While the Storm Rages, page 6
‘I just hope they’re all right. With, you know...’
‘What, a hungry python onboard?’
‘It’s not funny, Noah. You didn’t leave your dog onboard with it.
Noah felt his stomach flip with guilt and the prospect of what they might find. Or not find, if Delilah had got really peckish. So their pace quickened, and Noah only felt himself breathe normally when they reached the basin and the Queen Maudie hove into view, her rust burning majestically in the early sun.
‘Can you hear that?’ Noah said.
‘No?’ Clem wore a slightly worried look. It was a physical prerequisite of being Noah’s best friend.
‘Exactly. It’s silent.’ He grinned widely. ‘We’d hear the hullaballoo from here if there was one. We’ve done it, Clem. All we have to do now is wait for the other children, then get ourselves to Battersea before the queue gets too long.’
But as they reached Maudie, their plan quickly unravelled when they saw that the cabin door, which Noah knew he had closed securely, was now open, in fact not only open, but hanging drunkenly from its hinges.
‘Hells bells,’ mouthed Noah. ‘What on earth’s gone on?’
‘Stampede by the looks of it,’ said Clem.
They went to thrust their heads inside the cabin, fearful of what they might find, eyes struggling to adjust to the murky light inside. But as they did so, they felt the wind whip wildly and a screech split the air. Their hands flew to their faces, as claws scratched and clawed at their skin. Clem leaned over Noah, covering him like a blanket as they fell to the floor.
‘Get if off me, get it off me!’ he yowled.
‘It’s me, you fool,’ replied Clem, daring to look over her shoulder as a parrot ricocheted into the light, its wings bursting into a kaleidoscope of colour as it powered towards the sun and freedom.
‘Jesus,’ said Noah, who still couldn’t make out a thing inside the cabin, though he could hear cages squeaking as they swung off their hooks.
‘What’s making that noise?’ Clem asked fearfully. ‘Find the curtains, will you?’
All they could see in their minds was Delilah, slithering at their feet, preparing to strike with venomous intent. Cautiously Noah walked on, arms in front of him like Frankenstein’s monster. After hitting the stove and more than one box, Noah finally felt the rough sacking of the curtains and pulled, raising his hands against the sudden power of the light.
But if he and Clem were surprised, it was nothing in comparison to the animals who had remained, lurking in the shadows. They were terrified, and showed it via a maelstrom of movement and noise. Feathers flew, fur whistled past their shins, there were catcalls and squawks and it all happened at such a pace that it was impossible to know not only how many animals were left, but what they actually were.
Noah however, knew two things: firstly, as the door was open, there was no way of stopping the animals’ escape, and more importantly, the sack that had hung above the stove: the sack that had imprisoned Delilah safely, now sat on the floor, limp and empty.
‘Get outside! Quick!’ he yelled, but Clem was already on the move, bounding up on to the deck and grabbing a crabbing net which she waved around in a frenzy.
‘What are you doing?’ he cried.
‘Trying to catch that budgie!’ She pointed at a lime green bird perched high on the cabin’s roof, but every time she made a decisive move, the bird simply scuttled away, playing with her, before flying away for good.
Clem was not deterred. She now moved the net to the floor and tried to scoop up a small rabbit with unfeasibly long ears. ‘Grab it!’ she hollered. ‘Or at least its cage so we can put it back in!’
‘I’m not stepping foot in there!’ Noah yelled. ‘Not till we know where that snake is.’ He almost hoped (though he wouldn’t admit it out loud) that the presence of the cute and tasty bunny might flush Delilah out of her hiding place. But that plan was thwarted when the rabbit dashed its way across the deck and down the gangplank until it too was truly free.
‘This is hopeless,’ Noah groaned.
Winn, cowering on deck, whimpered in agreement.
‘Frank?’ Clem yelled suddenly. ‘Noah, where’s Frank?’
‘I’ve no idea,’ he replied, eyes searching rapidly both on and off the boat.
‘We have to find him,’ Clem garbled. And she made for the cabin door, only to be held back by Noah.
