The Bomber Dog (3 page)

‘I worry about you all alone here
once I'm gone, Mum. What if something happens? I wish you could be with
Penny,' Nathan said.

But Mrs Green shook her head. She
couldn't do that. She was needed here. ‘I'll be
all right. Worse comes to the worst I can sleep up at the hospital or at the
Esplanade caves if our house gets hit, which I'm sure it won't. Did you
know, one of the soldiers told me today, those big guns Hitler's got aimed at
us from across the Channel are so big a man could crawl inside the barrel and have
room to take a kip – if he was inclined to sleep inside a gun that could shoot you
all the way across the sea, that is.'

‘I love you, Mum,' Nathan
said softly.

‘Love you too. I'm proud of
you, son and don't you forget it.'

Grey tilted his head and watched her
wipe her tears on the sleeve of her dressing gown as she left the room. ‘And
I'll miss you when you leave,' she added, but didn't tell him that
she felt like her heart was breaking every time she thought of him going off to
war.

‘This way, Grey,' Nathan
said.

He took Grey outside into their small
garden
to do his business and then Grey followed him back
inside.

Grey had never needed to go upstairs
before and he stood at the bottom of them looking up at Nathan as he went.

‘Come on Grey,' Nathan said,
standing at the top of the stairs and patting his leg.

Grey whined, but then cautiously went up
one stair and then another. The narrow steps were awkward for a dog of his size and
he didn't find them at all easy. But at last he reached the top and wagged his
tail with relief. He even let Nathan pat him for the first time.

Nathan put a blanket on the floor by his
bed for Grey and Grey circled round it and scratched it before lying down. It was
hard to get to sleep without Molly's warm body beside him.

Sometime during the night Grey climbed
on to Nathan's bed and he was still there when Nathan woke up in the
morning.

Nathan didn't hear his mum standing
outside his bedroom door at five o'clock the next morning, before she slipped
quietly out of the house for her shift at the hospital, but Grey did. He was
instantly awake and alert, but then he looked over at Nathan, still fast asleep, and
dozed off again.

Two hours later, Nathan was awoken by
the sound of Grey's snores. But almost as soon as Nathan opened his eyes, Grey
was awake too, sitting up, fully alert, panting and staring at him.

‘Good dog,'
Nathan said, and Grey allowed himself to be stroked, although he still didn't
seem to be completely comfortable being touched.

Nathan glanced over at his call-up
papers and travel documents, which were sitting on the dresser beside his bed. Along
with his call-up papers he'd received his ticket and details of his journey.
There were an awful lot of stations between Dover and the basic training camp at
Cardington, and it looked as though the train stopped at every one on their journey
through Kent, London, Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire to their destination. Today was
his last day as a civilian and he was going to spend it with Grey. He threw back the
covers and climbed out of bed. Grey immediately jumped off too and padded after
him.

His second experience of the stairs
wasn't as bad as his first had been, but they still weren't easy for a
big dog, and going down felt a lot trickier than going up.

Once they were safely
downstairs, Nathan opened the back door to let Grey go outside and do his business.
While Grey was sniffing the lavender bush, which was the neighbourhood tom
cat's favourite haunt, Nathan carried the tin bath in from where it hung on a
nail outside and set it in front of the kitchen range.

Next he set the kettle and a saucepan to
heat on the range. Once they were piping hot, he poured them into the tin bath and
then refilled them both to heat up again. He did this twice more until there was
about three inches of water in the bottom of the bath.

Grey was still outside when Nathan
stripped off his clothes and climbed in, but a moment later he was there, staring
intently at him. The dog looked at the bath water, put his head down and drank some
of it, sneezed a little at the surprising warmth of it, then sat down and gazed at
Nathan holding the sponge.

Nathan found it very
unnerving sitting naked in the tin bath with Grey staring at him. At times the dog
tilted his head to one side and looked at him as if he was trying to work out what
on earth was going on. Grey's coat had been covered in ash and soot the night
before and it was matted and dirty. He looked as though he'd never had a bath
in his life.

Nathan wasn't sure how Grey would
react to being washed. Some dogs hated water and others loved it.

He stood up, stepped out of the bath and
pulled a towel down from the kitchen pulley rack.

‘In you go, Grey,' he said,
pointing at the bathwater.

Grey bent his head and lapped at the
water in the bottom of the tin bath again, but he didn't get in.

