The War I Finally Won by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

Author:Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Published: 2017-10-03T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 29

“I’m sure she’s fine,” Lady Thorton said. “Even the Nazis wouldn’t harm an elderly woman.”

“We haven’t heard from her,” Ruth said. “Not one letter in almost two years. My mother is sick from worry.”

Lady Thorton said, “I’m sure she’s all right.”

Ruth’s eyes glittered. “You don’t really understand anything, do you? That, or you choose not to.” She stood. “Excuse me. I will take my work upstairs.”

I watched her go. Across the room, Jamie made airplane noises. Jonathan raised his eyebrows at his mother.

“How can she say that?” Lady Thorton demanded. “When you—my son, my only son—are risking your life every single day? When the government’s taken my home, when our village has been bombed, when we deal with queues and shortages every day?”

Jonathan pressed his fingertips together so hard the pads of his fingers turned white. “Because we haven’t faced anything like what she has,” he said. “You’ve lent our house, you haven’t lost it. None of us know how she feels.”

Jamie looked up. “Can you rescue Ruth’s grandmother?” he asked Jonathan. “Can you go get her with your plane?”

“Not with a Spitfire,” Jonathan said. “I’m afraid we’ll need infantry for that.”

“Will you do it?” Jamie asked.

Jonathan said, “We’ll certainly try.”

• • •

Susan was not cross about the eggs. She wasn’t even cross about the butter. “Of course you had to celebrate!” she said. She threw her arms around Jonathan, as though she were thrilled to see him, as though he were someone really important to her.

Maybe he was.

“I thought perhaps a cake?” Lady Thorton suggested.

“Mmm, yes, we could manage a small one,” Susan said. “Jamie, quit pestering Jonathan. Run over to Fred’s or the Ellistons’ and see if you can’t borrow one more egg. Tell them I’ll pay it back. And invite them all to tea. Tell them we have a banana.”

• • •

The thick skin of the banana peeled away. Inside was a long, slim, cream-colored fruit. It was soft like pudding and didn’t have seeds or stones—you could cut it the way you would a block of warm butter. Susan divided Jonathan’s banana into slices and handed them around on a plate. Jamie’s eyes widened when he tasted his. “I like banana!” he said.

I wasn’t sure. Susan laughed when she saw my face. “Ada’s thinking, ‘This is very different,’” she said, and she was right, I was.

“What’s flying like?” Jamie asked Jonathan. He scooted his chair over until he was nearly touching Jonathan’s side. He was wearing Jonathan’s scarf; Jonathan had shown him how to knot it the way a pilot would.

“Extraordinary,” Jonathan said. “Free. You can go up, down, sideways—any direction at all. Everything’s beautiful from above. The ocean is like an endless sparkling blanket of blue.”

I turned toward him. “That’s how it looks from the church steeple.”

Jonathan nodded. I said, “When you’re flying, are you afraid?”

Maybe it wasn’t a question I should ask. Jonathan’s face went very still. “I’m not afraid because I’m flying,” he said at last. “Let’s leave it at that.”

Jamie leaned into him.

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