Ollie took in deep breaths to calm his nerves. He opened his suitcase and retrieved the picture of his parents, taken before the crippling tractor accident. His parents were smiling, holding hands, and dressed in their Sunday clothes. His father proudly sported a tie that Ollie had given him one year for Christmas, and Mother wore a pleated dress, her long locks of hair resting on her shoulders. Ollie wiped his eyes, overcome with guilt for the way he had disregarded his parents about their convictions to support Britain and, even more, for never having had the opportunity to apologize. His parents had sacrificed to provide him with a good life, one that until now he had taken for granted. He wished he could have even half of their spirit. Regardless of the fact that he was broke, homeless, and foolish for believing he could become a pilot for the Royal Air Force, he vowed to move on. Ollie put away the photo, buried his fear, and left his pile of bricks.

To make a little money, enough to purchase a meal of fried bread and a train ticket to London, he worked the day unloading cargo for the Maaskerk. As he carefully unloaded heavy wooden boxes filled with artillery shells, he noticed several burned warehouses and the Liverpool Iron Works; one wing of the structure was obliterated. Ollie asked a shipyard worker named Joseph Burke what had happened. With a quivering jaw, Joseph told Ollie that a few weeks before, the Luftwaffe had bombed the city. Joseph clasped his hands as if he were about to pray and added that his wife, Millie, and his two-year-old daughter, Christine, had taken refuge in the Cleveland Square shelter the night of the bombing. The shelter took a direct hit, killing eighteen people, including Millie and Christine.

“I was working the night shift,” Joseph said. “I should have been there with them.”

“I’m sorry,” Ollie said.

Joseph nodded, wiped his eyes, and went back to work.

Ollie returned to unloading cargo, filled with fury at what the Nazis had done. He imagined taking to the sky in an RAF Hurricane, perhaps even a Spitfire, and ridding his parents’ homeland of this evil.

After finishing his work, Ollie collected his pay and boarded a train to London, which wasn’t crowded, considering many people were fleeing the cities. And he realized why when the train approached London.