Page 63 of Never Tear Us Apart

Chapter Sixty-One

I am almost back at the half-house when I hear Stella’s voice calling urgently from the end of the street. When she sees me, she leaves David standing with the pram and runs towards me.

‘Come here – I need you!’

I run to meet her.

‘You weren’t at home,’ she tells me, a little breathless. ‘But you are here now – this is good. Come with me, this way. Hurry, hurry.’

Taking the handle of the pram, I trot after her, following her down one street and then another, until we come to a crossroads where dozens of people are gathered.

Stella gestures at the remains of a hollowed-out house, damaged far worse than Sal’s.

Its splintered floorboards jut out into the air like broken bones.

A heavy oak bed has paused mid-slide towards a gaping drop onto the rubble below.

The house groans and trembles over its wounds.

‘Hit in last night’s raid,’ Stella tells me, breathless. ‘The boy and his mother stayed at home; I don’t know why. Mother, dead. The boy, trapped. His leg must be amputated now if he is to have any chance to survive. We have to get him out before he is crushed, too.’

‘And you need me?’ I ask.

‘You are calm; you are unafraid. I need you,’ Stella tells me. ‘You agree?’

I accept the job with a single nod.

The scene is alive with action. Maltese, civilians and soldiers, off-duty airmen, working together to clear as much rubble as they can away from the gutted building: a chain of people moving as one to try to help clear the way to rescue the child.

The irony in contrasting this act of community with the meaningless violence that rains down from the sky is sharply painful.

‘Stop!’ I hear Danny’s voice ring out, silencing the intense activity.

He stands on top of a pile of rubble, his cap on the back of his head, hands on his hips. Shorts, unlaced flight boots. His khaki shirtsleeves rolled up to his biceps. His head tilts as he listens intently to the sounds the house is making.

Now, all is quiet, and I can hear the soft sobs of a child.

I feel a hand creep into mine and look down to see David at my side, his head leaning into my hip as he looks up at Danny, eyes wide with a kind of worship.

Putting my arm around him, I hug him into my waist for a moment, kissing the top of his head.

‘We gotta stop moving rubble.’ Danny shakes his head.

He doesn’t have to shout to be heard; his voice rings around what’s left of the tall buildings and narrow streets.

‘We move anything else and we risk bringing the building down. That beam up there is currently supporting what’s left of the roof, and it’s only hanging on by a thread. ’

There’s a communal murmur that runs through the crowd as they look up.

Each and every one of them has seen this scenario at least once before.

The Maltese build their houses from the same rock the island is made of, and that has saved them from the horror of fire, but the threat of collapse is ever-present.

‘Everyone, stay still and quiet.’ He scrambles lightly down stones, and strides towards where Stella is waiting.

When he sees me, he pauses, catches his breath. In two steps, he’s at my side.

‘You’re back.’ He scoops me into his arms and holds me tight against him as I pull him close to me.

Our embrace is only a few seconds long, but it charges me with courage.

‘I had the strangest feeling that you’d gone clean off the face of this earth and that I might never see you again.

I didn’t like the thought of that, Maia. ’

‘I didn’t go anywhere,’ I tell him cautiously, but it’s almost as if he knows.

‘I missed you anyway.’ He nods and takes a breath, then focuses in on Stella. ‘Doc? What do you need?’

‘Is the surgeon coming from Mtarfa?’ Stella asks.

‘We sent for him, ma’am,’ Danny tells her.

‘He will come if he can, but likely not in time. A few pilots injured in that last show have his attention right now. The ambulance is here, though.’ He nods over to where a battered old van is waiting, filling the whole of the narrow street.

‘Got the road cleared of obstructions, so it will be a quick journey out. And I told ’em to park it just out of sight. Didn’t want to spook the kid.’

‘Thank you, Flight Lieutenant,’ Stella says. ‘You have been a great help.’ She turns her gaze to me. ‘Maia, come. David, let go of her hand. You must stay with your sister. Stay back as far as you can – do you understand me?’

