Molly and Danny were among
those who had decided to stay the night at the hotel after the engagement party
as they were attending the Remembrance Service in St Pierre the next morning,
so it just made sense to stay.
When they were on the way to
breakfast the next morning, they met Elisa coming out of her room
“Hello, you two” she said
“Hello Elisa” Molly said and
kissed her just as Carolyn Livingston appeared bleary eyed from her room.
“My goodness you look a
little green around the gills”
“This is nothing, you should
see Howard” Carolyn said
“But he’s supposed to be
taking part in the remembrance parade” Molly said, “Is he going to be alright?”
“You’d better judge for
yourselves” she said and unlocked the door to her room, and they saw Howard
Nelson standing in front of them looking like death warmed over.
“Good God” Molly said
“Heavens above” exclaimed
Elisa, who after a moment took charge
“Right I think we can get you
sorted out”
Elisa turned on her heels and
went back into her room and returned a minute or two later, by which time they
were all in the room, so she joined them and closed the door
“I have just the thing for
what ails you Howard” she said
Elisa was a great believer in
herbal remedies and concoctions, and she had in her hand a medicine bottle with
an ominous coloured substance in it.
“This will sort you out” she
said
“I’ll try anything” Howard
said pitifully and was about to sit on the bed
“No don’t sit” Elisa
commanded forcefully,
“Why?”
“You need to be ready to
move” Elisa said and handed the glass bottle to Howard
“Take a good slug of that”
“And then what?” he asked
“You’ll know what” Elisa
replied, and he took a good long slug on the bottle and then licked his lips
before saying
“That’s not as bad as it
lo….”
He never finished the
sentence as he turned a funny shade of puce and headed for the toilet.
The noises that came from
behind the bathroom door were their cue to leave, so they closed the door
behind them and headed down to breakfast.
When Howard appeared in
reception some fifty minutes after consuming the foul concoction he looked much
more like his old self, and twenty minutes after that he was fit to be seen in
church, or more precisely the church parade.
It was a bright sunny morning
outside St Pierre’s church where the Townspeople were thronging around the war
memorial as the Remembrance Day parade, with clergy from the three churches on
the islands, St Pierre, St Joan of Arc and St Clara’s, representatives of all
the services, both civil and Military, a proud bunch of Old soldiers, all arms
of the scouting fraternity, local dignitaries et al, came to a halt.
A religious service followed
and then the assembled duly paid its tribute to the fallen in the time-honoured
fashion.
As he looked on, Danny felt a
little humbled after honouring those men and women who made the ultimate
sacrifice, and if they had known the outcome, their actions would not have
differed.
He wondered if the modern
generation would be so resolute faced with the same challenges, and sadly he
thought it doubtful.
But the whole occasion had
left him feeling that he had to further explore that theme in the book.
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