Ninth installment

There was a stunned silence in the room and only when I started to remove my trousers did they actually believe me. One bullet in my right thigh, one grazed the same side and the third when I managed to get my boot off was embedded in my left ankle, I was not in much pain but I remember hoping that the ambulance would hurry up and arrive. Somebody called Damian who was a good friend of mine and worked in the press center who was also there gave me some bandages and I managed to bandage the wounds and stay conscious, one of the things that I vividly remember about what the people in the room were doing was the fact that Ernie left the room with.... what a stupid idiot look... on his face and Peter trying his hardest to break the wardrobe doors with his fists, I couldn't understand why he was so angry but after thinking about it perhaps he knew that something like this would happen after all that had gone on in Osijek and it just happened to happen to me and not to anyone else, I had always been accident prone but this was taking it to the extremes and at least it was one way of getting a holiday even if it was in hospital. The ambulance arrived after about ten minutes and took me off to hospital, no one came with me even though I couldn't speak fluent Croatian. Although I was in a little pain I still managed to make the people in the ambulance and in the hospital laugh even if I was speaking in english. They cleaned the wounds and then to x-ray, the third bullet in my ankle was lodged under my tendons so they decided to leave it where it was for the time being and as long as it didn't bother me it would remain there. They took me upstairs to a ward where there were five other people who had serious wounds, I didn't consider mine in the same category and I was determined to get out of hospital as soon as possible. The patients in the ward introduced themselves and I found out one of them spoke english, his name was Richard and he was in because of a leg wound that had just about healed, most of the others were in for shrapnel and were all long term patients, I settled down for the night as it didn't seem as if anyone was coming to to see how I was. Later on that night before I managed to fall asleep the sister brought me a note saying everyone hoped that I would be alright but they had to leave for Osijek, Ernie had added some stupid remark but as I found it insignificant I immediately forgot it, it seemed that they really didn't care about me and I was alone for the time being.

The next day I awoke to a shock as I had to have three injections every day and I hated injections so the nurses made the most of it, it ended up with me giving them all nicknames, it wasn't all that bad there apart from the food which was terrible, I had to just sit it out. An english speaking doctor told me that I would have to stay in hospital for at least ten days but I was determined to be out before that, I was not expecting any visitors so when Paula arrived it came as a pleasant surprise, she brought me two presents one a toy car and the other a Croatian phrase book, I thought that maybe she fancied me and I found myself attracted to her. We talked for about an hour with her telling me that the men had gone back to Osijek after having a car accident and Peter had stayed with his girlfriend. Within two days that visit and subsequent visits I was on borrowed crutches, the others in the ward had seen how quickly I had improved and some of my determination to get out of hospital had rubbed off on them, they were all trying to walk even if their attempts were short and very painful. The men either side of me I called "general" and "superman" because of the courage that they had not walked for four months and the mood in the ward was always jovial especially when Richard and I would dance while in bed it was like an asylum but very therapeutic. During Paula's visits there seemed nothing that was to much trouble for her and I couldn't understand why Ernie had called her a bitch as I found her very attractive and very good company. While I was in hospital I had talked to my parents and I also had a conversation with one of the local newspapers back in Wales as they wanted to do a story on what had happened, they would probably print whatever they wanted to even if it was not the truth but I gave the interview anyway. Within five days of entering the hospital the doctors reluctantly agreed to release me, I was not going to go straight back to Osijek but was going to have a holiday instead, I booked into one of the cheaper hotels and went out for the day with Paula as I had promised her a meal for helping me over the past few days, she deserved all the thanks that I could give her, she had been a friend to me when I had no one.