Will This War Ever End?

In a particularly dark and narrow street of wartime London, a black cat streaked across the cobbled road. Crumbling houses lined the dark street, no light showed from their blacked out windows. The feeling of death clung in the air. All these houses were deserted, except one.

The sirens began to wail, a small boy peaked out of the black curtained windows to look at the starry sky. A small brown mouse sat perched on his shoulder.

“They’re attacking again, Henry”
The mouse squeaked his agreement.

“Why can’t they just leave us alone?” Arthur said annoyed.
Arthur pulled the curtain closed and went to explore his new home.

Arthur was an orphan, abandoned at birth by his mother just before the war. Leaving him to survive on his own, as none of the orphanages had the room to look after him. They were already full.

Arthur crept round the house, even though there was no one living there or in any of the surrounding houses. Arthur was not looking for anything in particular, just a warm place to sleep and maybe something to eat.

“By the looks of this place…” Arthur commented,

“There’s going to be no food lying around. It looks like no ones lived here since the beginning of the war.” Arthur stated while running his finger through the dust that had settled on the staircase rail. It left a long clean line as Arthur and his companion made their way up the stairs.

Arthur crept along the hallway peaking into each room as he passed. The first room was a bedroom, the second a bathroom. The third was different; the door was slightly ajar, a beam of moonlight found its way out of the room. The door creaked as Arthur pushed the door open, revealing a gaping hole in the wall bricks were strewn everywhere. As Arthur walked into the room, slowly turning around. Suddenly he stopped; a big black shape began to emerge from the shadows. As Arthur stepped towards it, the outlines began to take shape, until it formed into the shape of a Spitfire. Arthur stepped forward to admire the sky blue paint, which had begun to peel off the side of the plane.

“Oh my god, Henry it’s an actual Spitfire, in fairly good condition too”
Arthur slowly began to cautiously circle the plane, running his hand along the rusted metal hull. “I wonder how it got here; it must have come through the wall, that’s the only way it could get in here”

Arthur sat against the broken wall staring at the plane, the distant sound of the attacking planes and the sirens blaring reached Arthur’s ears. Arthur jumped to his feet, dislodging Henry off his shoulder as he went.
“Henry, we could stop the war with this plane” Arthur looked around wildly for Henry, finally spotting him in a pile of dust next to a brick. Henry picked himself up, and began dusting off his fur; he let out a squeak of annoyance as Arthur spotted him. Arthur gave him an apologetic look.
“It needs a lot of work, where are we going to get the money to pay for all the pieces we’re missing; we can’t just pick them up off the street”.

Henry began drawing in the dust, swiping it away with his tail; a picture began to form on the ground.

“That’s a great idea Henry, we could go ask Anne to find the pieces for us” Arthur began skipping round the plane gleefully, stirring up the dust which began rising in a great cloud. Coughing began coming from the floor. Arthur stopped skipping and quickly bent down to pick up Henry, his hand disappeared into the dust cloud. As Arthur’s hand reappeared from the cloud, Henry lay panting on his hand.

“Come on Henry, there’s no time to waste. Let’s go find Anne”.

Anne lives with her mother, in their old townhouse in one of the only parts of the city where there had not been any bombings. They had started to move their belonging into the bomb shelter as the bombing had been coming closer and closer to their house. Anne’s mother worked with the Women Helping at Home Brigade; they cleaned the streets of any blast matter, possessions, scrap metal and many useful bits ‘n’ bobs. They put them to use helping those who had lost their homes and belongings. Anne and Arthur had become friends when they met in a deserted building. Arthur had been trying to scavenge some food, while Anne was helping her mother. Anne had just stepped out from one of these houses when she saw a figure running down the street waving at her.

“Quick Henry, she’s over there”.

Arthur was running down the street towards Anne, Henry was peaking out of his pocket. They finally caught up to where Anne was waiting, her black cat Mille was winding herself between Anne’s legs as the wind picked up the edges of her skirt and her hair billowed behind her.

“Oh Arthur it’s you, I haven’t seen you in ages, what have you been up to?”

“There’s no time Anne, I need you to find me some parts for a Spitfire.” Arthur puffed

“What do you need them for?” Anne inquired

“I can’t tell you yet but you’ll eventually find out”

“If you got down Duncan Road at the end is where they put all the leftover plane parts before the collect them, you’d better hurry up the trucks coming at four”. Anne shouted after Arthur as he started running down the street.

