The Price of Butcher's Meat

10

Okay, Mildred, I should have listened to you and put my woolly vest on!

Bad night. Didn’t get my hoped-for fantasy about Cap but another bunch of them daft dreams about floating around and talking to God!

But my physio went well. Tony tutted a bit when he looked me over. But by the time he’d finished, I were feeling lish enough to reckon I could give Cap the welcome she deserved!

First, though, I had to put up with her giving me the bollocking she thought I deserved! Blabbermouth Festerwhanger must have really laid it on thick about how much damage I could have done to myself going over the wire.

I tried playing it down, doing the big bull thing, saying, “Come here and I’ll soon show thee how poorly I am!” Well, she came, and I showed her, and that’s when I found out, like mam used to say, that my eyes were hungrier than my belly.

When I finally gave up, she said, “That does it, Andy. From now on in, if they tell you to start the day with an ice bath, you bloody well take it! If I wanted a eunuch, I’d have looked in the Istanbul small ads.”

She’s got a real lip on her, Cap.

She’d brought my civvies as promised and it were only by promising to be a good little patient and do what matron tells me that I stopped her from taking them back.

When I asked if she had any news from the Factory, she said nothing, except that Pete had told her everything was going fine and nobody was missing me. He’d asked her about visiting me. I told her no way, not till I were properly up and about. He’d seen me at the Central while I were still good for nowt. Next time he saw me, I wanted to be back to something like full steam, else he might start feeling sorry for me. I don’t doubt the vultures are already circling over the Factory and if Pete comes back from a visit with a long face, they’ll be flapping to land!

Cap said I were daft, I needed my friends. I said I knew what I needed better than her, and she rolled her eyes and said that what I clearly needed was another week in bed. And not long after, she took off. Said she wanted to walk over to the nursing home and see her old headmistress who’s on her last legs it seems.

Her parting line was, “Maybe that’s where I should have put you, Andy.”

I saw her out. As I made my way back to my room, who should I see coming out of it but Franny Roote!

“What the hell are you doing?” I demanded.

“Looking for you, of course, Andy,” he said. “A few of your fellow convies-sorry, convalescents-are interested in Third Thought, and after I finished with them, I asked Pet where I’d find you.”

“Pet?” I said.

“Nurse Sheldon. I’d have thought you’d have been on first-name terms by now, Andy.”

“Well, we’re not. And neither are you and me,” I said grimly. “Now bog off!”

I wasn’t in the mood for chatting with Roote, not the way things had gone with Cap. Don’t know who it was said that pleasures are always paid for, but the bugger got it right. My pleasure had been a couple of pints of ale, one of which I didn’t really enjoy, and here I was, still paying for it.

Which reminds me. I owe yon fellow Parker twenty quid. Well, it will have to wait. I know its only teatime, but I need my beauty sleep!