Civvy Street

by Fiona Field

  *

  As Maddy, Luke and the children were settling down at their table in the pub and starting to peruse the menu, Seb and his sergeant major were in B Company stores checking the equipment that company HQ would need out in the field when the CSM’s phone rang.

  ‘’Scuse me, boss,’ said Sergeant Major Riley, pulling his mobile out of his pocket.

  Seb listened to him take the message and then end the call.

  ‘Flash message from the CO,’ said the sergeant major. ‘All personnel to be on parade with all kit and vehicles as soon as possible. You were right about the exercise being called for today. And the stopwatch is running. Apparently there is an “optimum time”.’

  ‘And no doubt there’ll be sanctions if we don’t hit the mark.’

  The CSM nodded. ‘Extras all round, no doubt.’

  ‘Any idea what the “optimum time” is?’

  ‘Nope, not a Scooby, sorry, sir.’

  ‘Never mind. We’d better start the cascade. You ring the company duty clerk; I’ll ring the platoon commanders. Let’s see if B Company can be first to be ready. I’ll stay here till the CQMS gets here to issue the kit and I’ll meet you at the vehicle garages in an hour.’

  ‘Sir.’

  Seb got ringing, setting off a cascade of calls that would have everyone back in barracks as soon as possible. Luckily the personnel he had to ring were, like him, pretty much expecting the call and picked up instantly and, with everyone confined to barracks, when CQMS arrived at the stores and Seb could make his way to his quarter to collect his Bergen the entire barracks was already a scene of manic activity. And as a bit of a bonus the rain had eased off slightly so the soldiers weren’t getting completely soaked.

  Seb let himself into the empty house, sent a quick text to Maddy telling her what was going on and warning her that he and Sam might not back for supper, then he changed into his multicam, picked up his kit and raced back to the barracks.

  His sergeant major was several minutes behind him but his excuse was more than valid.

  ‘I took the liberty of getting your personal weapon out of the armoury,’ he said, passing Seb his gun. ‘Stupid for both of us to have to queue up.’

  ‘Thanks,’ said Seb, shoving it in its holster and fastening it securely.

  Soldiers were flooding into the garages and as his company arrived so the vehicles began to get moved out onto the hardstanding in front of the huge hangars; Land Rovers, support vehicles, trucks, all began to get deployed. The air was filled with the deafening roar of dozens of huge engines and was thick with the blue smog of diesel fumes. Trailers were hitched up and filled with jerrycans of fuel, rations and boxes of ammo but it was all happening in an orderly fashion. No headless chicken impressions – everyone knew exactly what they had to do and got on with it without fuss or preamble. Slowly the garages emptied and the parade square filled with orderly ranks of vehicles, kit and men. As Seb was driven onto the square in his Land Rover he saw the CO pacing along one edge of the vast open space, the threatened stopwatch in evidence in his right hand.

  The rain had resumed again and, although the scene was impressive, there was, thought Seb, a slight air of dispirited resentment in the assembled troops; a sullenness. He knew the soldiers didn’t mind the idea of going out on exercise – it was the day job, after all. But having their weekend wrecked because the CO could bugger them about on a whim... that was something else.

  Seb’s driver pulled on the handbrake of his vehicle and cut the engine. On either side other vehicles were lining up. He looked at his own company and judged they were about two-thirds present. He glanced at his watch; just over an hour and a half since the original call. Not bad, not bad at all. Of course, if the last troops were hideously slow to arrive it could yet go to rat-shit, but assuming things went to plan, B Company was on course to acquit itself very well.

  ‘I’ve got a bet going, sir,’ said Seb’s driver. ‘Me and my mates reckon that whatever time we post getting everyone on the square and ready to deploy, the CO will tell us we’re no good. We could be there in record time and he’ll still tell us we’re shit.’

  ‘Hmm,’ said Seb. ‘I couldn’t possibly comment.’

  ‘Just saying, sir, that’s all.’

  ‘Maybe you shouldn’t, Evans.’

  ‘Well... we’ll see, shan’t we, sir,’ said Evans cheerfully, not the least concerned by Seb’s implied criticism of his view.

