The Poison Pen by Evelyn James

Author:Evelyn James [James, Evelyn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Red Raven Publications
Published: 2015-06-22T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

Being confined to a wheelchair sometimes made Tommy frustrated. He could not go where he pleased as other people did; he always needed someone to push him along, or help him up and down steps. There always seemed to be some challenge ahead, whether it was a narrow hallway or an awkward staircase. The world was not designed for people who could not walk, and yet now so many of Tommy’s contemporaries were cripples, their agility taken away by four years of war. The old county cricket team was a sorry sight these days; half the players were invalids in some way. Bright, beautiful youth snatched away, to leave in its place prematurely old men, missing limbs, unable to walk, or gasping from gassed lungs. And those were only the ones whose wounds were visible; there were others whose scars ran deep inside and whose pain was mental rather than physical. Tommy felt they suffered the worst.

For a long time Tommy had avoided his old friends, too afraid to see his own traumas reflected in their faces. How did you look at a man you once laughed and cheered with now he was so different? Tommy used his own disabilities as an excuse. After all, it was hard for him to simply go to the pub or even take a stroll, and no one expected him to appear at the cricket ground, knowing the pain it would cause him. But, time was passing, and Tommy was beginning to see his personal retreat as something more harmful than protective. It was with this in mind that he began to think about Herbert Phinn.

Herbert was one of those boys who arrive at school wearing thick glasses, and who you know will spend most of the day being bullied by the more athletic lads who have yet to learn the value of intelligence. Herbert was a kind boy who tried to make friends through being generous with his sweets and pocket money, and who invariably ended up being hurt.

Tommy had recognised a lame duck as soon as he saw Herbert and took it upon himself to save the boy from the foxes who were crowding around ready to take a bite out of him. Back then, Tommy was the lad who was taller than everyone else, who could run the fastest and who knew how to fight with his fists. No one argued with Tommy once he took someone under his protection, be that his little sister or Herbert Phinn. Herbert repaid Tommy in the only way he knew how; he showed him everything he knew about science, for which he had an extraordinary passion. Herbert was very good at chemical experiments and had his own small laboratory kit, provided by a doting father. He refrained from making such childish things as stink bombs, but he could reanimate a dead frog using electricity and grow crystals in a dish. Everyone expected Herbert to become a chemist, and he didn’t disappoint. The last time Tommy heard of him, he was off to university.

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