The Bizarre Story of Paul McMarty

The Radar Station

When we got of HMS Rosemary everything in the harbour was, to my astonishment, relatively calm. All the people that came to see Rosemary where still there. Families with children. If the torpedo hit us the explosion would probably not only kill us, but all those people would die too. Or at least heavily injure them. Actually, he was quite surprised that I wasn't ordered to abandon ship. U guess the captain was in a sort of trance. The people in the harbour just stared at us, smiling.
Meanwhile, everything on the ship got back to normal. The ships crew realised that they won't get any answers until the captain comes back. They didn't want to reply by radio so we decided that the captain would go and see what the hell happened there. As much as everyone was smiling in the harbour, my dad was furious. He told the 1st mate to keep lookout for more enemy missiles and stormed off towards the Liverpool harbour radar centre. Come with me or stay on the ship, he said. So I came with him. After all, I was interested why we almost got killed. The walk was quick, especially with my dad going very swiftly. I had to run a bit every now and then to keep up with him. The building was a sort of tower, the kind you see at airports with the twirly thing at the top, only about three times smaller. Dad you knocked on the front door. For about a minute we waited. Then he knocked again, this time a bit more impatiently.
"I'm coming for gods sake!" someone shouted from up the tower. We waited for another minute and then the door opened and a man in a uniform stood I front of us. He had dark black hair and circles under his eyes. He smelled of cigarette smoke and looked like he hadn't sleeped for a week.
"Who are you and what do you want?" The man asked.
"Captain of the HMS Rosemary, William McMarty. I almost got killed by a torpedo fifteen minutes ago," Dad said "and I'd like to know why didn't you tell us about the torpedo that almost destroyed my ship."
The radar man's faced changed from 'I haven't slept for a week' over 'what the..' to 'Oh bugger. This guy'
He smiled nervously. "Oh yes, sorry, um.." spluttered the man.
"Who's is it John?" said a voice from upstairs. "Is it the captain of the ship?"
Before John managed to reply another man in a uniform was downstairs. He looked very alike to the man who opened the door.
"Yes Jack, it is." John said.
"Now look captain," Jack began, "we have nothing against you, we just followed our orders."
"Orders commanded by whom?" The captain bellowed.
"From the command centre. You see, the idea was to test your awareness and how you solve situations in time press." Jack said.
"By sending a torpedo at my ship?" The captain said, sounding quite alarmed.
"Oh don't worry, it was only a romote-controlled toy torpedo, we would be able to turn it around at any given moment. We would have done so seconds later if you didn't, well, explode the shit out it."
"So all the people in the harbour knew that?" Dad asked
"Yep." Jack the radar man said.
"Jesus Christ," Dad said as he turned around and headed back towards the ship.
When we got back the, captain was bombarded by a series of questions such as: 'Was it an Argentinian torpedo then?' or 'How did they not spot it?' We had to tell the story at least ten times before everyone understood.
We spent the rest of the day helping with the preparations. You wouldn't believe how much food, water, oil and general supplies a battle-ship needs. We got home late in the evening and spent the rest of it playing chess and watching James Bond. After all, It was probably the last free-ish night I had with my father.