The Last Train Home

Chapter Thirty-Six

May arrived at lightning speed and with it came the fall of France.

It started slowly at first. The month began like any other on the farm, with chores, horse riding lessons, and the occasional escaped sheep or Goose jumping over the fence and into the pen. Other than the drone of planes overhead, there was nothing to suggest that anything big would happen in just a few days' time.

Dad got his deployment. He would be sent into the Atlantic ocean on a warship on the search for approaching German forces and helping France if they needed it. They would. By the time I received Dad's letter, he had already left and I knew he wouldn't be getting posted out in the middle of the ocean. I wrote to him anyway, sending it to the same address in the hopes he would see it when he got back. He would come back.

We had been following the news on the Germans' progression through France in the newspaper and occasionally the radio if we could find one. Jonathan said he would buy us our own radio so we wouldn't have to listen outside the town hall for the latest news on what had been happening. Alec said his brothers had both flown several missions over France to try and help, but the Germans just kept pushing and although we didn't want to believe it, we knew France would fall.

All I could think about was Dad. He was out in the middle of the ocean on a ship that would explode if it were hit. He would be our last line of defence against a potential German sea invasion and that put him even more at risk. Still, that was nothing compared to Eva.

One day, towards the end of the month, I was helping Jonathan with some tasks on the farm. He had noticed an issue with the fence in the sheep pen, a result of the sheep head butting it according to him. We were trying not to think of the war, but that quickly became impossible.

"Sybil!" a voice called in the distance. I turned around and put my hand over my eyes to shade them from the bright May sun. Eva emerged over the top of the hill, the wind catching her hair and whipping it around her.

"What are you doing here?" I yelled when she was close enough to hear me.

"They just said on the radio that Dunkirk fell. Or at least the army they're surrounded." She stopped running and stood in front of me. "Sybil, that's where Anthony is."

Eva looked at me for a few seconds, her cheeks flushed from the running and her hair knotted. After those few seconds, Eva fell apart. The tears that she must have been holding back when she ran cascaded down her cheeks and onto the collar of her blouse. Her body wracked with sobs and I took a step forward, wrapping my arms around her and pulling her into a hug.

"Take her to the house and have Barb put on some tea, I think she might need it," Jonathan said.

"Are you sure?"

He nodded. "We're almost done here and Eva is more important than a fence. Go."

"Thank you."

Jonathan smiled slightly, but it didn't quite reach his eyes the way it usually did and I knew why. I untangled myself from Eva and wrapped an arm around her shoulder, steering her down the track and towards the house.

We knew something like this had to happen at some point, one of us had to have a family member embroiled in war. One of us would not have a family member come home. Still, none of us wanted to accept that that could happen, but there it was in front of us. If Anthony had been surrounded, we both knew it would be unlikely he'd be coming home, but I had to hold onto the small slither of hope that he would. For Eva.

I led her to the house and opened the front door, helping Eva inside since she looked a little unsteady on her feet given the news. Inside, Barbara knelt on the floor in the living room with a brush and a bucket of water, scrubbing the floor. She looked up when we entered and furrowed her brows at the state Eva was in. I shook my head a little so she didn't say anything and walked Eva to the sofa where I sat her down and allowed Goose to ask for a hug. Animals were often better at understanding emotions than humans.