It began as a murmur a distant hum in the blackness just loud enough to set her pulse racing. Silly she chided herself. The nightmare was over; she was safe now safe in a quiet little city the Nazis hardly knew existed and certainly didn’t care about.

Still the sound brought her out of her bed. She pulled her dressing gown closer around herself and walked to the children’s room: a mother hovering over her nest.

Malka was sleeping quietly on her back; Artie as always was curled into a snug little ball. Her eyes softened then narrowed: the noise was growing louder.

She knew that noise.

A roar. A whistling shriek. An ear-shattering blast.

No time to say Shema.

No time to say goodbye.

The quiet lonely shivah was over. His Majesty had graciously granted Private Isidore Klein of the Kings Royal Rifle Corps two more weeks to search through the remaining shards of his life his home and his family before returning to his post. The Home Guard volunteers and a sprinkling of neighborhood residents had joined him in picking through the rubble of what had once been a chemist’s shop a small bakery and the home of the Klein family.

Frankie the milkman whose route had included these ruins touched Izzy on the shoulder. “Tough luck” he said. “She was a fine woman your missus.”

The man’s awkward sympathy brought a faint smile to Izzy’s lips. “She was indeed.”

Frankie averted his eyes. “Keep yer chin up mate” he said.

Keep your chin up. Keep a stiff upper lip. We shall never surrender. All those platitudes so characteristically British would not bring his Bella back.

Strange how Bella had managed to stay alive in London all through the first year of the war through night after night of earth-shattering explosions huddled with the children in the Underground station that doubled as a shelter. Ironically it was only after the worst of the bombing had ended that she began to have the terrible nightmares that left her trembling and drenched with sweat. A kindly neighbor had suggested a change of scene; London was safe now it seemed but still the signs of the death that had rained down were everywhere. What Bella needed her neighbor declared was peace and quiet.

Well London had stayed safe — — and here in peaceful quiet Bath a cursed Nazi had taken his wife’s life.