‘Hang on will you, for Pete’s sake. That... thing is probably still in there.’
‘That thing might also be eating my dog as we speak,’ Clem yelled back.
She gripped the net and barged back in, but they didn’t find Frank.
All they found was destruction and devastation. Cages lay upturned and open on the floor, amidst piles of cat and dog mess. The smell was horrific.
‘Frank?’ they called tentatively. Neither had a clue how sensitive a python’s hearing was and they didn’t want to test it too rigorously.
‘He can’t be here,’ Noah whispered. ‘He’d have come to you by now.’
‘Shush a second, will you?’
‘So let’s get outside befor—’
‘I said SHUSH!’ Clem repeated, as she bent low, approaching the small square table Noah’s dad had built in the corner, its red tartan cloth now streaked with white stains from one of the birds. With twitching, hesitant fingers, Clem reached out, her heart pounding in her ears.
‘What are you doing? Don’t touch that! Use the net!’
But Clem was already committed and slowly, slowly, she lifted the cloth, letting in the light, only to recoil in horror and fear as Delilah’s head darted forward, tongue flicking, eyes piercing.
They swore, both of them falling backwards, feeling so much less powerful than the reptile, hypnotised by its effortless movements ever nearer to where they lay.
‘WHATDOWEDOWHATDOWEDOWHATDOWEDO?’ howled Noah, as beside him Clem squeezed her eyes tightly shut.
But just as they feared they were to become the first casualties of a war that hadn’t even begun, something else snaked into view, a thick, slightly grubby arm, which whisked Delilah’s jaw away and over their heads, the rest of the snake’s body following suit, whipping their faces as it went.
‘What are you fools doing down there?’
They spun around to find the most unlikely of saviours.
‘By the way, I know what you’re thinking,’ Big Col said.
‘Bet you don’t,’ muttered Noah, who had been wondering how he’d got through that without losing control of his bladder.
‘I do though.’ Big Col smiled what seemed to be a knowing, smug smile. ‘You think Delilah ate her Nazi dog, don’t you?’
Noah felt anger rise in him. Big Col wouldn’t gloat about that, would he?
‘If she has, then there’ll be trouble, I’m telling y—’
But Noah didn’t finish the sentence. There wasn’t time, as from behind Big Col’s bulk, limped Frank, tail moving way faster than the rest of his body, his hot lolling tongue making straight for Clem’s face.
‘You’d better not have hurt him,’ Noah said to Big Col.
‘Hurt him? The dog might be a Nazi, but I’m not. I came across him in Wapping Woods, didn’t I? Panting and looking like he was going to keel over. So I found him a puddle to drink from and led him back here. There were others too. Not dogs. A couple of cats. And I think I saw a rabbit too, though I couldn’t tell if they’d come from here or not.
Whilst Frank was alive and safe, it seemed they couldn’t say the same for the other animals they had promised to look after.
So what on earth were they going to say to their owners when they came back to retrieve them?
18
‘Tell them my snake ate ’em. I mean, what are they going to do? Thump me?’ Big Col pointed at his bulk. ‘Don’t think so, do you?’
That part of it was hard to argue with.
‘No, we’ll tell them the truth,’ Clem said, which drew incredulous looks from both of the boys.
‘Will we?’ Noah asked.
‘We have to. We can’t lie. After all, they knew it was risky, leaving them here overnight. And besides, they haven’t been eaten by that thing.’ She found it hard to even glance at Delilah without feeling sick with worry. ‘If anything, they’re free out there, aren’t they? Not locked up in cages in Battersea till the war’s over. Isn’t it better to tell them that?’
Big Col wasn’t convinced. ‘You’d happily let your little Nazi dog go walkabout, would you? Cos I’m sure it’d survive for a good hour or so before someone squished it.’
Clem bristled, and Noah stepped in as peacemaker.
‘Maybe we won’t have to say anything at all?’ he said.
‘What do you mean?’
‘Exactly what I said. Look at your watch. It’s way past eight and the others still aren’t here.’
‘You mean you don’t think they’re coming back?’ said Clem, aghast.
