Blackout Read Online Free

said. “I’d evacuate them back to London with a luggage label round their necks in a minute. Little hooligans.”
    “Mrs. Bascombe says nice girls don’t meet men in the woods,” Binnie was saying.
    “Yes, well, nice girls don’t spy on people either,” Eileen said. “And they don’t skip school.”
    “Teacher sent us ’ome,” Binnie said. “Alf took ill. ’Is ’ead’s dreadful hot.”
    Alf attempted to look ill. “You ain’t leavin’, are you, Eileen?” he asked plaintively.
    “No,” she said.
Unfortunately
. “Theodore is.”
    Mistake. Theodore immediately piped up, “I want—”
    “You will,” she said, “as soon as the train comes.”
    “It ain’t comin’,” Alf said. “Anyway, yestiddy it didn’t.”
    “How do you know?” Eileen demanded, but she already knew the answer: They’d skipped school yesterday, too. She marched over to the office and hammered on the door. “Is it true the passenger train sometimes doesn’t come at all?” she said as soon as Mr. Tooley opened the door.
    “It—what are you two doin’ here? If I catch you Hodbins again—” He raised his fist threateningly, but Binnie and Alf had already darteddown the platform, jumped off the end, and disappeared. “You tell them two to stop throwing rocks at the train, or I’ll have ’em up on charges,” he shouted, his face red. “Criminals! They’ll end up in Wandsworth.”
    Eileen was inclined to agree with him, but she couldn’t let herself be sidetracked. “Is it true the train didn’t come at all yesterday?”
    He nodded reluctantly. “Trouble on the line, but they’ll likely have fixed it by now.”
    “But you don’t know for certain?”
    “No. You tell them two I’ll set the constable on ’em if they come round here again.” He stomped back into the office.
    Oh, dear
. They couldn’t stay here all night, not knowing whether the train would come or not. Theodore’s face was already pinched with cold, and with the blackout, station lights weren’t allowed. If the train came after dark, it might not even see them waiting and wouldn’t stop. She’d have to take him all the way back to the manor and try again tomorrow. But his ticket was for today, and she had no way to get in touch with his mother and tell her he wasn’t coming. She peered anxiously down the track, looking for a glimpse of smoke above the bare trees.
    “I’ll wager the line was out ’cause there was a train wreck,” Binnie said, appearing from behind a pile of sleepers.
    “I’ll
wager a jerry plane flew over and dropped a bomb and the whole train blew up,” Alf said. They clambered up onto the platform. “Boom! Arms and legs everywhere! And ’eads!”
    “That’s enough of that,” Eileen said. “You two go back to school.”
    “We can’t,” Binnie protested. “I told you, Alf’s got a fever. His ’ead’s—”
    Eileen clapped her hand to Alf’s perfectly cool forehead. “He hasn’t any fever. Now go.”
    “We can’t,” Alf said. “School’s let out.”
    “Then go home.”
    At the word, Theodore’s face puckered up. “Here, let’s put your mittens on,” Eileen said hastily, kneeling in front of him. “Did you ride on a train when you came to Backbury, Theodore?” she asked to distract him.
    “We
come on a bus,” Binnie said. “Alf was sick all over the driver’s shoes.”
    “You get your ’ead cut off on a train if you stick it out the window,” Alf said.
    “Come along, Theodore,” Eileen said. “Let’s go stand out by the edge where we can see the train coming.”
    “A girl I know stood too close to the edge and fell onto the tracks,” Binnie said, “and a train run right over her. Sliced her right in ’alf.”
    “Alf, Binnie, I don’t want to hear another word about trains,” Eileen said.
    “Not even if it’s comin’?” Binnie said and pointed down the tracks. The train was indeed bearing down on them, its massive engine wreathed in steam.
    Thank goodness
. “Here’s