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The farther we got from the train station, thedown on London Building fronts pocked by shrapnel Shattered s Streets that glinted with frosts of powdered glass The sky was speckled with puffy silver blie balloons," E ht up in their cables at night and crash"

Then we came upon a scene of destruction so bizarre that I had to stop and gape at it--not out of some morbid voyeurism, but because it was impossible for my brain to process without further study A bomb crater yawned across the whole width of the street like a e, the blast had sheared away the front wall of a building but left as inside mostly intact It looked like a doll’s house, its interior roo room with its table still set for a meal; fa; a roll of toilet paper unspooled and caught in the breeze, waving in the air like a long, white flag

"Did they forget to finish building it?" Olive asked

"No, duot hit by a boht cry, but then her face went hard and she shook her fist at the sky and yelled, "Nasty Hitler! Stop this horrible war and go right away altogether!"

Bronwyn patted her arm "Shhh He can’t hear you, love"

"It isn’t fair," Olive said "I’m tired of airplanes and bombs and war!"

"We all are," said Enoch "Even me"

Then I heard Horace screa in the road I ran to see what it was, and then I did see and I stopped, frozen,to listen

It was a pyraape, eyes boiled shut, utter like soasped and turned away; Bronwyn caed and clapped his hands over his eyes; and then finally Enoch, who seeed one of the heads with his shoe and pointed out that they were onlyspilled fro shop We all felt a little ridiculous but soh the heads weren’t real, they represented so that was, hidden beneath the rubble around us

"Let’s go," Eraveyard"

We walked on I tried to keep hastly things we passed A scarred ruin belching suish it slouched in defeat, blistered and weary, his hose run dry Yet there he stood watching anyway, as if, lacking water, his job noas to bear witness

A baby in a stroller, left alone in the street, bawling

Bronwyn slowed, overcome "Can’t we help them somehow?"

"It wouldn’tto the past, and the past can’t be changed"