Big Col chortled at her innocence. ‘You’re so prim and proper, aren’t you? Truth is, maybe them other kids didn’t care that much about their pets, after all.’
‘All I’m saying is,’ Noah added, ‘we can’t be hanging around here, waiting for people who might not turn up. They might have come clean to their parents last night and ended up on the wrong end of the slipper. Or they might have been evacuated today, like we were meant to be.’ He thought of his mum. She’d be awake now and wondering where he was.
Clem wasn’t convinced, but as Battersea was a good six-mile walk, (not to mention six back), they needed to get going.
‘All right,’ she sighed. ‘But if we run into any of those kids, then we explain to them exactly what happened. No lies? Agreed?’
‘Agreed,’ said Noah. He didn’t like the idea of explaining what had happened to their beloved pets, but they did have Big Col in tow if anyone got shirty.
Noah grimaced. Relying on Big Col was a first, and he didn’t like it one bit.
19
The city bustled and thrummed. Men were boarding up windows with huge sheets of plywood and angry hammers. Any conversations, even with neighbours, were short and curt. Women in curlers and aprons humped endless sandbags into their backyards, others marched their children off to the train, refusing to carry their small, battered suitcases or mask box, regardless of the weight.
‘You’ll have to carry them at the other end,’ one mother snapped, ‘so you may as well get used to it now.’ She didn’t look as brave as she sounded. The rings beneath her eyes gave her away.
‘Anyone would think there’s a war coming,’ quipped Big Col, but no one laughed.
Big Col harrumphed and returned his attention to the weight of Delilah on his back. It would be much easier to carry her without the sack: to simply drape her around his neck, but he knew that the locals weren’t ready for that. There was panic aplenty already without a python adding to it.
Noah went to cross the street, but Clem pulled him back, wafting a book that she seemed to have magicked from thin air. ‘Not that way,’ she said.
‘Says who?’
‘The A to Z.’ She waved it again excitedly as if it were a book of spells.
‘A to what?’
‘Z, as in the last letter of the alphabet. It’s a map. Well, a book of maps really, it covers every road in London.’
‘The long winter evenings must just fly by in your house.’ Big Col looked bored to tears.
But Noah wasn’t bored by it. He’d been prepared to do what he always did, and make up a route to Battersea, but if Clem knew the quickest way, then that was fantastic.
So with her guidance, they crisscrossed the streets and within thirty minutes they were in roads alien to them, punctuated only by the occasional famous landmark which reminded them they were on track. They paused intermittently, not to look in awe at the buildings, but so both Frank and Big Col could rest their weary limbs, before Clem took over again.
We must keep the Tower of London on our right.
No, it’s not quicker to cut round the back of St Paul’s – look, here?
By the time they crossed Waterloo Bridge, and glimpsed Big Ben’s austere face glaring from the other side of the Thames, the word Battersea had started appearing on signs, and as they trudged on, with Frank wilting by the yard, the mileage next to the word started to decrease. Three became two, which eventually became one.
As they got closer, Noah’s legs felt heavier, though some of this fatigue was due to the worries ricocheting around his brain.
‘Clem?’ he asked suddenly.
‘Yes?’
‘It really is coming, isn’t it? The war.’
‘Why are you asking that now?
‘Because we’re almost there. And when we arrive, I’m going to have to make a decision, aren’t I? About whether I leave Winn there or not.’
Clem sighed and pondered. ‘I wish it wasn’t, Noah, but look around us. It’s like everyone knows. It’s the worst kept secret in the world. I really think there’s going to be a war.’
‘But how am I going to do it?’ he asked her. ‘How am I going to say goodbye to her? And how am I going to do it without breaking my promise to Dad?
Clem had no answers for him, and he had none either, but in fact, as the mighty towers of Battersea power station loomed above them, he wondered if for the second time, he would have to say goodbye at all.
For although Battersea Dogs Home nestled in the shadows of the towers, the queue wrapped all the way around them and out of sight.
‘You have to be kidding?’ Noah gasped. Even Big Col showed some emotion, lowering the sack to the ground before bending double in disbelief.
