On certain days, Dovi seemed a little better and would even hold short conversations with them. At other times he would retreat back into his own world and there was no getting through to him. Adina had become accustomed to being woken at night by his terrified screams as he lay trapped in some unspeakable nightmare. She would then hear her mother and father rush along the landing to Dovi’s room to soothe him, and then after a time all would be peaceful once more.
Strangely enough, it was little Sarah from next door who seemed to get the first positive reaction from Dovi. She knocked on the door one day in the first week of December after school, and when Freyde opened it there she stood on the doorstep clutching a snowman that she had made of cottonwool.
‘Mrs Haynes said your boy was poorly so I made this for ’im for Christmas,’ she said, solemnly holding her present out in front of her.
‘Why, that is very kind of you, Sarah,’ Freyde told her with a smile. ‘Why don’t you bring it in and give it to him? I’m sure he will like it.’
Sarah stepped into the room and instantly her eyes fell on Dovi, who was huddled in his normal position by the fire. Without a moment’s hesitation, she marched across to him and held out her offering.
‘I made this for yer, mate. I like snowmen, don’t you?’
At first it seemed that Dovi hadn’t heard her, but then he slowly raised his head to look at her and his eyes fastened with hers. He slowly reached out to take the snowman from her as if it was an enormous effort.
‘So what’s wrong wiv yer than?’, the child asked bluntly. ‘Mrs Haynes said yer were poorly, but yer look awight to me.’
Dovi really smiled then, for the first time since coming home. ‘I . . . I was shot in France,’ he managed to tell her, his voice rasping from lack of use.
Sarah’s eyes grew round as saucers, and when Freyde pushed a small stool towards her she sank down onto it, studying Dovi intently. ‘So you must be an ’ero then,’ she stated matter-of-factly. ‘Mrs Haynes’s big son were an ’ero an’ all. He got killed in the war, yer know? Sometimes she cries when she talks about ’im. It’s sad, ain’t it? But you’re lucky ’cos at least yer got to come ’ome, didn’t yer?’
‘I . . . I suppose I am,’ Dovi said, and before he could say another word, she then launched into an explanation of how the snowman had been made.
‘First of all I ’ad to make a sort of cone out of cardboard,’ she told him. ‘An’ then I got to stick all the cottonwool on – like this, see? Then I made ’is ’at out of cardboard an’ all, an’ painted it black, an’ then that got glued on the top like this. Next we stuck ’is eyes an’ ’is mouf on. They’re made out of silver paper. An’ then last of all, miss let us make ’is scarf out of scraps of material. He looks really luvly, don’t ’e?’
‘H . . . he looks fine,’ Dovi assured her.
As Freyde and Adina watched this interchange taking place they smiled at each other. It was the first time Dovi had really shown any interest in anything since coming home, and they hoped it was a good sign. However, Adina was still feeling sad. Shortly she would be going to say goodbye to Beryl, who would be leaving for the States the following day. Since the wedding the couple had been staying with Beryl’s parents and Adina had a sneaky feeling that Tyrone would not be sorry to leave. With Sarah chatting happily away to Dovi, she sneaked away to her room and began to get ready, missing her friend before she had even gone.
The Taits’ house had suitcases piled everywhere when Adina arrived there about an hour later.
‘Eeh, luvvie,’ Mrs Tait sighed. ‘I swear that gel o’ mine has taken everything bar the kitchen sink. She’ll need an aircraft all to herself at this rate.’
Adina chuckled. ‘Upstairs, is she?’
Mrs Tait nodded. ‘That she is, prettyin’ herself up, no doubt. Tyrone is up at the Hall.’
With a friendly nod, Adina bustled upstairs into Beryl’s bedroom to find her friend packing a few last-minute things.
‘I’m glad you managed to get round here,’ she told Adina. ‘I wouldn’t have wanted to leave without saying goodbye.’
‘As if I would have let that happen,’ Adina retorted. ‘Are you excited?’
