Under the July Sun

by Barbara Jones

  She asked various people if there were any survivors from where she estimated the shop would have been. But all she could discern from the ARPs was that nobody had survived between this point and that. The points described included Lize’s shop.

  Cat stood, running her fingers through her hair and turned to look at the girls who were desperately trying to keep up with her.

  ‘Wait a minute Mummy,’ Anna pleaded, ‘we can’t get over this stuff, it’s too hard.’

  Then Cat arrived at the point she knew, absolutely, must have been where the gate to the shop had been. There was just a massive hole in the earth with tons of concrete, splintered and charred wood sticking up at all angles. She then knew in her heart it was pointless looking for them. They must have all died.

  She turned to the girls.

  ‘I’m sure the shop was here.’

  Cat looked at their faces, pinched and white from lack of sleep. ‘Oh Lord…Auntie Lize and Granny,’ was all she could whisper.

  They stood among the rubble staring in disbelief at the devastation, embracing each other, unable to fathom the enormity of events.

  ‘We should go and see if Reggie, Maureen and the boys are alright,’ Cat said wearily.

  Gingerly they picked their way across lumps of concrete that once marked the roads they knew to make their way towards the High Street.

  As they turned the corner into the High Street, they all realized that Reggie’s shop had gone too.

  ‘Maureen!’ Cat cried out running towards the place where the shop and flat had once been. But all that remained was a yawning cavity in the ground.

  ‘Oh my God. Oh my God. ’

  Cat ran back and forth, trying in her mind to shift the location of the shop to further along the road where some buildings had remained intact.

  ‘No. No, it couldn’t be here. It couldn’t be.’

  She fell onto her knees trying to throw aside pieces of broken concrete, gashing the skin on her arms and legs.

  Anna reached out to her mother. ‘Mummy, stop now,’ she pleaded.

  ‘But I have to find them,’ Cat cried clawing at the rubble.

  ‘Mummy, stop!’ Anna yelled.

  ‘Ye don’t understand. I have to find them. I have to tell Reggie and Maureen about Lize and Granny–’

  ‘Mummy, it’s all over. They’re gone,’ Anna said. She tried pulling on Cat’s arm, forcing her to leave her desperate rummaging.

  Elizabeth drew closer to Anna and clutched her hand. ‘Are Charlie and Louis dead, Anna?’

  ‘Yes, I think so. Nobody could have survived this,’ she said looking desolately across the devastation.

  Cat stood up amongst the ruins, dazed.

  ‘Dear God,’ she murmured, ‘they’re all gone.’

  They stood in bewildered silence staring at the heaps of wood and bricks that were once the butcher’s shop and flat knowing that under it, somewhere, were Reggie, Maureen and the boys.

  ARP wardens were rushing around trying to dig out people calling for help. Some, able to walk, emerged from the rubble covered in dust with trails of blood trickling down their whitened bodies, were wrapped in blankets and led away. The men continued working frantically pulling aside planks of wood and bricks searching for survivors.

  Cat began to shake and Anna took off her cardigan to wrap around her shoulders.

  ‘We should leave them to it and go home now Mummy,’ she said, holding her mother tight. ‘It’s all over. We can’t do anything to help.’

  Cat nodded her agreement and reluctantly they began retracing their steps - picking a way out of the chaos.

  Walking arm-in-arm they made their way home in silence, but as they entered Alwold Crescent the sun drifted out from behind the clouds.

  Anna turned to Cat. ‘That’s good the sun’s coming out.’

  Looking at Anna’s face Cat was suddenly reminded of Louis.

  ‘You look so much like yer father ye know.’

  ‘What’s made you suddenly say that?’

  ‘I was just remembering yer dad, and that July day ─ so many years ago.’