Elizabeth woke in the darkness as the howling of the air raid siren drifted through the night air. It was followed almost immediately by the faint clumping of anti-aircraft fire from the city just a few miles away. Their sleepy coastal town was unlikely to be a target for the bombers but she still felt the now familiar uneasiness that came with every raid. There was always the chance of an enemy pilot deciding to ditch his deadly load indiscriminately, before scuttling back across the English Channel.
Elizabeth's husband Frank had already gone and so the bed beside her was empty. He would now make his way to the centre of town where he would patrol the streets, making sure that nobody was abusing the blackout. It was essential. A stray shaft of unclothed light reaching up into the night sky might be all that was needed. Death and destruction rained down virtually every night. The bombs were aimed at the city of course, seeking out the densely pack streets and factories. But they found their route to earth through light. There were no second chances for carelessness.
Frank would be gone for hours. She should be proud of him, she knew that. But she hated him. Fifteen years her senior, he was an ignorant bully who made her life a misery. She had been a naïve nineteen year old fool to let him impress her all those years ago, and even more of a fool to agree to marry him. That mistake had dragged her into twenty years of loveless drudgery. Now at thirty nine, she felt chained to a drunken brute.
The only goodness to have come out of those years was Jack. Her handsome, quiet and kind eighteen year old son was the only thing that made her life bearable. Had it not been for Jack she would have left years ago, or perhaps even done something she would regret.
As the sounds of the raid grew nearer the fear began to grow. It was then that she needed him.
Elizabeth hurriedly made the short journey from her own bed to his room. She could only just make out the shape of his outline in the pitch blackness of the room, the windows covered in heavy curtains to hold in any light. He was still sleeping. She found comfort in the way that he could sleep so easily through the noise, his innocence and goodness seeming to protect him from the fear of the night. She paused for just a few seconds and then gently drew back the bedclothes, slipping silently in beside him.
Jack stirred slightly as she wrapped him in her arms. As he woke, he sleepily returned her embrace. Neither of them spoke because they didn't need to. This was a world that was theirs and only theirs. It was a hidden place that they shared in a secret silence. They felt no need to express it in words and the darkness took away any awkwardness that may have arisen should their eyes connect in these moments. Neither of them needed any other communication. They spoke through the gentle care they displayed towards each other as they touched.
Their mouths joined instinctively. Elizabeth wanted him to feel the warm softness of her love. She knew that gradually, as he became more fully awake, their contact would become deeper and more urgent. But she took everything from these first few moments when they shared the simplicity and purity of their embrace.
Each time they joined in this way it was like a small re-enactment of how this had started. Huddled together in the tight space of his single bed, protecting each other from reality and fear. They had pressed against each other in those first nights. Elizabeth had at first been nervous and confused by the feel of him stiffening in reaction to her body. She had been uncertain and scared but eventually, in time, she welcomed the reassurance of his boyish excitement at her physical presence.
