RECONNAISSANCE

At the top of the hill, we got down on our tummies like commandos watching an enemy base. We stayed low behind the bushes and kept out of sight. The sheep that were grazing there took no notice of us, hardly even looking up.

By the wreck, three soldiers had their backs to us. They weren’t Home Guard, like they’d been when we went into the plane last night. These were real soldiers. Young and fit and well armed. They were sitting facing the broken plane and, as we watched, one of them stood up and went to the fuselage, looking in. I could hear him saying something, but couldn’t make out the words.

‘What they doin’?’ I said. ‘You think they found somethin’?’

‘Just guarding, that’s all. Stopping people from taking souvenirs.’

‘People like us?’

Kim smiled. ‘Yeah. And maybe they’re waiting to see if the German’ll come back.’

I could smell her again, just like yesterday. Cheap soap. But it smelt so much better on her than it did on me and Mam.

‘He’s not going to, though, is he?’ I said.

Kim shook her head, and I thought about what we’d seen inside the plane last night. ‘Maybe they’re guardin’ it so nobody goes inside and sees what we saw,’ I suggested. ‘Imagine if one of the bairns climbed in there and saw the dead man. And it’s prob’ly dangerous too.’ A thought struck me. ‘Hey, I wonder if there’s any unexploded bombs in there, like. Maybe that’s why they’re guardin’ it.’

‘It’s probably all of those things,’ Kim said, standing up. ‘I’m going to find out.’

‘What?’ I looked up at her with alarm. ‘No.’

She was taking off her satchel, pulling the strap over her head.

‘What if he comes?’ I said. ‘That sergeant?’ I felt sure he’d know what we had done if he looked into our eyes.

‘He won’t,’ she said. ‘He’s out searching. But even if he does, I can handle him. You stay here and look after this.’ She dropped her satchel on the ground next to me. ‘I’ll be back in a minute.’

I tried calling to her, not sure whether to go after her or do as she’d said, but she was already trotting down the hill towards the soldiers, so I laid low and watched.

The three soldiers didn’t notice Kim until she was close to the bottom of the hill. It was the one who’d been looking into the fuselage who spotted her. He came forward, his voice loud, but I couldn’t make out the words. He whipped his rifle from his shoulder and pointed it at her while the other two jumped to their feet, dropping cigarettes and pointing guns.

Kim put her hands up and stopped as they approached her. She looked small, all the way down there at the bottom of the hill, beside those soldiers. When I was with her, it always felt like she was tall, but from where I was now, she looked like a little boy in her shorts and shirt. She wasn’t scared of the soldiers, though, and I could hear her talking to them. I felt myself puff up my chest in pride that she was my friend.

I saw Kim pull something out of her pocket, her identity card, and hold it out to the soldier who’d first spotted her. He took it, slinging his rifle over his shoulder, and looked it over for a moment before passing it back. After that, the other two lowered their rifles and lit cigarettes. I could see them offer one to Kim and I was sure I saw her reach out and take it. They talked for a while, the soldiers smoking, and then Kim came back up the hill. The soldiers watched her until she was at the top before they sat down again, this time facing in different directions.

Kim passed over the crest of the hill, then crouched down and crawled back to where I was lying by the bushes.

‘What did you do that for?’ I asked

‘Recce.’

‘Recky?’

‘Reconnaissance,’ she said. ‘Find out what’s what. See what’s happening.’

‘And did you find out?’

‘We were right. They’ve already had a few little ’uns down there this morning, some big ’uns too, so they’re guarding it to stop people from taking souvenirs. The bodies aren’t there any more, though. They took ’em away first thing this morning. Also, they’re waiting in case the German comes back.’

‘He’s really got them runnin’ around, hasn’t he?’

‘We’ve got them running around,’ she said with a smile.

Once again, I felt a pang of guilt and fear. ‘He needs help, though. There must be someone we can tell. How about Mam?’

‘He’s got us,’ Kim said. ‘He doesn’t need anyone else. We agreed on that. Anyway, she’d just tell Lieutenant Whatshisname, and then they’d shoot him.’

I wasn’t entirely sure that was exactly what the lieutenant had said, but even so, I thought Kim was right. If I told Mam about the German, she would definitely tell the army and, if the sergeant was anything to go by, there were a few of them just itching to kill someone.

‘Maybe he’ll die anyway,’ I said.

‘Maybe he will.’ Kim looked at me. Then I noticed she had a cigarette behind her ear.

‘What’s that for?’ I asked.

‘It’s for him,’ she said. ‘All soldiers smoke, don’t they? My brother does and I bet your dad does too.’

I shrugged and, for a moment, it wasn’t a German out there in the woods any more; it was my dad lying there, waiting for us to bring him a blanket and a cigarette and something to eat.

