Page 106 of Never Tear Us Apart
‘This is for you to read tomorrow,’ he says firmly. Getting up, he places half a dozen more on the table.
‘To my friends. There is one each for Christina and Stella – make sure they get them.’ He smiles. ‘Don’t worry. I haven’t mentioned that I know I’m going to die tonight.’
‘Sal.’ I stand up, rushing to hug him.
‘Now,’ he says. ‘Now, now. We will not make a fuss, Maia. We think we know what will happen tonight, but we have already changed so much, so we will go to our fates as travellers to a new land. And, you know, whatever befalls us, I am certain that we will see each other again in another life at another time. Perhaps we will not know it or even recognise each other, but I do believe that in some part of our minds, we will know we have always been friends. I trust in that above all else. You have given me that faith.’
‘You have given it to me, too,’ I tell him.
‘Then we are ready,’ he says. ‘No goodbyes.’
‘No goodbyes,’ I reply.
* * *
We are outside the school, waiting for the children to arrive as the siren sounds, exactly when we knew it would, screaming out into the hot evening, summoning us to shelters and tunnels. All day I have been restless, pacing back and forth, waiting for it all to begin.
We spring up and head for the door together, pausing outside as people hurry around, scuttling as fast as they can to safety.
‘See you again,’ Sal says, taking my hand.
‘You will,’ I promise.
‘Sal.’ Stella is running towards me, pushing the pram with one hand and leading David by the other. ‘Take the children, pease? I have to go to Ta’ Qali. There was an oil explosion on the field. It was hit by a shell – no one saw it coming. There are some serious burns. I need as much help as I can get. They’ve sent a jeep.’
‘Of course,’ Sal says, hugging Stella. ‘They will be safe with me.’
We hear the sound of the first wave of bombers droning louder as a jeep screeches to a stop.
‘Let me come with you,’ I follow Stella to the car.
‘No.’ She turns to look at me her hand on the vehicle. ‘Not today. You must stay safe, Maia. You are my hope.’
‘But…’
The jeep screeches away before I can argue.
For one fraction of a second, I am helpless. Then I know what I have to do. I run after Stella, right towards death.
Chapter Seventy-Five
The sky blackens with the swarm of bombers, all focused on the harbour.
Everything is noise; all my five senses are assaulted by it, a cacophony of violence so enormously loud that it makes tears stream down my face as I run. It opens up the ground around me in a series of craters that seem to come from below somehow. It topples buildings into vicious stone splinters and makes every step I take one into the unknown. Still, I press on with only one thought in my mind: I cannot fail.
The closer I get to the airfield, the more intense the bombardment is. The enemy is targeting the planes on the ground as well, doing their best to churn up the landing strip so badly that it makes it impossible for the Spitfires to take off or land.
I am utterly alone out here and still more than twenty minutes away from Luqa, probably thirty. The impossibility of the task I have been so confident of achieving hits me hard. I can’t make it on time. I will die here.
That will be the footnote of my life found at the bottom of a page. The world is ripping itself apart around me. Everywhere I look, I see fire; every breath I take is full of burning oil and dense smoke. I’m tired – I’m so tired – and I know I can’t make it now.
Except that I must. I don’t care what logic and reason might tell me. Logic and reason have no place in my heartin this moment. I will get there in time; I refuse to allow any other outcome.
So, there’s no time to stop, no time to take in this vision of hell or the dangers I am clawing my way through. I must keep going.
Then something cuts through the noise, a thin high screech. Even though it’s muted by the noise of war, it still raises hairs on my arms. In the next second, I am knocked off my feet by the force of another body. Sprawling onto the sharp rubble, my palms skid through fragmented debris.
Before I can turn to see who has attacked me, a punch detonates in my face. For a second, everything goes black – then reality roars in again, and it’s worse than I could ever have feared.
