Interrupted Journey

Part 3 - Chapter 1 - They Made It

I was in bed, though not asleep, when my attention was grabbed by a commotion in the yard outside our window. I was already in motion by the time a group of people started moving towards the back door.

I charged down the stairs with my pistol in one hand and its holster belt in the other and made my way into the kitchen, bumping painfully on the corner of the table. I was brought up short by a knocking at the back door.

"Who is it?" I asked. I moved to a position just behind the door whilst buckling the holster belt on over my pyjamas. Susan appeared, carefully carrying a lit candle, followed by Alice with her trusty shotgun.

"It's me!" came a voice that I immediately recognised as James's. "Let us in! They've made it!"

"Who's made it?" I asked as I unlocked the door but the question was immediately answered as James staggered into the room, half supporting Andrew and Elizabeth, his uncle and aunt from London.

The room froze. Nobody could quite believe they had arrived

For as long as I had known him, Andrew had been carrying too much weight - a result of too many business lunches and nineteenth holes - but that had just evaporated. Now he looked slim and healthy.

Elizabeth, however, who had always kept herself in shape, now looked like a concentration camp victim.

"If there's not enough food, Andrew and I can move on," Elizabeth managed to say at last. "But please could you look after the kids. They can't take much more of this."

Her announcement was somewhat undermined by the fact that she chose that moment to collapse. I managed to catch her and James helped me to lower her into a chair. Andrew collapsed into the chair next to her.

"Don't talk soft!" Alice announced. "Of course you're stayin'!'"

Susan hurried over and knelt down besides Elizabeth. "Hello, my name's Susan, I'm a nurse. Now what's the matter?"

"She and dad have been starving themselves for the last couple of weeks so that we could have a little bit more to eat," David, their elder son, answered. I could see tears in his eyes glistening in the candlelight. "We didn't want to let them but we just couldn't help it."

"How much have you all been eating?" Susan asked gently but firmly. "I need to know the truth here for medical reasons."

"The three of us have been on one small meal a day," David told her, "say, sharing a tin of beans with a bit of cheese in it - plus a snack, maybe a couple of biscuits. Mum and Dad just had the snack."

"That's all you've been eating for a week?" Susan checked with David and Elizabeth, "And you were going short before, as well?"

"We had to; there was only so much food," Andrew answered.

"I'm not criticising... far from it. It just means we're going to have to put you on a controlled refeeding program."

"What?" They both looked dazed.

"Because you've been starving yourselves, your mineral levels are going to be all over the place and, if you start eating normally, they can be thrown even more out of line. We're talking things like heart attacks and organ failure here. Get this wrong and you could easily die.

"You're going to need to work with me on this," she told them quite firmly. "For a couple of days, you're only to eat what I tell you and eat it when I tell you."

"I bet you're going to tell me I'm not allowed any alcohol next, aren't you?" David said with a smile. "I was really looking forward to a nice G&T!"

"Not a good idea," Susan replied with a laugh. "Give it about a week. I can't do blood tests so we'll just have to play it safe."

"Three?" Alice asked, suddenly noticing what David had said.

"Oh yeah," David replied, helping Martin, his younger brother, to remove the slightly strange looking rucksack he was carrying. "Meet the newest member of our family, little Annie."

The young, coloured girl stood blinking round the room in the candlelight. She looked completely overwhelmed.

We all stared at her for a moment then Alice pounced. Handing me her shotgun, she scooped the little girl up and held her in her arms. This was almost as astonishing as the arrival. The old Mam would never have behaved like that, even with her own grandchildren.

"Hello, love," Alice said gently to the little girl, "How's it goin'? Shall we see about summat to eat for thee?"

Any concern that Annie might have had about being picked up by a stranger was completely overwhelmed by the thought of food and she nodded enthusiastically.

The two hurried across to the stove and started stirring it into life to warm some of the mutton stew that had become our staple diet. James collected a couple of the biggest pans, filled them with water and put them onto the back of the stove for baths.

"The kids will be fine with the stew," Susan told Alice, "just a small amount for now then more food in the morning. But please would you make some porridge for the parents - with water, no milk, no sugar..."

Alice nodded.

"And we'll need to start all five of you on vitamin and mineral tablets. I've got some in the supplies from the clinic. Now, are there any other medical issues?"

"I turned my ankle about ten days ago but I've been walking on it since and it seems OK," David answered.

"I'll certainly have a look, but, if it's OK by you, I'll let you have a wash first," Susan said with a smile.

"I think she's saying you smell, bruv," Martin said.

"Believe me, you all smell!" James said to general laughter. "I've just put some water on."

It was wonderful to see these boys, who were being forced by the circumstances to turn into men, slipping back to being boys again, if only for a few moments. I hated myself for it, but I had to kill the mood. I nodded to Susan and she went across to Mam then I began, "Guys, I'm afraid I have some bad news..."

An hour later, I found a somewhat fed and much cleaner Andrew in the living room. Instead of his Gin and Tonic, he had a healthy vitamin drink in his hand, but he looked much more like the Andrew with whom I got on so well.

"Well," I said, "tell me all about it."