Come Back To Us - 40. Chapter 40

After weeks of crossing the ocean, he was finally back in England. He couldn’t stand the sea anymore.

He jumped out of the boat with such eagerness, everyone around must have been stunned. He smiled at the contact of his feet with the ground and his whole body relaxed. He breathed in and out deeply. It was reminding him of the first time he had arrived in England. But he wasn’t totally back to square one, so he wasn’t that worried. He just needed to find a way to get back to the RAF station all on his own.

“Good luck for the rest of the war.”

“Thanks. And thanks for getting me back.”

The curly-haired boy, Stan, nodded at him.

“You’ll handle it on your own from now on there?”

He was the one to nod this time. He started walking away, looking back with a last wave.

Quite simply, he walked. He kept walking until he reached the station. It was another tall order, but he did it, and that was what mattered most. The rest didn’t.

He felt empty again as he was standing before the main building. All the little energy he had left in him left his body and it wasn’t long before he collapsed to his knees. And his knees were even quicker to fail him. He didn’t even call for help. He had lost his voice on the way there.

But he didn’t fail to notice the small crowd that gathered around him after a while of staying like that.

They didn’t even seem to recognise him or maybe they were just too stunned to do anything. Well, who else there would come back in such a way?

One of them finally took the initiative to help him sit up.

“You okay, pal? What happened to you?”

He was clearly English.

“Could he be one of us?” He heard another one say.

“He can’t be…”

“His face isn’t familiar to me.”

“Hey! Can you hear me?”

“What’s happening there?”

Hmm…That voice sounded familiar…

Most of them turned their heads to look at the owner of it.

“Move!” The voice then said.

He saw the familiar face seconds afterwards. It was looking at him with wide eyes and mouth agape. He looked like he was seeing a ghost.

Edgar.

He started stuttering his name.

“Karl…” A pause “Is that you?”

He only stared at him with emotionless eyes as a response.

“Move, I said! There’s nothing interesting to see here! He needs some space!”

He kneeled down and held him into place.

“For Christ’s sake…You’re alive…”

So he had been right. They thought he had died all along. Well, who wouldn’t have?

He couldn’t call that luck anymore. But then, he didn’t know what it was… A coincidence only?

“Come, let’s go. I’m going to take you to the treatment room.”

He helped him stand up and there they went. He wished George would be the one to treat him. Just to see him would make everything so much better. No..it would be much harder to leave him once again…

He really needed to stop thinking about him…

“Oh, thank Goodness…Arthur is going to be so relieved.”

Karl glanced at him with a stunned look but didn’t say anything. As if he had been affected by the thought of him being dead… No. It must have been only because of Mr. and Mrs Hopkins, and Paul. Yes, that was it. He was sure they had asked him to watch over him. That must have been the only condition they’d imposed to let him go. His eyes started getting wet at the thought of them imagining he had died.

“Do they know?” He asked weakly.

This time Edgar looked at him, and there was both pity and concern in his eyes.

“No…” he paused for a while before he proceeded. “We had planned to go and inform them because we both agreed they had a right to know since we couldn’t get in touch with your family. But Arthur couldn’t find the guts to tell them anything. So I didn’t.”

Only because he didn’t want to be blamed for it he guessed…Or because he didn’t want to hurt them and make them sad…He was sure he cared about them. If he wanted to do maths, the first one would probably represent only 10% while the second would be 90%. That made sense to him at least.

He didn’t reply. They just kept walking silently. Thank Goodness it wasn’t winter yet.

Once they got there, Edgar left him alone to go and find Arthur to tell him about the good news. He just remained there, lying on a mattress staring at the ceiling blankly with his thoughts torturing him as he was so used to.

He couldn’t stand it; remaining there, doing nothing. He was on the verge of going mad. The loneliness, that feeling of emptiness… Of course, he hadn’t expected dozens of men here to come and see him and show him how happy to know he was alive and fine, would never ask for such a thing to happen because he didn’t need such attention. Just one person would be enough.

He struggled to sit up but got on his feet and left that place. The sun hadn’t risen yet. He wandered in the long corridors aimlessly. It reminded him fo that time when he had ended up at the hospital when they had started to bomb the city. He had tried to run away from more.

But now what was he running away from?

He didn’t know for how long; hours maybe, but he ended up running into someone he had lost hope to see again while wandering.