‘Come with me, David.’ It’s Sal, pushing his way through the crowd. ‘You are home, Maia,’ he says quietly just to me when he reaches us. ‘We have much to discuss. After.’ Sal offers David his hand. ‘You and the baby come with me. We can look after each other, no?’

Nodding silently, David goes to Sal, who takes the handle of the unwieldy pram, dragging it backwards, out of the crowds. Stella sends him a silent look of thanks. Now, all she has to think about is the job in hand.

‘So,’ she tells me and Danny, ‘the bottom of his right leg looks as though it is completely crushed. The pressure of the stone is all that is stopping him from bleeding to death.’ I glance over at the rubble where a woman crouches next to the boy, talking brightly in Maltese.

‘He is in shock and at risk of organ failure, but he is young, and the young have an amazing capacity to recover. So, I must amputate. I am not a surgeon, but I know enough and will not take too long.’ Her hands play out the procedure in the air, an unconscious rehearsal.

‘The bone is already crushed, you see. I must only cut what muscles and tendons remain. Two or three minutes, I should think. I have a little chloroform, Maia, which you must administer to him. I cannot tell you how much. He is small, so you will give a little, and then more until he sleeps. Too much at once might kill him.’

‘Right.’ Fear knots in my stomach, but never hesitation. I know that I can do what she needs me to do, even though I don’t know why.

‘You were good with Vittoria. You calmed her. You have the right temperament for this situation, yes?’

‘I can handle it,’ I assure her.

She nods in acceptance. ‘The boy is ten. His name is Raffa. He doesn’t know yet that his mother has been killed, and he must not know until we are sure he will survive.

So you will go to him, lie with him. Talk a little, administer the chloroform, small, small, small.

And when you are certain he is ready, I will operate.

Most important is to remove him from the site and to stop bleeding, so I will use a tourniquet which I hope will stem the bleeding.

’ She turns to Danny. ‘Flight Lieutenant, you must have two strong, nimble men ready with a stretcher to run him over the stones and into the ambulance, waiting for my word.’

‘Ma’am,’ Danny says, ‘there’s an awful good chance you, Maia and the kid could all end up under that ton of limestone that’s rocking back and forth up there. I don’t want Maia to get trapped under that. Now, I ain’t no doctor, but I am a big brother – How about I stay with the kid?’

‘No.’ Stella shakes her head. ‘You are needed in the sky, Flight Lieutenant. You are too precious to risk here. You fight to save the many, not the one. Maia is a capable woman.’

‘I can do it,’ I tell him. ‘I’m not afraid.’

‘That’s what scares me,’ he says, his eyes locking with mine. ‘Don’t die, you hear me?’

‘Enough of this talking.’ Stella gestures between us, rolling her eyes. She hands me a small brown bottle and a folded muslin cloth. ‘Maia, this is all I have. Please don’t drop it. Remember . . .’

‘I’ll be careful,’ I assure her. She holds my hands as she passes me the bottle, her eyes searching mine.

‘You are a brave woman,’ she says. ‘I have faith in you.’ She turns to Danny. ‘Once we begin, all must be done quickly, smoothly. I will travel with you to the hospital, Flight Lieutenant.’

‘Yes, ma’am.’ Danny nods. ‘We will be ready.’

‘My tools have been sterilised. I’ll fetch them, and then we begin.’

‘Right, then.’ I head into the ruin. Danny walks beside me.

Every step we take is observed by the pale, worried faces of dozens of people, my father amongst them. Danny’s warm arm brushes against mine. My face turns to his. He takes my hand, gently turning me until we face one another.

‘Maia, one thing.’ Danny dips his forehead to rest against mine. Our eyes meet; there are only the two of us. ‘You are gonna knock this out of the park,’ he tells me, before letting me go. ‘And I’ll be waiting for you when you’re done.’