Bomber Overhead

  Chapter 15

  When Jeffery woke in the morning, the first person he saw was Arthur. He blinked his eyes. Where was he? He looked above and saw the bottom of a mattress sitting on steel mesh held in place by being hooked to steel bars. He was on the lower tier of a steel double bunk bed in a room full of these.

  A voice said, "Jeffery, you made it."

  Jeffery gave his head a shake. "Arthur! What are you doing here?"

  "I'm home. I'm in the hostel like you. What happened?"

  Jeffery closed his eyes for a few seconds and thought about it. Hostel? When he opened them, he said. "I was bombed out."

  "So matron said. Anybody hurt?"

  "Not at the Burnett's. Don't know about any other place."

  "Maybe the plane that dropped the bomb is the one that got shot down." Arthur said.

  Jeffery sat up, narrowly missing scraping his head on the bunk above him. "Shot down!"

  "It came down on a field near The Green over on the other side of the church. A boy here goes to Tech School. He was up in the night and heard the gardener getting called out on Home Guard duty. They're looking for two missing German aircrew. I got up early and slipped out to grab a look at it before breakfast. It's a Heinkel one eleven. You won't believe what I found."

  He never got the chance to say what he'd found because right then Matron walked in carrying a small bundle.

  "Well, Jeffery," she said. How are you feeling?"

  He stood and said, "Ok," then blushed. "Sorry, Ma'am. I'm all right, thank you."

  "That's good," Matron said, her face beaming a smile. "I let you sleep late. I hope these fresh clothes fit. We'll look after you better later on. Now get up and go for a wash-up. Arthur will show you where the bathroom is before he rushes off to school." And as if to say, "Now you behave yourself." she looked pointedly at Arthur and a little frown crossed her face.

  Then she turned back to Jeffery. "I sure you'd like a bath to get all that grime off, but I'm sorry we don't have that much hot water. What with the fuel shortage and all you children we need to ration baths to one per child a week, so you can't have one right this moment, but I'll make sure you get one later on. I've spoken on the phone with Mr. Perkins and you won't need to go to school today. Now I'd better get out of here and let Arthur show you where to go. He does have to get to school." She looked at Arthur, head forward, eyes high up in her head with a slight smile gracing her lips. "I wouldn't want to be held responsible for his getting caned for being late."

  And with that, she placed the bundle of clean clothes on the end of Jeffery's bunk and turned to leave, then stopped. "Arthur," she said. "Take him down to the kitchen, as well, when he's ready. Mrs. O'Brien will give him some breakfast." Then she left.

  "Come on, Jeffery," Arthur said. "I'm going to have to hurry. I'll show you where everything is, and then take you to the kitchen."