Page 30 of The Dark of the Moon
I understood the next thing he said as well. ‘Nous devons amputer.’ We have to amputate. ‘Sinon, elle mourra.’ Otherwise, she will die.
Finn
After the walk with Mum on the beach when we’d talked about being brave, she went upstairs to pack her case because she and Philly would be leaving that evening. We had to say our goodbyes, because they’d be gone by the time Dad and I got back. I didn’t eat much breakfast. I was still feeling sick, because it was Acclimatisation Day, and I really didn’t want to throw up again. Dad was very quiet on the drive to the harbour.
Everyone was there when we arrived, standing on the bit of beach beside the dinghies which were pulled up on the shore. The bigger boat was on a mooring on a pontoon at the end of the jetty. Dad took my ear defenders from me and left them in the car because he said it was Really Important for us to Set an Example and everyone needed to listen. Then we walked down to the beach.
‘Good morning, everyone,’ he said. ‘It’s great to see everyone here on time! Let’s start with the Safety Briefing, shall we? Get that out of the way before we have a look at the boats.’ He handed out the Safety sheets that he’d typed up. He’d said what a good idea it had been of mine to laminate them because then the seawater couldn’t get in, so it was both helpful and practical.
The instructor started to talk about the life jackets we’d be wearing and he showed us how to put them on the right way, thenlet each of us do our own. I didn’t like the way mine smelled a little bit like mould. It made my stomach feel queasy again.
Next, we had to put on our helmets. When I sail the dinghy, I just wear my cap. But this week we all have to wear helmets. When Dad told me about that, he said it was essential for Health and Safety. I said I wasn’t going to. But he said it was a condition of the insurance, Kiddo, and so everyone had to, and I should take it up with my union representative if I wanted the rules to be changed. He was making a joke, but I didn’t laugh because I was worried about the helmet being too tight and making my head hurt. Then Dad had said we could practise putting our helmets on before the course began so we could get used to them, and I wouldn’t lose it on the Acclimatisation Day. He meant lose my temper, not the helmet. I still wished I could lose the helmet.
Once we all had our helmets on, Iain showed us a board with a plan of the boat on it. He explained how the areas that it was safe for us to be in had been marked out with coloured tape on the boat and these were shown on the plan. ‘We’ll get out on the water for the first time tomorrow, but for today we’ll just be getting familiar with the safe areas on board and I’ll show you the controls for steering and raising the sails.’
Then we all walked down the jetty and got on the boat.
We sat down on the benches on each side of the cockpit while Iain started to explain how the sails work. It was just like on the dinghy only instead of pulling on the sheets, which are the ropes, you use a winch with a detachable handle. The large boy was sitting opposite me. He started rocking again and that made the boat start rocking too. I felt sicker than ever. I wanted him to stop, but he didn’t. Then the sick started coming up my throat and into my mouth, and I wanted to spit it out into the sea, but I was on the wrong side of the boat, alongside the pontoon, so I couldn’t. The boy was watching me, and he started rocking even harder. I thinkhe was doing it on purpose. I stood up and went over and stepped up on to the bench to be able to lean over and spit the sick into the water and he got up there too and pushed me, so I pushed him back and he went overboard.
Then there was too much noise, with screaming and shouting, and I had a meltdown and Dad grabbed me, so I bit his hand.
Afterwards, once we were all back on dry land, Iain said, ‘What can we learn from what happened this morning?’
The mother of the large boy said we could learn that it was a bloody good thing we had our life jackets on, otherwise her son could have drowned. Then she said some other things about me, which were Not Nice. I didn’t have my ear defenders so I couldn’t shut them out. She also said they would be getting on the next plane home if her son was made to be on the boat with me again. Dad was apologising and saying, ‘Don’t worry, we’ll make a new plan.’ And then the Acclimatisation Day was over, and everyone could go back to their accommodation.
Dad didn’t say a word on the drive home. We drove with the windows open and I didn’t like how windy it was, making my hair flap in my eyes, but we had to do it because my T-shirt smelled of sick. At least I’d got my ear defenders on again though.
When we got back to the house, Mum was very surprised to see us because she’d thought she’d be gone before we got back. I went upstairs to have a shower and change my clothes and when I came back down the three adults were sitting at the kitchen table. Dad had his head in his hands, and he was clutching at his hair so it stood up in all directions. And Mum was saying, ‘No Philly, we couldn’t possibly ask you to do that.’
‘I don’t see why not,’ she was saying, as I came into the room. ‘It isn’t as if I have anything in particular to get home for. Hello, Finn, we were just talking about making a new plan for this week. How would it be if I were to stay on while your mum goes onher writing course? Your dad needs to help with the sailing every day, so I could be here to look after you and we can do some more exploring together. If you feel like it, perhaps you can join in the dinghy sailing parts of the course later in the week. What do you think?’
I thought about it a bit and decided I would like that. I would have liked it even better if Mum could have stayed too, but I remembered what she’d said during our walk on the beach about how she really needed to go on her course. So I said, ‘Yes. That would be an OK plan.’
Then the taxi arrived to take Mum to the airport and they had run out of time to discuss it further or to argue about it and so the decision was made.
As she got into the taxi, Mum showed me the double clamshell which she had in her pocket to remind her to be brave and we did the starfish sign. ‘You’ll be all right, won’t you, Finn?’ she said. ‘Maybe it’ll do us all good to have a bit of time apart. I’ll phone every day. Be nice and helpful for Philly, won’t you? And if she tells you more about her life during the war you can record it for me and let me know, OK?’
‘I will,’ I said.
So I carried Philly’s suitcase back upstairs and sat on her bed while she unpacked everything again.
‘Thank you for staying,’ I said. ‘If you like, I can make some labels for the chest of drawers and laminate them, so you know where everything is.’
Her red lips smiled. ‘I’d love that,’ she said. ‘Sometimes I forget where I’ve put things, so it’ll be a big help. I think we’re both happy with the new plan, aren’t we? Now, why don’t you go and do a Sudoku on the porch and then we’ll have some Marmite sandwiches for lunch?’
And that sounded pretty perfect to me.
Later on, when Dad had gone back to Smooth Things Over at the sailing camp, and I was sticking the laminated labels on the drawers in Philly’s room while she had a little lie-down on her bed, I asked her what had happened to the plane that crashed when she went back on her second secret mission to France, to tell the Polish cryptographers they needed to get out.
‘Themaquisardshitched it up to a team of oxen and dragged it into the empty sunflower field,’ she said. ‘It was the perfect cover. They burn the stalks at that time of the year, you see. So they drained out most of the fuel from the tanks, because it was a useful resource for them, and they set fire to what was left. They even waited to do it in broad daylight so the flames wouldn’t show and draw too much attention to it. The police never suspected a thing. They buried the remnants in the woods.’
‘So that is when you lost your leg in France?’ I said.
And then she told me what had happened next. I recorded it for Mum, so she could put it in her book when she got back.
Philly
It was probably just as well I was so ill. I remember very little of what happened on those final days at the château. It would have been too dangerous to move me to a hospital, even if I’d been strong enough to make the journey – the sudden appearance of an injured British woman requiring urgent medical attention would have put the whole team at Cadix at risk of arrest, deportation or execution.
