The Snow Goose by Paul Gallico. Part 4.
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Chapter Two
In the spring of 1940, the birds left the Great Marsh early and flew away to their summer homes in the north. Something was happening in the world outside the Great Marsh. That something changed the lives of Philip, Fritha and the snow goose.
It was the Second World War.
On the first day of May, Philip and Fritha watched as the last birds left the enclosure. The snow goose started to fly away too. But she did not fly with the others. She just flew around their heads a few times and landed back in the enclosure.
‘She isn’t going!’ said Fritha, surprised. ‘The Princess is staying.’
‘Yes,’ said Philip.
His voice was shaking, because he, too, was surprised.
‘She’ll stay here now,’ he said. ‘She’ll never fly away again. The Lost Princess isn’t lost now. She’s decided to stay. This will be her home now.’
As he spoke these words, Philip thought: ‘And Fritha comes and goes from the lighthouse. She’s like the snow goose. But I like it when she comes. Her visits make me happy.’
Philip looked at Fritha. She was a young woman now.
And suddenly he knew that he loved her.
But he could not tell Fritha about his love for her. He did not frighten her now. He knew that. But it was unpleasant for her to look at him. He knew that too. So his loving words for her stayed locked in his heart. But his loving feelings towards her showed clearly in his eyes.
Fritha turned to Philip when he finished speaking. She could see that he was lonely. But she could also see a look in his eyes that she could not understand. The sadness and gentleness in them made her unhappy inside herself. She could not find any words to say to him. She looked away.
For some minutes neither of them spoke.
At last Fritha said, ‘I… I must go. I’m glad that the Princess is staying. Now you won’t be so lonely.’
She walked away from him quickly, and only half-heard him say sadly, ‘Goodbye, Fritha.’
When she was far away, she stopped. She turned and she looked back at the lighthouse. He was still standing in the same place, watching her. After a minute or two, she turned towards the village and walked slowly home, away from the lighthouse and the man outside it.
It was a little more than three weeks before Fritha returned to the lighthouse. By then it was the end of May. She wanted to know if the snow goose really did stay at the lighthouse. She came in the early evening, when the moon was already in the eastern sky.
She saw a yellow light shining from the place where Philip kept his boat. She hurried down to the river.
The boat was moving gently from side to side in the water. Philip was putting drinking water, food, clothes and another sail into it. He heard her coming and turned round. His face was pale but his dark eyes were excited.
Fritha saw what he was doing. She immediately forgot about the snow goose.
‘Philip! Are you going away?’ she asked.
He stopped working to greet her. She saw from the look of excitement in his eyes that he was doing something very urgent and important.
‘Fritha! I’m glad that you’ve come,’ he said. ‘Yes, I must go away. A little journey.’
‘A journey?’ she said.
‘Yes,’ he said. ‘I’ll come back when I can.’
‘Where must you go?’ she asked.
His words poured out now.
‘I must go to Dunkirk, 160 kilometres across the Channel,’ he said. ‘British soldiers are waiting there on the beaches – waiting to die. The Germans are moving nearer and nearer all the time.’
‘How do you know this?’ she asked.
‘I heard about it when I was in the village,’ he said. ‘The British can’t move. They have the sea in front of them, and the German soldiers behind them. Dunkirk is on fire. There’s little hope for them. The government in London has asked everyone with a boat to sail across the Channel. They want us to take as many soldiers as possible off the beaches. They want us to take them out to the big boats in the deeper water.’
‘And you are going,’ said Fritha.
‘Yes,’ said Philip. ‘I’m going to take my little boat across the Channel, Fritha. I must. I can take six men, perhaps seven, each time I sail from the beach to one of the large ships. Do you understand now that I have to go?’
Fritha was a simple country girl who did not understand about war. She did not know what was happening to the soldiers on the beaches of France. She only knew that this journey was dangerous for Philip. She was afraid.
‘Philip, must you go?’ she cried.
‘Yes,’ he said softly. ‘I must.’
‘You won’t come back!’ she cried. ‘Why must it be you?’
Philip began to speak gently to her. There was no excitement in his voice now. He explained why he had to help the men at Dunkirk. He spoke slowly, because he wanted her to understand.
‘Those soldiers are like the birds that we’ve helped here,’ he said. ‘Many of them are hurt, like the Lost Princess who you brought to me. They are afraid, and they need help, my dear, like the birds. I can do something for them.’ He smiled. ‘At last I can be a man and help in this terrible war.’
Fritha looked at Philip. He was changed. For the first time she saw that he was not ugly, but very beautiful. She wanted to tell him this, but she could not find the words. She remembered the look that she saw in his eyes a few weeks before. Now she knew what it was.
It was love.
Suddenly she cried, ‘I’ll go with you, Philip!’
Philip shook his head. ‘No,’ he said. ‘If you come, you’ll take a soldier’s place in the boat. Do you understand? No, I must go alone.’
He put on a rubber coat and boots, and climbed into the boat. ‘Goodbye, Fritha,’ he said. ‘Look after the birds until I return to the lighthouse.’
As he sailed away, he turned. He waved to her. She waved back, but she was unhappy.
‘I’ll look after them, Philip,’ she replied.
It was night now. The moon was bright, and there were stars in the sky. Fritha watched the boat sail out to sea. Suddenly, from the darkness behind her, came the sound of wings. Something flew past her into the air! Fritha looked up and saw the snow goose flying into the night sky. It went round the lighthouse once, then it flew out to sea – after Philip’s boat. When it reached the little boat, it flew above it in slow, wide circles.
‘Look after him, Princess!’ called Fritha.
She watched the white sail and the white bird for a long time. Then, at last, they disappeared into the night. Fritha turned and walked slowly back to the empty lighthouse.