Come Back To Us - 32. Chapter 32

Winter had finally passed. But the ache in Karl’s heart had an intensity that could be compared to no other. It was like a wildfire burning an entire forest, leaving no survivor. Even the spring sun couldn’t light the slightest spark in his soul.

He was thankful that Jørgen had come back. The latter knew about him. Karl had chosen to tell him since he was his closest friend, and after what they had had, he knew that Jørgen couldn’t judge him.

“Listen, I know what’s going to cheer you up,” he told him one evening of early April. The sun was just setting as they were sitting outside one of the huge depots.

Karl looked at him with curious eyes.

“What?”

He raised one eyebrow as Jørgen showed him one of his brightest grins.

“What?” Karl repeated, getting impatient, but this only seemed to amuse Jørgen even more.

“Well, I didn’t want to tell you about it sooner because I wanted it to be a surprise.”

Karl stared at him in disbelief.

“A surprise? What surprise? It’s not my birthday yet.”

Jørgen only giggled at his expression.

“I know it’s not.”

“So what is your surprise then?”

“Well, our fellow countrymen have been tasing funds all over the world so we could buy Spitfires to create a Danish squadron. Isn’t that awesome?!” He explained, the excitation growing in him.

Whoah. Karl had never suspected anything of that sort.

“A Danish squadron? You mean…”

“Yes, exactly! A Danish squadron with Danish Spitfires flown by Danish pilots. That’s been the dream of so many Danish pilots. At least it has been mine ever since I landed here.”

Well, that idea had never even crossed Karl’s mind once… But he couldn’t say that the thought didn’t spark his interest along with a small wave of pride rising in the bottomless seas of his soul.

“That’s a great initiative,” he admitted with a smile. “I like it.”

“I knew you would.”

That was meting that must have taken so much time and energy for the men who started it.

“How much money could they get?”

“£38,300 exactly,” he sounded so proud as he spoke.

Whoah. He had never heard such a huge number when speaking about money. This sounded almost surreal.

“And tomorrow a delegation of Danish pilots is to bring all that money to the British Prime Minister himself, and I’ll be a part of it. And I thought you could be a part of it as well.”

Karl stared at him in disbelief.

“Why should I be chosen? I haven’t done anything special. I’m not even a pilot yet.”

“It doesn’t matter. You are a Dane as much as the rest of us, pilot or not. And you’ve been in this country for longer than I have.”

Karl didn’t know what to reply to.

“I talked about it to the other men who are supposed to come and they agreed with it. I wished the Lieutenant General could have come too. Too bad he won’t be able to make it…”

Well, now that he had just said that, how could he refuse anyway?

“I’ll be glad to join.”

Jørgen smiled again.

“Wonderful.”

*

The following day, the small delegation departed for the city centre of London rather early. Not at five in the morning, but early enough to see the sunrise on their way there.

On the 9th of April 1942. A date no Dane would ever be able to forget.

It had been two years since the Germans had invaded their country, two years since he had left home… He had trouble realizing it…

They were six of them, besides him. All the other men were much older than Jørgen and himself. They must have been at least in their late forties or fifties. They were all wearing hats and one of them even had glasses. They were not that talkative, but they were not hostile.

It seemed it had been an eternity since he had walked through the now so familiar London streets…

He couldn’t push aside the thought of running away from the group of his mind to go and see Mr. and Mrs. Hopkins, to make sure they were still alright. And then to go and look for George… Although he would probably greet him with a well-deserved slap in the face if he managed to come face to face with him…

But of course, he would never do that.

The sun was already high in the sky when they arrived at 10 Downing Street. It seemed the building had never known the bombings…

Karl couldn’t believe they were going to meet the Prime Minister. It wasn’t as if they had met the King himself, but almost…

“This is gonna be such a great moment in history,” Jørgen spoke excitedly, “and we are a part of it. A part of our history. That’s huge!”

Karl could only smile at his excitement. He glanced at the older men who were standing there still and composed, looking humble and elegant. They were reminding him a bit of Mr. Hopkins in a way.

Soon enough the black door on which the number “10” was carved opened only to reveal a rather old man.

“My dear friends!” He looked happy to see them. “Good morning to you all. I have been waiting for you. Thank you for coming here today.”

“Prime Minister Churchill, thank you for taking the time to receive us today. This is quite an honour to be your guests on such an important day for us,” the man who looked the oldest of them all spoke. “Nothing could have made us happier.”

“The pleasure is all mine. Come on, do not remain standing there now that I am here, come in, will you?”

