A Summer in London

Aaron awoke with a start. Had it begun? Did they begin the bombings? Around him his bedroom shook, books and pictures crashed onto the floor. He quickly got out of bed and looked out his window. He covered his eyes as light quickly entered the room. For a moment he saw everything, homes destroyed, people in the streets running, fire in the distance. The noise was tremendous, explosions rang in his ears drowning out the shouts and cries of the people running down below. He then saw them, hundreds of them. Airplanes, the sound of the props sent chills down his spine, it sounded as if thousands of locust had descended on their city and were eating it alive.
He forced himself to turn away from the window. His room seemed tilted. It was as if he was climbing a slope to get to his now ajar door. When he made it into the hallway he was surprised to see that no other member of his family was there. He ran to the door of his mother’s room and slammed it open.
“Mother!” he shouted. Trying to scream over the invasion proved impossible. Running to her bed he began shaking her.
“Mother, get up! The Germans are here.” She fidgeted and slowly rose out of bed.
“What is that dear? I can hardly hear you over that noise.”
Barely making out her words Aaron grabbed her and pulled her to the window. He pointed to the burning landscape . She nodded and grabbed her robe.
“Go get your sister,” she said.
Running back to the hallway, the boy raced to his sister’s room. She was there on her bed, awake and holding her knees. She had tears in her eyes but didn’t make a noise. She hadn’t made a noise since their father left for the Royal Air Service. He picked her up in his arms. Her tiny hands grabbed hold of him and refused to let go. Her nails dug into his skin, he ignored the pain.
They found their mother waiting in the hallway with a suitcase in her hand. She handed it to them and said, “Go, make it to the shelter and watch over your sister.”
“Aren’t you coming?” Aaron shouted. His mother didn’t reply she just dropped her head and walked back into her room closing the door behind her. She hadn’t been acting normal these pasts few months, well she had never acted normal but it had gotten worse, she swore she would never speak to their father again if he left. He did anyway. She cursed him everyday and cried for him every night. She became a recluse and hadn’t left her room in months. Aaron a boy of fourteen years was forced to take over the family.
Holding his nine your old sister in his arms he let the tears come, he had been holding them back for months, but this was to much.
“No!” he shouted as he ran towards his mothers door. Kicking it down he entered the room just as his mother was pulling the trigger. Her body hit the floor with a thud and blood dripped from the wallpaper he and his father had put up just five months earlier. He stood in shock for a few seconds before realizing Emily’s eyes were wide open and staring at the now lifeless body on the floor. He quickly put her down and forced her to turn away.
“Do not turn around,” he screamed at her, snot and tears streaming down his face. He walked to his mother’s body and pried the small pistol from her hands. He shoved it into his pants and threw his shirt over it. He laid eyes on his mother’s face one last time before he spit on her corpse and walked back to his little sister.
Picking her up along with the suit case was difficult but he managed it. He walked slowly and carefully down the stairs. When he reached the front door he found it on the ground, the hinges ripped out of the walls. A large crater was a few yards away. He stepped into the doorway and turned around, taking in one last look at his life before he would leave it forever. Pictures of the family lay cracked and scattered around the floor. The urn with his grandmothers ashes was on the floor next to the fireplace, shattered, his grandmother scattered all over the carpet. Turning around he let one last tear flow, after it fell he promised himself no more, “I am a man now, and men do not cry.” He then ran as fast as he could. He ran away from the house and into the street. Turning towards the east, towards the church. It was the closest shelter. Three miles, he wasn’t sure he would make it, not with the bag and his sister. But he did not stop, he would not let himself stop.
They made it to the church forty five minutes later. Tired, panting, and sweating Aaron dropped the suit case and stared at the burning church in front of him. The fire had eaten away the entire roof and the left side was on the ground. He could hear screams from inside the building. He grabbed Emily’s tiny hands and put them over her ears. She looked at him wide eyed, she had more fear in her eyes than Aaron had ever hoped to see. She was a pretty girl, big round blue eyes and long blonde hair. She was a happy child, always smiling and laughing. She always found the good in every situation. But Aaron saw no hope in her eyes and that scared him.
He paused for a few minutes. Thinking of somewhere else to go he stood there panting with his little sister in his arms. Would the school still be standing? It was pretty low to the ground. No, it was right near government building, that was surely a target. Where? Where could they go? All of London laid out before them. The landscape was a silhouette of chaos. Partially destroyed buildings littered the city, rubble covering her streets. Fires spread from home to home uncaring of the lives it destroyed. Where would be safe?
Earlier this year, in April before their father had left. Things were better than ever before. Their mother hadn’t been as bad as usual and the war hadn’t affected them yet. Their father was in the military but he had a collar bone and was useless to them until it had healed. The children were out of school and everyday the whole family was together.
Aaron had never been so close to his father. He hadn’t got this kind of attention since Emily was born and now that he had it he didn’t know what to do with it. Things were getting done around the house that his father had always promised to do but never got around to do them. The bathroom was replaced, the master bedroom was finished, and they had finally started working on the shelter in the back yard.
