When Skies Have Fallen by Debbie McGowan

Author:Debbie McGowan
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Published: 2015-07-08T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen: June, 1945

It was two months after the accident before Arty was able to stand without assistance. Some of the feeling had returned, but his upper-leg muscles had wasted considerably; for his own safety, Matron would only let him out of bed if she or Jim was there, and for a maximum of two minutes at a time. Arty fought her as hard as he dared, which was to say he muttered under his breath and smiled innocently if she caught wind of it. Walking to the sink at the end of the ward was the next goal he’d set his sights on, determined to do away with the indignity of bed baths. And he really was determined, conquering the walk to the sink in less than a week and setting his next objective: walking the corridor, and after that the hospital grounds.

“I think we should work on our jive,” Arty informed Jean one afternoon as she accompanied him to the hospital gate and back. She kept her gaze averted, evidently trying her best to hide how little hope she and everyone else had for Arty ever walking without sticks again, let alone dancing. He continued, “It’s a good energetic dance for youngsters like us,” but the more he said the more distressed Jean became, so he changed the subject and asked how everyone was back at the base. She had little new to tell him, but she did so just the same.

The next time Jean visited, she was accompanied by Charlie, and Arty was glad. He’d been overdoing it and Matron had ordered bed rest for a few days, which, to his visitors, would look like he’d taken a turn for the worse. From his prone position in his hospital bed, Arty watched the flicker of anxiety in Jean’s eyes, and Charlie was also back to being on edge.

The following week Jean and Charlie again visited together, the pair of them acting very cagily. They took Arty out for lunch, but it was a dreadfully sombre affair, as neither was particularly talkative.

When Jim came to see him that evening, Arty asked if there was something going on, but Jim knew nothing, so Arty put it out of his mind. They had other things to worry about: Jim and the rest of the American airmen at Minton were waiting for their transport back to the States for demobilisation, which the US Army was processing as quickly as they could, but there was no knowing how soon they would get to Jim’s group, nor how long it would be before he returned to England once he’d demobbed and been home to see his parents. He hadn’t seen his mother and father in four years, and he was looking forward to and dreading it in equal measure.

When Jean and Charlie visited together a third time, Arty had worked out exactly what was going on, and he decided to play ignorant. Jean asked for a wheelchair so that the three of them could go and sit in the grounds.

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