by Mary Arden
‘Did Elaine tell you what her duties were?’ he asked me rather sharply.
‘No Sir, she didn’t, but I must admit that the thought crossed my mind that, as she was French, she might be in the Resistance, but she didn’t talk about her job, and I didn’t ask her any questions about it,’ I replied. ‘Please tell me that she is all right.’
‘Before I can tell you anything, Mary, I want you to sign the Official Secrets Act,’ the Officer said taking a form out of his briefcase.
‘I did that when I joined up, Sir,’ I told him.
‘Nonetheless, I want you to sign this one too please’ he said gently. ‘You know what signing the Official Secrets Act means don’t you, Mary? Anything that has passed between us this morning is not to be repeated to anyone, not unless you are given official permission to talk about it.’
I took the form, signed it, and then the Officer explained why he needed to know everything that Elaine and I had done and discussed when we had met in Tarbert.
‘Elaine was dropped over France a few days after you last saw her,’ he began. ‘We kept in contact with her regularly, and then we lost touch with her.’
‘Do you think that she… that she has been captured?’ I whispered. ‘Or do you think she’s dead?’ I added, with rising panic and a familiar croak in my throat.
‘I hope to God not,’ he sighed, ‘but the truth is, I just don’t know. We are doing our utmost to track her movements since her radio went silent. The reason I have had this meeting with you, Mary, is to see whether you and Elaine met or talked to anyone who might have known about the work she was doing; anyone could be responsible for her disappearance, so I want you to now tell me again about the other people you met in the hotel. I am quite sure they are all innocent, but we will need to double check.’
I went back over everything once again, including how Elaine had thought that two young naval Officers’ security had been rather lax.
‘Elaine looked so pretty in her civilian clothes, Sir, and the Officers obviously had no idea that she was trying to find out as much as she could about them. I do hope they won’t get into any trouble, as they were both very pleasant and polite, and didn’t try to,’ I felt myself go pink in the face, ‘Well you know, Sir.’
‘Well, I know what?’ he asked.
‘Try any funny business!’ I whispered.
Commander Tapps suddenly had a coughing fit and had to get up and pour himself a glass of water.
When the meeting was over, the Officer apologised for putting me through such an ordeal and before I left he said, ‘I want you to know that we are doing our very best to find Elaine and bring her home safely. When we do, I will make sure that you know personally, but meanwhile, not a word, understood?’
‘Yes Sir,’ I replied and then headed back to the NVT office, as fast as I could. For the rest of that day and most of the night I kept thinking about Elaine and just prayed that she hadn’t disappeared without trace.
The following Saturday was a beautiful day, so Veronica and I decided to go for a walk over the hills behind the Ugadale Hotel. She was a bit worried about getting lost, so I assured her that I’d mark the route with little arrows made from stones or twigs, and tie lengths of cotton onto some of the branches, so that we would know whether to turn left or right on our way back.
‘Anyway, there’s a farmhouse about a mile from the Ugadale, which we can use as a landmark,’ I tried to reassure her. ‘There’s no way we can possibly get lost.’
I told Veronica that I’d learned to do orienteering when I was a Girl Guide and that I’d managed to get my Orientation badge. She laughed at this revelation and admitted that she was more of an indoors type of girl who preferred dressmaking and embroidery, so she would be relying on me to find our way back.
‘I don’t know why I should trust my life in your hands,’ Veronica teased. ‘I could be peacefully sitting in the hotel conservatory reading my book instead of puffing and blowing up this narrow path and getting dust all over my lovely clean shoes.’
I giggled and suggested that we sit for a while and have a drink of water and a couple of biscuits each to give us the strength for the remainder of the walk. I then told her that I wanted to take her to a special place that I had found on a previous walk, as it had the most wonderful views in every direction.
When we finally got there, we stood side by side in silence for a while and took in the beauty of the scene. When Veronica finally spoke she said how glad she was that I had dragged her all the way there.