He couldn’t believe the man he was seeing was the Prime Minister. He looked very friendly.

The English Prime Minister himself was welcoming them. Did everyone else see him with the same eyes as he did?

The inside of the building was pretty nice. He had to admit that it was even nicer than the Hopkins’s house. Well, that was just what anyone expected to see for the dwelling of a man with such a high duty to fulfill he guessed. But it was really impressive.

The living room they entered was so big. He could only watch it in awe while spinning around.

“Please, take a seat, will you? Would you like a cup of tea to start with? Here are some sweets to go with it. Please, help yourselves. Formalities are banned on such an occasion. I want you to feel as if you were at home with your families.”

Everything was so nicely arranged on the large coffee table. It reminded him of the times he had had with Mr. and Mrs. Hopkins.

“Or if it suits you more, I have got some coffee as well. Look,” he gestured at two pots placed in the centre of the table.

There were three sofas, two of them facing each other and the other one facing one of the three big windows.

Karl sat next to Jørgen on one end of the one facing the window.
The men help themselves but Karl remained still, his eyes glued to the window with long nice red curtains. He looked on his right as he felt someone nudge him to see Jørgen handing him a cup.

“Here, this one’s for you. You haven’t drunk much in the last three days.”

His voice and eyes were so soft, but it wasn’t enough to warm his broken heart… he felt bad because he had been trying so hard to make him feel better… and he could never do so much in return…

The ghost of a smile appeared on his face.

“Thanks,” he whispered as he took it.

It was too hot to be drunk, but not too hot to burn his hands.

He got lost in thought afterwards. He didn’t listen to the conversation the Danish men were having. He could only hear male voices that made no sense to him like background noise.

He thought about everything and anything, but nothing he hadn’t already thought about. He thought about how he was feeling out of place sitting there in such a nice place with such nice people. He couldn’t help wondering…

How could they be drinking tea and eating fine food when the war was still going on, while many men were probably fighting and dying for their freedom?

“I know this is an important day for all of you and your people, my friends, although this is such a tragic anniversary date. But let us not be demoralised by negative thoughts, let us look forward to the future and lay the foundations for a brand-new free nation that will be even greater after all those tough ordeals!”

The Dane that had a mustache took the briefcase he had been carrying with him during the trip and put it on his lap. He was fast to open it and to take what was inside of it.

“Here is the check. £38300. The sum amounts to much more than what we had expected.”

He stood up from his seat and brought it to the Prime Minister so he wouldn’t have to move. He took it with a smile before looking at it.

“This is wonderful,” he spoke enthusiastically before he stood up.

Then both men shook hands with a firm grip.

“The English nation and her head, his Majesty the King are so proud to celebrate the creation of a Danish squadron amongst our ranks. I am certain this is only the beginning of a great story.”

He put away the check in one pocket of the inside of his suit. Next thing he knew, he was looking in his and Jørgen’s direction. Their eyes met.

He looked much older than Mr… Hopkins. Well, Mr. Hopkins had his fair share of wrinkles too…

The truth was…he looked much older than his real age. His facial features….had been withered and distorted by the war…

And now he couldn’t help wondering if that man standing only a few yards away from him had known war like Mr. Hopkins had.

“My dear youths. You are the golden key to a brighter future for your nation. I am particularly proud to welcome you to this symbolic place.”

Karl could say nothing, only an expression of wonder could be visible on his face. He couldn’t look away from the man.

“I know this is tragic to be forced to go into exile at such a young age, and although I have never experienced such a horrible thing, I want you both to consider Great Britain like your home. The British people will never let you down.”

“Mister the Prime Minister. You are gifting us with such an honour. We are more than happy to be your allies and fight on your ground not only for the freedom of our nation but also that of the whole world. Unity is the key to victory and to a brighter future.”

The man smiled at them both.

“Let us capture this memorable moment for both our nations with a well-deserved photograph. If you will, please, let us go back outside. This is perfect weather for taking it.”

They took several pictures. Some with the Prime Minister and the check and others without him.

Of course, that was a day he could never forget.

*

Later during that day, they went to another building, still in the city centre. And of course, he didn’t know what it was supposed to be. It was full of people, but he didn’t know what they were supposed to do there. Work, obviously.

“This is the BBC headquarters,” Jørgen explained with a smile.

“The what?”

“The British Broadcasting Corporation. The English radio if you prefer.”

“The radio?”

He hated sounding dumb.

“Yeah! You can speak on the radio so a whole nation can hear you, isn’t that wicked?”

