My Friend the Enemy

by Dan Smith

  I gritted my teeth and drew the blade across my skin. There was a sharp stinging sensation, but I cut further, separating the surface flesh, and when I took the knife away, the blood welled in dots along the cut, bulging, growing and joining.

  ‘Did it hurt?’ Kim asked, staring.

  ‘Not much.’ I put the knife away, feeling very brave, and squeezed the cut so more blood pushed out; enough for it to begin to run down to my wrist when I held my hand up. ‘Hey, maybe we won’t have to steal anything,’ I said. ‘Maybe the bandage for this will be big enough for Erik.’

  ‘I shouldn’t think so.’ Kim shook her head. ‘Anyway, you’ll need it.’

  ‘Aye, true.’ I watched the dark red trails winding down my arm. ‘So you really think this’ll work?’ I asked.

  ‘Of course it will.’

  We went back into the village, where Doctor Jacobs was helping with the clear-up. He was standing next to the green, leaning on a broom handle, talking to one of the other men from the Home Guard. He had his medical bag slung over one shoulder.

  As soon as he saw us coming over, he stopped what he was doing and said, ‘Hello, Peter. What’s happened this time?’

  I had kept my hand up all the way from the beach, so the blood had made a good pattern running past my wrist and onto my forearm. It looked very impressive. As I came closer, Doctor Jacobs saw the blood and began to take his bag from his shoulder.

  ‘How did this happen?’

  ‘A spelk of glass,’ I said.

  ‘Well, we’d better have a look at it. Sit down on the grass.’

  For a moment, I felt like a real wounded soldier. The Home Guard were all around and there was broken glass and roof tiles all over the street. And here I was, sitting on the battlefield being looked after by the medic.

  Doctor Jacobs rummaged in his bag, pulling out a few bits and pieces, asking me to hold my hand out.

  ‘Any news from your dad?’ he asked as he went to work.

  ‘Not for a while. Mam says it takes time for letters to come from Africa, though.’

  Kim sat beside him, close to the bag, and while the doctor was focused on me I saw her slip her hand in.

  ‘What’s goin’ on here?’

  Kim snatched her hand away and looked up as Sergeant Wilkes approached.

  ‘You been in the wars?’ he asked.

  ‘Cut his hand on some glass.’ Doctor Jacobs hardly even glanced at him. After the way Sergeant Wilkes had spoken to him the other night at the crash site, I wasn’t surprised.

  ‘Glass?’ he asked, coming to stand right behind me so I could feel him looming over. ‘How d’you manage that, like? I thought the lads had swept it all up. And I didn’t see you clearin’ up, son.’

  The sergeant was looking down at me, with his hands on his hips, and while his attention was on me, Kim’s hand was back in the medical bag.

  ‘And what about you, bonny lass?’ He turned to look at her and, once more, Kim snatched her hand away.

  ‘Eh?’

  ‘I didn’t see you clearin’ up either,’ he said, tilting his head to one side and narrowing his eyes. ‘How’d he manage to cut himself on glass?’

  ‘We were sitting by the links,’ she said. ‘There was a bit in the grass. Must’ve got blown over there by a bomb or something.’

  With a frown on his face, Sergeant Wilkes glanced out at the sea, then looked at us each in turn, really staring. ‘You two should be carrying your masks,’ he said. ‘What if this place was teeming with gas, eh? What then? And do you want to get into trouble with the warden?’

  ‘No, Sir,’ I said. ‘Sorry.’

  ‘Hm, well.’ He sniffed hard. ‘Don’t let me catch you without ’em again.’ He turned towards the sea once more and nodded. ‘I s’pose I should go and have a look, then. See how bad it is.’ He paused and took a deep breath. ‘And keep away from there. You know it’s dangerous.’

  ‘Any luck finding the German?’ I asked. I thought it was a good time to see if they were any closer to finding Erik, but I had to blurt it out before I lost my nerve.

  Sergeant Wilkes studied me, doing that thing where it seemed like he was looking right into my head. ‘Don’t you worry about no Jerries,’ he said, leaning forward. ‘We’ll have ’im soon enough, you mark my words. I’ll find ’im before the week is out.’

  ‘Then what?’ Kim asked.

  ‘What d’you mean?’

