Be Not Afraid by Christopher Nicole

Author:Christopher Nicole [Nicole, Christopher]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Endeavour Media
Published: 2018-11-29T05:00:00+00:00

The Wound

Anna stood at the front window and watched her father’s car come over the top of the low hill.

“Papa’s home,” she called down to Martina.

“Just in time for lunch,” Martina called back.

Anna turned away from the window and then checked, looking back at the lane. The car had stopped. Because of the trees and bushes which lined the lane, she couldn’t tell why, but it had definitely stopped, and hadn’t started moving again.

She ran down the stairs.

“I think Papa has had a puncture,” she told Martina, who emerged from the kitchen, drying her hands on a towel.

“That’ll annoy him.”

“I’ll go up and see if he needs a hand.”

“We’re not supposed to leave the house,” Martina reminded her.

“I’m only going a quarter of a mile. And it’s almost all on our property.”

“That doesn’t make it any safer. If you must go, take your gun.”

Anna ran upstairs again and took her revolver from the drawer. She was wearing a dress but it had a pocket, and she put the gun in there.

“I’ll be watching you,” Martina said. She kept her gun handy in the kitchen, and now stood at the window with it in her hand.

“Just don’t shoot me by mistake.” Anna giggled. She hurried out of the yard and up the gentle slope. For a few minutes she was out of sight of the car but then it came into view, stopped in the middle of the road, the engine still running but the handbrake obviously on . . . and one of her father’s legs hanging half out of the driver’s door.

“Papa!” she screamed, running up the last of the hill. Berkeley was still behind the wheel, but turned away from it and the open door as if he had realised what was about to happen and had tried to avoid the bullet. There was blood everywhere – on his back and down his legs, inside the car and on the ground beneath it. Instinctively she looked left and right, but there was no one to be seen.

She leaned over her father, realised he was breathing. But still bleeding. He had been shot at least once, but there was so much blood it was difficult to tell where.

“Martina!” she screamed, and then realised that inside the house Martina would probably not hear her. She stood up, drew her revolver, and fired six shots into the air.

Then she knelt beside Berkeley again. “Oh, Papa,” she said. “Don’t die. Please, Papa, don’t die.”

“God,” he muttered. “How stupid can you get.”

“You’re alive!” Tears were rolling down her face. “Oh, Papa . . .” With an enormous effort she turned him over and got him upright.

Feet pounded on the lane; Martina had heard the shots. “Oh, Jesus,” she said. “Berkeley . . .”

“He’s alive,” Anna panted. “But all this blood . . .”

“We must stop it. Was it a bullet?”

“Yes,” Berkeley groaned. “At point blank range. Fired by that Salvationist.”

“All right. I will find it. Anna, go down and telephone Dr Cheam. Tell him it is very urgent.

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