It sounded crazy. As crazy as seeing black and white images that looked so real moving on a screen…

“Come on! They’re gonna show us how it works!” Jørgen took him by the arm and led him to a room further away from the hallways.

It was really crazy. All those buttons, these devices… His wonder could only become greater at the sight of it.

It was a bit like what they called a “telephone”, another great invention. You could communicate so easily with anybody like that. So much faster than writing and sending letters.

“Come on, have a try, pals. Don’t be shy. Today’s your day. Talk to your people. Give them hope. Make them proud.”

Karl didn’t really pay attention to the man’s words, although they were clear.

“I can’t believe we’re about to do this,” he heard Jørgen speak in English. “Karl, let’s do this! We might never have the occasion to do it again, so let’s make the most of it!”

“The mic is yours, boys.”

The man that was with them stood up, bidder goodbye to them with a hand sign, and then left the room.

“Where is he going?”

“I don’t know, but does it really matter? We can talk to our fellow countrymen like we never could before. That’s amazing!”

“We what?”

They exchanged a look.

“Would you like to start?”

Karl’s mind seemed to need a break at that moment. His gaze shifted back and forth from Jørgen to the device before them. Realisation finally dawned on him after a while.

“You mean…”

Jørgen hummed in confirmation with that bright smile of his. He looked down deep in thought.

“I’d rather not. I wouldn’t know what to say anyway…”

How come he couldn’t be excited and happy like Jørgen was? He really wished he could.

“Well, I’ll try to speak for long enough so you can find what you wanna say.”

They held their breaths as they were both staring at the microphone in the most utter silence as if there was a god-like dimension to it. If there had been flies there, they could have been heard flying.

Jørgen took a deep breath and cleared his throat after a while.

“Here we go.”

He pushed a button and in a millisecond, it became too late to change his mind.

“Good afternoon to any of you who are listening to us. We are so glad to be able to address our fellow countrymen and countrywomen on British radio. The alliance between our two countries has never been stronger than it is on that special day. This is of course, as we all see it, a day of great national mourning, for we lost our liberties and our national identity on that terrible day exactly two years ago. Some of us were forced to go into exile, having to bid a heartbreaking goodbye to our families, with the fear deep in their guts that they might never see them again. But we, Danes, are a proud and courageous people. The invaders want to impose on us their ideas and beliefs, but the Danish people won’t submit to anyone but their own free will. And we won’t stop fighting. As long as there will be Danes to keep fighting, our situation will never be desperate. We will show the invaders that they were wrong to underestimate us. They think we are weak because we surrendered and let them take over our country within not even one week of struggle. But our people are not a warrior people. We’ve been a peaceful people for centuries, but had our ancestors been living to see that day, this would have never happened,” he paused for a while as if thinking about what to say next.

Karl wished he could speak so well.

“But today is a great day for all of us. The Danish Council could buy three spitfires and we will make the best use of them.” He paused again. “I’d like to thank every man, woman, child for their inner strength and bearing so well with the invaders’ presence. Never give up hope. And do everything you can in this struggle. Even the smallest action matters. The war is not over yet. We haven’t lost. Keep that in mind.”

He remained silent afterwards. It seemed he was done talking. He looked at Karl.

“Want to add something?” He whispered as they could still be heard.

But Karl didn’t feel like talking. And what could he add besides what Jørgen had just said anyway? He had already said everything that needed to be said.

He just thought instead. Ans a sudden realization soon dawned on him. If it meant all the people in Denmark could hear them, which he still couldn’t believe…then…there was a chance his siblings might have heard Jørgen’s words…. He straightened himself up and leaned forward. He could try. He had nothing to lose anyway.

“Johann, Ana. If you’re listening, I hope you’re fine. I miss you… I wish you could be here with me.”

He sounded desperate as he spoke. It was like some kind of SOS. One that might have never reached its addressees. Maybe he would never know…

It was brief and his heart was left heavy with even more sorrow and worry. He glanced up and his eyes met Jørgen’s. They didn’t need words to understand each other.

“Thanks for taking the time to listen to us. People will never forget everything each of us will have done. Freedom and rights will never have an end.”

This was over for good. They couldn’t be heard anymore.

Silence filled the room for a long while.

Maybe it was time for them to go back to their quarters.

Hello everyone!! 😁
I hope you're all doing well since last week So here you go with another chapter and oh my... the end really broke my heart...
Can't wait to read your thoughts about it 🤗
Have a nice day/evening/night/weekend!!
Take care ❤️