  Seb climbed out of his vehicle and leaving the door open he stood on the sill to give himself an extra foot of height in order to survey the scene. It was impressive. Almost a whole battalion of men and machines. He wouldn’t want to have to face this lot as the enemy.

  ‘Hi, Seb.’

  He glanced down from his vantage point. ‘Sam. This is a rotten way to spend a weekend with your fiancé.’

  She shrugged. ‘Tell me about it. The exigencies of service,’ she said, quoting the army’s get-out clause. ‘Army speak for “Don’t bitch if you get mucked about”.’

  Seb laughed. ‘Exactly.’

  ‘I had a call from Luke to say he and Maddy have taken the kids out for a pub lunch. It’s OK for some,’ she added with a hint of bitterness. ‘Do you think Maddy will be all right about him staying on at yours if we do end up deploying?’

  ‘Of course she will. I’ve already texted her warning her that you and I mightn’t be back for supper. I expect she’ll be glad to have some company rather than facing a Saturday evening on her own.’

  Sam didn’t look completely convinced. ‘But she hardly knows Luke.’ She shrugged. ‘I just feel it’s a bit of an imposition.’

  Seb glanced at his watch. ‘Look, supposing I gave Maddy a quick call to make sure. I’m positive she’d be horrified if she knew you and Luke felt awkward about this.’

  He called Maddy and had a brief conversation.

  ‘As I suspected. And quite apart from anything else, she’s got a fridge full of food that needs eating and she’s relying on Luke to do his best to stop it from going to waste.’

  Sam smiled at him. ‘Aw, Maddy is a sweetie and that’s great.’ She sighed and looked at the leaden sky. ‘A buggered-up weekend and rain – just wonderful.’

  Ten minutes later Seb’s CSM reported that all of B Company was present and correct and fifteen minutes after that the RSM’s stentorian voice silenced the gathered troops. The CO climbed onto the saluting base by the flagpole at the edge of the square.

  ‘Two hours and ten minutes,’ he said, brandishing his stopwatch. ‘Two hours and ten minutes,’ he repeated.

  Not bad, thought Seb. Evans was about to be proved wrong.

  ‘Some of you may think that’s acceptable.’

  Well... thought Seb.

  ‘Let me tell you it isn’t. It’s a bloody disgrace. Call yourselves professional soldiers? Well, you’re not. You are a shambles. Had you managed to be ready for deployment in under two hours I would have stood you down until Monday but as it is it seems to me you need all the training you can get. So we are moving out to the ranges right now. I will be holding a CO’s O Group at eighteen hundred hours for company commanders and further orders will be issued then. Right then, move out.’

  Seb opened the passenger door and climbed in. His driver looked at him.

  ‘Don’t say a word,’ said Seb.

  ‘No, sir. Of course not, sir. Wouldn’t dream of it.’

  And as the vast convoy of vehicles formed up and began to move off the parade square towards the ranges the heavens opened and the rain began to sheet down.

  Just brilliant, thought Seb, just fucking brilliant.

  Chapter 36

  At Winterspring Ducis the weekend for the Collins family wasn’t going any better than Seb’s, although they, at least, had the advantage of being indoors and not stuck out in the drizzle. But that was the only good thing they had going for them, as the atmosphere in the house seethed with the twins’ resentment at being deprived of their phones and iPads. In turn, their bad humou
r rubbed off on their parents and in a small house with only one living room, everyone was snapping and sniping at everyone else.

  Mike retreated behind the paper and Susie was in the kitchen with the ironing while the girls slobbed on the sofa watching weekend TV.

  ‘Can’t you turn that rubbish off?’ moaned Mike, turning the pages of his paper noisily.

  ‘Like we’ve got anything else to do,’ snapped Katie. ‘We can’t exactly chat to our friends,’ she added, pointedly.

  ‘Besides, we like Saturday Kitchen,’ said Ella.

  ‘So why do you never help out in ours?’

  ‘Because Mum listens to Radio 4, which is lame,’ said Katie.

  ‘It wouldn’t hurt you to try and improve your minds instead of watching stuff designed for the lowest common denominator.’

  Ella rolled her eyes and reached for the remote. She pressed the volume control and turned the sound up a notch.

