Fifth installment

Most of the scotch was drunk by Peter, Ernie and myself and while Ernie went off somewhere the rest of us stayed and talked, all Peter could talk about was the fact that he couldn't get in contact with his girlfriend and that really upset him. The more he phoned without getting an answer the more he was getting upset, all he could talk about was his girlfriend and why she wasn't answering the phone. While George and I stayed talking Peter left the room, we didn't mind as we were glad that we didn't have to listen to his whinging. All of a sudden Peter came into the room with his face all camouflaged up, George and I looked at each other and then at Peter, he said he was going out, so we asked where, no answer. We knew that he had had to much to drink so I told George that I would try and talk to him, I went quickly downstairs and outside the house to find Peter walking towards the front line, I didn't know what he was going to do so I shouted to him to stop, he did but only to tell me as he raised his rifle he would shoot me, it was like something out of a cowboy film, standoff, I decided not to push my luck so I left him alone and he walked off, quickly I went back to find Ernie upstairs and I told him what had happened even though he was a little bit drunk but he was the commanding officer and I had to report what was going on. We both went downstairs and Ernie decided to go and find Peter and try to bring him back, he put on his jacket, picked up his rifle, I did the same and we went outside and towards our trenches, I said to Ernie to look one side and I would look the other trying to see any signs of Peter, there was hardly any moonlight because of the clouds and we couldn't see further than a few meters. We arrived at the end of our lines and Ernie decided that he would go off towards the enemy lines to see if he could find Peter, I said that wasn't a good idea as he was the commander and that if Peter did not want to be found there was no way that we would, it was bad enough Peter behaving like an idiot but for the commander to do the same was just ludicrous but he ignored me and continued, I knelt down by now completely sober looking all around, I waited just in front of our front line and then George arrived, I told him what had happened and we waited wondering what to do. Eventually George went off a little way in front of me to see if he could see either of them but he returned alone. We thought that it was better to lie low and wait and after five minutes Ernie returned alone, he had not found Peter, I had already told him that he would not and I was proved right,we went back to base and leave Peter to decide when to return, I couldn't help thinking to myself why had he gone off and then Ernie towards enemy lines as if they knew where they were going, very suspicious but who was I to judge. When we got back I could see that Ernie was not in a good mood, he was muttering to himself out loud how Peter was a pain and supposedly because of the telephone calls Peter had made to his girlfriend? Ernie decided that if he returned then he would take him to Zagreb and give him an ultimatum that he should sort out his love life or leave the unit, that for me was enough I went to bed but I had a funny feeling that he would return safe and sound, he was like a bad penny always turning up, why?

The next morning he had arrived back some time during the night, no apologies for causing so much trouble, he was just bragging how he had seen us looking for him and that if he wanted to he could have killed us without too much trouble, he was beginning to upset everyone and I for one wasn't happy but Peter and Ernie were friends and Ernie had brought Peter to the unit, why and for what reason? A couple of days later Ernie and James took Peter to Zagreb saying that they would only be a few days as what had happened in Laslovo , so that left me in charge and I knew that I was capable of commanding the unit without them and that I could do the job as good if not better than Ernie. After all he was just a name, a name that people recognized with the Croatians fight for freedom, he was not really a soldier but a journalist who spoke many languages and he had been in Croatia from the beginning and everyone knew him,he always reliyed on someone else to do the thinking and that was usually me, George or Nigel and if anything went wrong he was never to blame, it was always our fault if something didn't go as planned. It didn't matter what I thought privatly, openly I was just a soldier under his command just like the rest of the men in PIV and therefore I and the men did as we were ordered and if someone had to take the blame then 90% of the time that was me. It is amazing what war does to people, it seems to affect them in different ways, I did what I was told to the best of my ability, Ernie acted out his role as commander and James who I can't even remember firing his weapon was just a pretty American boy so called fighting for Croatia because that would make him a better Croatian back in the states. This was not a war to them it was just one big game and they were the players, there is always a risk to any game but here the risk was life itself. Many foreigners like them came to Croatia because it was exciting and that wasn't what this war was, I pitied them and others like them, they were not real fighters the people were and the best reason to fight was freedom. Originally I had arrived in Croatia because I hated communism and what it stood for but now I stayed and fought because I loved these people and from the men in PIV they were learning, I knew that I was achieving what I wanted to do so long ago on a deserted railway station, help.