Soldiers

Part 6. Shrapnel

Five men. That's what William thought as he moved the spoon dreamily around his soup. Michael, Wilfred, David, Smokey and him. Did that mean that when they started this damn war, there had been a two in five chance of death? A two in five chance of being fatally injured? A one in five chance of surviving and watching all your friends suffer and die?

He lay down for a bit before he had to go on duty again. Leaning over to his coat, he pulled the silver patterned locket from his pocket, opened it and kissed the picture within. It was his wife Win, and his son Thomas. He knew he didn't write to them nearly enough, but sometimes it was easier not to hear word from home. Letters only reminded him of what he was missing. He would give anything to have Win and Tommy safe, but he would also give anything to see them right now. To pick Tommy up into his arms. Oh yes, that's right, Tommy was no longer a baby. He was no longer just a few days old but was now coming up to three years, or was he four already? What month was it? What year was it? William couldn't remember. He was losing track of the days, the weeks, the months, the years. He sat up and looked desperately around for some indication.

Across from him was another soldier. The soldier was awake, writing, and William asked politely what the date was, and the soldier told him it was 9th August 1918. Right, William thought, and then a sickening thought entered his head. It spun him round like being hit by a motorcar, being tossed limply into the air. It was his son's birthday. It was Tommy's fourth birthday today. That made him sicker than any amount of war could. The fact that he had forgotten or the fact that he wasn't there with him or the fact he had missed four precious years of his son growing up.

It was Friday again. David's favourite day of the week! Just seeing her face took away any guilt he felt of not going back to war. He was standing on the porch, waiting for her car to pull up, and when it did he couldn't help but beam a great grin pinned upon his face. Maria ran up the steps to the hospital and leaped into his arms. The two embraced romantically. She was wearing a flowing tea dress and white pups, her hair plaited and her eyes as dazzling as black diamonds.

"I've brought something for you" she said once they had managed to pull away from each other. Maria took a book from her bag and handed it to David. He looked at the thick novel, its pages were wrinkled and worn but the cover was intriguing.

"Madam Ba-You-Very" David tried to read the letters, "by Floorbert" apparently he had pronounced it miserably wrong because Maria broke into a beautiful song of laughter. She had to lean against him to steady herself.

"'Madam Bauveray' by Flaubert" she pronounced in her perfect French, "it is one of my favourite novels. It's French"

"Thank you Maria, I will read it right away. Is it written in French though because if I couldn't read Floorbert I don't think I will be able to read murky buckets" and once again she set off into giggles.

"Ah, je t'adore! Et pas - ce qui est la copie traduite. It helped me to learn English"

"Come on" David spoke a little taken back by the girl standing next to him, taking her hand, "there's somewhere I want to show you"

They ran like hares in the sunlight, across a magnificent field where the golden warmth bounced off wild flower gem stones. The jade green grass tickled their ankles as they jogged through the field and on towards the forest.

The woodland was somewhere David sent a lot of his time. He found the fresh air very inspiring and after so much destruction, he had a thirst to be close to nature. He would walk on the afternoons when the weather was pleasant, and find a good tree stump to sit on. A fallen trees with its end splintered, its branches spread fantastically and its roots rising up into the air, towards the sky. Under where the roots had been torn up, plunged out of the earth, was a little pool of water and a cave-like shelter. Nature was a perfect protector from harm.