‘I had no idea that Machrihanish was so breathtaking. You can’t tell, when you are standing on the airfield, because it’s so flat, and the dunes seem to go on for miles and miles blending into the sea, but once you’re up here, it’s like a whole new world.’
Veronica and I sat and chatted in the sunshine for nearly half an hour, before realising that the temperature had dropped significantly. I then noticed that a mist was starting to form, so suggested that it was time to make our way back to the hotel.
As we made our slow descent, the mist was getting thicker by the minute and soon we were unable to see more than a few yards in front of us.
‘I think we should walk a bit faster,’ I said trying not to sound in the least bit frightened.
‘Yes, the fog is getting a bit dense isn’t it?’ Veronica said nervously.
‘All we need to do is to look out for the various signs I made on the way up, so that we don’t stray from the path, and then we will be able to find our way down again,’ I said, trying to sound confident.
The mist was starting to get really thick now, so I told Veronica to hold onto my cardigan, and that I would lead the way.
‘Hells Bells!’ Veronica exclaimed, ‘I wish I hadn’t come now.’
It was hard finding my landmarks with this eerie dense fog now all around us. I even had to get on my hands and knees to check for my signs every so often, because I knew that if we strayed from the path too much we could fall down the hillside, which was extremely steep and covered in prickly gorse. Eventually, I spotted a bit of old rag that I’d tied to a bush earlier that day, so knew exactly where we were and realised that all we had to do now was to stick to the path and keep our eyes skinned for my other landmarks.
We carried on walking silently through the fog concentrating on our every step. A few yards further on I spotted an arrow that I’d made with some sticks, and then found a Cairn that I had built with a pile of stones. I breathed a quiet sigh of relief, now we were almost home, even if not dry, and all we had to do was turn right ahead to get to the farmhouse, which would lead us back to the road to the Ugadale.
A minute later we were lost again, as the fog had become so thick that I couldn’t see my foot in front of me, so I said, ‘Let go of my cardigan Veronica, and stay put until I have come back to get you.’
‘Don’t leave me Mary,’ Veronica begged.
‘Don’t worry, Veronica,’ I said calmly although I wasn’t feeling very calm at all, ’I just need to find the rowan tree, where I tied a piece of string and then I will know which way to go from here and come back and get you. It should be very near here so I won’t be far away from you, but as I can hardly see my hand in front of my face, let’s keep talking to each other, so I can easily find you again.’
To keep Veronica’s spirits up I pretended to be a sheep as I got back on to my hands and knees to feel my way along the path, ‘Baa, Baa,’ I bleated.
‘That’s not funny’ Veronica said crossly.
My hands were now getting quite sore from feeling around the prickly bushes, and my knees were getting raw from inching along the stony path, so when I bumped my head against a really hard object my first reaction was one of anger.
‘Ouch!’ I yelled. It then dawned on me that this hard object just might be the Rowan tree that I had been looking for, so I stood up and felt up the trunk and along a branch, and finally found my piece of string.
‘Thank you, God,’ I whispered. ‘I’ve foun
d the Rowan tree,’ I then called out, as casually as I could, ‘I’ll come back and get you now.’
Just as I grabbed Veronica’s hand she yelled, ‘Look over there, I can see some lights on in a big house.’
‘It’s the Ugadale!’ I shouted with relief, ‘see, I told you I would get us back safely.’
‘Hmm, well the next time I come up here with you I’ll make sure I get a weather forecast first,’ Veronica said grumpily.
When we got back to the hotel, we were met by the anxious face of Petty Officer Brown, ‘Where on earth have you two girls been?’ she asked. ‘I have been worried sick, Mary; your roommate told me that you had gone for a walk up the hill, and then when the mist turned to fog, I was concerned that you might not find your way back.’
Much to my surprise Veronica said cheerfully, ‘Oh, we’ve just been for a lovely country walk. I’m awfully sorry if we’ve caused you concern.’
Once we had both had a hot bath and a hot drink, I decided to apologise to Veronica for putting her through such an ordeal, as I knew that she’d been really frightened.
