‘Ha, that’s my mum’s name. And, you know, she told me that all Susans are very brave. So don’t cry, love. It’ll only upset your mum.’

Susan smiled and wiped away her tears with her grubby fists, making dirty marks under her eyes.

‘How about we play hopscotch? Have you ever played it?’

Susan nodded. ‘We need a stone, and there’s not one ’ere.’

‘We can use a penny. I have two in my coat pocket. The winner keeps the penny – how does that sound?’

‘We ain’t got no chalk.’

‘’Ere, Susan, stop being so bleedin’ awkward. You can count, can’t yer? Yer don’t need the numbers written down to know where they are.’

Sibbie was shocked; she wanted to shake the woman, as she saw more tears brim in the child’s eyes. An urge seized her to take Susan in her arms and hug her. This wasn’t how a child should spend her time: frightened and hiding away from bombs, with dozens of other people, most total strangers to her.

‘I know, we’ll play toss the coin instead. I’ve got my lipstick in my pocket. I’ll place that on the ground, and we both have a penny each and take turns to toss it towards the lipstick. The one who gets the nearest to the lipstick is the winner.’

‘’Ere, luv, I’ve heard of a woman never going anywhere without her lippie, but that’s taking it a bit far, ain’t it?’

Sibbie laughed. The lipstick had just happened to be in her coat pocket, but she didn’t say this. ‘A girl’s got to look glamorous wherever she goes. I mean, you never know.’

At this, the women around her laughed and Sibbie felt that they were now on her side. She turned back to Susan and saw that her face was lit with smiles. This warmed her heart, as she knew she’d made this frightening moment a little better for the girl and, in doing so, she’d lost her own fear. The thought came to her that when the memory returned, as she knew it would, she would think of this child, and all these people who lived their lives in fear, and maybe that would give her the courage to carry on.

With the all-clear sounding two hours later, Sibbie and Marjie walked back to the flat. The air had a tinge of smoke in it, but they were relieved to find that nothing near them had been hit. When they reached the flat, Wills was standing outside, smoking a cigarette. Marjie gave a gasp of delight and ran towards him. ‘Wills. Oh, Wills!’

He threw his cigarette down, put it out with his foot and met Marjie, lifting her and swinging her round. ‘Marjie, at last! I’ve missed you so much.’