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I look like I’ve just e battle with consumption Starvation and sleep deprivation do leave visible marks, YOU IDIOTS
‘I haven’t seen the sun for six weeks,’ I said ‘But sometimes the weather’s like that back home too’
‘Well, it’s sure nice,’ she drawled ‘It’s nice to see they’re treating prisoners so well here’
Suddenly, in one great dollop, she sloshed all her cognac – untouched, the entire glass – into ed the whole lot back in one like a sailor before anyone could take it away fro sick
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Do you knohat he did last night – von Linden, I mean – came and stood in the doorway of my cell after he’d finished work and askedover this idea that I can ‘buy’ tie for bits oflike an arcane literary debate with your tyrannicalto your execution
When he left, I said to hiood night’ – not because I wished hiht, but because that is what the Ger, passive-resistant French hosts every night in Le Silence de la Mer – that tract of Gallic defiance and the literary spirit of the French Resistance A copy was given to ht back froht have read it too, as he is such a Know Your Enemy type (also he is very well-read) But he didn’t seeel has told me what he did before the War He was rector of a rather posh boys’ school in Berlin
A headhter
She is safe at school in Switzerland, neutral Switzerland, where no Allied boht I can safely assert she doesn’t go to an, when lish and French pupils were pulled out, which is why I went off to university a bit early
Von Linden has a daughter only a little younger than me I see nohy he takes such a clinically distant approach to his work
Still not sure whether he has a soul though Any Jerry bastard with his wedding tackle intact can beget a daughter And there are a lot of sadistic head teachers about
Oh ain? I HAVE THE BRAIN OF A PTARMIGAN HEN HE WILL SEE ANYTHING I WRITE
Orel, bless her, skipped over the last few paragraphs I wrote yesterday when she was translating for von Linden last night I think it was self-preservation on her part rather than any good nature towards me Someone will eventually discover what a chatterbox she is, but she’s groise to et her in trouble (She pointed out to von Linden soo that I know perfectly well how to do norance to torment her But it is true that she is better at them than I aiven a fresh supply of paper Sheet otten spoils of the Château des Bourreaux – a lot of popular songs from the last decade and some pieces by French composers, scored for flute and piano The verso of the flute parts are all blank so I have paper in abundance again I was getting a bit weary of those flipping recipe cards We are still using them for the other work
Warti now I can’t write fast enough
Maddie was being groo before she becaain soland, back in Manchester Maddie was put on a course to do night flying She leaped at the chance She was so used to being the only girl around, there being no more than two other women in the Manchester ATA ferry pool, that it did not occur to her there was anything unusual going on
Everyone else on the course was a boht, in general In fact Maddie didn’t fly at night for a while after she’d clocked the hours and had her log book sta in practice because she used it so little Since 1940 we have not co at all, and in suet dark till nearlyanyway in the suht, so she didn’t wonder about it She was busy – thirteen days on ferrying and two off, in all kinds of weather, and there were sosenseless administrative for was unre too – an equally random and apparently useless skill Maddie was trained not as an actual paratrooper, but she learned to fly the plane while people were ju, a type Maddie hadn’t flown before, and they flew froe until she was asked to co my first jump from a plane over the low hills of Cheshire (at this point I had no choice but to cross ‘Heights’ off my list of fears) Maddie certainly hadn’t expected nised me instantly as we cli uncharacteristically tied back with a ribbon like a pony club competitor (otherwise it wouldn’t have fitted inside those ducky wee helh you have stuck your head in a Christister surprise or recognition She’d been told who this group was – or who they weren’t, anyway – six of the from a plane for the first time
We weren’t allowed to talk to the pilots either I made three ju jump than the men, AND they make us jump first I don’t know if that’s because we’re considered cannier than men, or braver, or bouncier, or just less likely to survive and therefore aren’t worth the extra petrol and parachute packing At any rate Maddie saw ot to say hello
I got to watch her fly though