‘That’s quite all right’ Veronica said. ‘Just as well you got your Orientation badge when you were a Girl Guide, or we might still be up there now!’
The following day on the notice board in the hall of the hotel there was a new notice, which read: ‘All Wrens to sign in and out. Please use the book on the hall table if going for anything more than a stroll up the road and write down your intended destination. P.S Yes, that means you too Leading Wren Arden!’
One night, I had such a vivid dream, that when I woke up I decided to draw a sketch of everything that I could remember. It wasn’t easy to draw because I had dreamt about rather strange looking objects like radio aerials that were attached to long poles, some of which resembled the crosses that I had seen as a child on the shields of French Knights in armour in my brother William’s history books. These crosses were all set in the ground on a hill overlooking the seashore in a number of rows, and I knew it was the seashore, because in my dream I could hear the waves breaking. To indicate that high-pitched sounds were emanating from these crosses I drew little squiggles above them, which looked more like bedsprings, as I had no idea what sound waves looked like.
The following night, I had another strange dream, so I did a sketch of that one too. This time, I drew a man sitting in a cockpit wearing a flying jacket that had a number of tubes coming out of it, and a helmet similar to one that I had seen in a children’s comic depicting what Martians might look like if they came to earth. I wondered if I had had this dream because I had overheard Doctor Du Caine talking to some of the pilots about the need to overcome something called G-force, which I hadn’t fully understood yet.
When it was time to leave for the day, I tidied my desk as usual, but as I didn’t want anyone to see my childish drawings, I hid them in the office drawer and then forgot all about them.
The next morning, I went back to the office to write up some reports, but when I opened the drawer to get the forms I needed, my ‘dream’ sketches were no longer there. I looked around the office but couldn’t find them anywhere, so I thought I would ask Rose if she had put them away somewhere else when she came back to the office.
I was halfway through doing the reports, when one of the Wren writers came into the office and told me that I had to go and see Doctor Du Caine immediately. By the tone of her voice, I could tell that this was an order rather than a request.
I quickly made my way to his office, and, feeling rather apprehensive, knocked on his door before going in. Instead of his usual cheery greeting he just pointed to a chair and glared at me. I couldn’t imagine what I could possibly have done to make him so angry, so I asked him in a very quiet voice, ‘Have I done something wrong, Sir? If I have, I am sorry, but I have no idea what it is.’
The doctor picked up one of the drawings I had been looking for and said, ‘Is this your drawing?’
‘Yes, Sir, but I didn’t do it during working hours I promise,’ I told him, thinking that I must be in trouble for drawing during office hours.
‘Why draw these particular things? Why not a vase of flowers, a bowl of fruit, or something else, if you have so much time to spare?’ Doctor Du Caine asked sarcastically.
I couldn’t work out why he was being so nasty to me. It didn’t make sense, so I decided the best thing to do was to tell him the truth and explain that I’d recently had two very strange and vivid dreams that I couldn’t get out of my head, so I had decided to draw them with the intention of analysing them later.
‘That’s a likely story. Now just tell me how the hell you found the originals, which are locked up in the drawer in my desk? Did you take the key, open the drawer, and then copy them?’ he asked me furiously.
‘I’m sorry, Sir, but I have no idea what you are talking about,’ I said honestly.
Doctor Du Caine didn’t say anything for a minute, and then asked me slowly and deliberately, ‘Have you ever been in my office when I have not been here?’
‘Are you accusing me of sneaking in here, unlocking and opening a drawer, and stealing one of your drawings to copy?’ I asked, tears now welling up. ‘If you are, Sir, I must say that I think that is grossly unfair. Surely you know me better than that, and anyway, why would I? Are your drawings so much better than mine?’ Tears were now running down my cheeks and my hands were trembling.
‘Stop crying, for God’s sake,’ Doctor Du Caine said firmly, and then in a slightly gentler tone added, ‘Come on Mary, you’re making me feel like a real heel, but let me explain to you why I’m so angry.’