  ‘Well, what will happen to him?’ she said.

  ‘If I get my hands on him?’ He grinned. ‘Not your concern. If I told you, it would make your toes curl up in your boots.’ He winked and lifted one hand in a mock salute. ‘As you were, little soldiers.’ And with that, he turned and marched away, boots crunching on the road.

  ‘He gives me the creeps,’ I said.

  ‘Me too,’ said Doctor Jacobs with a smile. ‘But he’s just doing his job. I should keep away from him if I were you.’

  We both nodded, and as soon as the doctor went back to dressing my wound, Kim stuffed her hand back into the medical bag.

  ‘So. No German yet, eh?’ I said, trying to keep his attention on me.

  ‘Not so far as I know.’

  ‘And they’ve no idea at all where he might be?’ I glanced sideways at Kim.

  ‘Not yet,’ the doctor said.

  ‘Prob’ly long gone by now,’ I suggested as Kim grabbed a handful of whatever she could and whipped it into her satchel.

  ‘Oh, I don’t know about that. They’re beginning to think he might be hiding somewhere close.’ Doctor Jacobs looked up at me. ‘So you be careful where you play and who you talk to.’

  ‘If it was me, I’d get away.’

  ‘Where would you go?’ he asked.

  I shrugged. ‘Up the coast. Look for a boat, maybe.’

  ‘Hmm. Well, they’ll find him one way or another.’

  By now, Doctor Jacobs had finished cleaning the cut and when he reached into his bag for something else, he stopped. He turned and opened the bag with both hands, peering inside, then looking up at Kim’s innocent expression.

  ‘I could have sworn . . .’ He looked into the bag, then at Kim again. ‘Hmm,’ he said. ‘I thought I had more than this. Very odd.’ Then he shook his head and took out a small bandage for my hand.

  When he’d finished, he sent us on our way, telling us to be careful and stay out of trouble, but we hardly took any notice of him. We just wanted to be away from him as quickly as possible, escaping with our stolen medical supplies and going to Erik.

  ‘Good idea trying to get some information out of him,’ Kim said. ‘You’d make a good spy. And trying to throw them off the scent was clever, too – up the coast to look for a boat? I like that.’

  ‘Don’t s’pose it’ll do much good,’ I said.

  ‘You never know. It’s worth a try.’

  About halfway along the street, I changed my pace, walking more slowly.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ asked Kim. ‘Why have you slowed down?’

  I stopped and spoke to her, still watching the boys standing in front of the noticeboard. ‘Maybe we should go back and help clear up.’

  ‘What are you talking about? We need to go to Erik.’

  ‘I just think . . . maybe we should help. You know.’

  ‘Wait a minute,’ Kim said. ‘Is this because of that boy Ridley over there?’

  I shrugged.

  ‘Don’t be so silly,’ she said. ‘After everything we’ve done. You and me just captured a German soldier!’

  ‘Not really captured,’ I said.

  ‘Well, maybe not, but we got him, didn’t we? There’s soldiers looking all over for him but we’ve got him. I reckon you’re braver than any of those monkeys, so what’s the matter with you?’

  When she said it that way, it did sound silly, but I couldn’t explain it right then. I didn’t understand my own feelings. Trevor Ridley frightened me because even when I tried to make him leave me alone, he always overpowered me. He and his friends had always got
the better of me. And then there were the things he said about Mam – about Mr Bennett taking a fancy to her – and those things made me so mad. And what made it worse was that sometimes his comments got right under my skin and I wondered if they were true. Maybe Mam was going to forget about Dad. Maybe she was going to go and live with Mr Bennett. He came round to our house so much, it could have been true and, even though deep down I was sure it wasn’t, Trevor Ridley was always there to add a grain of doubt.

  ‘You’re not going to run away,’ Kim said.

  I looked along the street at the boys.

  ‘And anyway,’ she went on, ‘I promised you that next time he said anything, I’d give him a bloody nose. Come on.’ She put her arm around my shoulder and I reluctantly walked with her.

  Trevor Ridley had spotted us coming and was ready with something to say as soon as we came close. ‘Oh look, it’s that baby Peter Dixon and his evacuee lass. Or is it a lad? I can never tell.’

  I started to walk past them, but heard Kim say beside me, ‘Looks like one of the pigs escaped from your dad’s farm.’

