Page 22 - The Spirit of Christmas 1940

Chapter 3

were dominated by the Kings Head pub that was bombed the night
before. Fifteen had died in the blast and countless more had been
injured in the vicinity. Those poor souls, dying just because they
were in the wrong place at the wrong time. The Great British
resilience was not something which was apparent this morning
around the remains of the pub. Only sadness and grieving.

Jimmy wandered over to Rose. She could see he wasn’t his
normal chipper self. He had a copy of the newspaper in his hand.
She didn’t have to ask what was bothering him.

“Did you know anyone in that pub?” She asked.

“No, no one. But I feel as if I did. It’s really strange, I’ve never
felt so sad for people I didn’t know. I know the war effects us all
but it feels as though I’ve just lost my family”.

“That’s not strange Jimmy, that just tells me you have a big
heart and you care for people. You always have. Try not to beat
yourself up about it. There’s nothing any of us could’ve done
to stop what happened.” She put her hand tenderly on his arm.
“You’re a good man Jimmy but we have to go on. We still need to
take care of what we have,”

Rose always knew what to say to bring Jimmy back to earth.
But something was bothering her, the conversation with the soldier
kept running itself over and over in her head.

“Jimmy, when you left last night I saw that soldier. It looked that
he had stayed up here when the bombs were falling. What was
strange is that he said something similar to you. He said he felt
their pain. What do you suppose he meant by that?”

Jimmy was concerned. “That’s strange, when I left last night,
there was only me and you here. I didn’t see the soldier. How did
he get in here?”

“I’m sure he didn’t mean any harm but he was very sad. Maybe

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