  Mike flung his paper on the floor and lunged for the remote, snatching it out of Ella’s hand before she realised his intent. He pressed the off button and the TV screen went blank.

  ‘You... you...’ Ella saw the look on her father’s face and didn’t continue with her plan to tell him what she thought of him and his parenting skills. ‘Come on, Katie.’

  The pair stamped upstairs and the slam of a door reverberated round the house.

  Susie came out of the kitchen. ‘What now?’ she asked with a tired sigh.

  ‘Nothing,’ said Mike.

  ‘It must have been something.’

  ‘Don’t you start. I’m just trying to bring some sense of discipline and order to this house.’

  ‘Implying that I don’t?’

  ‘I didn’t say that.’

  Susie glared at him. The phone rang. Susie stamped across the sitting room and snatched up the handset. ‘Yes,’ she snapped. ‘Oh, of course.’ She turned to her husband. ‘It’s for you.’

  She handed Mike the phone and retreated to the kitchen.

  A couple of minutes later Mike came to the kitchen door. ‘I’ve got to go out. There are three villages over at Ashton-cum-Bavant way that have just been issued with a severe flood warning by the Environment Agency and they want me down at the incident room. It’s all looking quite serious.’

  ‘Saved by the bell.’

  ‘Hardly. I didn’t plan this, Susie.’

  ‘No, I know.’ She sighed. ‘When do you think you’ll be back?’

  ‘I can’t say.’ Mike glanced out of the window. ‘I can’t see the rain stopping anytime soon.’

  ‘No, well, take care. Floods are dodgy things.’

  Mike nodded. ‘Hopefully it’ll be a case of prevention rather than... well, “cure” isn’t the right word but you know what I mean. Maybe damage limitation...’ He trailed off.

  ‘Well, just you take care anyway. No heroics or anything like that.’

  He nodded and picked up his car keys before heading off. Susie returned to the kitchen but before she picked up the next garment on the ironing pile, she twiddled the tuning knob on her portable radio until she found the local station. She needed to know what was going on – especially now that Mike was going to be in the thick of it.

  *

  The girls, sitting on Katie’s bed, watched their father drive away, the wheels of his car throwing up arcs of water off the sodden tarmac.

  ‘So,’ said Katie, as she turned back from the window and leaned against the wall behind the bed, ‘where do you think he’s gone?’

  Ella shrugged. ‘Don’t know, don’t care. More importantly, do think he’ll be gone long?’

  Katie shook her head and got off the bed. ‘Hang on, I’ll find out.’ She crossed the room and pattered down the stairs. A couple of minutes later she was back in the bedroom.

  ‘Mum says he’s been called out to a flood. She’s got no idea when he’ll be back.’

  ‘And Mum’s doing the ironing?’

  Katie nodded and threw herself back on the duvet.

  As Katie settled herself back into a comfortable position Ella stood up. ‘I’m going to try and find my phone. I bet it’s in their bedroom.’

  ‘You can’t.’ Katie’s eyes were wide at the audacity of her sister’s plan.

  ‘Why not? They’re our phones.’ She reached out her hand to pull her twin upright. ‘Come on, before Mum finishes the ironing and brings the clothes upstairs to put them away.’

  ‘But... but she’ll see it’s missing.’

  ‘Why? If she thinks they’re hidden she won’t go checking they’re still there every five minutes.’

  ‘I suppose.’ Reluctantly Katie got off the bed.

  ‘You keep a lookout to make sure she’s still ironing while I have a rummage.’

  Katie sat on the top step listening to the muted sound of the DJ’s voice on the local radio followed by some crappy old country and western singer and, interspersed with the jangling banjo and wailing guitar, she could hear the thump and pffft of the steam iron on the board. Behind her she could hear the faint sound of drawers being slid out and then gently shut again. Every time there was a pause in the rhythm of the iron Katie held her breath, listening for her mother’s footsteps crossing the sitting room, worrying in case she mightn’t hear them on the carpet, and then feeling sick with relief when she heard the thump-thump of the iron once again.

  She jumped out of her skin when Ella touched her on her shoulder and only just managed to suppress a shriek.

  She spun round, about to have a go at her twin, but stopped when she saw Ella brandishing a phone.

  ‘You found it?’ she said, scrambling to her feet.

