The Chronicles of St Mary's Omnibus, page 8
‘I’m not watching you pee.’
‘Well, shut your eyes.’
‘I’m not listening to you pee, either.’
‘So hum.’
I turned my back and began to hum Handel's Water Music.
‘Stop that,’ said Peterson, but I wasn’t listening.
I was watching two men walking behind another man as he skirted the site. They both had their hands to their belts and their body language caught my attention.
I took a few steps forward so I could see better and many things happened all at once.
Peterson said, ‘Where are you going?’
Someone shouted a warning nearby. I couldn’t make out the words, but the alarm and urgency were very clear.
And it suddenly got dark.
I didn’t think at all. I don’t know what made me do it. I ran forward two paces, crashed hard into Peterson and my momentum pushed us both back another three or four paces.
Not far, but far enough for us not to be under the frighteningly heavy block of stone that thudded into the soft ground nearby.
We sprawled on the ground, trying to catch up with events. For me it all happened so fast that I was more puzzled than scared.
I could hear people approaching and several men ran round the pile, shouting anxiously. They pulled up short at the sight of me on the ground, still tangled up with Peterson. And him with his todger out, too. They drew the wrong conclusions, subjected us to several builders’ witticisms, which although in Old English were perfectly understandable and wandered off again. It seemed no one was going to file a Health and Safety report.
Inside my head, I heard Dr Bairstow say, ‘How difficult is it to cause a ten-ton block to drop on a potentially threatening historian …?’
I unwound my stupid skirts and struggled to my feet.
‘You peed on me,’ I said indignantly, to hide the sickness sweeping over me.
‘Get over it. I peed on me as well,’ said England's first mannequin pis, climbing to his feet. ‘Are you all right?’
‘Yes. Fine.’
‘Are you sure?’
There was an underlying anxiety in his voice and I remembered Kevin Grant had been killed on his watch.
‘Well, I’m all wet if that's what you mean.’ I shook out my skirts. ‘Oh, yuk!’
He put his hand on my shoulder. ‘What was that all about?’
‘Don’t know. Maybe it was just an accident. They do happen. Maybe not everything is about us.’
He thought.
‘Where were you going?’
I remembered. ‘Two men, following another man. I didn’t like the look of them.’
‘Maxwell!’
‘I wasn’t going to do anything. I just wanted to see better.’ I took a deep breath and said in a small voice, ‘Do you really think …?’
Now I was aware of my thumping heart. It had been a close call. One minute everything was fine and the next, bloody great rocks were dropping out of the sky.
‘Where did it come from?’ said Peterson, looking up. There was no scaffolding or A-frame; just a cat's cradle of rope outlined against the grey sky. He peered thoughtfully across the site.
‘I wonder …’
‘What?’
‘Well, I wonder if whatever was going to happen to that man – had to happen. Some key historical event. Minor, but essential. And if you were about to interfere, young Maxwell, then we got off very lightly. Very lightly indeed.’
‘What sort of key event?’
‘I don’t know; it could be anything. Suppose he's attacked and someone saves him and he goes on to father children whose descendants are important? Or he's attacked and killed. He might have gone on to do something unspeakably evil and now he won’t because he's dead. We’ll never know.’
My heart had picked up speed as the implications were becoming clear to me.
‘I’m amazed we’re not dead.’
‘Me too,’ he said. ‘Maybe History's in a good mood today.’
‘Maybe we’re the good guys,’ I said jokingly and there was a strange little pause.
‘Doubt it,’ said Peterson. ‘We’d better take the hint, however, and clear off.’
‘Yes, Mr Peterson.’
He grinned. ‘The name's Tim. Now, shall we go?’
‘Good idea.’
We edged our way past the block and out of the lumber.
‘A nice cup of tea, I think,’ he said, striding out.
‘Um … Tim …’ I said, trotting beside him.
‘Yes?’
‘You might want to put yourself away first.’