  ‘Don’t try to be clever,’ Ridley said, coming to stand in front of us, with his friends behind him.

  ‘A fat pig,’ Kim said.

  I just wanted to walk away, but I couldn’t leave Kim on her own. Anyway, being with her made me feel stronger, so I stood straight beside her, trying to make myself look taller. ‘A fat, clarty one,’ I said, and my whole body tingled with fear and excitement.

  Trevor Ridley raised his eyebrows. ‘Feelin’ brave, are you? Finally got a friend, so you’re feelin’ brave.’ He looked Kim up and down. ‘Even if she is a lass.’

  ‘At least I’m not a fat pig,’ she returned.

  Ridley stared at her, tightening his jaw, then looked at me. ‘I saw what you two just did.’

  My heart stopped.

  ‘Saw you with your hand in the doctor’s bag.’ He looked at Kim and narrowed his eyes. ‘What’re you two up to, liftin’ stuff off the doctor?’

  My mouth was dry. I could hardly speak. ‘Nowt,’ I said, my tongue clicking. ‘We’re not doing nowt.’

  Ridley sniffed hard and came closer. ‘Maybe I should go tell ’im what I saw.’

  ‘We didn’t do nowt,’ I said again.

  Ridley lifted a hand and jabbed his pointed finger right against my chest. ‘You’re a liar, Peter Dixon, and you’re in a lot of bother.’

  Kim shrugged. ‘No one would believe you. Everyone knows what you’re like.’

  ‘What’s that s’posed to mean?’ Ridley snapped his head round to look at her.

  ‘Just that you’re a liar and everyone knows you’re trouble. Especially the doctor,’ she said. ‘Especially after he caught you at the wreck the other night.’

  Ridley dropped his hand and narrowed his eyes. ‘What d’you know about that?’

  Kim shrugged again.

  ‘Who told ya?’

  ‘No one. I just know.’

  Trevor looked flustered for a moment, knowing he wasn’t going to get anything else out of her, but he wasn’t one for just giving up, so he turned to me and sneered. ‘Your mam gone to live with his lordship yet? Or is she waitin’ for your da’ to get shot first?’

  Even Cummings and Thornhill were shocked by that, and one of them took a sudden breath in surprise.

  ‘Take that back,’ Kim said. ‘Take it back now.’

  ‘Why don’t you try making me?’ he said. ‘Or are you—’ But before he could finish, I stepped forward and swung at him harder than I imagined I was able. I tightened my fingers into a fist and hit Trevor Ridley square on the nose as hard as I could. I felt the cartilage squash under my knuckles, and he sat down on the pavement as if he’d been hit with a sledgehammer.

  Behind him, the other boys took a step back.

  I shook the pain from my hand and looked at my knuckles, and then down at Trevor Ridley who was staring up at me, one hand on his nose.

  Kim stepped forward, looking at the other boys, raising her fists like a boxer. ‘Anyone else want to have a try?’ she asked.

  None of them answered. It was as if they were all too stunned to react. Bob Cummings and Adam Thornhill just stared, mouths open. Even I felt as if I’d been frozen to the pavement, and it was only when Trevor began to get to his feet that Kim tugged my shirt.

  ‘Let’s go,’ she whispered.

  I stepped back, not quite believing what I’d just done. Kim pulled me.

  ‘Now,’ she said.

  Bob and Adam had come to life again and were reaching down to help Trevor stand.

  Kim yanked me hard this time.

  ‘Run!’ she said.

  And with those words the spell was broken and we both turned and ran. We raced along the pavement, and we kept on going until we reached the end of the street. Turning the corner, we ducked between some houses and came out onto the road at the bottom of the fields. We stopped by one of the concrete roadblocks and looked at each other.

  ‘That was brilliant,’ she said between breaths.

  ‘My hand hurts. It was my bad hand, too. The one I cut.’

  ‘Yeah, but it’s worth it, isn’t it? I mean, you should have seen their faces. Ha! You should have seen your face. I think you surprised yourself more than anyone else.’

  I still couldn’t quite believe I’d hit Trevor Ridley, knocked him right down on his backside, but I’d looked back at him as we ran away, and I’d seen him get to his feet and point after us.

  ‘This isn’t going to be the end of it, though, is it?’ I said.

