Page 77 of Strangers in Time

“I see,” said Molly, her gaze drifting to the floor.

“Iwaspuzzled why you were asking me about your mother and having me read those letters if your father was still at home. Well, Ihavefound out some news of him.”

“What?” Molly exclaimed, looking up.

“That your father hasneverworked at the Ministry of Food.”

Molly had just then picked up her teacup. She was so startled by Oliver’s words that the cup slipped from her fingers and fell onto the Wilton rug.

Charlie stared down at the few drops of tea leaching into the carpet before raising his amazed gaze to Oliver.

“Your… your friend must be wrong then,” said Molly slowly. “Or perhaps Mrs. Pride misunderstood my father. Yes, that must be it,” she said, brightening and turning to Charlie. “That’s why he wasn’t at the ministry that night. Mrs. Pride just got it wrong.”

“But that letter got the Ministry of Food’s name on it,” Charlie reminded her.

“That’s right, it did,” said Molly, looking confused once more. “So what else do you know about my father, Mr. Oliver?”

Before he could respond, Oliver’s gaze lifted to the ceiling.

Charlie’s eyes darted to the window.

Molly said, “What is it?”

“Air raid siren,” said Oliver. “I’m off duty tonight and don’t even have my gas mask. How very stupid of me.”

“You can use my father’s. And I have mine and Charlie can use my mother’s.”

Oliver took charge. “Follow me. A tube station is the nearest best shelter. Quickly. We haven’t much time before the next siren sounds, and it’s a bit of a walk.”

They hurried to the front door and grabbed the masks off the pegs along with umbrellas.

Molly said, “Wait, where is Mrs. Pride?”

They quickly searched the house, but couldn’t find her.

“She must have gone out,” said Oliver. “She might already be at the shelter.”

The warbly sirens were growing louder and louder.

Oliver’s expression turned grim as he listened to the sirens. “Hurry, children, hurry.”

ALLFALLDOWN

AS THEY JOINED STREAMSof people rushing along, Molly looked up to see if the German planes were really coming. This was an entirely new experience for her and the anxiousness she felt echoed that reality.

Oliver caught her look and said, “They’re not here yet, Molly. Another siren will sound, and then we’ll have around ten minutes or so before, well…”

They passed a demolished “street shelter,” which had been mass-erected early in the war and designed to hold fifty people, protecting them from “bomb splinters.” However, they had a serious design flaw, namely that a bomb blast would suck out the walls, leaving the nine-inch-thick concrete roof to fall on the unfortunate inhabitants. Oliver had happened on one such catastrophe during his air warden duties, and seeing the result had made him and his fellow air warden retch.

Ten minutes later, they raced down the steps of the tube station along with many other worried-looking people.

Oliver identified himself as an air warden to another warden in uniform who was on duty, and they both helped to get everyone in and situated before securing the entrance to the tunnel.

When he was done with this, Oliver settled next to Charlie and Molly on the station’s platform and waited.

“Do you think they’re really comin’?” Charlie asked Oliver.

“While it is cloudy and raining, the wind is calm, so there is a possibility. And the civilian watchers have become very good at their jobs, unfortunately from so much practice.” He looked reassuringly at Molly. “We’ll be all right. This station is quite deep.”

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