‘Right, then.’ She took her satchel from my hands and shuffled back, away from the crest of the hill. ‘Come on. Let’s go and have a look at our souvenir.’

*

We couldn’t go into the woods through the hole in the fence because the soldiers might have seen us, so we went in further along. The wire was tight enough for us to climb, and I draped the blanket over the top rung to cover the barbs before we clambered over. There were one or two fluffs of wool snagged where the sheep had wandered too close.

‘D’you think he’ll still be there?’ Kim said as we made our way among the trees.

‘Don’t know.’

‘You all right?’ she asked.

‘Aye.’

‘Scared?’

I looked at her. ‘A bit.’

Kim tightened her lips and nodded. ‘Me too.’

I stopped and took a deep breath. ‘It’s not too late to go back,’ I said. ‘We could get someone . . .’

Kim stood beside me and glanced back the way we’d come, then stared forward into the woods as if she were having second thoughts. She bit at the inside of her cheek, then shook her head. ‘No. That could be Josh. Or your Dad. We should help him.’

‘I dunno. Maybe we—’

‘Come on,’ she said. ‘He’s our souvenir. We found him. And it’s up to us to look after him.’

‘All right.’ But I wasn’t really doing it for him – I was doing it for all those reasons that had been spinning in my head this morning. Most of all, though, I was doing it for my new friend Kim.

We walked side by side where we could, but there were times when I had to take the lead. My legs were still scratched and stinging from our rush through the woods last night, so I was careful to avoid those things now it was daylight. I felt important leading Kim. She was older than me by nearly a month; she was taller than me and she was braver than I was, so it felt good to be in the lead, showing her where to go. She probably never would have found her way back to my hiding place if I hadn’t been there.

Further in, we jumped across the burn using the stones that jutted from the surface. I looked down at the clear water and thought about how I used to build dams when Dad was tending to the pheasants on the other side. It always used to start out with me following him around, watching what he did to look after the birds. There were small cages with boxed-in sections for hens that were laying, and there were open pens for the older chicks, and I’d help put out feed but then I’d get bored and come down to the burn.

‘Maybe we should build a dam sometime,’ I said. ‘You ever built a dam?’

‘No.’

‘You need to get loads of stones and twigs and make a wall. Then clog it all up with mud to stop the water getting through.’

‘Sounds fun.’

‘I used to do it when me da’ was working. Sometimes it would get really big, and once I even made the water into a deep pool that lasted for days and days, until there was a hard rain and it overflowed and washed away.’

‘So where is your dad?’ Kim asked. ‘Do you know?’

We were on the other side of the burn now and I picked up a long stick, swinging it at the tall nettles. ‘Africa.’

‘Hey, that’s where my brother is, too. At least, when we last heard from him. He came home for a few days after Dunkirk, but then he went away again.’

I suddenly felt a pang of jealousy because my dad hadn’t come home. ‘My da’ was in Dunkirk too,’ I said. ‘He wasn’t in no plane, though. He was right there on the ground.’

‘So?’

‘Well, I mean, it was more dangerous for the soldiers, wasn’t it? Bein’ on the ground and everythin’.’

‘Planes can get shot down, you know.’

‘Aye, but—’

‘Like yesterday, remember. It’s just as bad.’

I sighed. ‘I know. I didn’t mean . . .’ I shrugged.

‘It’s all right.’

‘We heard about it on the wireless, like, about Dunkirk. All them men coming back from France. Mam said maybe me da’ would come home after that. He didn’t, though. Went straight to Africa. We had a letter from him sayin’ he was there for . . .’ I tried to remember the words he’d used. I could picture them, in my dad’s handwriting. ‘For the duration of the emergency. That means until the war’s over.’

‘He didn’t even come back for a few days?’ Kim said. ‘That’s not fair.’

I swung at the nettles again, swiping the tops off a whole clump of them, sending pieces of leaves fluttering through the air, then I stopped and looked at the green sap left on the end of my stick.

‘They’ll be all right.’ Kim punched my arm. ‘Giving Hitler a run for his money, eh?’

‘Aye. Winnin’ the war.’ But I knew we were both thinking the same thing. My dad and Kim’s brother were out fighting the Germans, and we had one right here in the woods. And we were looking after him.

‘It’s different,’ Kim said, as if she’d read my mind.

‘Aye.’ And although I couldn’t explain it, this was different. All those Germans we heard about on the wireless were different. They were not men, they were faceless, helmeted and armed, marching across places I knew the names of but had never seen. France, Norway, Africa. They were aeroplanes dogfighting over the English channel; they were bombers casting a shadow over our cities. They were the enemy.

Our German was different. He was a real person. He was here, he had a face and he was in trouble.