Run Before the Wind by Stuart Woods

Author:Stuart Woods [Woods, Stuart]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
Published: 2011-01-07T16:35:42+00:00

"A Major Browning, at the Royal Naval Hospital in Plymouth."

"Then that's where I'd take him back," the doctor said, emphatically.

"This was a gunshot wound before, and they know about those things in the military. I expect he still has his service medal benefit, doesn't he?"

Annie nodded.

"Well, he's going to need at least one operation, maybe more, and it'd be expensive in a civilian hospital, I can tell you. There's a daily, direct flight from Cork to Plymouth. Shall I see if I can get you on today's plane? He's a strong fellow; he could manage with a wheelchair at both ends of the flight."

"Please, doctor, if you would," Annie said quietly.

"I'd better go and tell him."

I waited in the hallway, expecting to hear an explosion of protest; there was none. The doctor went into the room, and shortly, the three of them emerged. Mark in a wheelchair.

"The plane leaves in an hour and a half, Willie. You ride with me to the airport in a cab while Annie picks up some things at the cottage."

As an orderly helped Mark into the cab I turned to the doctor.

"Assuming the surgery goes well, and the recovery, how long before he'll be all right again?"

The doctor shook his head.

"I could only give you a guess," he said, "but I don't think he'll ever be all right in the sense that he was before this accident. I'd say he'd be as good as he's going to be in, maybe, a year--that's with a good recovery. He'd be walking with a brace by then. He might not ever again walk without one."

I thanked him and got into the taxi with Mark. He started going over the list again, and then, maybe sensing that I wasn't with him, stopped.

"Willie, I know this looks bad, but we can still do this; really, we can."

I looked at him.

"It doesn't look too good. Mark. Maybe with Finbar's and Harry's help I can get the boat in good enough shape to motor to England or the Channel Islands, but we're not going to make the Azores race, and remember, you've got to do a qualifying cruise before December thirty-first if the committee is going to accept you for the transatlantic. Don't you think it might be better to pass on the seventy-two race and aim for seventy-six? I'm sure Derek would let you have the boat."

He took hold of my arm, and if I had never seen a zealot before, I knew I was looking at one now.

"Listen to me, Willie. I know myself very well, and what's more, I know you. If you'll get some help from Finbar and get started, you can have this boat sailing in six weeks, and she'll make the starting line for the Azores race on July seventeenth. And I don't care what that doctor told you back there, I'll be aboard, I promise you. You and Annie and I will have the sail of our lives. We can do it. You can do it.

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