Emily was much happier then too, she was never much of a talker but when her father was around it was all she did. She was much smarter than the rest of the kids her age, she already knew complicated math and was helping Aaron with his almost every night. Even though the kids were out of school their father still wanted them to work on their studies. He would always say, “Never know when it will happen, but when it does the schools will be closed for a while.” Aaron never knew what he meant and he was excited for this “thing” to finally happen. Now he felt guilty for wanting it.
Racking his brain Aaron stood in the street with his little sister in his arms. “I don’t know what to do.” he said aloud. The sound of his voice barely audible due to the explosions and the roar of the planes still flying over head. There were fewer now and it looked like some of their guys were up there to. His father was up there. His sister then began to squirm in his arms.
“What’s the matter?” he asked. She pointed towards an alley. Out of it walked a young boy no older than seventeen. A large parachute dragged behind him and he was limping badly. Blood was running down the side of his pale face. His blonde hair was clumped together where the blood was running from.
Emily dropped down from Aaron’s arms and went behind him clutching his legs. Wondering why she was so scared he tried to shake her off then he saw the man’s uniform. A swastika was on his sleeve. Grabbing the gun in his waistband he held it pointed at the German boy’s head. The boy put up his arms and began to stutter, “No, please,” he said in a slight English accent. “I’m not armed,” the boy said slowly turning around, showing he was unarmed.
Aaron still held the gun at his head. What should he do? He was desperate for help but not from the enemy. He was just a boy though, only a few years older than himself and he was unarmed. He sighed, “We’re lost and we don’t know where to go to avoid the bombs,” desperate for anyone other than himself to take charge of the situation. The boy looked surprised and relieved. “I saw a cave a few miles east of here, out of town. It should provide good cover. Do you have any water? I am so thirsty.”
Aaron nodded and bent down to his suitcase and pulled out a canteen of water. Weeks earlier they had packed it with cans of food and canteens of water. He didn’t know why they did it at the time but he was relieved that they did. The German limped over to them. Emily grabbed hold even tighter. “It’s okay,” Aaron whispered to her. The German boy bent down and grabbed the water, pouring it into his mouth and on the top of his head, blood washed out of his hair and dripped down his face. He used his sleeve to wipe it from his eyes. “Thank you,” he said. “Shall we go?”. Aaron nodded and motioned for the boy to go first.
The German led them out of the city and into a nearby wood. Following a few paces behind was Aaron and Emily, she was walking now, which was a relief to Aaron. Aaron held the gun to his side but his eyes never left the boy. He was thankful for his help but this was the man he was taught to hate and fear. But he was so young, no one ever mentioned that. It made it hard not to trust him. Emily managed to though, never standing between her brother and the boy. This made Aaron worry, she was a lot brighter than him and he had learned to trust her instincts. “I’ll deal with it when we get to this cave,” he thought to himself.
It took and hour to get there and when they did Aaron’s heart soared. The cave was perfect, deep and low. The German smiled and sat himself inside of it against a wall. He propped his leg up on a rock. Aaron was amazed when he saw it, it was clearly broken, the bone somewhat visible through the blood. “I can’t believe he walked on that,” he thought to himself. The German had taken off his coat and ripped a strip off of his shirt and tied it around the to top of the leg wincing at the pain.
Aaron and his sister sat at the opposite side of the cave and looked through the suit case. Aaron pulled out a can of peaches and tossed them to the German. He caught them and thanked Aaron, smashing the top on a rock he poured the juices into his mouth. Aaron pulled out a can of pears for him and Emily they were her favorite. Grabbing a knife from the case he punctured the can and gave it to Emily she took it and began to eat.
“You speak English well,” Aaron said. The German looked up. “I grew up in London,” he replied. Aaron must have looked surprised because the German laughed. “I grew up a few miles from where I found you, I was on the way to my home when I found you. My parents are German, when Hitler sent out the call for all of pure race to return my parents took me and moved back to Germany.” Emily had stopped eating and was watching him and Aaron sat wide eyed. “I know,“ the soldier said with a frown. He went back to this peaches. Aaron looked at Emily and she at him. He thought he saw a hint of a smile before she went back to the pears but he wasn’t sure.
It was a few hours before Aaron was tired again. Emily had gone to sleep an hour before, he and the German sat there and talked about football. When Aaron finally did get tired he forced himself to stay awake until the solider finally closed his eyes and began to snore. When the boy finally did Aaron felt relief and drifted into sleep.
There was a terrible bang and Aaron awoke with a start. Emily stood there with the gun at her side. The German was now hunched over and bleeding from another hole in his head. “You’re too trusting,” she said. “I was going to do it.” he replied still in a shock. She was much too smart for her own good he thought to himself as he lay down to go back to sleep. He never did though, he just laid there and let the tears flow from his eyes as his sisters soft breathing went on undisturbed behind him.