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Ninth installment

Over the next couple of days I could not stop thinking about what had happened but I had to carry on with my duties. We were getting more and more mines(anti-infantry and anti-tank), it would not be long until we had to start mining a different section of the front line, but before that came Christmas and I wanted to try and stay safe and also try to get everybody in the spirit and get their minds off the upcoming job,so I decided to chop down one of the trees that was outside on the road (that's the good thing about war you don't have to pay for things like trees and decorations, you just acquire them), we chopped it down and brought it inside and put it in a bucket, it looked great but without decorations it didn't mean a lot so we went for a walk in the village, we didn't have any decorations so we decided to ask the locals so we went door to door most of them didn't have any but those that did gave us as many as they could spare, there was that didn't have any but instead gave us sweets, these people were amazing, they had armed soldiers including a mad Welshman knocking on their doors and asking for decorations and would go out of their way to find some to give to us,even though there was a war going on the spirit of Christmas was still with them probably because most Croatians were catholic. When we arrived back some were not happy about the idea and thought that it was inappropriate but I didn't care, I and some of the others found it as a good idea which made me happy as democracy works, perhaps those that didn't want it were thinking about their families and that they couldn't be with them but that was the whole idea of the tree, I was going home so I maybe selfishly didn't have to deal with that thought. The time for me to go was almost here, James had said that he was expecting money from the Croatians in the states and he would give me enough to last me for a few days until I returned. The cash for my trip was supposed to be brought back by one of the commanders who had also gone to the US on a fund raiser, he had returned to Croatia but had not yet returned to Osijek. We would now have to wait until they took me to Zagreb before we could meet up with him in some government building where I was to pick up my passport, he was in talks with the President. Over the next few days I rang my parents every other day to make sure that they had accepted the fact that I was alive and coming home, it always seemed ok but I always thought was it really deep down ok, would the scars of what I had put them through would heel, had they forgiven me for what I had done and put them through, I would not have long to wait.
The little posetions that I had I packed into a small rucksack so I was ready to go the following morning, as I didn't have many civilian clothes I would have to travel in my uniform, it was not very smart but it was the best that I had. The next day I awoke and was ready to go, it was decided that James and Ernie would take me, mainly because they knew Croatian and also knew where to meet up with the commander who had the money. It was a terrible feeling saying goodbye and not knowing who would be alive when I returned, me going home to see my family and them having to stay and carry on but I had to go. We arrived in Zagreb but couldn't find the commander we were looking for but we found out that he was at an arms warehouse that was used to supply Osijek with all it needed, we had to wait until the following morning so we went out for a drink first to a jazz club that I had visited before and then to a night club. We had a pretty good time and both ending up tipsy. On our way back to the hotel I gave my beret to some girl I didn't even know and the taxi driver a grenade as a tip what a crazy night. The next day both with headaches we went to get James's money but the fact that I needed money kept me going, we waited for ages for the commander to arrive but as we were running out of time James gave me the money and said he would get it back. They took me to the station where I would catch a train to Vienna, we said our good byes and they left. While waiting for the train to start my journey home I couldn't help but think that I should have gone with Ernie and James back to Osijek but I really wanted to go home, I bought my ticket and boarded the train. The only trouble that I had was on the Slovenian border where I was searched because I was wearing my uniform but nothing happened and the train went on it's way,I couldn't believe it I was on my way home, it seemed hard to believe but believe it I did, in about a day I would be home with my family if only for a short time after all something was better than nothing. 

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