‘He’s alive!’ came the call. ‘We need a stretcher here.’
I began climbing again, and someone reached down to help me up and then I was outside. It was still dark, though I could seethe glow of morning in the distance. Or was that a fire burning? I couldn’t tell. Dazed and disorientated, I looked around. I was at one end of the hospital, or what had once been one end of the hospital. Now there was nothing. But to my amazement, I could see the rest of the building was intact.
I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the destruction. The heavy rescue ARP wardens were swarming across the rubble like ants, checking gas pipes and stopping water leaks, but I couldn’t see any casualties. Was everyone dead?
I stumbled and someone caught my arm and guided me over to sit on the ground next to an ambulance driver.
‘Hello there,’ he said. ‘We’re just going to check you over. What’s your name, love?’
I tried to speak through dusty, cracked lips but found I couldn’t. He handed me a cup of water and I gulped it gratefully.
‘Elsie,’ I said. ‘I’m a nurse.’
‘Then you can keep an eye on me while I do my job,’ he said.
He gently checked my arms and legs, which were bruised and battered. My left ankle was swollen and painful but I didn’t think it was broken. Then he felt my head carefully where I had a huge egg-sized bump. He gave me a cloth to wipe my face and I was astonished when I saw how dirty it was.
‘You’re ever so dusty,’ he said. ‘You look like a snowman made of brick dust.’
I looked down at my uniform, which was completely covered in reddish dirt from the rubble. My hair felt thick with it and my eyes were gritty. One of the ARP wardens went past me, carrying a rope, and I stopped him.
‘Where are the patients?’ I asked, almost not wanting to know the answer. ‘Where is everyone?’
‘The bomb took out the end of the building,’ he said. ‘But by chance everyone got out before it fell. Apparently, the only thing down that end of the hospital was the operating theatre and thecanteen and all the staff had gone to the entrance for a meeting or something.’ He shrugged.
‘To meet the buses,’ I told him as my memories from the night before suddenly resurfaced. ‘The buses coming from the East End.’
‘Well, isn’t that something,’ he said. ‘It’s like a miracle. Could have been a lot worse.’
The shock of it all hit me like a truck and I covered my mouth with my hand as I recalled Jackson threatening me in the boiler room. And Nelly. Oh Lord, Nelly. I stifled a sob.
‘Is that painful?’ the ambulance driver asked, prodding my ankle. I nodded, but it wasn’t why I was crying. My whole body just felt numb. Nelly was dead, and Jackson knew I’d killed her, and I didn’t know if he was going to tell anyone. I thought about the way he’d looked at me in the boiler room – pure disdain and disgust – and I knew that if there was any way he could use what he knew against me, then he absolutely would.
The ambulance driver who’d been examining my ankle, looked up as shouts told us they were bringing Jackson up to ground level.
‘You need your ankle bandaged, and I’d like that cut on your head cleaned, too,’ he said. ‘I’m going to go and help with the chap who was trapped. Can you go to the ambulance over there and say Martin sent you to be patched up?’
‘I will, thanks.’
He watched me stand up. ‘All right?’ he said. ‘Can you walk?’
My ankle was painful but not so much that I couldn’t put weight on it. I nodded. ‘I can hop over there. Go and help, go on.’
I hobbled a little way from where I had been sitting and then paused to watch as they brought Jackson up. He was completely covered in dust, as I was, and he was on a stretcher, motionless but breathing. As I looked at him, I felt nothing but repulsion. Hatred even. I was glad he was hurt, and the thought frightened me.
Walking as quickly as I could with my swollen ankle, I limped towards the ambulance Martin had sent me to, but instead ofstopping, I carried on straight past and into the darkness of the street. I needed help, but not from them.
It took me ages to get home because I couldn’t go fast, and two people stopped me to ask if I needed help but left me alone when I assured them I was fine. But eventually I reached our street and to my utter relief, I could see a light on in the front window, which meant Mr and Mrs Gold were home and awake.
Half sobbing, I hobbled up the path and banged on the front door, I saw the curtain twitch and Mrs Gold peek out, wearing her dressing gown and with curlers in her hair, and then she was there, opening the door and catching me as I virtually fell through into the hall.
‘Elsie, oh my God, Elsie,’ she cried. She shut the door behind me and helped me into the lounge. ‘Sit down.’
‘I’m so dirty.’
She waved her hand. ‘It doesn’t matter, sit down.’
I fell back on to the sofa.
