. He said that if war is declared, then they expect Hitler to start bombing immediately. That cities will be under attack.’
A shiver of horror went through Noah. ‘How’s he going to do that? We’re an island.’
‘He has planes. Lots of them. Rita next ]door says there’ll be nothing left of London by Christmas.’
It shocked Noah to see Mum as frightened as this, almost as much as the words she was saying scared him. But he also remembered what Dad had said. Noah was the man of the house now. He had to be brave.
‘It won’t come to that, Mum. Mr Chamberlain and all them generals and colonels, they won’t allow it. And even if a plane does get through, we’ll fight back. We will. I will. I won’t let anything happen to any of us. I promise.’
But Noah didn’t know what Mum knew. And when she told him, it knocked the air clean out of his lungs.
‘You won’t be able to stop it, son.’
‘I will, Mum. I know you think I’m just a kid, but I’ll fight if I have to.’
‘I know you would, Noah. But it won’t be possible.’
‘Give me one good reason why not.’
‘Because you won’t be here. They’re shipping you out to the countryside. You and all the other kids. You’re being evacuated.’
4
Evacuated?
Mum looked terrible, like a vampire had leeched every drop of blood from her body. Noah felt a bit light-headed himself. Partly because he wasn’t entirely sure what the word really meant.
‘So, I’ll have to live with strangers? Another family?’
‘That’s right,’ said Mum.
‘Who I’ve never met before?’
Mum nodded.
‘Out of London??’
Another nod. ‘Yes, love, probably a long way away; somewhere safe and far from the bombs.’
‘And when will I get to come home?’
‘When the war ends.’
‘But it hasn’t even started yet!’
‘I know that, Noah, but Mr Chamberlain – well, we have to trust him, don’t we? And if he says it’s not safe here, then we have to do what he says.’
‘But what if I don’t want to go? What if I want to stay here with you?’
Mum turned abruptly and busied herself with a pile of his clothes that were scattered across the table.
‘You don’t think I want you to go, do you? That I’d want to send you God knows where to live with God knows who, with no kind of clue as to when you’ll be home, if I didn’t have to?’
‘Well at least you won’t have to tidy up after me for a while,’ said Noah, though his joke didn’t make him or Mum feel remotely better.
‘They’ve said we’re to send you with all sorts of stuff,’ she said, hands flitting from garment to garment. ‘Your gas mask, pyjamas, spare this, spare that, comb, toothbrush, face cloth, handkerchiefs.’
She looked flustered now as well as sad.
‘Haven’t we got those things already?’ he asked.
‘Of course we have. But not all of them are new or particularly decent, are they? And I don’t want whoever takes you in thinking I don’t look after my boy. I couldn’t bear that.’
She took an enormous breath. Like she was gasping for air. Noah didn’t know how to respond and even Winn looked confused, preferring to bury her face in the depths of her basket in the vain hope that whatever was going on would stop.
‘It’ll be all right, Mum. Maybe they’ll let you come and see us. You know. Every month or something.’
‘Not if they send you to Cornwall, or Scotland. How on earth would I get there? And what happens if none of this ends quickly.’
‘It won’t be that long, Mum. Nowhere near. Hitler won’t stand a chance against us. We beat the Germans in the last war, so we’ll beat them again. And anyway, Dad’s fighting them. He won’t let them win.’
Mum tried to smile but failed. Miserably.
‘I promise you, Mum. You don’t need to worry. I’m not going to forget about you. Or Dad. Or home. AND I’ll be in the countryside for goodness’ sake. What’s the worst thing that could happen there? Even if I get chased by a cow, Winn will protect me, won’t you, girl?’
Winn’s ears stood to attention and she barked a swift, firm reply.
‘See?’ he said, but Mum didn’t reply. Instead she held Noah’s shoulders and eased him backwards, so she could look clearly into his eyes.
‘Oh, Noah, love,’ she said. ‘That’s just it. Winn won’t be allowed to go with you. She’ll be staying here. With me.’
And in that moment, Noah realised for the first time that his entire world was at war.
5
‘But she can’t stay here,’ Noah yelled, breaking from Mum’s grasp. ‘She has to come with me. She has to!’
He didn’t mean to be angry, or rude, but all he could think of was Dad, of the promise he’d made about Mum and Winn. What sort of son would he be if he let Dad down within a week? Dad had said it, hadn’t he? As long as Noah kept Mum and Winn safe, then he’d be safe too. Bulletproof. So this news? Well, it was terrible. As bad as it could be.
