The Little Shop of Wonders: The Complete Anthology by Robert Appleton

Author:Robert Appleton [Appleton, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Mercury Seven Books
Published: 2016-03-19T22:00:00+00:00

In the quiet, top-right corner of the Holy Cross Churchyard, Binstead, a simple smooth headstone appeared brand new, though it was decades old. A massive, ancient Yew tree stood vigil to the right, while in its shade was an old weatherworn bench—dedicated to Field Marshal Montgomery by the men of Eighth Army. The flat headstone itself stared back with an adamantine sense of propriety. It said no more than needed to be said.

“Twenty-fourth of March, nineteen seventy-six…it seems only yesterday…he had a proper State funeral an’ the works. You weren’t even born yet.” Tom paused, glanced disbelievingly at his grandson—had that much time passed? “But your dad an’ me, we went down to London for the day. Your gran stayed at home to look after your mum. I met up with a few of my old pals from the unit. I hadn’t spoken to ‘em in years but, you know, we gabbed on like we were still back in the unit, we spoke about Monty the same way as we did back then. Next to Churchill, he were the closest thing to a celebrity we had, old Field Marshal Montgomery.

“A few of us met him once, on the road from Caen. What struck us was how small he was in person—a little chap with a little ‘tache—but he just had this presence, this larger than life magnetism that pointed all eyes an’ ears to him. Aye, I’ll never forget that cheeky smirk he gave as his driver stopped to check them tyres on his jeep.”

“Did he have a puncture?” Christian clasped his hands reverently in front of him.

“Nah, he asked Barrett to get him a cup of tea from our tent. He’d just used his tyres as an excuse to stop—a bit of a practical joke on his uppity-lookin’ young driver.”

“Cool under pressure.”

“Aye, that were Monty, always sangfroid.” (Tom pronounced it sang-Freud).

Dressed in a reversible beige jacket and smart, Navy blue trousers, Tom had combed his long strands of hair back over his balding head, but a constant breeze from behind stood them to attention. Memory fidgeted behind his misting eyes. How proud he’d felt to look Monty in the eye, share a salute with the Viscount of Alamein, the man who’d turned bitter sands into sands of victory against Rommel. A once in a lifetime encounter on the road from Caen.

He stumbled forward as he pressed his heels together, arms akimbo. His arthritic right hand shook like crepe and flaky glue as he saluted one last time.

God bless you, sir. God bless all our lads. We did it.

Glancing at his tall grandson once again, he thought how quickly the youngster had leapt to his defence back in the pub, and how much that reminded him of Will Barrett, his best friend during the war. He wanted to tell Christian how proud he’d be to have him serve at his side should the need ever arise. The lad was a credit to his mother—Tom’s daughter-in-law—and if his father hadn’t died

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.