It took Arthur forever to rummage through the pile of junk, which used to be old planes; many pieces were rusted and worn. Nevertheless, perseverance won the day, Arthur eventually found all the pieces that he needed, as well as a few extra parts. Just in time to as Arthur walked away with his prizes slung across his back a big dark coloured truck rumbling across the cobbled road, bouncing up and down.

When Arthur reached his plane it was getting dark, there was not much he could do in the dark, no lights were aloud on as it gives targets for the enemy. Arthur brought a homemade quilt from one of the bedrooms and laid it out in the cockpit of the plane. That is where he and Henry slept for the night not even the sound of the bombs could wake him.

Sunlight flowed openly into the room, lighting up every nook and cranny with bright yellow gold. Arthur woke up with the sunlight warming his face; he could see the sun through his closed eyelids. Yawning Arthur got up and looked at his surroundings. Henry was already awake; nibbling on a piece of bread he had found in one of Arthur’s many pockets.

“Time to get to work Henry, today’s a beautiful day”
Arthur jumped out of the cockpit and went to the pile of parts he found yesterday. Choosing the parts with a precise eye, Arthur new, which ones were up to the job, or not. Several pieces were lined up along the floor; the first job was to clean the pieces and the plane.

The plane was complete, all the parts had been installed and Arthur even found some paint, which is very rare in these times. They were still trying to invade the country they nearly succeeded once too. The more they attacked the more Arthur hated them more. Anne had come several times to persuade him not to go. He couldn’t be stopped though his mind was set on one thing and that was to end the war, which has caused so much pain and death in his country.
It is the day, the day Arthur was going to save his country. His plane was fuelled waiting for takeoff. Anne had come to see him off even though she disagreed with what he was doing.

“Do you really have to go, let the fighting to the solders that’s what they’re trained for, please don’t leave!” Anna begged.

“I have to go no one else will be able too stop them.”
Anne fell to the ground and began sobbing the tears running down her face came faster and faster, her shoulders shook with every breath she took. Arthur knelt down in front of her.

“I have to go.” Arthur said

That just made her cry harder

“I don’t want…want you to go, I can’t bear it if…if you don’t come back” Anne replied through her sobbing.
Arthur looked at her sympathetically, turned and walked to his plane. Henry sat waiting for him in the cockpit.

“You ready Henry” Arthur said looking down at his companion.
Arthur started up the plane, the propeller whirring Arthur took the controls. Taking one last look at the girl sobbing on the floor. Setting a determined face, he turned back around and looked to the horizon, seeing the things he could become.

It was cold he wasn’t prepared for the cold. Henry lay quietly in the inside of Arthur’s coat making sure he stays awake. Flying through the clouds meant getting wet and even colder which makes him more tired. Arthur was nearly there though; least he was flying over land, flying over the water was harder then over land. He had nearly run into some of the enemy planes but somehow they hadn’t seen him. Nearly there Arthur could see the lights of the city in the distance.

It was so quiet, there were people everywhere, crowding the streets, Arthur could see them all. All these houses were untidy and in need of repair, the person Arthur was looking for would live in something bigger, fancier. Flying over the city it all suddenly changed the houses were neat and tidy. Arthur spotted a very large building to his left it looked like it belonged to someone important. Arthur turned the controls flying towards the big building. The wind rushed through his hair, making him remember the people back home, Anne, Mille who had all been so kind to him giving him any food they could spare. He was doing this for them.

Arthur could see figures silhouetted on the windows; this looked to be the right house. Arthur had seen pictures of the house he wanted in the newspaper, this looked to be the right one, it was the same colour, same type of walling and windows. Arthur was circling the building, trying to find a place to land.

“Here we go Henry,” Arthur said looking down at his companion.
He didn’t get a chance to go any further, a shower of bullets hit Arthur’s plane. Slicing straight through his lightweight craft and into the engine, wings, and other vital parts for a plane to run including Arthur himself. There was nothing he could do; Arthur was killed instantly, his plane began spiralling uncontrollably into the building. Ploughing through the wall to stop right in front of the people who owned the silhouettes Arthur saw earlier.
* * *

Back in London, Anne felt her heart begin to tear, she new wherever Arthur was something had happened to him. She new he wasn’t coming home to her.

* * *

The war ended two days after Arthur’s crash. Arthur’s plane had set fire to the building, burning half of it down before it was stopped, the people inside weren’t killed though. The man of the house thought everyone was after him, so he killed himself and his wife. They were found the day after. The country was leaderless; they had no one to order him or her to do anything, so they decided to surrender. The news didn’t come to Arthur’s home country until a couple of days later. Only then did Anne finally figure out what had happened to Arthur.