‘I’m sorry, Noah. I wish Winn could go with you too, to keep you out of trouble if nothing else, but it’s just not possible. Think about how many children are going to be leaving the city. How much of a responsibility that is for the families taking them in. They can’t take in every cat, dog and goldfish too. It just wouldn’t be fair.’
‘Fair? Well, it’s not fair leaving Winn here either, is it? Why is it all right for her to be abandoned here to be blown up and not me?’
‘Because she’s just a dog, son.’ It seemed like a perfectly reasonable thing to say as far as Mum was concerned.
‘Not to me she’s not. Or to Dad. To us she’s as important as anyone else. She’s part of this family. The only one who doesn’t give a monkey’s about her is you!’
‘Noah! That’s not—’
‘What? True? Fair? It’s both of those things, Mum. I walk her, don’t I? I chop up her food and check for fleas and ticks and comb her out and everything!’
Although Noah received many of his traits from his dad, there was one that his mum had clearly passed on to him, the inability to walk away from an argument.
‘And who does it while you’re at school, eh?’ she roared back. ‘Who cleans up the sick when she vomits up what she’s eaten? While you and your father are swanning about, daydreaming? Who apologises to Rita next door when Winn uses her garden as a lav? Or combs the streets every time Winn gets through the gate and goes missing?’
‘She went missing? When?’ If Mum was trying to reassure Noah about the idea of leaving Winn behind with her, then she was doing a lousy job.
‘More times than you can count, Noah. In every weather possible. And every time she runs, I go after her, and I don’t stop until I find her and bring her home. So don’t stand there and tell me I don’t look after her!’
Noah stormed from the room and out the back door, slamming it behind him with venom, only stopping when he realised he didn’t have his shadow with him.
‘Winn!’ he yelled through the window. There was no way he was stepping foot back inside. ‘Come on, girl. Come on.’ He didn’t have her lead but he knew he didn’t need it. She might run away from Mum, but she’d never do the same to him.
It didn’t take Winn long to paw her way to freedom, adding to the scratches on the door with such ferocity that Mum had no choice but to set her free.
‘Be back in an hour,’ she yelled, at both dog and son, though if either of them heard they didn’t reply. By the time Mum poked her head through the back door, the pair of them were nowhere to be seen.
6
It wasn’t far to Clem’s house. A three-minute run on two legs, and probably half that if you were Winn, galloping on four. The only obstacle to getting there quickly (and safely) was that Noah had to navigate past Big Col’s house.
His normal tactic was to put his head down and peg it. Today though, despite wanting to get to Clem urgently, Noah didn’t sprint past Big Col’s. If the big thug came out at that moment, so what? Noah could handle himself. He had enough anger stored up inside him right now to fare better than normal in a fight. Plus, if Big Col put him in the infirmary, then there was no way Noah would be going anywhere and his promise to Dad would remain alive. As would Dad.
But no one was home. Or if they were, they had other things on their minds than squashing Noah’s nose into his face.
So he walked on, Winn circling him excitedly, every minute spent with her boy was another adventure to be lapped up.
When Clem answered her door, she looked like Noah felt.
‘You heard then?’ he said to her.
‘Yeah. You?’
Noah nodded.
‘Do you need me to explain to you where Cornwall is?’ she asked, only half-joking.
‘I don’t give a monkey’s where it is,’ he replied. ‘Cos I ain’t going.’ It felt good saying it, but it soon felt hollow. One thing he knew about Mum was that she wasn’t one for changing her mind. ‘They sending you away too?’
Clem nodded. ‘It’ll be all right though. Nearly everyone from school’s going. The teachers too. It might even be fun.’
‘Fun?’ Noah was incredulous. ‘Are you serious?’
‘Well, it’ll be different then. Safe at least.’
But Noah didn’t want to hear about safe. He wanted to ask the important question: ‘Is your mum letting you take Frank with you?’
From Clem’s face it clearly wasn’t something she’d even thought about. She turned and ran inside. Noah followed her.
Clem’s mum, Ma Parkinson, wasn’t the smiliest of women and Clem’s question about Frank received a straight answer.
‘Of course not. The dog will be staying here. He’s too old for that kind of change plus I can’t trust you or your brother to look after him properly, now can I?’
And that was it, except for a dressing down for Noah who’d dared to set foot in her clean house with his dirty clodhoppers still on his feet.
Thirty seconds later, Noah, Clem and the two dogs were back out on the street, watching mothers dash from house to house, clutching pyjamas and gas masks and wash bags of all colours and sizes.
