We’ve heard terrible reports of the V-1 bombings in London, he wrote. I worry about you, Audrey, my love.
She assured him she was safe. I’m learning to put my sensitivities aside and administer first aid when needed, she wrote back. One must get used to the sight of blood to be of any help at all. Perhaps I’ll be a real nurse by the end of the war. As the endless weeks and months passed, she and Robert longed for the day when they would see each other again. Neither of them had any idea when that day would be.
“You two ladies deserve a break,” Eve’s supervisor told her and Audrey one lovely September morning. “How would you like to go for a ride outside London?”
Eve longed for the forest, the scent of pine and moss and damp earth. “That sounds wonderful! Where are we going?”
“We borrowed one of our ambulances from another unit and we’d like you to return it. I understand you’re both from a nearby village.”
Eve couldn’t have imagined anything better. She could see her old friends, visit the cemetery, walk in the woods. Audrey would see Robert, and maybe Louis could get an evening off to go dancing. Eve felt a thrill of anticipation at the thought of laughing with Louis, dancing in the comfort of his arms.
“I’ll drive. You can nap,” Eve offered, sliding behind the wheel. “You don’t want Robert to see you with dark circles beneath your eyes, do you?” Audrey looked bone weary after months of demanding work. She was dozing before they reached London’s outskirts.
The familiar countryside soothed Eve. How wonderful to leave behind the signs of war and ruined lives and the stress of coping with V-1 missiles. She was driving through an idyllic village, thinking how untouched by hardship it seemed, when she heard a motorcycle approaching behind her. She checked her rearview mirror to see if the driver wanted to overtake her. There was no motorcycle. Nor was one approaching in front of her. Her heart stopped when she realized what it was.
Eve jerked the steering wheel to pull over and slammed on the brakes. “Audrey! Audrey, get out! Get out now!” she screamed.
Audrey looked around, dazed. “What? . . . Why?”
“It’s a V-1, Audrey! Get out!” Eve scrambled from the ambulance to take cover, not bothering to shut the door. When she looked back, Audrey was still inside.
The V-1’s sputtering motor halted.
Oh, no!
Eve sprinted to the ambulance and yanked open the passenger door. She pulled Audrey out. They were staggering away from the vehicle when the force of the blast knocked them both to the ground. It happened so fast that Eve had the sensation of slamming into a brick wall. Pinpricks of light danced in her vision like stars. The shock wave traveled through every inch of her body. She barely had time to cover her head before a cloud of debris and dust rained down.
She lay in the weeds, stunned. Deafened. She tried to sit up and her head whirled as if she’d spun in circles. The sensation made her vomit. “Audrey . . . ,” she rasped. She could barely hear her own voice. “Audrey, where are you?” She sat up slowly and looked around. Audrey lay in an ungainly heap, her limbs sprawled, her leg twisted at an unnatural angle. She wasn’t moving.
Eve heard ringing. An ambulance was coming. Thank God. She crawled painfully toward Audrey to see if she was alive, if she was breathing, and found a pulse in her throat. “Audrey! Audrey, wake up!” she begged. Blood matted her forehead and hair. Something was sticking out of her leg. Her own shinbone. Blood pulsed from the wound. Eve pulled out a handkerchief for a makeshift tourniquet, using a stick to twist it tight. It would do until the ambulance arrived. Where was the crew? Come on, come on! They must be nearby. The bells were so loud!
Yet all of the other sounds around her were muffled. Eve couldn’t hear birds or the wind in the trees or any other noises. She could barely hear her own voice when she cried out for help. They weren’t ambulance bells. The ringing was in her ears. And Audrey might be dying. She needed to drive her to hospital.
Eve looked around for their ambulance, praying that the bomb hadn’t destroyed it. It sat alongside the road where she’d left it, only a few yards away, the windows blasted out by the explosion. Eve half crawled, half staggered to it, ignoring her nausea and throbbing head. Every movement brought a surge of agony from her left arm, but she managed to open the rear doors. Pull out a stretcher. Drag it to where Audrey lay. Shift her limp body onto it. Drag it back to the ambulance. Audrey didn’t moan or move, even as Eve clumsily hauled the stretcher into the rear of the ambulance. She checked Audrey’s pulse again. Weak. She replaced the handkerchief with a real tourniquet. The exertion made Eve dizzy. She closed her eyes for a second to keep from passing out. She couldn’t faint. She couldn’t.