Drown

VII: "We'll Try to Fly Without the Wings of Mine"

Wednesday 10th July 1940
London, England
STEPHEN'S POV

The Battle of Britain has now begun and I'm now being able to take to the skies and defeat the Luftwaffe in their Messerschmitt Bf-109's. I hope I can help defeat these brainwashed idiots, so we can at least win this war (unlike the previous war that ended in a stalemate) and I can get back home where I belong, not a foreign country; flying in the air with my life on the line. I've only been in the air for a few minutes or so, then I hear the words: "Enemy fire at nine o'clock!" Being screamed in my ears by my machine gunner on the starboard side of the plane. I then turn my head and attention to the hovering Luftwaffe plane to my left side (the port side of the plane, near the tail end), I am now quite certain that I'm staring straight at the face of death, my death (possibly). Within the next few minutes, I order everyone to get ready with their parachutes, because we're being attacked at this moment in time. As our precious plane is being hit with rapid gunfire, I watch as we tilt to the left (as we've been hit on the port side) I then guide my crew to the tail end and ready us all for the giant leap that is upon us!. Once all of my crew have leapt off of the plane, I am last to leave because I have the rank of Captain. As soon as I exit my doomed plane, I begin to pull on the cord to deploy my life-dependant parachute, but nothing seems to be happening for some reason! Oh, don't tell me I'm the idiot with the faulty parachute?! Because that's what seems to have happened! Can this day get any worse?! I think, as I begin my deadly descent into nothingness which I can probably say, will be the death of me. I'm not far from wrong y'know, because after what has felt like I've been free-falling for an infinite number of hours, I finally come to the conclusion that I'm back where I started... London, England! I manage to locate the swirling River Thames many feet below. I then make the decision to land in the water below me, if I was to somehow survive this whole ordeal. After landing feet first into the Thames, because all of my energy was taken when I was free-falling from the sky with my faulty and now redundant parachute, I can't seem to resurface from the depths of the murky water, so I realise all of a sudden that I'm now drowning and I need someone to come and help me and get me out of here before I succumb to my watery end. I end up being in the cold water for at least seven minutes, which is when you start to lose consciousness when you're drowning, which is frightening because I don't want to die at such a young age, I mean I'm only 18 (nearly 19 in December). After being in the water for so long, I'm beginning to lose hope of getting rescued. That is until (when I'm on the verge of complete unconsciousness) I feel someone grab ahold of me and start to pull me upwards towards the surface, I can't see the person's face but I can tell they're apart of the RCAF, wait a minute... that's one of my boys! Once I resurface and begin to regain consciousness (along with a few coughing fits) I can see a face I recognise, it's the Squadron Leader of the RAF Captain Douglas Bader! I am also aware that I'm drenched from head to toe due to being in the water for so long. My hair is just matted and stuck onto my head, my uniform is soaked right through (and I'm also getting cold, by the way) and my feet ... you don't want to know. So, after all that went down at the Thames, I have been taken to St. Thomas's Hospital in Whitehall, after I was admitted I've had to undergo a surgical procedure called Thoracentesis, which I'm beginning to recover from. Whilst I've been here recovering from my Thoracentesis surgery, I have gotten to know one of the nurses who work at the hospital, her name is Ruby Stanhope. I know I've only known her for a few hours, but I can't help but fall for her (Oh, great! I'm getting all sappy now!), since I'm now apparently falling head over heels for her I've already begun writing a song about her! It's title is just simply, "Ruby", how cute is that? I hope she appreciates it and maybe like me a little more. Is that sounding too needy and creepy? But, anyways I hope to be released from here on Sunday to be flown over to Ottawa and catch the train from there all the way back to Ajax. The captain that saved me from the water earlier, Douglas Bader has offered me to fly me to Ottawa once I get released, which is nice of him and also quite handy because it'll save me from making the trip on my own and ending up in the middle of nowhere (again!). Furthermore, Douglas has also offered to sign my discharge papers for me when I get to leave here at some point on Sunday.