‘Wouldn’t you be?’ Beryl laughed. ‘I can’t believe I’m really going at last. Tyrone has hardly mentioned where we’ll be living since we got married, but if what he told me when we first got together is anything to go by, I’ll be living in the lap o’ luxury from now on. Who would have thought it, eh? A girl from a small town in the Midlands ending up on a posh ranch in Texas, eh? It’s like something you read about, ain’t it? Mind you, I don’t intend us to stay living with Tye’s folks for ever. As soon as this damn war is over I shall expect him to buy us our own place and keep me in the manner to which I will have become accustomed. I wonder if I’ll have servants?’ she went on dreamily.
Adina punched her playfully in the arm. ‘With an imagination like that, you should have been a writer,’ she teased.
‘And how are Dovi and Ariel?’ Beryl now asked.
Adina shrugged. ‘I’ve seen Ariel a couple of times. She seems happy enough living with Brian’s folks, and Dovi . . . well, what can I say? He is off in a world of his own half the time. We just have to be patient for now.’
Beryl nodded and the mood suddenly became sombre when she said wistfully, ‘I wish you were coming with me. I mean, I know I’m lucky to have such a chance but I’m going to miss you and me mam and dad so much. Between you an’ me, I reckon me mum has a sneaking suspicion that I’m pregnant. She commented the other day that she hadn’t noticed me have a period for a while, so perhaps it’s as well we’re goin’!’
‘You’ll be fine,’ Adina assured her, ‘And as soon as the war is over you can come back and see us. You’ll have the baby by then and I’ll be longing to see it.’
Beryl stroked her stomach before asking, ‘And what about you and Karl? I suppose you’re still seeing him.’
Adina nodded. She knew that Beryl worried about her relationship with the German prisoner of war, but it had gone too far to stop it now. She couldn’t imagine a world without Karl in it any more.
Beryl sighed, ‘You know your family will kick you out on your arse if they get wind of it, don’t you?’
‘I’ve always known that,’ Adina acknowledged. ‘But just like you couldn’t help falling in love with Tyrone, I can’t help how I feel about Karl.’
Beryl couldn’t argue with that. After a moment, her hand found its way into her friend’s. ‘You will write to me, won’t you?’
‘Of course – every single week, although I can’t promise how quickly the letters will get to you with this war on.’
‘Well, it can’t go on for much longer now. We were listening to the wireless the other day when the King took the salute as the Home Guard gathered for its final parade. King George is certain that victory is close, which is why they’ve disbanded.’
‘Then let us pray he is right,’ Adina muttered.
‘Do you think your family will go back to Cologne when the war is over?’
‘I doubt it very much. Our family is already divided, and there is no saying our home would still be there. Our grandparents are gone too, so what is there to go back to? Things could never be the same again.’
The two young women lapsed into a thoughtful silence until Beryl sighed, saying, ‘Well, I suppose I ought to get on. This sitting about won’t get the rest of the packing done, will it, and we’re leaving really early in the morning.’
When Adina stood up, the girls hugged each other with tears in their eyes, knowing that this might be the last they would see of each other for a very, very long time.
‘Take care an’ be happy now, do y’hear me?’
Adina sniffed loudly. ‘Yes, I hear you, and the same to you, eh?’
‘Of course.’
They hugged each other one last time and then Adina slipped away to leave her friend to her last-minute preparations.
Chapter Twenty
>
The two weeks’ holiday that Adina had off over the Christmas period that year was the loneliest that she could ever remember spending. Work on the church was almost finished, which meant that she now only got to see Karl for a few moments each week, as he had been assigned to another job.
Ariel was still keeping her distance and Dovi was still nothing like the brother she remembered before he went away to war, although he did venture out for short walks now sometimes. Freyde wasn’t at all happy about it, but Ezra encouraged him to go. He must learn to live again, he told his wife and so she bit her lip, wrapped him up warmly and said nothing as she sent him on his way. Adina knew that her mother still missed Ariel terribly, but as her husband had banned their daughter from the house, as a good wife she knew better than to go against his wishes.
Rumours had been rife that some of Hitler’s right-hand men had tried to assassinate him, to stop his rule of terror, but as yet nothing had happened and people could only pray that the rumours would come true. The man was a tyrant and needed to be toppled. The Allied forces were still doing wonderfully well, and in January 1945 the German counter-offensive in the Ardennes was defeated.
