大象传媒

BRAVE LITTLE JEAN
In 1940 an eight-year-old girl called Jean Cawdery lived in Ewell just outside Greater London. Her parents built an air-raid shelter in their garden and invited their friends from Raynes Park to stay in it one weekend to get away from the German air-raids and feel safe. The friends, the Payne family (mother, 17 year old daughter and 11 year old son George) accepted. Jean was George鈥檚 little shadow. Wherever he went, she followed.
The shelter had double bunks. Jean chose the top bunk over the one occupied by George. Both families settled down for a quiet night and the children were hushed to go to sleep. But soon the sir-raid sirens wailed and the families expressed their pity for the unfortunate Londoners. Unusually for Ewell, the desynchronised throbbing of German bomber engines sounded overhead. 鈥淢y God, they鈥檙e following us!鈥� said mother. Bombs started to fall, each with a dying whistle ending with a crump. One bomb, however, was different. Instead of a dying whistle, the whistle became louder and louder. Jean must have known instinctively what that meant. The bomb was coming straight towards the shelter. In the half-light of the shelter lamp, George saw Jean鈥檚 arm appear over side of the bunk and reach down towards him with her fingers beckoning to be held but George was paralysed with fright and could not move. In those few seconds of paralytic fear Jean said, 鈥淕oodbye George!鈥� But George鈥檚 throat was stuck in a silent croak. The dreadful whistling stopped as the bomb landed with a vibrant thump close to the shelter. There was no explosion. It was an unexploded bomb. Everybody was very glad to be alive. After such a close shave with death, life seems extra wonderful.
George was a little bit shamefaced at having been so frightened. As for Jean, she was cool wasn鈥檛 she? 鈥淩eal cool鈥�, as they say, for one so young.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.