‘World’s gone mad,’ sighed Noah as he slumped against the wall. Winn mirrored him, head on her legs, eyes staring mournfully at him.
‘You think this is mad,’ Clem replied. ‘Wait till Adolf starts dropping his bombs.’
‘You really think he can do it?’
‘I think he thinks he can. And if it’s true, then we really don’t want to be here to find out.’
‘But it’s all right for our mums to find out? And Winn? And Frank?’
Clem sighed.‘I reckon the adults have got enough to think about, getting every kid in London out to the countryside, without thinking about animals too.’
Noah’s blood still ran hot, and he answered like he was talking to his mum. ‘But they’re not just animals are they? They’re family. They’re living, just like us, and they feel, just like us, in fact they get scared way more than we do. You think they’re going to like it when bombs start dropping? Winn goes loopy when the postman drops a parcel through the letterbox. They can’t stay here in London. They’ll go mad.’
‘I know,’ said Clem, refusing to be hurt or wounded by the sharpness of Noah’s words. ‘You’re telling the wrong person.’
‘Well, who else am I going to tell? My mum won’t listen, your mum’s too busy worrying about her carpet and the only person who would listen isn’t here, is he?’
‘Is that who you’re really worried about?’ Clem said softly, sliding down the wall next to Noah. ‘Your dad? Because I think he would understand, you know.’
‘No, he wouldn’t!’ Noah couldn’t believe she was saying this. ‘Winn’s safety means as much to him as mine, or Mum’s.’ He could feel the emotion rising in him. ‘And I promised him, Clem. Told him, to his face, that I’d keep Winn safe. And I can’t break that promise.’
‘Why not though? I know your dad, and he’d want you to be safe first.’
‘Because if I break my promise, then what will happen to his, Clem? He said if I kept Winn safe, then he’d be safe too. And I can’t keep that promise if I’m two hundred miles away, can I?’
Clem said nothing for a few seconds, but Noah could see there was something on her mind.
‘What?’ he said. ‘What is it?’
It’s two hundred and sixty miles to Cornwall,’ she said. ‘Give or take a mile.’
7
There was nothing anyone could say that would settle Noah’s mind.
Cornwall might as well have been Timbuktu it was so far away, Scotland was further, and even the Cotswolds, only a few thumb widths away on the map, was too far for Noah to contemplate. Clem tried to sell each of the places to him and, as usual, she seemed to know as much about them as an encyclopaedia. She did her best, showing him places in her dad’s atlas but Noah’s ears were closed to her, and eventually, with the sun dipping behind Clem’s terrace, he made for home. His mood was so glum that he didn’t give a second thought to walking past Big Cols’, even when he heard raised voices from inside.
Instead, he rehearsed what he would say to Mum when he got home, and although he was proud in nature, he wasn’t averse to apologising if it made her change her mind. It didn’t even matter if his apology was an empty one. What mattered was having Winn with him. Keeping his promise.
‘I’m sorry, Mum, I really am,’ he said as soon as he was through the door, though Mum didn’t raise her head from her darning. If he was going to change her mind with an apology alone, it was clear he was going to have to do better than that.
‘It’s just, you know, well, Winn, she means a lot to me, don’t she?’
‘She means a lot to us all,’ Mum replied, the needle in her mouth dangling like the weediest of cigarettes.
On a normal day, with Dad here, they’d argue the toss about this. How Mum was prone to resenting everything about Winn’s presence, from the hairs on the settee, to the fleas that danced on her best rug. But not today. Noah knew that would be foolish, arguing would get him nowhere.
‘So I reckon the best thing to do is for me to stay here with you and Winn. To look after you both. It’s what Dad would want. Clem says it’s not compulsory, this evacuation lark.’
‘Does she now?’ Mum still didn’t look up. ‘And how is Clem finding it? Being Prime Minister?’
‘She says the pay is terrible and the hours are long, but she did say some mums aren’t sending their kids away. Next door to hers, the kids are staying.’
Mum did spare him a look then. A scowl. ‘Well, more fool them. If you’re talking about Mrs Brining, the woman hasn’t got the brains she was born with.’
‘But if other kids are staying, then I could too. I won’t get in the way. I’ll help. I don’t want you to be... you know... lonely... with Dad not here.’
Mum finally put down her darning, and beckoned Noah to her. Her face softened as he neared.
‘You don’t really think I want to send you away, do you?’ she said, pulling him towards her. ‘It’s bad enough seeing your dad march off, without seeing you go too.’
‘Then let me stay!’
