Connie Willis - Blackout

Here it comes.

“-where our unit received a new assignment. As of tomorrow, we will be charged with transporting soldiers wounded in the Normandy invasion to Orpington Hospital for surgery.”

Coughs and sneezes spread diseases

IT TOOK EILEEN NEARLY AN HOUR TO FILL UP THE THREE evacuees’ paperwork for Mrs. Chambers, partly because Theodore announced he wanted to go home every thirty seconds. So do I, Eileen thought. And if you hadn’t arrived, I’d be back in Oxford now, persuading Mr. Dunworthy to send me to VE-Day.

“I don’t want to go home,” Edwina, the elder girl, said. She looked as though she’d fit right in with Binnie. “I want to go in a boat like we was supposed to.”

“I want to go to the toilet,” Susan, the younger one, said. “Now.”

Eileen took her upstairs, then came back down to sign several more forms. “Do tell her ladyship thank you for all her hard work,” Mrs. Chambers said, putting on her gloves. “Her dedication to the war effort is truly inspiring.”

Eileen saw her out, then sent the children outside to play, took their luggage upstairs to the nursery, and ran up to her room for the third time. She changed out of her uniform, arranged the letter about her mother’s illness and its envelope on the bed, and hurried downstairs. Ten past three. Good. The other children wouldn’t be home from school till four, which meant she could take the road. She hurried around the corner of the house to the drive.

“Look out!” a man’s voice called, and she looked up to see the Austin bearing down on her with the vicar in it and with-oh, no- Una at the wheel. Eileen leaped aside.

“No, the brake, the brake!” the vicar shouted, “That’s the wrong-” and the Austin shot forward, straight at Eileen. Una flung her hands up, like someone drowning. “Don’t let go of the-” the vicar shouted, grabbing for the steering wheel. The Austin slewed wildly sideways, grazing the skirt of Eileen’s coat, and screeched to a halt mere inches from the manor. He leaped out. “Are you all right?” he said, racing over to Eileen. “You’re not hurt, are you?”

“No,” she said, thinking, That would absolutely tear it, being killed on my last day here.

“I’m having my driving lesson,” Una called unnecessarily from the car. “Should I back up now?”

“No,” the vicar and Eileen both said.

“That will be all for today, Una,” the vicar told her.

“But, Vicar, it’s only been a quarter of an hour, and her ladyship said-”

“I know, but I must give Miss O’Reilly her lesson now.”

“Oh, but I-” Eileen began and hesitated, attempting to think what to tell him. She couldn’t tell him she’d just had word her mother was ill. He’d insist on driving her to the railway station. But she didn’t have time for a driving lesson either.

“Please,” he whispered. “Don’t make me get back in that car with her.”

Eileen nodded, suppressing a smile, and walked over to the Austin with him. Una reluctantly got out. “But when will I have my lesson, Vicar?”

“On Friday next,” he said, getting in beside Eileen.

She started the car and started down the drive. “You’re braver than I am, Vicar. Nothing could induce me to get into an automobile with her again.”

“I plan to remove the distributor first,” he whispered back.

I’m going to miss you, she thought, and wished she could tell him goodbye instead of sneaking away, but she was going to have enough difficulty even doing that. She must think of some excuse to cut the lesson short. “Vicar, I-”

“I know, you’re much too busy to waste an hour on a lesson you don’t need, and I’ve no intention of inflicting one on you. If you’ll just drive till Una’s safely in the house, and then keep out of her sight for the next hour-”

I can do better than that, Eileen thought, driving out through the manor gates and onto the narrow lane.

“There’s a good spot to turn round just after the next curve,” he said.

She nodded and rounded the curve. Binnie and Alf were standing in the middle of the lane, making no effort to get out of the way. “Look out!” the vicar cried, and Eileen jammed on the brakes and brought the car to a skidding stop. Alf continued to stand there, staring stupidly at the car.

Binnie came up to the passenger side. “Hullo, Vicar.”

“Binnie, why aren’t you in school?” Eileen demanded.

“We was sent ’ome. Alf took ill. Can we ’ave a ride, Vicar?”

“No,” Eileen said. “You’re to go straight back to school.”

Binnie ignored her. “The schoolmistress said to take Alf ’ome, Vicar. ’Is ’ead’s fearful hot, and ’e feels ever so bad.”

Eileen pushed the car door open, got out, and marched over to Alf. “He’s not ill, Vicar. This is one of their tricks. Alf, why did you steal Miss Fuller’s hood ornament and door handles? And don’t say you were disabling her car for the invasion.”

“We wasn’t,” Binnie said. “We was collectin’ aluminum for the Spitfire Fund. To build a plane out of.”

“I want you to return them to Miss Fuller immediately.”

“But Alf’s ill.”

“He’s not ill.” Eileen clapped her hand to Alf’s forehead. “He’s-” she began, and stopped. It was burning hot. She tilted his head up. His eyes were red and too bright, and his cheeks looked flushed under their layer of dirt. “He does have a fever,” she told the vicar, feeling Alf’s cheeks and hands.

“I told you ’e did,” Binnie said smugly.

Eileen ignored her. “We must get him home, Vicar,” she said and bent over Alf. “When did you begin to feel ill?”

“I dunno,” Alf said dully, and vomited all over her shoes.

“’E was sick at school, too,” Binnie volunteered. “Twice.”

