Seventh installment

The next few weeks dragged by as the job at the barracks was boring and monotonous, each day I saw the chetnik prisoners going for their food and a feeling of hatred flowed from my brain but I knew that I couldn't turn my rifle on them as it would be cold blooded murder and it would make me into the same sort of savage that they were and I was not prepared for that, it was about this time that my last article appeared in the newspaper as the editor had given me eight weeks and that time was now up, the last article was a sort of thank you letter and was very good but now I had finished writing I had nothing to occupy my mind, I was left high and dry and had nothing to fill the void left by my last article. The days went by with me on guard and Paula going to work, it was getting more and more difficult to keep occupied, Paula was trying to teach me Croatian but I was not a very good student as it had been seventeen years since I picked up a school book, I tried desperately to learn but it was hard, perhaps in time I would learn but every time someone wanted to speak to me they wanted to speak in english as then they could practice, with me correcting any wrong words, it was great for them but bad for me especially as Diana returning from Zagreb. The day of her arrival came and Paula and I went to the station her and Paula's sister, while we walked from the station you could see Diana and Paula's sister were amazed at what they saw after returning after a long absence. The city of Osijek was only a shadow of it's former self and would take years to recover from the battering that it had taken over the last year, I often wondered what it was like before, of course I had seen pictures but they are not the same as experiencing the beauty of a city at first hand. Life in Paula's flat may now return to normal as Diana was home but would it, over those few days I saw that she was spoilt and that Paula and her mother were doing everything for her and not allowing her to grow up fending and learning to live for herself but I couldn't do anything. 

Back at the barracks there were rumours flying around that 160 brigade was about to be demobilised because of what the president had said, there had certainly been a lot of soldiers who had of their own free will demobilised, Brian was one of those but I was happy for him as he was going to do what he was really good at but before he left he told me that his brother - in - law didn't want the puppy that we had seen a few weeks before so I told him that I would take it as it would be a good present for Diana and something to keep me occupied. We arranged everything and one afternoon Brian and I went to pick the pup up, he was a beautiful puppy and I was sure that Paula and Diana adore her, it seemed at the beginning that they did and they named it Alf. It was about this time that Paula came up with one of her hair brained ideas, she was talking to me one night when she said to me that I should write a book about my time and experiences in Croatia and after giving it some thought I started, even if it was never published I would still have a record of the things and feelings that I had felt over the last nine months. There were a lot of computers at Paula's school being used of the war so with the help of Paula we asked the man in charge if we could have one to borrow for the time being until they were needed by the school, he said yes so we took it back to the flat and I started to write. There was no way that I would be bored, if I was not working I was writing, if I was not writing I was arguing with Paula either about the puppy who was now trying to eat everything or Diana who was a pain, even though we were arguing I was not going to lose her, she was my last chance to find happiness and I was not going to give her up because of a dog and a spoilt nine year old. The rumors were true as one day I found out, my problems were not over yet as I would have to find somewhere to go because the barracks were to be taken over by the military police. Again Paula helped me by translating while I talked to command about what was going to happen, they were still hopeful that they would be able to save the brigade and Peter told me to wait and see what happened. That night I started to think about what I could do if the rumors were true and eventually I came to the conclusion that I would not be able to do anything outside the army because of my inability to speak Croatian and that was a necessity, the only thing was to try and stay in the army. There was only one thing that I could do and that was to train people with the help of a translator so I devised an idea for my own unit and wrote a plan which consisted of everything including selection, training and continuation training of potential soldiers and decided to make an appointment to see Jeremy. The day of the meeting came quickly and Paula and I went to command, we had to wait but eventually we got to see Jeremy, we sat down and Paula explained why we were there, we then gave him the plan to read, while we were waiting Peter came in and sat down at the table and started to talk to Paula,eventually Jeremy finished and told me it was a good plan but as 160 brigade was about to come to a close he could not do anything personally but he would talk to the new commander of Osijek and see what he had to say. There was something else that I wanted to talk about before the meeting was over and that was my rank which was now the equivalent of a sergeant, whilst we had been in Briest I was second in command of a company but over the last few weeks and months I had because of Ernie gone from what I was to just being a soldier. We told him the way that Ernies behavior had changed, the way that it was only me the men listened to and not Ernie, how I had done most of the training and kept the discipline good within the unit and before I got to angry Paula interrupted me and told me to calm down while Jeremy spoke. It seemed that he had not known what was going on at the unit and asked why I had not said anything before, I told Paula that in most armies around the world there was a chain of command and that you couldn't go to a senior officer before going to your own commander first, it was a sign of respect and was the right thing to do, after translating he said that this was not an ordinary army yet and those rules didn't apply and that I should have come to him before now, he told me that he would arrange a promotion for me to the first rank of an officer status, then after talking for a few minutes we left after having achieved something of what we wanted and me feeling a little happier. Whether or not James would do anything about Ernie and my plan was something else but at least I had said what I wanted to say when George and Nigel left and the unit was split, it had taken a long time but now the truth was out and I felt a lot better and also I had my rightful promotion, it had turned out reasonably good and we went home satisfied.