Fifth installment

The day before I was going to be released my ankle had swollen up like a balloon, the bullet that had been left in there had picked this time to say it wanted to come out, I was in intense pain and one of the guards took me to the doctor's where I was told that I had to have the bullet removed as soon as possible or risk my leg getting infected. When I arrived back at the prison we reported what the doctor had said and Jeremy who was the commander insisted that I stay in prison until the following day when I was free. That night was spent restlessly as I could not get comfortable but eventually I managed to get to sleep only to be awoken by explosions around Osijek, the UN were neglecting their job as usual and allowing the Serbians free target practice. The following day I awoke and was released at twelve, I went out of the gates to find Paula waiting, we went straight to her flat so I could take a bath and put my ankle up and rest but only after I had told her why I had been jailed. Once I had finished relating my story that it was wrong but after all what could she do, she was my girlfriend and her opinion only mattered to me. After having my bath we both looked at my ankle and Paula suggested that I see a friend of hers that worked at the hospital, so she rang him and arranged an appointment for me, she would accompany me just incase I needed her to translate and naturally concerned. The following day we went to the hospital(or what was left of it) to see her friend, he spoke english which helped a great deal and he told me that I had to have an operation to remove the bullet from my ankle and as soon as possible, I told him that I was not very comfortable in hospitals and I would have the operation if I had a general anesthetic and didn't have to stay in hospital, he agreed and arranged a day and time for us to come back. We left discussing why I didn't want to stay in hospital, I told her that the only time people go to the hospital is when they have a problem and during war these problems for a soldier usually entail being wounded and I did not want that to happen to me, I had now changed my mind and was not willing to give up my life for nothing especially as UNPROFOR were stopping us firing back, there was a great possibility now of being wounded by shrapnel and the thought of a piece of metal tearing it's way through me didn't appeal to me especially as it would have to be repaired in hospital. The operation that I was to have would only take twenty minutes and I would be allowed home after a further half-hour, that persuaded me to agree. The days passed with Paula going to work and me staying in the flat doing nothing just sitting on the small balcony of her flat and looking at the damage that had been done to the surrounding buildings, war was senseless and destructive, the toll on humans and material in Osijek had been tremendous and while sitting there I got many of my ideas for my articles, it was nice to do nothing but I needed to keep busy. The articles were not only a way of expressing my personal feelings but also a way of occupying my mind while I was alone. The flat was not very big as it had been one flat and converted into two, we only had the one room where we slept and cooked, the bathroom and a back room (which had no windows because of shrapnel) to move in and sometimes I felt trapped but the majority of the people in Osijek lived in small flats, it was totally different to the UK where almost everyone had a house, there was a large gap between the two cultures but one I hoped would be bridged one day. Eventually it was time for the operation, Paula came with me as usual, it was good to know that she would be there waiting for me when the operation was over. We arrived and the doctor told me to get undressed and put hospital pyjama's on, I then lay on a trolley and they wheeled into the operating theatre's, the few people that were there spoke english and were speaking to me as they gave me an injection, after four I fell asleep and shortly after I awoke to find it all over, a nurse told me to wake up and said that Paula was waiting, they wheeled me out and into the doctor's rest room where they told me to lie down for a while until the injections wore off, Paula came in, gave me a kiss and sat down beside me, both of the doctors that had removed the bullet came in and gave me the bullet that they had removed, I gave it to Paula as a keep sake, they stayed a while before they had to get back to work. After a while they returned and asked how I felt, I told them that I felt ok so they said that I could go but I had to come back every couple of days to have the wound checked and the dressing changed but at least I didn't have to stay in hospital. The days and weeks passed and eventually I was ready to go back to work, the day before I found out that the commander of all Osijek had ordered my demobilisation from the army because of the articles that I was writing and especially one which criticized the country's president and general's, I didn't think that was bad but it obviously rang true in some quarters and because of that I was to be sacked, I was fuming, yet another problem to be sorted out. While thinking about it I decided to write another article but this time including the fact that I was being victimized for what I thought an wrote and gave it to the newspaper to be published the following week, I would then go and see what reason they had for demobilising me,I went to command to see Jeremy but instead I saw Peter and with the help of Paula I talked to him and told him that I was planning to publish the article the following week, he told us that he, Jeremy or Geordie had agreed with it and after thinking about it we said that we would leave the article with the newspaper and if I was demobilised then it would be printed, Peter told me to wait and see what would happen over the next few days, I also asked for a transfer from Ernies company as I was not happy at the way Ernie was behaving and running the unit, he agreed and told me to come back in three days when everything would be sorted out. It seemed to me that even though this war had freed the country from communism most of its government and generals still thought the way communists did and that included suppression of free speech, I was only one example of that but I was not one that would lie down and take whatever punishment was handed down because I was not the sort of person that could be intimidated by such force and I would fight back in whatever way that I could, for now I was going to have to wait and see. These last two months had been full of problems and somehow I didn't think that I had seen the last of them.