Page 66 of Strangers in Time

“I’m so very sorry.”

Charlie looked at a blown-apart building down the street, where children played games amid the rubble.

He let out a sigh. “Seems like everybody’s sort of dead, Miss. Only some just don’t know it yet.”

THECOMPLICATEDBUSINESS OF THEEND

THEY STOPPED AT Asecondhand shop and found two sets of clothes, underwear, and socks for Charlie and a pair of boots that were in decent shape, along with a felt cap. Charlie protested at first when Molly explained her plan, but he finally relented and carefully packed his new clothes in a box provided by the shop’s assistant. Back in Chelsea, Charlie performed a rigorous bathing in Molly’s parents’ claw-foot tub. He came out of it scrubbed pink and feeling cleaner than he had ever thought possible. He put on a set of his new clothes, and they and the boots fit him well.

Later, he and Molly sat in her father’s study.

Charlie looked around in wonder at the shelves of books. “Have you read ’em all?”

“When I left here, I was really too young to read them, though when I was in the country I read every day. I went through the vicar’s library and then visited the library in town every week. It’s a true pleasure losing yourself in another’s imagined world. And you can spend time with so many different people from so very many places, places I may never actually go.”

Charlie looked at her knowingly. “My mum and I wouldsometimes go to the café and I’d have a little book and she hers. It was nice.”

“Your mother. You mentioned a bomb?”

Charlie glanced upward. “I guess nobody expected the Jerries to bomb a school.”

“And were you at the school, too?”

“Yeah, but I was just a bit jumbled.” He looked around. “So you got no parents, either?”

She said quickly, “Idohave parents. My… my father is away on business presently. And as you know, my mother is in a sanatorium in Cornwall.”

Charlie rubbed his now very clean nose and nodded. “So, when’s your dad comin’ back from his…business?”

Molly couldn’t meet his eye as she prepared her lie. “I don’t expect it will be much longer, now that I’m home.”

“Were you and your mum close?”

“My mother was the closest friend I had. But she loved me perhaps too much.”

“How can you love somebodytoomuch?” he asked.

“It’s not really important.” She added wistfully, “I so looked forward to seeing both her and my father when I got home. And I’ve seen neither.”

“Wait, not even your dad. I thought you said—”

“I was not being entirely truthful, Charlie,” she said, looking guilty and pained by this admission. “I havenotseen him. And I’ve no idea when I will. That… is not the sort of homecoming I envisioned.” She glanced at him. “But you have it far harder. At least I’m reasonably certain my parents are still alive. I wish your parents could come back to you, Charlie. I know that they would want to more than anything.”

“Well, wishin’ for somethin’ never works. Least not for blokes like me.” He rose and said, “I guess I’ll be takin’ my leave now. Thanks for the food and the clothes.”

She looked surprised. “I thought you would stay here, at least for now.”

“Why? I’m not family or anythin’.”

“But you’re my friend.”

“Still, don’t think it’s a good idea. We’re, well, we’re different.”

“We do have to take care of your gran. I can help with that.”

Charlie gave her a searching look. “Why? I mean, I ain’t done nothin’ for you.”

“You led me to the Ministry of Food.”

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