  ‘Course it is,’ Kim said. ‘He won’t bother you again; not now. Everyone knows that if you stand up to a bully, they leave you alone.’

  ‘I’m not so sure.’ I had seen the look on Trevor’s face and it scared me. ‘I don’t think he’s gonna forget about this. And he knows we took stuff outta Doctor Jacobs’s bag.’

  ‘Doesn’t matter.’

  ‘D’you not think we’re in trouble?’ I asked as we crossed the road and headed over the field towards the hill.

  ‘Because of the supplies? No. I don’t think so.’

  ‘What if he tells someone?’

  ‘Who would he tell? Anyway, no one would believe him.’

  ‘I just can’t stop thinking about it. This isn’t the end of it. What if—’

  ‘I can’t stop thinking about that punch,’ Kim said. ‘Does it still hurt?’

  ‘A bit.’

  She stopped and took my hand in hers. ‘Doesn’t look bruised,’ she said.

  I watched her as she turned my hand over, studying it closely.

  ‘Can you waggle your fingers?’

  I moved them about.

  ‘I reckon you’ll live,’ she said, rubbing the fingers between both hands for a moment. ‘What about your cut?’

  I shrugged. ‘It’s fine.’

  ‘Let me see.’

  I let her pick away the edge of the bandage with her fingernail, then pull it back to reveal the cut. ‘It’s still bleeding.’

  ‘Only a bit.’

  ‘I’ve got an idea,’ she said. ‘Give me your knife.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘You’ll see.’

  I fished the penknife out of my pocket and gave it to Kim. I watched her open the blade and put the cutting edge against her palm. Without taking her eyes off me, she gritted her teeth and pulled the blade along her skin. It wasn’t a big cut, but when she squeezed it, the blood oozed out. Then she folded the knife and gave it back to me before taking my hand and pressing the two cuts together.

  ‘Blood brothers,’ she said. ‘Or blood brother and sister.’

  ‘Aye.’

  We held our hands together like that for a while, both of us squeezing hard and looking right at each other. When we let go, I put my hand to my mouth and sucked away the blood.

  ‘You gave him a right good wallop,’ Kim said, sealing the end of the ritual. ‘Just what he deserved.’ She put her arm around my shoulder, and we walked towards t
he hill, best friends.

  RABBIT

  Kim re-dressed Erik’s wounded arm with our stolen bandages while I emptied the pan. I was glad he’d put the cloth over the top of it because the smell in the den was awful, and there was a lot of weight in the pan. I took it into the woods and turned my head as I flung it into the undergrowth. Afterwards, I swooshed it about in the deepest part of the burn and went back to Kim and Erik. It was only as I returned that I realised I hadn’t been worried about leaving Kim alone with him.

  When everything was cleaned up, we gave Erik the food we’d managed to get, and we all sat looking at each other. Talking was difficult because Erik hardly knew any English and we hardly knew any German, but we managed to communicate in simple ways. Sometimes it made us laugh when we were all making shapes in the air with our hands, pointing, looking up in the hope of inspiration. Kim had a nice laugh, quiet and sweet, but sometimes she snorted and slapped her leg if something was really funny. Erik didn’t so much laugh as smile, showing a slightly crooked row of front teeth.

  That day, he dusted his hands across the ground in front of him to make it flat, and took a stick. He drew a shape in the dirt and pointed at it saying, ‘Deutschland.’

  I knew the shape and we knew the name. There was a map of the world on the wall in the classroom at school, and the teacher had shown us where Germany was.

  Erik put the stick close to one edge of his drawing and said, ‘Hamburg.’ Then he wrote the word into the dirt. He tapped his chest and said ‘Erik, Hamburg.’

  ‘You’re from Hamburg?’

  ‘Hamburg,’ he said nodding.

  Then he said something else in German that we didn’t understand and left us shaking our heads, so he rubbed away his drawing and started again. This time he drew a long blob and pointed at it saying, ‘England.’ Then he drew another blob and said, ‘Norwegen.’

  ‘Norwegen?’ I repeated and looked at Kim. ‘Is that Norway?’

  ‘You were in Norway?’ Kim asked him. We knew where that was, too, because they’d showed us that at school. The Germans had invaded and taken it over last year.