The wall at the end had been hit and where it had stood was a vast heap of crumbly bricks and splintered wood. Beyond that were the two walls left standing after the house opposite Vi’s had been struck in a previous raid. ‘Can you lift while I fix this?’ asked Sally. She was trying to put the back door, which had been blown into the garden, on its hinges. ‘Christ! My nails!’ exclaimed Vi. ‘This is men’s work. Let’s leave it for Ted.’ ‘You said yourself he was working round the clock. If we wait for him you’ll freeze.’ They wrestled with the door for another five minutes, and got it roughly into place. ‘That’ll have to do,’ said Vi. ‘I can wedge a chair against it to keep it closed. The warden says not to try to use the gas. I’ll light the fire and boil up the kettle on it. I’ve got plenty of wood from up the street – the poor buggers it belonged to won’t need it any more.’ The narrow street where Vi lived was a shocking sight. On either side of her home two big craters represented two houses.