Kristian.

They observed each other silently, Karl waiting for him to react, do anything. But he was only staring at him with widened eyes and his mouth agape, pretty much like Edgar had earlier. As if they had seen a ghost that had managed to come back from the dead.

This was becoming a little bit awkward after a while.
“It’s me,” he just said and it must have been so as a newly earned reflex because he said it in English.

He preferred to assure him that he wasn’t hallucinating.

“Karl…”

Next thing he knew, he was being hugged tight, a little bit too tight…But it felt good to feel the warmth again.

“Kristian…” he whispered as he hugged him back and closed his eyes.

He couldn’t explain it, but it felt like home. Yet, it had nothing to do with home…

“I thought I’d never see you again…” he said in their mother tongue.

“Same for me.”

He had really missed his company.

He lost track of time during that moment. He had craved that kind of comfort so much…he didn’t want to let go. And it seemed that Kristian didn’t want to let go of him either anyway.

But they ended up letting go after a while before people could see them, although reluctantly.

Kristian looked hesitant but spoke nonetheless.

“Do you…Would you like to talk about what happened?”

They stared deep into each other’s eyes.

“Yeah.”

There was nothing confidential about it.

“Come then.”

They went to his quarters and once they got there, he told him about everything that had happened after they had parted ways that fateful day. The older man listened silently and the more he went on the more horrified and shocked he looked. He let out a shaky breath and glanced away as he had just finished.

“You couldn’t have imagined worse for a first mission.”

“Yeah.”

He didn’t want to imagine what his second one would be like.

“Do you think they’ll send me away on another one soon?”

His eyes were full of concern and he looked like he didn’t want to answer.

“Probably. I can’t tell you anything for sure though. Perhaps within a two weeks time span, you’ll be up again.”

Karl didn’t want to think of it, but he knew he didn’t have a choice. It was too late to go backwards… Kristian had told him so himself.

Instead, he wondered…

“And Jørgen? Is he here?”

“No. You won’t be able to see him. He’s gone on another mission but he should be back soon, hopefully. But you may have already gone when he comes back…”

He bit the inside of his mouth as he looked down. He would have liked to see him again now…

His thoughts wandered back to Mr. and Mrs. Hopkins after a while. Even though they must have known he had been on a mission, they must have been worried to have had no news for him in the past weeks. He needed to write to them, he remembered.

“Say, could you write a letter with me? I’d like to write to Mr. and Mrs. Hopkins.”

It had been so long since the last time he had written anything…he had the feeling that he wouldn’t know how to do it well anymore.

“Of course.”

They started doing it shortly afterwards.

“Of course, you can do it. You don’t forget how to write so easily. Look, give it a try at least.”

He sighed.

“Fine.”

He didn’t know how to hold his pen anymore.

“Look, you just need to get used to doing it again. That’s alright,” he said as he helped him with it.

Dear Margaret, Dear Robert,

I hope you have all been doing well while I was away.

My first mission wasn’t exactly one of the easiest I could have wished for, but I am alive and fine.

My plane mates were much less lucky than I was. Their planes were shot down by the enemy and so was mine, and I found myself swimming for my life in the middle of the ocean. But then I was rescued by an American submarine, more precisely by a boy around my age or maybe younger than me and with whom I could bond even if it didn’t last. The submarine was attacked a few days later by an enemy ship. It was bombed and sank. But I managed to flee before I could be killed and when I thought I would die, the enemy rescued me. I had no other choice than to lie about my real doing in the war to stay alive. In the end, I sank their ship with their own bombs and I found myself alone in the middle of the ocean once again. I swam as much as I could, but I could see nothing else but water around me. And when I was thought I would die for real this time, I was rescued again by an American boat this time. There were four boys around my age and we managed to survive for several weeks and thanks to them, here I am again, back to the station and safe.

I can only wish for this war to end as soon as possible so I can see you all again and before it can succeed in taking me away from this world.

Take care of yourselves.

Best wishes.

Your favourite Danish lad.

Karl.

This was it. He folded it neatly and enclosed it thanks to a red seal.

At least, he was sure it would always reach its destination. Nothing could be more certain than that in such uncertain times.

Hello everyone!
Here you go with the following chapter! I hope you liked it
Have a good day/evening/night and take care ❤️