B for Buster by Iain Lawrence

Author:Iain Lawrence
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
ISBN: 9780307433152
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2007-12-18T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 15

LOFTY SAID I HAD the twitch. The jitters. “A lot of guys get them.” He put on his British mutter, as he always did when he was a bit uncomfortable. “I say, old boy. It’s the waiting, you know.”

He puffed through his empty pipe again. He kept folding the corner of his letter, bending it open and shut.

“You’ll feel okay when you get in the kite,” he said. “When you’re on your way it’s not so bad.”

“Do you ever get scared?” I asked.

He looked at me for quite a long time. Then he smiled. “Don’t worry, Kid,” he said. “Last time was a dicey do. Tonight will be a piece of cake.”

“But do you?”

“Naw,” he said with a flip of his hand. “Now go for a walk. Get your mind on something else.”

He didn’t want me around, that was all. He didn’t want to listen to my worries. So I left the hut and went walking. I passed a group of airmen sitting in the sun, in canvas chairs. Most of them wore their blue jackets and their blue trousers, but one was lounging in leather flying clothes, in big, unbuckled boots. He lifted his head as I passed.

It was Donny Lee.

I forgot in that instant that he was dead. I whirled around to smile at him. “Hey, Donny!” I was going to shout. But he wasn’t there at all, and I remembered that he could never be there. A flying jacket was draped across the canvas, and a pair of boots stood empty on the grass. I stared at them with the oddest feeling; I was sure there’d been a person in the chair. Then I turned around again and stumbled off. I went faster and faster, and I went straight to Uncle Joe.

He was sitting at his desk when I got there. I saluted, but he only waved that off. “Sit down,” he said, watching me. “I know you, don’t I?”

“Sir, I . . .”

“Oh, yes,” he said. “You’re the bloke who laughed at all the flak.”

That day, my first briefing, seemed so long ago that I could hardly remember.

Uncle Joe snapped his fingers twice. “Kakabeka,” he said. “Have I got it?”

“Yes, sir.” If he wanted to think that was my name, I wasn’t going to correct him.

“What’s on your mind, son?”

I told him straight out. My voice trembled and creaked. “I don’t think I can fly anymore,” I said.

He sat up in his chair behind the desk. There were pages of lists laid out, and he spread his hands across them. “Why not?” he said.

“I’m scared,” I told him.

Right away I regretted coming.

“You’re scared,” he said flatly.

“Yes, sir.”

He grunted, and it was as though he coughed out all his kindliness. He changed suddenly into someone fierce and angry-looking. Uncle Joe became my old man.

“Where are you from, Kakabeka?” he asked.

“Kakabeka,” I told him.

Things like cables tightened in his neck. He must have been trying to figure out if I was a fool, or if I was trying to show that he was one.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.