Ezra had now been able to afford a Morrison shelter, just in case Nuneaton should come under attack again. A sturdy steel-framed structure with a solid top which could also serve as a table, it had been designed for indoor use by Herbert Morrison, the Home Secretary. Theirs now stood in the far corner of the kitchen. Adina had to admit that on the few times they had been forced to use it, it had been far preferable to sitting outside in Mrs Haynes’s damp Anderson shelter. Dovi was still quite slow on his feet and so it was much easier for him to get inside it, and at least it was warm in the kitchen.
It was a cold Saturday evening after Ezra had said his prayers that he finally got to read his newspaper. Suddenly, he frowned and peered at his wife over his spectacles.
‘My goodness me, have you read this, Freyde?’ he asked.
His wife, who was darning in the chair opposite, shook her head. ‘I haven’t had time to even look at the paper today,’ she answered truthfully.
Adina was sitting at the kitchen table trying without much success to get interested in the book she was currently reading, which was Far From the Madding Crowd. Hearing this, she glanced up.
‘It seems that a young man was found brutally beaten this morning in the tunnel leading into Riversley Park,’ he told them. ‘The police are asking for witnesses.’
‘How bad is he?’ Adina asked with a tremor in her voice.
‘It does not say – only that he is stable in hospital. But how terrible!’ Ezra exclaimed. ‘It is only up the road from us. Be careful in future, If a young man is not safe to walk the streets after dark, then a young lady certainly isn’t. Let us just hope that whoever did this is caught soon.’
The two women in the room nodded in agreement as Dovi stared dully into the fire.
The following afternoon after lunch, Adina slipped away to meet Karl. The entrance to the tunnel leading into Riversley Park was cordoned off and crawling with policemen, who were investigating the attack that had taken place late on Friday night. Adina walked on underneath the Coton Arches, taking the longer route to meet Karl. He was waiting for her near the paddling pool in the Pingles Fields as usual.
His face lit up at the sight of her, and quickly leading her into the shelter of a nearby copse, he kissed her as if he had not seen her for a whole month.
‘Have you heard about the attack?’ he asked after a few moments.
Adina nodded. ‘Yes, Papa read it in the newspaper last night.’ She shuddered. ‘You can hardly believe that such an awful thing could happen right on your own doorstep, can you?’
‘You must be very careful now,’ Karl warned her solemnly, much as her father had. ‘It is not safe for you to walk about alone whilst there is a such a bad person on the loose.’
‘They’ll soon catch whoever did it,’ Adina replied confidently. ‘But let’s change the subject, eh? How are things up at the Hall?’
‘The Americans are still being shipped back to their homeland, a few each week,’ he informed her. ‘But other than that, things go on as normal. I miss working on the church although I have to say we are all very proud of our efforts. Have you been to see it yet?’
‘Yes, I have, and I have to admit it looks as good as new.’ Adina beamed at him. ‘You and your friends did a really fine job of it. I hear the vicar is thrilled to have it open again.’
She suddenly shivered as an icy draught blew amongst the trees, and quick as a flash Karl took his coat off and wrapped it around the top of hers.
‘But you’ll be cold now,’ she protested.
He shook his head, ‘I could never be cold when I am with you, mein Liebling. But I think it is time we had a talk. You see . . .’
Once again, just as he had been about to tell her something, he was interrupted. The sound of someone thudding through the undergrowth made them glance behind them. Seconds later, Sarah, Mrs Haynes’s little evacuee, skidded to a halt in front of them.
‘Why, ’ello Dina,’ she grinned. Her cheeks were rosy from the cold and her nose was running but now she stared curiously at Karl. ‘Who’s this ’ere then? Is he yer boyfriend?’
Adina felt colour flame into her cheeks as she hastily handed Karl his jacket. ‘Oh no,’ she assured her. ‘He is just a friend.’
As Sarah looked towards the giant stranger, Karl clicked his heels together and bowed slightly, making the little girl’s eyes almost pop from her head.
‘Cor, are you a Jerry?’ she croaked.