Nathan reached down and splashed his
fingers about in the water.

‘It's
nice,' he said. ‘Go on.' He pointed at the water again, but Grey
clearly had no intention of getting in and stayed firmly where he was.

Nathan sighed. ‘Sponge bath
then.'

He dipped the sponge in the bathwater,
rubbed coal tar soap on the sponge and then squeezed it over Grey's back. The
soap certainly made Grey's fur smell a lot nicer than it had previously.

‘That's it, you're
OK,' he told Grey, as the dog turned to look with interest at the river of
soapy suds running down his back. Nathan laughed. Grey did seem to be a bit
bewildered by it all, but at least he wasn't running away.

Nathan lathered the soap deep into
Grey's fur and then sponged it off with plenty of clean water. At last, all
rinsed off, it was time to dry him.

However, before he could get another
towel from the pulley rack, Grey started to shake
himself
vigorously and sprayed water everywhere; all over the walls, the range and the
floor. Nathan did his best to mop it up, and then dried Grey as thoroughly as he
could with the soggy towel.

Grey really seemed to like being dried;
he made little sounds of happiness deep in his throat, which made Nathan smile.
Before he'd washed him he'd thought Grey was mainly a dark charcoal grey
all over, but now he found that parts of his coat were actually quite pale, and as
the fur became properly dry he discovered that the dog was in fact sable coated.

‘You really are a beautiful
dog,' he told him. And judging by the way Grey held his head up proudly, he
thought he'd probably agree.

‘You know what you need? You need
a brush,' Nathan said. Nathan himself used a comb on his hair and he
didn't think his mother would appreciate him using her hairbrush on Grey, but
the scrubbing brush turned out to be
perfect. As he ran the bristle
brush down Grey's sable coat he smoothed out any remaining matting and knots
in his fur.

Grey lifted his head to encourage Nathan
to concentrate on his favourite brushing place – under his chin.

‘More there?' Nathan said as
he obediently brushed the spot.

The dog's pointy ears – one grey
and standing straight up, the other white-tipped and flopping down – were velvety
soft, softer than the rest of his coat. Not that the rest of his coat was rough,
especially after all the brushing, but it didn't have the buttery softness of
his ears.

Nathan laughed when he was brushing the
dog's tummy and found a tickle spot that made Grey sneeze.

He'd only known Grey a very short
time but already he was starting to wish the dog could be his. But that wasn't
possible because he was leaving for army basic-training camp tomorrow.

Nathan wished that
Penny could meet Grey. She was crazy about dogs and he was sure she'd like him
just as much as he did. But at least Penny was with animals at their
grandparents' smallholding and it was a lot safer than Dover – Hellfire
Corner, as everyone now called it because of all the damage it was receiving. Nathan
was worried about leaving his mum alone. He wished she could join Penny and be safe.
He wished they could have Grey with them to protect them, but he'd seen how
frightened his mum was of Grey, even though she'd tried to hide it.

‘Hungry?' Nathan asked the
dog. Nathan certainly was. Grey padded close behind him as Nathan went to see what
there was in the pantry.

‘Sit!' Nathan said as he
opened the pantry door and reached inside.

Grey looked at Nathan, then at the bit
of chicken in Nathan's hand and back at Nathan.

‘Sit!'
Nathan said again.

But Grey didn't. Nathan
wasn't even sure that Grey understood what the word meant, and he didn't
want to frighten him by trying to push his bottom to the ground.

Nathan sat down on the kitchen
floor.

‘Sit!'

Grey looked at the chicken and then at
Nathan. He sat down.

‘Good dog!' Nathan cried,
and he gave him the piece of chicken, which Grey gulped down in a single swallow,
seemingly without chewing it at all.

Nathan scrambled to his feet to get more
chicken and Grey stood up and followed him. He wasn't quite sure what it was
he'd done to get the chicken but he definitely wanted more.

‘Sit!' Nathan said, and his
hand unconsciously lifted as he said it.

Grey watched Nathan's movement,
looked at the chicken and sat.

‘Yes!'
Nathan said as Grey gulped down the food. The dog was a quick learner, at least when
there was chicken involved. Maybe the dog had been taught the command before, maybe
he had once had a family, Nathan didn't know.

He wanted to take Grey for a walk but he
didn't even have a collar or a lead for him. He improvised by making an extra
hole in his own belt to use as a collar and used the washing line, doubled over a
few times, as a lead.

