A Strong Hand to Hold. Anne Bennett
her torch, all fear for herself forgotten. She swung around onto her knees, searching every nook and cranny, wishing and hoping the child would groan again or cry out, anything to help her find out where she was.
‘Linda,’ she cried as loud as she could. ‘Linda, where are you?’
Silence, total silence. ‘Linda?’ Jenny shouted again after a few minutes. ‘Linda, please! Oh Linda, for God’s sake!’
And then it came, a long low groan to the left of where Jenny sat. She swung around and examined the wall which seemed totally blocked with a solid lump of wood except for a narrow space at the top.
She pulled herself up and peered over, playing the torch around. The missing girl lay so white and still she might have been a corpse, her legs held fast by the staircase that had semi-collapsed on top of her.
Jenny gasped. She knew she had to get through that gap to rescue Linda, and it would be a squeeze, even for her. Discarding her tattered blouse, suit, stockings and shoes without a thought, she crouched shivering in her slip.
The widest part of the human body is the head and Jenny was soon aware of this as hers took a great deal of manoeuvring to get through the small aperture. But at last she was on the other side, and kneeling by the unconscious child.
Linda was covered in grey dust. Her face was thick with it, but with cleaner trails as if she’d cried for some time. Her brownish hair was matted beneath her and she lay on a bed of fragmented bricks, an old teddy bear in her right hand. Compassion flooded through Jenny. ‘Linda,’ she said softly and then much louder, but there was no response.
Sudden fear gripped Jenny. Was that shuddering groan she’d heard the final whisper of life? She tried to feel for a pulse in the wrist and throat, but her lacerated hands could feel nothing, so very gently she laid her ear across the child’s chest and could have cried with relief when she distinctly heard the heart beating – faintly it was true, but definitely there.
But how could she rouse the girl? She couldn’t bring herself to smack her face. In fact, to touch her in any way could hurt her, seeing the way her legs were pinned. Eventually, Jenny ripped the bottom of her slip into strips and spat liberally on the first one and wiped it across the child’s face.
Linda had been drifting in and out of consciousness for some hours. She hated waking from the blissful oblivion for she woke to fear and loneliness and intense pain, stronger than she’d ever felt before, so strong it drained her of energy. Every bone and pore in her body seemed on fire and she burned with a fever that Jenny was aware of as soon as she touched her. In her lucid moments, Linda had heard people calling her, but it had seemed so far away and nothing to do with her at all.
But this was different, a stroking of her face and her cheeks, reminiscent of her mother who used to do that when she was small. She came to reluctantly, almost afraid to open her glazed eyes.
But when she did, she was gazing into deep brown ones, very like her mother’s. Someone was patting her face gently and it felt so soft, like a pillow. So soft, she closed her eyes again, but then the same someone called, ‘Linda.’
‘Mom.’ She knew her mother would come for her. Linda’s eyes opened again, but the face looking down on her was not her mother’s. ‘Who are you?’ she asked in a voice slurred with weariness and the agony of constant and unremitting pain.
The person didn’t answer, but tears rained down her face. Eventually, she controlled herself and said, ‘Oh Linda, I’m so glad I’ve found you.’
Linda was confused. She wasn’t lost; she knew where she was. She was in the pantry. Suddenly, it all came back; she’d nipped into the house to find Tolly, George’s teddy bear. She still had him in her hand. ‘I’m in the pantry,’ she said. ‘There was a bomb.’
‘I know, my dear.’
‘I came back for Tolly, he’s George’s bear.’
‘George?’
‘My little brother. He’ll be glad he’s safe.’
Jenny remembered the small dead bodies carried past her the previous evening and a shiver went through her. She had to keep off the subject of the girl’s family at all costs. ‘Are you in much pain?’ she asked.
Linda gave a brief nod and even that small movement caused such a severe spasm throughout her body that she nearly passed out again. ‘It used to be just my legs,’ Linda said wearily, when she recovered her breath. ‘Now it’s everywhere.’
‘Oh, God,’ Jenny thought, and tears stood out in her eyes.
‘It’s all right, it’s not so bad now you’re here,’ Linda said. ‘Are you going to get me out?’
Jenny held one of Linda’s hands and stroked it gently as she said, ‘There are people outside waiting to help, but we couldn’t do much till we found out where you were. I … I need to go back and tell them and then they can really start moving to get you free.’
‘Oh, please don’t go!’ Linda cried, her eyes wide with alarm and terror. ‘Oh, please! Oh please!’ Tears coursed down her cheeks and Jenny could hardly speak. She knew it would take all the young girl’s reserve of courage to stay by herself in the dark again while she alerted those waiting outside.
‘I must,’ she said, ‘don’t you see? They can’t start moving anything about until they know where you are.’
‘I can’t bear it if you go.’
‘Please, Linda, try and understand,’ Jenny said. ‘I promise I’ll come back and stay with you till you’re rescued.’
‘Do you promise, God’s honour, on your mother’s life?’ Linda asked, and shivered as she imagined the fear of being left alone again.
‘Yes,’ said Jenny firmly. ‘Yes, I do, and I’ll get something for the pain you’re in too. Dr Sanders is out there.’
Vague memories stirred in Linda’s befuddled brain and she said, ‘Yes, he came to see my mom. He’s nice. Is Mom all right?’
Oh God, Jenny thought. Instead of answering she said again, ‘I must get back and tell everyone you’re safe as quickly as possible.’ She got to her feet gingerly, wary of jarring the child. ‘Don’t expect me back too soon,’ she warned. ‘The tunnel is very narrow and in places I have to lie flat and drag myself through, but I promise you I’ll be back.’
‘Be as quick as you can,’ Linda said and shut her eyes tight so she wouldn’t see when the stranger disappeared and she was in darkness and alone once more.
When Jenny emerged from the tunnel, a cheer rose up. She was covered head to foot in a film of yellow-grey dust and clad only in a torn and filthy slip that hung on her like a tattered rag. As she shivered from reaction and cold, a woman stepped forward with a blanket to wrap around her.
Maureen ran towards her granddaughter, tears coursing down her face, for she thought she’d never see her again. She was shocked at the sight of her; even in the dim light of the torches she could see the mass of raw gravel grazes on Jenny’s face. Her nose had not escaped and there was a green/blue bruise swelling under her left eye. The deep gashes on her arms oozing droplets of blood were hidden by the blanket, but the legs sticking out from it had jagged slash-marks along the length of them and blood was dripping from them on to her bare, blistered feet.
‘She’s there in the pantry like we thought,’ she said wearily. ‘The stairs have collapsed on her, trapping her legs, but apart from that she’s all right.’
‘Oh my darling girl,’ Maureen cried, wrapping her arms around Jenny’s shoulders. She saw her wince and stood back. ‘Come away home now,’ she said firmly. ‘You’ve done enough for one night.’
‘Go home, Gran?’ Jenny echoed incredulously. ‘Don’t be silly, I have to go back.’
‘Oh no, my girl,’ Dr Sanders put in. ‘Doctor’s orders. You