Deeply embarrassed, Adina tried to change the subject. ‘Are you with your friends?’ she asked, peering back into the trees.
‘Naw, I’m wiv your Dovi,’ the child informed her, never taking her eyes off Karl, who was thrusting his long arms back into the sleeves of his coat. ‘I went round your ’ouse just after you’d gone out an’ asked if ’e fancied a walk. We was playin’ ’ide an’ seek in the trees. Your mum fought you’d gone to see one o’ yer mates. I didn’t fink I’d find you ’ere.’
‘I er . . . was just about to go,’ Adina stuttered, wishing that the ground would open up and swallow her. If Sarah were to tell her father that she had caught her talking to a man, there would be hell to pay.
Nodding towards Karl as if he was little more than a stranger, Adina took Sarah’s shoulder and led her back into the trees, leaving Karl to stare after them.
‘So, who was ’e then?’ Sarah asked as they spotted Dovi staggering drunkenly towards them. His movements were still very uncoordinated although he was slowly improving.
‘Oh, he is my friend’s friend,’ Adina lied glibly. ‘She asked me to pass on a message for her. But the thing is, I’d rather you didn’t mention you’d seen me with him, if you don’t mind. Her parents don’t approve of him, you see.’
At that moment, Sarah spotted Dovi, and Karl suddenly forgotten, she raced towards him, seizing his hand in hers.
Sighing, Adina went on her way leaving them to it. Dovi seemed to have more in common with Sarah nowadays than he did with her, and she knew that she would not be missed. The afternoon was ruined, so miserably she made her way back home.
When she arrived, she found her parents listening to Flanagan and Allen on the radio so she made her way upstairs to her room. Taking a small suitcase from beneath her bed she withdrew her wedding dress from the layers of brown paper in which it was wrapped. It was finished now, and as Adina eyed it critically, a mixture of emotions raced through her. It was easily the most beautiful dress she had ever made, but on the day she wore it, she was painfully aware that she would lose the rest of her family, or what was left of it, for ever. Blinking away tears, she refolded it and placed it carefully back into the case.
The following evening as they all sat listening to the wireless, a loud bang from outside, which turned out to be the dustbin lid blowing off, echoed around the room and Dovi leaped from his chair with his eyes sta
rting from his head.
‘It is all right, son,’ Ezra soothed. ‘It is nothing to alarm yourself about.’ But the damage was done and before any of them could stop him, Dovi began to scream and hurl anything he could get his hands on about the room.
Ezra and Freyde ran to restrain him but when this happened, which it had on a number of occasions before, Dovi seemed to have the strength of ten and it took them all their efforts to force him back into his chair. It seemed that he could be relatively calm one moment and ready to take on the world the next.
‘Get his medication, Freyde, we need to calm him down,’ Ezra gasped.
Adina was used to Dovi’s terrible and unexpected outbursts of rage by now, but they never failed to upset her and she wondered again if he would ever be back to his old self – the carefree young man he had once been.
It was on a blustery market day in the centre of town when Adina next bumped into her sister, and she knew at once that something was wrong. Ariel looked very pale and fragile.
‘Hello,’ Adina said brightly. ‘How are you? Not sickening for this new flu bug that’s flying around, are you? You look a bit peaky.’
Taking her sister’s arm, Ariel led her through the mass of stalls that lined the streets. ‘Let’s go and have a cup of coffee,’ she suggested. ‘I’ve only got half an hour of my dinner-break left and I really need to speak to you.’
Ariel was still working in Woolworth’s and as far as Adina knew, was still enjoying it.
Eventually they ordered two cups of coffee in a local café and sat together in a windowseat as Adina asked, ‘So what’s wrong then? You and Brian haven’t fallen out, have you?’
‘Oh no, it’s nothing like that,’ Ariel hastily assured her. ‘Brian was on leave last month and it was wonderful to get to spend some time together. It was awful when he left. But the thing is . . .’
‘Well, come on then and spit it out,’ Adina said impatiently. Ariel was looking so wretched that she wanted to give her a hug there and then, but not until her sister had told her what was wrong.
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