by Anne Bennett
Then suddenly, her grasping hands found the torch again and, as she turned it on, the little tunnel seemed flooded with light despite the shield and she sobbed with relief.
A little further on, she realised the roof seemed further away than it had been. She found she could raise her head and did so, glad to be able to get away from the plaster and brick dust if only for a moment or two.
The space got bigger still. Soon Jenny was able to lift herself on to her knees and progress was slightly quicker. Then she came to an area where she could crouch and when she swung the torch this time, she saw why. The beams holding up the first floor had fallen against the stairs, but as the stairs rose so the space beneath them became larger. She sat for a moment, glad of the respite, and considered things.
The pantry must be near, because it was fitted under the stairs and anytime now she could be coming to it. It could well be blocked and yet she mustn’t miss it. She must search every few inches.
Even then she nearly went past it. It was the groan that alerted her. The girl was still alive, but she was obviously in a lot of pain. Frantically, she swung 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 must go and rest now.’
‘How can I?’ Jenny cried. ‘You’re not my doctor, but you are that young girl’s. Would you have me abandon her and renege on my promise?’
‘Can we argue about this at home?’ Gerry interrupted. He turned to the doctor and said, ‘Whatever is decided, Jenny needs treatment I’d say, and if she stays here much longer, she’ll die from the cold.’
So saying he lifted her as if she weighed nothing at all and stilled her protests. ‘Be quiet, Jenny, you have to get your injuries treated, some food inside you and some clothes to cover you, before any decision is reached.’
‘I’m going back,’ Jenny said mutinously.
‘We’ll see.’
‘I am!’
‘All right,’ Gerry snapped back. ‘But let’s take one thing at a time.’
He was striding down the road as he spoke and Jenny relaxed when she realised she wasn’t being taken all the way home, only to her gran’s house. Maureen and the doctor were following behind. Once inside, Dr Sanders quickly washed the dust and grit from her and bandaged her arms, hands and legs and put salve on her face, and the smarting pain of it all subsided a little.
Then, dressed in thick trousers, shirt, pullover and boots, she was given a bowl of Irish stew, a cup of tea so strong the spoon could have stood up in it on its own, and was sat before the fire. The latter was nearly her undoing. The crawl through the tunnel and back had taken it out of her mentally and physically, and with a full stomach and the heat of the fire, Jenny felt incredibly drowsy. Her eyelids were so very heavy; surely she could shut them for a wee minute or two …
Suddenly she jerked herself back to wakefulness. How long had she slept – an hour, half an hour, a few minutes? She had no way of knowing. The clock now showed just after two o’clock in the morning.
She looked around at her gran and the doctor accusingly, knowing they would have let her sleep till morning and not tried to wake her. ‘I can’t believe you let me drop off like that,’ she said.
‘Cutie child, you’ve done enough,’ Maureen said.
Jenny made an impatient movement with her hand. ‘Linda Lennox is just twelve years old and has lost all belonging to her. She’s lain for hours, cold, frightened and alone in total darkness, injured and in constant pain. I promised her I would go back and I will. I’ve never broken a promise in my life and I think this is the most important one I’ve ever made.’ She looked at the doctor and said, ‘I wouldn’t answer for Linda’s mental condition if she’s left much longer in that place alone. I said I’d try and get her something for the pain too.’
‘But now we know where she is, it won’t be long till she’s out,’ the doctor said. ‘They were ordering heavy lifting gear when we left.’
‘Don’t treat me like an idiot,’ Jenny said desperately. ‘You know as well as I do, it will be hours yet. The stairs pinning Linda to the pantry floor are holding up the whole of the upper floor and part of the other house is leaning against it too. It will be some time before she’s reached, let alone rescued.’
‘But at least she will be rescued now,’ he said. ‘You did well detecting her.’
‘I did well?’ repeated Jenny. ‘That girl is almost delirious with pain, and when they eventually lift the stairs off her legs … well, I don’t think she’ll stand it. She needs something to kill the pain, and as soon as possible, I’d say.’
Dr Sanders regarded Jenny shrewdly. ‘I can’t get in there to give her an injection – you know that,’ he said. ‘Surely you’re not proposing you administer it?’
‘Have you a better idea?’
‘It would be incredibly dangerous.’
‘It’s all incredibly dangerous,’ Jenny said dismissively. ‘She’s not lying in a feather bed at this minute either.’
Maureen was open-mouthed at the way Jenny was attacking the doctor. She’d never heard her speak that way to anyone before. She hoped the man would put it down to shock and not be offended. Jenny didn’t seem to care if he was or not, because she cried out, ‘She needs help now! Why can’t you realise that?’
