We'll meet again

It was like that time in Richard's flat-the explosion, the crump, crump, and then the rumbling that continued. Something was falling onto the table under which we were crouching. It must have been part of the ceiling. The tables stayed firm, so it could only have been fragments that fell.

Had the building been hit? It was not exceptionally tall but a long and rather sprawling one. I felt dazed. This was the second time this had happened to me within a few weeks. I felt doomed, that fate was pursuing me.

I heard people shouting. There was Billy Bunter, taking charge, as he had always done. Mary Grace was beside me. I saw that Peggy was trembling. Marian looked shaken. But they were all alive... under the table with me. That strong table had saved us from being hurt by those pieces of falling masonry.

The sound of sirens and fire engines filled the air. It was like a nightmare. I am not sure how long it lasted. These were familiar sounds in our war-torn city. So many times we had heard them. This was different. This was us.

It is difficult to remember exactly what happened. I just know that there was tremendous activity. We were numbed, bemused... and amazed to find that we seemed to be unhurt.

Then I heard Peggy crying: "Where's Florette? She wasn't with us.

She'd gone to get her cuttings book.”

Billy Bunter started to speak. We would leave the building as soon as possible ... just in case it collapsed. The bomb had apparently not hit the building but had fallen close beside it. There was considerable damage and it would be better for us to get out. There was nothing we could do but wait for instructions.

"You'll be looked after, and as soon as possible. There'll be a bus to take you home. You'll have to report to the hospital for a checkup, usual way. You'll have to be shown. Go quietly, please. That's the best way you can help.”

We stood huddled together. Peggy was very anxious. She kept saying: "Florette. Where's Florette? Why did she go off? Why didn't she stay with us?”

"She'll be there in the cloakroom," said Mary Grace.

"I hope she got her cuttings book all right," said Marian.

It seemed a very long time before we were led out of the building.

The bus was there and we filed in.

I looked back at the familiar building as we drove away. It was not the same; it would never be. One end was gone completely and there was a jagged gap. I saw a part of a room with filing cabinets standing in it-open to the sky.

There were people everywhere. I saw the ambulances and a stretcher being carried into one of them.

Then we were off. I was glad. I did not want to look any more at the scene of devastation.

It was two days before we heard the news about Florette. The cloakroom was at that end of the building which had suffered most from the blast of the bomb and Florette had died, clutching the book of cuttings in her hand.

The news shocked us all terribly, but Peggy I think was most affected.

She looked shriveled and bewildered.

We all met again afterwards. Mary Grace took us to her house.

We could not have met in the Cafe' Royal; that would have been too heart-rending. We should have pictured Florette there all the time.

It was sad enough in the Dorrington house.

All the gaiety had gone. We were all so unhappy thinking of bright Florette with her dreams of a future which now would never be. We tried to talk normally but it was impossible.

Marian should have been happy because both she and Peggy were being transferred to another branch of the Ministry. It was very near home for Peggy and not so very far for Marian, and they had both dreaded losing their jobs; but there was no happiness for either of them, particularly Peggy.

I told them that I would be going back to my parents for a while and then I would plan what I should do. Mary Grace would not be returning to the Ministry.

It was no use trying not to talk about Florette. It was almost as though she were there with us.

"If only she hadn't gone back for that book," said Peggy. "She'd have been with us under the table. Why did she want to go?”

"None of us knew the thing would turn back," I said.

"Oh, why did she?" wailed Peggy. "If only...”

Her poor face looked older and more tired than usual, even more wistful than when she was yearning to be someone's pet. She would not have lost her friend had Florette not gone back for the book.

'That's life,' said Marian. 'It all works on chance.

And we sat there in silence , thinking of Florette, who had had such dreams and had died so cruelly before she could try to make them come true.

A Hint of Scandal

I had visited the hospital. No bones had been broken, but a rest was suggested, particularly as I had recently suffered a similar experience.

My parents were delighted to have me home.

"I only wish Dorabella was not up there," said my mother. "Those wretched bombs are worse than the other kind, it seems to me.”