Out of the Blue

by Val Rutt

  Ever yours,

  Sammy

  PS: I’m still living in the old place and the cabin is still there down by the river – you remember the cabin Kitty?

  Kitty finishes the letter and reads it again from the beginning. Then she goes to the telephone and calls her daughter.

  ‘Hello dear, it’s Mum.’

  She listens quietly.

  ‘That’s good dear – you’re always so busy. Now darling, can you tell me? Is this a good time to phone America? . . . Pardon? . . . Oh, Pennsylvania.’

  She pauses and listens.

  ‘I’ve just received a wonderful letter from an old friend – someone very, very dear to me . . . Is it a good time or not? . . . Oh. Well, what time should I ring then?’

  Kitty hangs up the phone and sits staring at the letter. It would be a ridiculous thing to do to wake him up in the middle of the night. And she reasons that after sixty-two years she can wait another few hours. She stares at the phone for a little while and then lifts the receiver and dials.

  Kitty listens to the unfamiliar ring tone and waits.

  At last it is answered and she hears a clunk and some fumbling and then a voice says, ‘Hello?’

  Kitty catches her breath. She places her hand on her throat; she is crying and unsure how her voice will come out.

  ‘Hello?’ he says again.

  ‘Hello, Sammy – it’s Kitty. I got your letter.’

  Afterword

  This story is fiction but it was inspired by a real event that occurred during the Second World War. On 25th June 1944, fifty-two members of the 6th Guards Tank Brigade Workshop Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, who were stationed between Lenham and Charing in Kent, were killed by a flying bomb. My father survived.