Tenth installment

The next day I awoke to a bright and sunny day, there was nothing bright about the way that I feeling at that precise time, I went for breakfast and then returned to the house as I was not interested in talking to anybody. Later on that morning Peter and zaggy returned, I was sitting down when they arrived and immediately told them what had happened, they were obviously sorry but didn't feel the same way as I did, I had known Alan longer and therefore felt more sorrow. They asked me where Alan's things were and after telling them Peter went to check them, I went with him and while we were checking through it he decided to keep anything that was of use to us and the rest give to the unit. Everything that had been in Alan's wallet I had left there for it to be sent to his parents in Portugal but Peter decided that Alan would have said to have a drink on him and therefore took what little money was there. The only way that we could contact anybody was by mobile phone which was in one of the commanders cars so Peter and I went to get it, first we called Alan's girlfriend and then to anyone else who should know. We rang the number in London for Alan's girlfriend, it rang and a young girl answered telling us that his girlfriend wasn't there but would return tomorrow so we said that we would ring back,next were the sisters from our old unit who had known Alan for some time, the phone rang and one of the sisters answered and after hearing the news the line went dead as she was obviously upset but eventually she composed herself enough to ask me how I was, kirk who was talking to her said that I was reasonably ok and that he would tell her when the funeral was. There was only one person left to ring and that was Paula, she had only met Alan a few times but I needed to ring her just to talk to her, she answered and after the initial shock she asked was I ok and how did it happen, I couldn't tell her over the phone so I told her that I would explain everything when I arrived back. After making all the phone calls we went back to the base where Kirk told me that we would bury Alan's body that afternoon in the local graveyard as he was not a Croatian citizen and he couldn't be buried in Croatia, I asked would it be alright if zaggy and I went back to Osijek to get some of Alan's friends to come to the funeral and he immediately agreed telling us that we had to be back by four as that was when they were going to have the funeral. There was no way that we could have got to Osijek and back on the bus in such a short space of time so Kirk lent us his Landrover and we set off. Before long we were in Osijek, we picked up the sisters and and a couple more of Alan's friends and were on our way to Bosnia. We arrived with ten minutes to spare to find Kirk and the body had already gone to Osijek as the government had decided that Alan was not only to have his citizenship but also his compensation allowed and all after he had died, what a coincidence. We went back to Osijek after I had picked up everything that belonged to me as I had to go straight to hospital the next day. Once we arrived back in Osijek we searched high and low for Alan's body but couldn't find out where it was so I told everyone that I would find out in the morning and that if he was to be buried in Osijek I would let them know and with that I dropped them all off at their respective homes.

It was late by the time I arrived back at Paula's flat and was glad that she was there, I told her what had happened and she said that she would help me find out what was happening with Alan's body when we awoke the following morning. That night I decided that I was hungry and needed to go out so we went for a pizza, I wasn't much company that night and Paula was probably glad to get home, that night I slept restlessly but I eventually awoke up in a cold sweat, we both got dressed and immediately went to find out what had happened, after various phone calls and visits we found out that the body was at a local undertakers waiting for shipment to Zagreb and then out of the country to Portugal, what a way to leave the country that he had so bravely fought for and that was in a metal box. The only things that I had going for me were the fact that I was a Croatian citizen, I lived in a country that I loved, I had a secure job and most of all I had Paula, if I had reasons to stay alive then then those were it.