On returning to the pod, Peterson apparently fell asleep. I wrote up the logs, did the FOD plod outside and the POD plod inside, tidied up, made a cup of tea, and gently woke my captain.
He yawned, stretched, smiled, checked around without seeming to and accepted the tea. ‘Nicely done, young Maxwell.’ We were the same age, but I let it go. ‘Return jump set up?’
‘Yes, ready to go any time you are.’
‘Well, there's no rush, is there?’ and he settled back in his seat, apparently exhausted by his afternoon exertions and smiled at me again. His hair, as always, stuck out in all directions. Female historians have yards of hair – it's in the rules and regs; all male historians wear a kind of shaggy-sheep look appropriate to any age. Peterson's made him look like an unkempt hearthrug, but his eyes were gentle. I rarely heard him raise his voice and, a welcome relief amongst volatile historians, he always appeared bombproof. He harboured a passion for Doctor Foster (or death wish possibly) and accepted her complete lack of people skills with good-humoured equanimity. I could have felt sorry for him, Helen Foster on one side and Kalinda Black on the other, but when I mentioned it to him once, he just said, ‘Yeah,’ in a dreamy sort of voice, leaned back, put his hands behind his head, and smiled happily. ‘It's a great life.’
Anyway, I survived my first jump, which was more than poor Grant had done.
The next few jumps passed without mishap, they ticked the last box and eventually our rank was confirmed. Later that year, I got yanked out of my Ancient Civilisation comfort zone – Kal, Sussman, and I got World War One. The Somme. For Sussman and me, it was our first Big Job, as they were known. And afterwards, things were never quite the same again.
To begin with, I thought we were going to get the whole initiative, but our assignment turned out to be more specific.
‘A Casualty Clearing Centre,’ announced Dr Bairstow, dropping a box of reference material onto his desk. ‘Situated in an old French chateau and one step behind the Regimental Aid Posts. Reportedly destroyed by shell fire; whether enemy or friendly was never clearly established. Massive loss of life. The whole incident was buried as quickly as possible to prevent damage to morale. There are anniversaries coming up and controversy has surfaced again. So we’ve been asked to investigate. You’ll need to be on your toes for this one because we don’t have an exact date.’
‘So we’re going into a war zone, knowing we’re a target, but not knowing exactly when we’ll be blown to bits,’ said Kal.
‘I don’t think you’ll be blown to bits,’ he said calmly. ‘After the initial attack most of the hospital went up in flames. And very quickly too. It's probably the fire you’ll have to watch out for.’
‘Is this for Thirsk, sir?’
‘They are acting as intermediary on this one.’ The client, as always, would be secret. The thinking was that if we didn’t know who they were or why they wanted to know, then it wouldn’t affect our findings. Thirsk would offer to undertake ‘new research’. We would nip in and out, then hand over our findings for them to present as ‘fresh evidence’ to the client. They got the credit; we got the money.
‘We need to get this right. After Grant and Baverstock, Thirsk are talking again about establishing a permanent supervisory presence here. Something we really need to avoid at all costs. So get the information, get the evidence, get it right, and get out safely.’
‘For how long will we be there?’ I asked.
‘We hope to get you in between five days and two weeks beforehand. Records show the hospital as functioning at the beginning of October. By the 14th it had been destroyed. When you return, of course, depends on events. Miss Black will head the mission.’
‘Could it have been an accident, sir?’ asked Sussman.
‘It's possible. That's the official version anyway.’
‘Have they thought this through? If we find out the truth, there’ll be a lot of blame and recrimination,’ said Kal. ‘Isn’t this one of the times it's better not to know?’
‘That's not our job,’ he said sternly. ‘We gather the information. It's up to others what they make of it. That is not our concern.’
‘How will we know who causes the explosion that blows us up ?’
‘I am not sending you there to be blown up, Mr Sussman, but to obtain information. And at vast expense too, so please try to refrain from being killed. Or indeed, incurring any sort of injury at all.’
We said, ‘Yes, sir,’ and backed out of his presence.
