“Leave the past alone, I said, but no. You wouldn’t listen. Well, you’ve found the perishing shelter, so let’s get on with it, if the door will even open. Been shut for over half a century.”  

     The hinges groaned and screamed in protest as Mr. Schmidt slowly wrenched the door open. At last, the door gave up the struggle and we gazed down into the gaping chasm of the shelter. I leaned forward and peered into the darkness as Mr. Schmidt flashed his torch around.  

     “The stairs are still here.” He tested one gently with his foot. “They appear to be sound. Who shall go first?”  

     Quigs forgot to be bored. His eyes shone eagerly. He leaped down the stairs two at a time, with Marina and me close behind him. The air smelled damp and stale, sort of mushroomy. The thought of slugs and slowworms slithered through my mind. I had to force myself not to charge back up the moldy, slime-covered stairs to the comfort of the June sunshine.  

     “Wouldn’t listen. Told you to leave the past alone,” Mr. Martin’s querulous voice wafted down.  

     I reached up to help him down the stairs. A shiver ran through me as he placed his clammy hand in mine and crept slowly downwards.

     Sophie, Marina and Quigs get more than they bargained for when they excavate the disused air-raid shelter in front of their school for a history project.  Their tale is recorded in The Secret Shelter, published by Brown Barn Books, 2004. 

Be sure to ask your favourite bookstore to order you a copy, so you can join Sophie and her friends on their adventure.

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(Booksellers:  The Secret Shelter is available through Baker & Taylor, Ingram, and Publishers Group Canada.)