  ‘Shhh.’ Ella dragged her back to the bedroom and shut the door. ‘It was in Mum’s undies drawer along with our iPads.’

  Katie nodded. But it was all right for her sister – back in communication with the rest of the world. She wasn’t.

  ‘I’m not going to keep it,’ said Ella, as if she read her twin’s thoughts. ‘But now we know where they are, we can take them and use them when we want. We just have to be careful, that’s all.’ Her thumb skimmed across the screen.

  ‘Who are you texting?’

  ‘Ali.’

  ‘Why? We can’t go out, we’re grounded.’

  Ella looked up, her thumbs stilled. ‘You can stay here if you want. I’m not, I’m going out.’

  ‘But what’ll Mum say?’

  ‘Whatever she likes. What’s the worst she can do? She already thinks she’s got our iPads and phones but she’s not as clever as she thinks she is. And if she stops our allowances, well, we’ll just help ourselves. She hasn’t noticed anything so far.’

  ‘Maybe.’

  ‘We can be downstairs and out the door before Mum even knows it.’

  ‘But what about coming back?’

  Ella narrowed her eyes. ‘You scared or something?’

  ‘No... no, of course not.’

  ‘Good, because I want a ciggie.’ Her phone trilled. She looked at the latest message. ‘And, Ali says if we bring a fiver with us he can let us have a packet of ten.’ She stared at her sister. ‘So I suggest that while I put the phone back you find Mum’s bag.’

  Katie hesitated.

  ‘Oh go on. Just nick a fiver. It’s only two pound fifty each – hardly anything. A bus fare and school lunch is almost as much as that.’

  ‘OK then.’ Katie felt less than happy but she crept downstairs anyway. Halfway down the straight flight of stairs she paused and hung over the banister to look around the living room. It was empty but her mother’s bag was on the sofa, and it would be visible from the kitchen should her mother turn around. Slowly she tiptoed down the remaining stairs, across the room and then casually sat down next to it. With a firm eye on her mother’s back view, standing by the board in front of the sink, Katie clicked up the spring catch on the front of the bag and flipped open the flap. Susie’s wallet was on the top. Katie eased it out of the bag and opened it. Her mother put the iron back on its stand with
a bang and Katie’s pulse rate went ballistic. She stared at her mother’s back, frozen in horror, the wallet in her hand. If her mother turned round... but her mother had stopped to fold up the T-shirt she’d just pressed before picking up a blouse and carrying on. Katie sagged with relief. As fast as she could she flicked through the bits and pieces in the notes compartment at the back. There was a twenty and nothing else. She checked the change purse – a couple of pound coins and some small change, but not another three quid’s worth. Making a decision, Katie picked out the twenty pound note and stuffed it up her sleeve before putting everything back as she’d found it and tiptoeing back to her sister.

  She showed Ella her spoils.

  ‘You took how much? You dimwit! She’s bound to notice that. Can’t I trust you to do anything?’

  ‘It was that or nothing.’ Katie glared at her twin but her shoulders went down. Maybe she had messed up.

  ‘There must have been something smaller.’

  ‘There wasn’t. If you’re so clever you go and do it, OK?’ Katie pushed her face towards Ella’s, daring her to push the issue.

  ‘You did leave some money in her purse, didn’t you?’

  Katie nodded.

  ‘Then you’d better hope Mum doesn’t notice after all.’

  ‘You too. You’re in this as much as I am.’

  The two girls slipped down the stairs, grabbed their outdoor coats off the pegs by the porch, and a set of keys that hung on a nearby hook, before opening the front door as quietly as they could. They slipped out. Katie put the key in the outside lock and pulled the door shut before letting the catch drop back into place so they didn’t have to slam it shut. Their exit had been almost silent.

  ‘Nice one, sis,’ said Ella.

  ‘Thank you. See, I’m not such a dimwit.’

  ‘No, sorry.’

  They jogged down the garden path and over the concrete bridge that crossed the drainage ditch. The water was swirling along it at a ferocious rate but since the scare earlier in the year the water authority had cleared the banks of undergrowth and dredged it and had assured the residents that the problem wouldn’t occur again. The girls glanced at it out of curiosity but ran on, unconcerned.