‘Hush, mavourneen,’ Maureen said, dropping down on her knees before the settee and gathering her weeping granddaughter into her arms. ‘Everyone knows about the wee wean and sure it’s terrible news, so it is. But why does it have to be you that goes back in?’
Jenny wiped the tears away and said, ‘Because I’m small, Gran, the only one that has any chance. There were even places I was nearly stuck too.’ She gave a shuddering sigh and went on, ‘I’m the only one who can keep her company.’
‘But the whole place could collapse on top of you both,’ Dr Sanders said gently.
Jenny swallowed the terror she had of going back into the dreadful tunnel and retorted, ‘I know all that. What I want to know is, are you going to help me, or sit up all night talking about it?’
Dr Sanders remembered suddenly the first time he’d seen Linda Lennox. She’d come into his surgery with half a crown in her cardigan pocket which he could guess was all the money she had in the world, and asked him if it were enough for him to visit her mother who’d collapsed. He’d seen the family many times since, and been impressed by the courage of both the mother and daughter. Linda was the same slight build as Patty, with a little elfin face, deep blue-grey eyes, a dainty nose and a fine mouth; her rich brown hair was wavy and fell to her shoulders, but her chin was well defined and Dr Sanders knew her to be a determined little thing.
But he also knew she’d been devoted to her younger brothers and she’d had a special bond with her mother. He couldn’t begin to comprehend the depth of her loss, or how she’d cope with it. He also knew she’d be very frightened, and if anyone needed a friend at this moment, it was Linda Lennox. Surely if the O’Leary girl was brave enough to go back in that tunnel, he was brave enough to trust her to administer morphine to alleviate the child’s pain. Really there was no other option anyway.
So in the end Jenny had her way, although most were astonished that she was going back to stay with the child because of a promise she had made. At last one of the official rescue workers, who’d appeared with lifting gear, saw her determination and knew she wasn’t to be dissuaded. ‘At least go better equipped this time,’ he said. ‘You know it might take hours before we reach you.’
‘I know.’
She was given a flashlight which she could push in front of her into the tunnel and a water bottle which was strapped to her back. High-energy biscuits used by the Forces were tucked into one of the breast pockets of her shirt, and a blanket was tied to her belt so that she could drag it behind her.
In the other breast pocket, she carried the precious morphine injection. The doctor was still apprehensive as he measured out the dose. ‘I’m worried about giving her too much,’ he said. ‘She’s quite slight as well as small for her age.’
‘She’s in terrible pain,’ Jenny reminded him.
‘Even so … Just try and keep her alert. Don’t let her sleep if you can help it. Keep talking to her.’
‘Yes, all right,’ Jenny said. She was impatient to be on her way before further objections could be raised.
She gave her gran a hug then knelt before the tunnel; the old lady’s eyes were wet with tea
rs and her lips moved constantly in prayer to the Virgin, who’d tasted sorrow in her own life and would understand the gnawing worry she had for Jenny.
Jenny had been in the tunnel about half an hour when Gerry decided to call it a day. It was after three o’clock in the morning and he knew he’d be needed at work in the morning. The city was in a perilous position, with half the gas pipes in the centre ruptured, leaking or unusable, and it would be some time before Jenny reached the trapped child and even longer till the search-party located them. Meanwhile he was asleep on his feet and if he wanted to be any good at all in the morning, he knew he had to rest. His mother, too, looked dead beat, and he went over and put his arm around her. ‘Come on, Ma,’ he said. ‘Let’s away home for a wee while.’
‘Away home when my dear grandchild is in that hellhole?’ Maureen cried, but though her voice was strident, Gerry knew she was at the end of her tether.
‘Ma, she’ll be in there hours yet,’ he said. ‘Honest to God we can do nothing more, and when she is eventually rescued, then she’ll need you.’ Maureen knew Gerry was right; she was too tired to think straight or be any bloody use to anyone. She doubted she’d sleep, but even to rest in the warm would be nice. Gerry put his arm around her and led her away.
Willing hands took the places of those who dropped out as the night wore on. The tale of the child who lay buried under tons of rubble and the girl not much older who’d crawled in to give her comfort, had spread like wildfire across the estate, and people came from all over to lend a hand. It was heartening, Maureen thought as she made her way home, in a world where values and common decency seemed to have been turned on their heads.
In the tunnel the going was tough. Conscious of the needle in her breast pocket, Jenny tried to keep her upper body raised as much as possible, but that meant the water bottle dragged on the roof. Occasionally, it got stuck altogether and she would have to hunker down and wriggle free, hurting her face again. But though she felt the water bottle to be an encumbrance, she knew it was vital; she dreaded puncturing it and seeing the precious water trickle away.