The vicar instantly took charge. He handed Eileen his handkerchief, took off his coat, bundled Alf up in it, ordered Binnie to open the back door, and put him in the backseat, all in the time it took Eileen to wipe her shoes. “Climb in the front seat, Binnie,” he said, “so Eileen can sit with Alf.”

Binnie promptly got in the driver’s seat. “I can drive.”

“No, you can’t,” the vicar said. “Slide over.”

“But it’s an emergency, ain’t it? You said you was teachin’ me to drive in emer-”

“Scoot over,” Eileen said. “Now.” Binnie did. Eileen climbed in the back. Alf was huddled in the corner, his head in his hands. “Does your head hurt?” she asked him.

“Yeah,” he said and put his head in her lap. She could feel the heat through her coat.

“I’ll wager it’s typhoid fever,” Binnie said. “I knew this boy what died of typhoid.”

“Alf hasn’t got typhoid fever,” Eileen said.

“This boy who ’ad it ate a ’ard-boiled egg,” Binnie went on, undaunted, “and ’is stomach blew up, just like that. You ain’t s’posed to eat eggs if you’ve got typhoid fever.”

The vicar drove up to the manor and around to the kitchen door. He opened the door, took Alf from Eileen, and walked him into the kitchen, where Mrs. Bascombe was kneading bread. “If you’re here to try to talk me into learning to drive, Vicar, you’d best save your breath. I’ve no intention of-Alf, what have you done now?”

“He’s ill,” Eileen explained.

“We found him on the road,” the vicar said.

“He was sick all over Eileen’s shoes,” Binnie put in.

“I think perhaps we’d better phone for the doctor.”

“Of course, Vicar,” Mrs. Bascombe said. “Una, take the vicar through to the library so he can use the telephone,” but as soon as they were gone, she turned on Alf. “Doctor? What you need is a trip to the woodshed, Alf Hodbin. You’ve been at the jam cupboard again, haven’t you? What else have you been stuffing yourself with? Cakes? Lamb pie?”

Oh, don’t mention food, Eileen thought, looking worriedly at Alf’s face. “I don’t think it’s something he ate,” she said. “He’s feverish. I think he’s ill.”

“P’rhaps ’e was poisoned,” Binnie said. “By fifth columnists. The jerries-”

“What he needs is a dose of castor oil and a good shaking.” Mrs. Bascombe grabbed his arm, and then stopped, frowning, and took a long hard look at him. “Tell me where it hurts.” She pressed her hand against his forehead and then his cheeks. “Are your eyes sore?”

Alf nodded. “It’s typhoid, ain’t it?” Binnie asked.

Una came back in. “Where’s the vicar?” Mrs. Bascombe demanded. “Did he telephone for the doctor?”

Una nodded. “He wasn’t in. The vicar went to fetch him.”

Mrs. Bascombe turned back to Alf. “Does your head hurt?” He nodded. “Has he had a runny nose?” she demanded of Eileen.

Alf always had a runny nose. Eileen tried to remember if he’d wiped it on his sleeve more than usual the past few days. “It’s been runnin’ somethin’ awful,” Binnie said, and Mrs. Bascombe yanked up Alf’s shirt and peered at his chest. It looked normal to Eileen, except for a long smear of dirt which he’d gotten God knew how. She’d given him a bath just last night.

“Is your throat sore?” Mrs. Bascombe asked.

Alf nodded.

“Eileen, take Alf upstairs,” Mrs. Bascombe ordered, “and put him to bed. Make up a cot for him in the ballroom.”

“In the ballroom?” Eileen said doubtfully, remembering what had happened the last time the children had been in there.

“Yes. Binnie, come here and let me look at your chest. Do your eyes hurt?”

“Come along, Alf,” Eileen said and walked him up the stairs and into the nursery. “Climb into your pajamas. I’ll be back straightaway,” she told him and ran back down to the kitchen. Mrs. Bascombe was filling the kettle, and Binnie was looking interestedly at the pots and pans, no doubt waiting for a chance to steal them for the scrap drive. Eileen hurried over to Mrs. Bascombe and whispered, “Has Alf got something serious?”

Mrs. Bascombe glanced over at Binnie, then set the kettle on the cooker, and struck a match. “Make sure Alf’s kept warm,” she said, lighting the burner. “I’ll bring you up a hot water bottle in a moment,” which meant she didn’t want to say anything with Binnie there. Which meant it was serious, and obviously contagious. Not typhoid fever-that had been a waterborne disease-but there’d been all sorts of infectious diseases back before antivirals and some of them had been killers: typhus and influenza and scarlet fever.

He can’t have scarlet fever, Eileen thought, running back upstairs. I’m supposed to leave today. She looked at the clock. It was four already, and who knew how long it would take the doctor to get here. If she didn’t make it out to the drop before dark, she’d be trapped here an entire extra week. But if Alf was seriously ill-

Perhaps I can get him into bed, and then, as soon as Mrs. Bascombe brings up the hot water bottle, run out to the drop and tell them I’m going to be late, she thought, going into the nursery. Alf was sitting listlessly on the edge of his cot, still in his clothes. Eileen took off her hat and coat and helped him into his pajamas, looking anxiously at his chest as she buttoned the jacket. His chest was a bit pink, but she couldn’t see a rash. “Lie down while I make up a bed for you,” she told him and dragged one of the cots into the ballroom, made it up, then helped him across the corridor and onto the cot.