‘By the time we get inside, the war will be over,’ sighed Clem.
All of them walked along the queue a way.
‘’Scuse me,’ he asked one boy after a couple of hundred yards, ‘how long have you been waiting?
‘Since dawn,’ he yawned. ‘Some daft beggars camped out all night apparently.’
That wasn’t hard to believe, though it didn’t help Noah. Nor did the flustered looking woman, working her way down the queue with what was undoubtedly bad news. Every ten yards, she would stop, look apologetic and speak before moving on again. And every time she moved, the queue did too, though not nearer to the entrance. With heavy shoulders or angry, shocked expressions, people peeled away from the line and traipsed away with their pets.
Noah didn’t move. If there was something going on, he wanted to hear it now.
‘Thank you for queuing so patiently,’ the woman said as she reached him. She was finding it hard to look anyone in the eye. ‘But I’m afraid that, well, in light of the news, we won’t have space to take any more animals in.’
‘News? What news?’ Noah asked, confused.
The woman looked at him in surprise. ‘About war being declared. Mr Chamberlain has just announced it.
There was a cacophony of noises from those listening, a discordant swell of cries and gasps, to which the woman tried, gamely, to respond.
‘I’m so sorry,’ she said. ‘I honestly thought you all already knew.’
‘How could we?’ yelled an elderly man. ‘We’ve been stood here for hours, waiting.’
‘And I’m so sorry that’s the case. Turning any animal away is heartbreaking for us. It goes against everything we stand for, but since yesterday we’ve had thousands of people wait in line. THOUSANDS.’ She looked behind them, ‘And there are maybe a thousand more here now. We don’t have the space inside for all the animals, and even if we did, we’re scared now that we won’t be able to find or afford the food to keep them alive.’
‘So what do we do now?’ asked Noah, panic-stricken. He’d been certain they wouldn’t be turned away, but now the storm Mum had warned him about was positioned right above them.
The woman looked crestfallen. ‘I wish I knew. If you have relatives who live outside the city who could take your animals in, then I recommend you take them there. Other than that, I really couldn’t say.’
Winn, ever the loving dog, chose that moment to introduce herself to the woman, nuzzling gently against her leg and licking her hand, an act of such kindness that it brought tears to the woman’s eyes. ‘I really am sorry,’ she said, voice trembling, before starting to move down the line.
But just as the three children turned to each other, the woman stopped and returned to stand by Noah’s shoulder.
‘There is one last thing you could try,’ she said quietly. ‘It’s a bit of a longshot, but...’
‘Tell us,’ Noah replied. ‘Please.’
20
‘There’s a duchess,’ the woman began, which immediately had Big Col scoffing with derision. He had no time for posh folk.
‘Be quiet!’ Noah and Clem snapped together.
‘Her name is Nina Douglas-Hamilton,’ the woman went on, patiently. ‘She’s a distant cousin to the king, I believe, and she’s dedicated her whole life to animals and keeping them safe. During the last war, she set up three veterinary hospitals for horses that were injured, and she’s been a great supporter of the work we do here.’
‘Blimey,’ Noah mouthed.
‘Oh yes, she’s a wonderful lady,’ she continued, ‘and she’s campaigned against animal cruelty for decades, about the way they experiment on them for medical research.’
‘They do that?’ Noah couldn’t believe it.
‘They do. And Duchess Douglas-Hamilton, well, she played merry hell about it. Protested for years and years in a way that other royals wouldn’t dare.’
‘So, do you think she might help us?’ Clem asked, eyes widening hopefully.
‘I think she might. I don’t know all the details, but one of the girls here told me about something in this morning’s paper. This Duchess has said that if people can get their animals to her then she won’t turn a single one away. She’ll feed them and keep them safe until the war is over.’
Noah could hardly keep still. ‘And where will we find her? Does she live near here?’
The woman looked stumped. ‘Oooh no, dear, from what I was told she lives on some estate west of London. Big old place apparently with huge grounds. Sounds like paradise for the poor animals, doesn’t it?’ She looked as if she were about to cry.
