The kindly woman reached across to touch his hand, wishing she were a million miles away. ‘They’ll ’ave taken ’em to a morgue an’ then they’ll probably be buried in one o’ the mass graves.’

He nodded and rose from the table as she stared at him in distress. ‘But where are you goin’?’

‘Back to Peggy,’ he stated. ‘The family we’re stayin’ wi’ will be worried about me. I’ll take Skippy wi’ me, fanks for lookin’ after ’im.’

‘But, luvvie, ’ow will you get ’ome?’ She was deeply concerned now. He was far too young to be wandering about all on his own. ‘Just stay ’ere wi’ me an’ my Bert’ll get in touch wi’ ’em for you then they can come an’ fetch you. It ain’t safe for you to be ’ere on your own. We could ’ave another raid any time.’

The words had barely left her lips when the sound of the air raid siren filled the room and she groaned. ‘Dear God, not again. Come on, Bobby. We’ll go out the back into the shelter.’

He shook his head as he backed towards the door. ‘No, it’s all right. Me an’ Skippy will be fine.’ And then before she could stop him, he was gone, racing off down the road, slipping and stumbling across the scattered debris with Skippy close on his heels and there was not a thing she could do about it.

‘Bobby … Bobby, stop please!’

Her voice followed him, but he ploughed on as the tears he had held back spurted from his eyes and all the time the sky overhead grew darker with enemy planes intent on dropping their deadly cargo. The furious sound of ack-ack guns suddenly added to the noise and somewhere in the distance he heard a loud explosion. Seconds later a great black cloud rose into the sky telling him that some other unfortunate blighters had copped it. Still he ran. Occasionally someone would shout to him to get to a shelter, but Bobby ignored them. He had no idea what direction he was running in, he only knew that somehow he must leave the terrible news Mrs Cotton had told him far behind. But no matter how far he ran, he knew deep down that there was no getting away from it. And then there was the sound of another explosion, closer this time and the ground beneath his feet seemed to tremble.

‘Come on, Skippy.’ Bobby dived into the nearest shop doorway and huddled back as far as he could go with his arms about the dog. The poor thing was shaking with terror as he looked up at him from velvet-brown eyes and Bobby affectionately kissed his head.