Chapter 8 Stephanie #2
‘It’s a sort of scrapbook.’ Finn did a little bounce on his chair like an overexcited schoolboy. ‘There was a nurse who worked at the hospital, whose name was Elsie Watson. She kept this notebook for most of the Blitz. As far as I can tell, she gave it to her patients and they wrote in it.’
‘What did they write?’
‘All sorts of things. Some of them wrote messages for loved ones. Others wrote down their memories of the time. They had huts here, round the back, where they looked after injured airmen from Biggin Hill.’
‘Oh that’s not far from here,’ I said.
‘Exactly. So they were in the hospital along with injured civilians and they all seem to have embraced the idea. A couple wrote poems. Or Bible verses. There are thank-you notes to the staff. Some of them drew pictures of the view from the windows or places they’d been.
’ He smiled at me. ‘A few drew Elsie and the other nurses.’
‘Oh my goodness,’ I breathed. ‘That’s amazing.’
‘I know.’ Finn put his hand on the book in a territorial way. ‘I’ve had a look through but I’ve barely begun to read all the notes inside. It’s a treasure trove.’
‘How did you get it?’ I said.
‘We just got lucky really. When the book was found by the contractors, they passed it to the bosses at Tall Trees – not Blessing, the people who run the company. And one of them is a bit of a history buff so he brought it to my department for us to have a look at. Obviously with everything that’s happened recently, it’s taken us a while to get it organised but now I’ve got my mitts on it. ’
‘So that’s why you’re here?’
‘Yes. I could work in my office but I like being here. It makes it feel more alive. I’m planning to read the whole book and then maybe write my own book about it. There are so many stories in here just waiting to be heard.’
‘What about the nurse?’ I said. ‘Elsie, did you say? Is she still alive?’
Finn shrugged. ‘No idea.’
I was doing sums in my head. ‘I suppose she could be over a hundred now.’
‘Well,’ said Finn slightly dramatically. ‘No one really knows what happened to her.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘I mean, she kept this notebook through most of the Blitz and then she disappeared. I can’t find a record of her.’
‘Oh gosh, was she killed in an air raid do you think?’
‘Maybe, but I can’t find a death certificate.’
‘So she could be alive.’
‘I doubt it.’
‘Are you going to track her down?’
He made a face. ‘She’s not important really. It’s the letters and notes I’m interested in.’
‘Poor Elsie,’ I said. ‘Aren’t you curious about where she went?’
‘A bit, but I’ve learned over the years not to get side-tracked,’ he said. ‘If I start looking for her, I’ll end up down all sorts of rabbit holes and I’ll never get my own research done.’
I thought about Max, who often went AWOL for weeks at a time, and my mother, who was also fond of disappearing when things got difficult, and I wondered if Elsie was the same sort of person. Somehow I doubted it, but I found I wanted to know more about her.
‘Maybe you could …’ I began.
‘You’re here again then, I see?’
I turned to see a woman with piercing blue eyes studying us.
‘Hello again,’ Finn said. He turned to me. ‘This is Helen. I believe she’s a new resident.’
‘Hi, Helen.’ I got to my feet and stuck my hand out to her. ‘I’m Stephanie. I’m one of the carers.’
‘Not in uniform?’ She looked me up and down, and then – as though I’d passed some sort of test – she shook my hand with a firm grip.
‘I’m not working today. I just came to visit my grandmother.’
She huffed as though that was terribly inconvenient. She was relatively young to be one of our residents. She only looked to be in her late seventies or early eighties and she was straight-backed and steady on her feet. Still, it wasn’t for me to judge.
‘How are you settling in?’ I asked, giving her a cheerful smile.
‘Fine thank you.’ She turned away from me and focused on Finn. ‘I wanted to use the table,’ she said.
‘Oh sure. We’re pretty much done here anyway.
’ He began picking up his papers again. I was disappointed, because I’d been enjoying hearing him talk and I was itching to have a look inside Nurse Elsie’s book.
But now I’d seen what Finn was doing, I knew he would be around Tall Trees for a while to come.
With the table cleared, Finn stood up and Helen sat down. She got out a little box of note cards and a pen, and began writing. I looked at Finn and raised an eyebrow. The table we’d been using was a large one, used for buffets at birthday parties and occasionally for large jigsaw puzzles.
Finn gave me a little shrug of his shoulders. Clearly Helen wasn’t impressed by his research.
‘We’ll get out of your way,’ he said to her. She didn’t respond.
I gestured to the door. ‘I’m going to get off. I’m working later.’
‘I thought it was your day off?’
‘I work at a bar too. The Vine. Do you know it?’
Finn looked blank and I grinned. ‘It’s not really a student place.’
‘I’m not a student.’
‘Whatever you say.’
He rolled his eyes and chuckled. ‘Good luck with your plans for the mural,’ he said. ‘Let me know if you want to throw some ideas around. Sometimes it helps to have a sounding board.’
‘That’s nice of you,’ I said, torn between wanting to spend more time with this cheerful, interesting man, and not wanting to talk about my art – or lack of it – ever.
‘I’ll be in my cupboard. Come and find me, any time.’
‘All right then, Harry Potter,’ I said. ‘Maybe I will.’