‘Bloody hell,’ said Sussman in the Library. ‘How did I get roped into this? Where's Peterson?’
‘On leave,’ said Kal absently, examining the contents of the box. We were both startled. Leave? What was that, then?
*
Kal and I were going in as nurses. Sussman was an orderly/ambulance driver. Because of the considerable amount of interaction that would take place, we were thoroughly briefed. History and politics of both sides. An extensive field medic course, based on the treatments available at the time. They seconded us to a nearby army hospital for three weeks as part of the training; one week's theatre training, one week on the wards, and one week in their A & E, which consisted mostly of burns, fractures, crush injuries, drunken brawls, and on one never to be forgotten night, midwifery. I am never doing that again!
We jumped early one Sunday morning. Chief Farrell and Kal carried out the final checks. Dieter, his senior technician, was fussing around outside, thinking no one knew he just wanted to be close to Kalinda.
‘Take care,’ was all the Chief said, looking at me and away we went.
Landing without a hitch, we peered outside. Even though it was only mid-afternoon, the day was dark and dreary. Rain was coming down hard and the few people around were scurrying along with their heads down. No one paid us any attention in our quiet corner.
The Matron at the Casualty Clearing Centre scarcely looked at our carefully forged papers before deploying us, which was a bit of a bugger because Professor Rapson and Dr Dowson had spent a long time on them. She sat behind her desk, stiff and starched, and pointed a Roman nose in our direction. The Nose looked us up and down. I got the impression we were found wanting.
‘Show me your hands,’ she said abruptly. Thanking God I’d remembered to clip my nails really short, I held them out, front and back. She stared. She sniffed. Obviously, the hands weren’t up to spec, either. I knew what the problem was – too white and soft. Still, a couple of weeks here would change that.
‘Where are you from?’ She peered at our papers, ‘Black?’
‘I’m Maxwell,’ I said helpfully and got the look I’d had from every teacher at school and from Bitchface Barclay in the not-too-distant past. I don’t know why I bother. Matron was no different and the nose really reminded me of Dr Bairstow. Maybe she was an ancestor.
‘I’m Black,’ said Kalinda, courageously drawing her fire. The Nose turned in her direction. I hid my hands behind my back.
‘And you are from …?’
‘Manchester,’ she said, broadening her accent and showing her hands without being asked. What a creep.
Matron handed us a list of rules and regulations. There were a lot of them.
Dismissed from her presence we stepped outside. I breathed deeply. The smell was distinctive. The tang of wood smoke and horses. Actually, I’ve never been anywhere in the past that didn’t stink of horses. I could smell the latrines, even though they were in the next courtyard. And the hospital stink was everywhere; even outside in the supposedly fresh air.
I looked around. The shabby old chateau must have been disused for some time. Many windows were boarded over. Plaster and rendering were falling away. Tiles were missing from the roof. I couldn’t help feeling it might fall down before it burned down. We’d never been put so deliberately in harm's way before. My heart raced in exactly the way it had for my first jump. Just when I thought I was getting the hang of things they threw something like this at us. But every jump is different; every jump has its own set of problems and every jump has its own set of terrors.
There was cold, wet mud everywhere. Too many people; too many vehicles; too many horses; too much rain. They’d laid planks down but they were already disappearing slowly into the ooze.
Over by the gates I could see a number of tents of varying sizes and people scurrying everywhere. Everyone seemed busy; everyone seemed to know what they were doing, and everyone seemed to have a purpose. Well, so did we and we’d better get started.
We put on our uniforms and got stuck in. Sussman had been whisked away almost immediately. He was billeted separately as well. I would often see him in the distance, or waving as he disappeared round a corner, but he was wise enough to be discreet. We confined ourselves to waving at each other. Kal and I slept in a tiny room in the attic of the chateau. We didn’t like being away from the pod, but all female staff were bed-checked each night by a Senior Sister, so we had no choice. The attic was cold, damp, and never saw the sun. We shared a bed and there weren’t enough covers. We couldn’t bring anything from the pod to make ourselves more comfortable in case we had to leave in a hurry. And with such hardship all around us, it didn’t seem right, anyhow.
