Peacetime Read Online Free

unsettled bricks on the land opposite.
    Jacob was the first to stand up.
    â€˜Wait,’ Mercer told him. He, too, rose to search the site.
    â€˜Over there,’ Jacob said. He pointed to where rubble spilled onto the road.
    Mercer looked and saw Mary Lynch emerge from the mounds and come out into the open.
    â€˜She lives here,’ Jacob said.
    â€˜Do you know her?’
    â€˜Vaguely.’ He watched the girl intently as she moved across the loose bricks.
    â€˜I spoke to her for the first time this morning,’Mercer said. It was clear to him that something about her sudden appearance, and so close to them, had unsettled the other man.
    â€˜Has she seen us?’ Jacob moved to stand closer to him.
    â€˜I imagine so.’
    The girl stood at the centre of the road and looked at them.
    Mercer started to raise his arm to her, but Jacob grabbed it and held it down.
    â€˜Please,’ he said. He released his grip.
    The girl made no attempt to come any closer to them. She wore the same dress she had worn earlier, and stood with her arms by her sides.
    After several moments of this, she turned at a noise behind her, and both Mercer and Jacob watched as several other children emerged from the rubble to join her. They were all much younger, indistinguishable as boys or girls at that distance, and they gathered around her, as though waiting to be told what to do by her.
    â€˜They shouldn’t be there,’ Mercer said quietly.
    â€˜They go where they please,’ Jacob said.
    The two men watched as Mary spoke to these others, and then as she pushed them away from her. They left her reluctantly and walked single-file towards their homes.
    â€˜How old, do you think?’ Jacob said.
    â€˜The younger ones? Five, eight, ten.’
    â€˜I meant the girl.’ But before Mercer could answer him, he picked up his bag and started walking away.
    Mercer watched him go. The man neither turned nor paused. At the first bend in the road he left it and followed his path across the open ground, his course marked by the posts of the abandoned airfield.
    When he was no longer visible, Mercer turned hisattention back to Mary Lynch. He wondered what it was about her sudden appearance that had unsettled the Dutchman. He waved to her, but she made no sign in return. He called for her to wait for him, but as he left the embankment and started towards her, she, too, turned and walked away from him. He was at a loss to understand this behaviour, but guessed it was some game or other childish indulgence, and so instead of pursuing her, he crossed the road and entered again the wasteland surrounding the tower.

3
    The following morning, she was waiting for him as he went outside. He ignored her, but she ran to join him. He turned to confront her.
    â€˜You were talking to the Jew,’ she said.
    â€˜His name’s Jacob, and he’s a Dutchman.’
    â€˜He’s a Jew . Everybody knows that.’
    â€˜Then perhaps they should learn some more about him.’
    â€˜Like you have, you mean?’
    â€˜No, not like I have; because I haven’t – not yet.’
    â€˜He’s still a Jew,’ she said, but the vehemence in her voice had faded.
    â€˜So tell me what you understand by that.’ He knew she was repeating what others had already said, and that any true prejudice was not her own.
    â€˜That he’s a Jew, a Jew-boy.’
    â€˜And?’
    â€˜And that he’s here to steal a job – to steal a soldier’s job.’
    â€˜And which soldier would that be?’
    â€˜I don’t know. It could be any of them.’
    â€˜Do you see him doing that?’
    â€˜Doing what?’
    â€˜Working. Dispossessing one of these welcomed-back heroes of his well-earned livelihood?’ He regretted the facetious remark, the easy advantage he had gained over her.
    She stood without speaking.
    He scrolled through the chart he carried, searching for the line of the drain he