He then explained how he had found my drawings when he went looking for one of the pilot’s reports in my desk. Apparently, my childish squiggles looked almost exactly the same as some Top Secret research that he had locked up in his desk. He then went on to tell me that he got such a shock when he had seen the similarity between my sketches and his secret blueprints that he had nearly had a heart attack.
‘Well, I might have an explanation, Sir,’ I said thinking furiously how this coincidence could have happened, ‘you remember how I had what you called my ‘funny feelings’ about the pilot that wanted to kill himself?’
He nodded slowly, and I continued, ‘Well, it’s a bit like that. I seem to pick up other people’s thoughts, but how I manage to do that when I’m fast asleep, I have no idea. Is it possible that I could have ‘tuned-in’ to your thoughts somehow?’
Doctor Du Caine asked me to try and remember which nights I’d had these dreams.
I thought for a bit and replied, ‘It was last Tuesday and Thursday.’
‘You seem very sure,’ the doctor remarked.
‘I remember, because we always have cheese on toast for supper on those nights, and cheese seems to make me dream more than usual,’ I told him.
The doctor continued to stare at me intently, and then said that those were the two nights that he and some colleagues had stayed up past midnight discussing the latest radar systems and a new prototype pressure suit to enable the pilots to overcome G-force.
‘The blueprints for both these new innovations were locked up in my desk for security, and if I was to show them to you, which I can’t, you would understand why I got into such a flap. Your drawings look almost identical. I can’t think how, but somehow you must have picked up on my thoughts while we were discussing these matters. I can think of no other explanation unless—’ the doctor paused for a moment to think, and then he turned to me and asked, ‘Have you ever heard of ESP Mary?’
‘Yes, Sir, I was told about Extra Sensory Perception by Surgeon Commander Timpston, when I was at HMS Daedalus,’ I replied.
‘Why did he discuss ESP with you? It’s hardly an everyday conversation,’ the doctor asked, now appearing to be genuinely interested and not so cross anymore.
‘Well, as I had been picking up other people’s stressful thoughts, the Surgeon Commander lent me some books, so that I could try to understand why I had this abi
lity, but I still haven’t worked it out,’ I told him.
Doctor Du Caine then sighed, ‘Well I have to admit that I have been extremely stressed and tired lately, so I suppose it is just possible that you picked that up, but I don’t pretend to understand this either. However, I do believe you are innocent of any wrongdoing and I am sorry that I jumped down your throat, but please understand why I had to. Security has to be my main concern at all times.’
‘Perhaps I had better refrain from doing any drawings for a while,’ I suggested.
‘Well, just stick to drawing flowers until after the war, will you Mary?’ Doctor Du Caine said, now smiling at me.
A few days later Doctor Du Caine asked me to stay behind after work, and told me that he wanted to do an experiment on me to see if I could pick up his thoughts while he was in his office, and I was sitting in the decompression chamber on my own. He gave me a pencil and a pad of paper and told me to just sketch anything that came into my head during that time.
For the first ten minutes I couldn’t think of anything to draw so I just sat there and tried to think about what else I was going to be doing that week. I then suddenly remembered I was due to go bird-watching with CPO McPhie and his young son the following evening, and that I had forgotten to ask him to bring a spare pair of binoculars for me to use, so I started to draw some binoculars as a reminder, and then I remembered that I needed to buy some more coffee for our office, so I drew a can of Nescafe. After that I drew a few other doodles just to pass the time away, and then suddenly for no apparent reason, I began to feel really agitated and began to draw pieces of paper, similar to the one that I was using, falling through the sky. I then drew a picture of a telephone and a man with an angry expression on his face sitting at a desk with an inkpot in his hand, but had no idea why I had felt compelled to draw any of these images. Finally I drew a calendar and put a ring around 21 September. A few minutes later Doctor Du Caine joined me in the decompression chamber to see what I had been drawing.
‘Extraordinary,’ he chuckled, ‘quite extraordinary,’ and then he put crosses against the binoculars, the coffee and my doodles, and then ticks against everything else, so I asked him why he had done that.