I gazed at Mrs Gold, thinking how lucky I was to have her as a neighbour.
‘What’s next?’ she asked.
‘I’m going to go back to the hospital later to see Nelly,’ I said. ‘I’ll take some of her things. When she wakes up she’ll want her things. A book, perhaps. And her hairbrush.’ I put my hand over my mouth as I remembered Nelly’s awful burned hair. ‘A book,’ I said again firmly.
‘I can help you get some bits together.’ Mrs Gold bit her lip. ‘Is there anyone we should tell?’
‘Her mother in Dublin,’ I said. ‘I’ve been wondering how is best to do it. Should I send a telegram?’
Mrs Gold nodded. ‘Better than a letter, I think.’ She grimaced. ‘Quicker.’
I didn’t want to think about why it was important Nelly’s mother knew as soon as possible. ‘I’ll go to the post office tomorrow,’ I said.
‘No need,’ Mrs Gold said. ‘Albert can arrange that for you from his office. Do you have the address?’
‘In the kitchen drawer. There are some letters from her mum there.’
Listlessly, I wandered into the kitchen and dug about in the drawer until I found the most recent letter from Mrs Malone. I noticed that it had been opened. Apparently, Nelly had read it after all and I was glad. Really glad. I knew her mother’s address would be at the top of the letter, but I didn’t take it out of the envelope because I couldn’t bear to see her writing, or catch a glimpse of the words she’d written begging Nelly to come home because London was too dangerous. How terrible for a mother to be proven right in such an awful way. Instead, when I went back into the lounge, I handed the envelope and its contents to Mrs Gold and she tucked it into her bag. ‘I’ll get Albert to send a telegram this evening.’
‘Thank you,’ I said. ‘For doing all this.’
Mrs Gold snorted. ‘You girls have kept me company all these evenings in the shelter,’ she said. ‘And you helped me when I needed you.’ She smiled at me, and I thought how pretty she was. ‘My family are far away, and I miss them. I’m glad that we’re friends.’
‘We are.’
‘When are you going to go back to the hospital?’
I looked at the clock on the mantelpiece. ‘Maybe around three? I’ll get all her things together.’
‘You go and get yourself dressed and then let me help you gather some bits and bobs for Nelly. What first? A book, you said?’
I went to put on some clothes, then we bustled around finding Nelly’s belongings. I knew she wouldn’t need much, and that the nurses in her ward would prefer to keep things simple. But I wanted her to have a few personal effects at least. I took the book from her bedside table and a rather stern-looking photograph of her mother and father, and Mrs Gold found a nightgown in adrawer, which I thought Nelly probably wouldn’t wear because she was so completely wrapped in bandages, but I let her put it in the bag anyway.
I was extremely tired, but I didn’t want to take a nap because I was worried I’d feel worse if I closed my eyes. I’d catch up on sleep later. When I’d seen Nelly again and made sure she was still … well, still with us.
‘I wish I could come with you, but I have a lot of work to do,’ Mrs Gold said as I pulled on my coat and got ready to go. ‘Will you be all right?’
I nodded. ‘I’ll be fine.’
‘Don’t stay too late at the hospital, will you? We’ll need to be in the shelter tonight.’ Mrs Gold shuddered. ‘Albert will be home too.’
‘I won’t,’ I said. ‘Nelly’s still sedated anyway so she won’t be chatting. But I always think there’s a chance patients know their visitors are there.’ It felt wrong to be thinking of Nelly as a patient.
Mrs Gold gathered me into a hug and gave me a kiss on the cheek. It was nice to be taken care of for a while, rather than being the one doing the caring. ‘I think you’re right,’ she said.
‘I’d better go if I want to be back before the siren.’
*
The hospital was quiet. It always felt less chaotic in the early evening, but I knew it was simply the calm before the storm with the patients settled and all the nurses and doctors taking five minutes to catch their breath before the raids began.
Occasionally – and I did mean occasionally, because it had only happened twice or three times – there wasn’t a raid and then the calm continued all night. I allowed myself to hope, briefly, that would happen tonight. Because however bad Nelly’s physical injuries were, I knew that when her sedation was reduced and she woke up, she would be bound to find the sound of the bombs very frightening. And though some of our patients managed toget to the basement shelter when the raids began, the ones who were bedbound – like Nelly – wouldn’t move.
‘Back again?’ asked Matron as I got to Nelly’s ward.
‘I brought some things for Nelly.’
‘Not working tonight?’