We didn’t know where Sussman was sleeping. A group of orderlies slept above the stables so he may have been with them, in which case, we were much better off than him. It was cold when we arrived and it got colder, and wetter.
The casualties poured in from the Regimental Aid Posts. Matron sent me to work in the reception tent, assisting with sorting and prioritising. I was good at it and it freed up a senior nurse but I hated it. It felt like playing God. But, sometimes you could see death in a face and there was nothing you could do except move on to the ones who could be saved. Most I sent to Pre-op to be prepped for surgery. The Operation Tent was the biggest. Kal was in there somewhere. From there, patients were moved to the wards in the main building before being transferred to a bigger hospital away from the lines.
Men came in on stretchers, carried by Sussman's mates; orderlies whom I can never praise highly enough. Some walked in. I checked everyone's labels and directed them accordingly. If I was lucky, I saw Sussman himself at least once a night and even if we only had time to exchange a glance, it was better than nothing.
The days dragged by. We were into the second week of October now. It rained a lot. Heavy rain meant heavy mud. And there were still all those young men coming in through the gates. Limping, or being stretchered, their faces blurred with pain. Limbs reduced to filthy stumps. Some poor mother's son, having been yanked off the wire, screaming and trying to hold his guts in. One lad lay quietly with a gentle smile on his face and, when I looked more closely, half his head was gone.
As the deadline grew closer, Kal and I took turns to keep watch in our room at night. One of us slept while the other wound bandages or tried to read. We never undressed, partly so we would be ready, but mostly because it was too bloody cold to take our clothes off. The days were ticking by and we had to be ready. I watched my breath frost in the cold night air as I wound yards of bandage by the light of a tiny flickering candle on the floor, with a precious blanket pinned over the window to keep the cold out.
Now that the time was near, we arranged to meet Sussman at least once a day to reassure each other. We kept in regular contact and tried to be aware of each other's positions at all times. I kept looking around me. I imagined the whine of the shell, the crump of the explosion – and then what?
I came round a corner from the linen rooms and ran slap into someone. The man lifted the top layer of blankets I was carrying and said, ‘Hi, it's me!’
I checked around us, but no one else was in sight. ‘Hey, how are you?’
‘I’m cold. You must be perished. How are you holding up?’
I was touched. He wasn’t usually so thoughtful. ‘I’m OK. Not much longer now.’
‘No. Tonight, tomorrow, or the day after. Any thoughts?’
‘No, none. In fact, I think there's a bit of a lull. The weather's so awful that everything seems to have quietened down.’
‘Well, don’t relax. It could happen at any time. Look, I have to go. If we get through the night I’ll see you and Kal tomorrow, just outside here. By the latrines. We’ll have a catch-up and plan what to do next.’
‘By the latrines!’
‘It's the romance in my soul. See you.’
By great good luck, we were all able to get away and meet the next day. Sussman was there already, waiting for us. I could see our pod in the distance, over by the stables, anonymous under bits of rusting metal and carefully placed pieces of old wood. We stood out of the rain and discussed what to do next.
‘It's got to be tonight or tomorrow, said Kal. ‘Sussman, are you working tonight?’
‘Not if this weather continues, no.’
‘Stay sharp. Max, the reception tent is the furthest from the pod. At the first sign of anything out of the ordinary, go straight back to the pod and get the cameras activated. Stay out of trouble. You too, Sussman. We’re here to investigate. There's no way I’m going back without knowing what happens here and we can’t do that if we’re dead. Is that clearly understood?’
We nodded.
‘I mean it. Any sign of heroics and I’ll kick your arses from here to Dr Bairstow's office, pausing only to pick up your P45s on the way. Is that clearly understood?’
We nodded again. I shivered under my cape and pulled it more closely around me.