At first, Grey backed away when Nathan
tried to put the collar on, but Nathan dropped a scrap of bread on the floor, and
while Grey was busy gobbling it up Nathan managed to get the collar safely buckled
around his neck. He threaded the washing line through the belt as a makeshift lead.
Grey looked unimpressed.

‘Come on now,' Nathan said.
‘You have to wear it.'

When Nathan tried to
get Grey to go the way he wanted him to go, Grey didn't like it at all and
started to pull in the opposite direction.

‘This way,' Nathan said,
holding out more bread to Grey. ‘Bread doesn't grow on trees you
know,' he murmured as they headed out of the house and down the road.

Grey just gave him a look, but then he
caught sight of the park just ahead. He was very fond of running on grass and
chasing squirrels and he dragged Nathan towards the park so hard that he had to
cling on to the lead with both hands.

‘Whoa, slow down there,
stop,' he pleaded.

But Grey wasn't listening. He was
a strong dog who knew where he wanted to go, and as soon as they reached the park,
in they went.

Grey ran fast and Nathan had no choice
but to let go of the lead or end up being dragged into a hawthorn bush.

As he watched Grey run
on without him, Nathan worried that he was going to lose him. What if the dog
didn't come back?

He spotted a ball that had been left
half hidden under the bush and picked it up.

‘Grey, Grey, Grey …' he
yelled, as he waved his hands in the air.

The dog stopped for a moment to look
over at him but didn't come back.

‘Fetch!' Nathan threw the
ball into the air. Grey followed it with his eyes and the next moment he was running
across the grass chasing after it.

He'd never played ball before but
he liked it just as much as chasing squirrels, and he soon got the idea that if he
brought it back to Nathan then Nathan could make it fly through the air for him to
chase all over again.

Nathan soon found out that when it came
to meeting other dogs, Grey wasn't the least bit wary. Nathan watched as he
bounded over
to the other dogs in the park, wagging his tail to
sniff and say hello.

Most of the dog owners were happy to see
him, but some owners, especially those with little dogs, were frightened and quickly
picked up their pets for safety.

‘Looks like he could eat my Trixie
for breakfast …'

‘I'm sure he
wouldn't,' Nathan replied.

‘Don't want Puddle getting
injured by those big paws …'

‘He's quite gentle,
really,' Nathan said.

‘My, but you've got a big
dog there. I bet the War Dog Training School would like a few more like
him.'

Nathan hadn't heard of the War Dog
Training School before.

‘What's that?' he
asked.

But the lady didn't know much
about it. ‘There was an advert in the paper. They're looking for dogs to
train up for the war effort.'

Nathan looked down at
Grey, who gazed up at him and then down at his ball.

‘Where is this War Dog Training
School?' Nathan asked the lady. ‘Is it around here?'

‘No, it isn't local. Let me
see. It was somewhere I haven't been … Hampshire,
Herefordshire … no … oh, I remember, it was
Hertfordshire.'

Nathan threw the ball for Grey who raced
after it but then he spotted a honey-coated spaniel, a lot like Molly, way across
the other side of the park and he went racing over to it.

‘Grey, Grey, come back!'
Nathan called as he ran after him.

The dog wasn't Molly, and worse
still the owner looked at Grey in horror and dragged his own dog away.

‘Keep that brute away from my
dog,' he shouted at Nathan.

‘He was just coming to say
hello,' Nathan said reasonably. ‘He thought …' But the man
didn't let him finish. ‘Dogs like him don't
think – they just attack without warning,' he said, and stomped off.

Nathan looked down at Grey and sighed.
‘I suppose to some people you might look a bit dangerous.'

Grey tilted his head to one side and
looked up at him. ‘But not once they get to know you, of course,' Nathan
added.

Grey panted as he watched the spaniel
being dragged out of the park. Nathan was sure he had run over to the dog because
he'd hoped it might be his friend.

‘Come on,' he said, picking
up Grey's lead. The Houghton Street Clinic, where Molly had been taken,
wasn't far away. ‘Let's see how she's getting on.'

Kate was stunned to see them both when
they arrived.

‘Isn't that the dog from
last night?' she asked.

Nathan nodded as Grey sat down next to
him. ‘We came to see how his friend was getting
on,' Nathan added.