Fourth lnstalment

The following morning we all awoke early as it was moving day again, Kevin and the men from Visnjevac arrived shortly afterwards and the whole unit was there or what was left of it. The first items to go were the explosives and everything from the armory, we had to take them first just in case anyone from hq arrived unexpectedly, of course we didn't want them to know what we actually had. It took three trips with the lorry before it was all safely at the school while this was going on the other lorries were being loaded with beds and bedding. It must have taken us three hours to load and transport everything, the last item was the model, everybody had already gone and I was the last to leave so I got in the front of the lorry and off we went. It didn't take long before we turned into the car park of the school and by British standards it was equivalent to a village school but fairly modern. The men were already unloading the lorries so I had a look around, it looked like we were to use the ground floor only but we still had three rooms for the sleeping quarters, one for the armory, one for the officers and one that Ernie would use as an office and to sleep in as he had begun to like his privacy. After the lorries had all been unloaded the men sorted out their rooms while Ernie, James and I sorted out the office, all the ammunition had been left on the floor of the gym so that we could sort it out before locking it away. It was a good base even if I had already guessed it was not to be permanent, there was plenty of room for everything and everybody. There was a meeting planned for that night with all the officers there, we were going to decide who was going to be in what section. The time arrived and we all sat down, we had made a makeshift conference table and of Ernie at the head, it was decided that Kevin would head Peter's section, Mark the new boys and the other Mark the engineering and demolition section, neither I or Alan were given any specific task to do but as usual we would make ourselves useful in whatever way we could. That night while everyone was watching television calls but this time I rang a friend of mine to get to know all the local news before I rang my parents, then my wife, I had been talking to her for about ten minutes when I decided to ask her if she had been out with anybody as I had my suspensions because of the way that she had been talking to me. she told me that she had been out a couple of times for a meal with

someone that lived in the same area but I knew that the man's wife(who was much younger than him) had left him earlier in the year I knew that they had been friends for a long time even when I was at home but it didn't seem to make a difference then but now as I was not there the friendship had a chance to flourish. After she told me this I told her that I would ring the next day as I had something to attend to urgently but of course that was a lie, why I don't know but I had to give myself time to think, I put the phone down and I thought that we both realized that our marriage was over but neither of us wanted to confirm it,I sat back in the chair and thought about what had just happened, did I deserve this, was I to blame? If I had not left perhaps she would still be happy but would I, if I had not come to Croatia I would have regretted it for the rest of my life, I had known that I had risked our marriage when I had left but I had gone anyway, this was my destiny and I was not going to let it get me down, I had to continue to rebuild my life here. There was only one thing that would make me feel better and that was if I rang Paula, I dialed the number and she answered, she had been asleep as I could tell from the way that she spoke. Whenever I rang her she always seemed happy to hear from me whatever time of day or night it was, she told me that she had bought the language books and had given them to a friend of ours who worked in the press center and was coming to Osijek in the next few days and would bring them for me, she also told me that I must start to learn from the books as soon as I received them and that when she arrived in Osijek she would continue to instruct me. Eventually I had to ring off as Ernie wanted to go to bed and he was complaining about me being on the phone, I told her that I would ring her tomorrow and then hung up. Perhaps everything was going to turn out alright, my wife had her new friend and I had mine, I decided there and then that if my new friendship into something more meaningful then I would not lose that chance, not for anything or anybody. This would probably be my last chance have a happy life, I was now thirty four and still had not totally settled down to a normal life but perhaps this might be the time and perhaps Paula was the one, I had to grab hold of this chance with both hands and hold on tightly, it was now or never, to remain a divorcee and a wanderer, a man with no love or was it better to live in happiness, an easy decision I thought as I drifted off to sleep.