Third installment

I asked him if he had talked to his parents and he said yes and I wondered if his parents asked him to come home as did mine when they found out that I was still alive. The rest of the day was spent getting everything ready for the move, we got the office shipshape and the armory ready, the school was empty so we could move in straight away but before we started the film crew arrived. They wanted to know if they could do an interview with me, Ernie agreed as he had already done his. They said they would be ready in ten minutes as they had to set everything up so I sat down and waited, I wondered what sort of questions they would ask me about and before long they came and asked me to follow them,I sat down in a chair that had been positioned because of the lighting, they started by asking me about what my wife and family thought about me being here then some political questions and then one question I was not expecting,

"what about the death of Eric in Laslovo",

for a few moments I sat there in stunned silence as I could not think what that had to do with the film they were making but soon I started to talk, I told them about the attack and the way that Eric was shot, I could feel the emotion in my voice as I was telling them the story. It had been a long time since anyone had asked me about Eric and I did not relish the fact that they had brought the subject up again, I tried to be objective while talking to them and hoped that when the film was shown people would be able to understand the situation we were in, I couldn't help but hope that Eric's mother would see the film and appreciate what happened, one day I was determined to meet her and tell her face to face about her son and how he acted like a soldier up to and including the time he was shot, she could be very proud of him for doing his duty. The interview finished and after the crew finished they told me that it was a good interview and I went downstairs and sat on my bed, the interview had started me thinking and the best place was on ones own. Shortly afterwards the crew told us they were leaving and that they were grateful to all of us for letting them intrude into our lives, they also told us that as soon as the film was made they would send us a copy, how many times had I heard that before and never once had received anything. After they had left Ernie that was the last time that reporters would be allowed anywhere near us, how many times have I heard that before? It was now early evening and Ernie said that we would postpone the move as most of the day had been wasted, instead of doing nothing I accompanied Ernie into Osijek as he wanted to buy something, as we passed the Royal Hotel we heard music playing,

"it would be a good idea if we bought something for Alan as a welcome home present" I said to Ernie,

we went inside to see what we could find and I advised Ernie that Alan was always going on about how he liked listening to 'Lou Reed' so we bought one of his tapes. When we arrived back we gave Alan the tape and his face immediately lit up and he went straight to the cassette player and put the tape on, it had been a good idea of mine and Ernie surprisingly agreed with me. It was good to see Alan happy after what had happened to him, I wished that I had enough money to send him to London to see his girlfriend but I knew that there was no way, the only one that could do it was Ernie and I didn't think that he was going to do that especially as it would cost him money, I knew that he always had plenty but he always wanted to use it for himself, his philosophy was to look after number one first and let everyone else look after themselves,before I went to bed I phoned Paula to tell her that we would be moving again the next day and that we would have a new telephone number but there was no answer so I left a message at the press center. It was funny that I should think about her before ringing my parents but she seemed closer to me at that specific time and I was happy with things the way they were,after leaving the message I rang my parents as usual but as I was talking I couldn't stop thinking about Paula and I liked her more and more as the days went by.