Girl in Red Overalls

Copyright © 2012 by Thaddaeus English.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

0-800-644-6988

www.xlibrispublishing.co.uk

303420

Contents

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

Escape the pain

CHAPTER I

CHAPTER II

CHAPTER III

CHAPTER IV

CHAPTER V

CHAPTER VI

CHAPTER VII

CHAPTER VIII

CHAPTER IX

CHAPTER X

for Terri,

my inspiration.

CHAPTER 1

Anna awoke to the sound of a cockerel in the distance on Mrs Taberknack’s farm down the lane, sitting up she stretches her arms towards apposing walls until she hears the crack of her ribcage, twiddling her toes she puts her dainty feet on the cold wooden floor as she fumbles around the room looking for clothes for the coming day, on her dresser she sees some old overalls, the colour has faded over the years they are practically grey,

I think this’ll do. She said internally as she threw on a chequered shirt and a pair of thick leggings and made her way down the stairs to the kitchen in the back of the house, grabbing a series of red coloured dye boxes she fills a metal bath with the water and adds the overalls and dyes, mashing them together for a while she sees her arms are red up to her elbows. She carries the bath outside to the line and twists the overalls as dry as she can before pegging them up.

Tipping the water down the lane she giggles thinking that Mrs Taberknack would think bloody murder if she saw the red river emanating from the house. Going inside she washes her arms in the kitchen sink, it’s a large round container enough to clean the plate of a family of ten with room to spare, it was one of the things Anna’s mother liked about the house when her and Anna’s father began living there, Anna wipes a tear from her eyes, leaving a red smudge, she giggles as she continues to wash. The breeze coming through the windows puts Anna at ease.

Sitting on her porch, Anna decides to take a stroll down the dirt path past the neighbouring farm. The sun is splitting the stone but the summer breeze is chasing away the heat through the kaleidoscope of colour in the sky, Anna enjoys these quiet times walking, the town and mundane townsfolk have always bored Anna, she wishes to see the sky in another place, far away from these small minded people. She sees her neighbour, Mrs Taberknack,

Hello Mrs Taberknack. She says instinctively waving her arm joyously.

Oh hello young Ann, how are you dear? That brother of yours is he alright? the elderly lady responds

Anna nods,

You wouldn’t think it with all his moaning. Anna smiles a nervous smile, never knowing how to talk for other people she closes up as Mrs Taberknack continues.

How are you? Anna quickly says under her breath,

I’m fine deary, and you? How are your inventions coming along?

Great, I’ve finished the schematics of a milking machine; it should give everyone here a lot more time to work on the rest of their live stock if they don’t have to milk each cow individually.

But dear, that’s part of the bond with animals on the farm, waking up first thing in the morning and saying hello to Daisy, well that makes my day, maybe you youngsters are just trying to grab everything at once, don’t forget to enjoy yourself and don’t lose yourself in those inventions, you’ll be my age before you know it and you’ll have missed out on a lot of important things . . .

A voice breaks Mrs Taberknack’s train of thought

Anna I need your help! it came from Anna’s house,

I’m sorry Mrs Taberknack, my brother needs me, bye! Anna rushes back up the dirt path, turning once to wave at he neighbour who was already on her way back to her own house.

As she gets to her front door she pauses before grabbing the handle as a thought enters her mind, it has been in her mind for a long time now

I’m bored of this life

Anna opens the door to her home and enters.

Lying sideways in his bed Andrew, Anna’s eldest brother looks at a picture of their parents and his younger brother, a young wisp of a man, passed away during Andrew’s time at war, the scurrying of a spider on the floor distracts him, the sound echoes on the wooden boards of his room, footsteps pass outside his door.

That you Anna? he bellows

Yeah, I’m just making some breakfast, you been up long?

No, just a little while. Smiling he pulls himself up in his bed and grabs a handful of pressed paper from his side table, scribbling down with an old pencil he makes some notes, the creaking of the door startles him.

Anna walks in with a tray of fruit and bread and a bowl of warm water with a cloth laying in it.

I’m just starting to cook; this should break your hunger Andy. Smiling she lays the tray down on his lap and pulled back the sheets at the bottom of his bed, revealing the stumps where his feet used to be, cut off near the end of the war after an explosion killed the rest of his company, Andrew was awarded the honour of hero of the state for crawling across the Yamachen fields for two days and calling back Intel to stop a sabotage by his superior officer who had defected.

Anna pulls the bandages off while carefully rubbing the warm cloth on the wounds.

Almost healed up now eh? She kindly said as she continued. Andrew sat patiently, concentrating on every bite so he could distract himself from the pain.

Ten minutes had passed and she was done,

I’ll give it some air, I’ll be back with some new bandages in a moment, I’ll just cook up some boar for breakfast. Anna pulled up a wooden divider from underneath the bed that rests over Andrews shins to obscure his vision of the stumps.

No! He held his hand up weakly

It’s time I got used to it Anna. He continued.

She nodded at him, putting the divider down she collected the bowl and cloth and left the room, leaving the door ajar.

Andrew listened to her footsteps become quieter until he gauged when she was in the kitchen, the decibel had lowered for some time but now were at the same pitch not going away from the room but pacing back and forth in one location.

Andrew took the last bite of his final strawberry and leant back, resting his right hand on his stomach and the left hand on his right forearm, looking at his stumps he pondered about the day it happened, the screams of his fellow soldiers, why his superior officer did what he did That bloody knife. He thought.

It’s all about chance

The words ring in his ears, the last words of his superior.

He wondered why he was awarded for simply striving to survive. He smiled thinking of his company, I miss you. He whispered as he closed his eyes and gently breathed to calm the beat of his heart. He slowly drifted off to sleep.

The crackling of the boar meat on the range was spitting over the side and as Anna looked at it she couldn’t help but realise its passing resemblance to Mrs Tabernacle’s youngest grandson, He is a contemptuous brat. She thought, remembering when he would chase the cows back when Anna’s family had livestock.

Grabbing the boar meat with a fork she slices it in to steaks and throws them into a frying pan to seal the sides, while they seal she throws the hashes of potato in with it to crisp them up, sliding them onto a metal dish she seals her own and places her dish in the range to keep warm. Placing Andrew’s breakfast on a new tray she goes to grab some bandages from a shelf above the range, filled to the brim with medical supplies, tiptoeing she grabs surgical scissors and with the tray she walks towards Andrew’s room, past a photograph of her Grandfather, an architect who designed the Argile War Memorial in the capitol, to commemorate the liberating of it seventy years ago.

Knocking on the door she peered in to see Andrew in a deep sleep, walking over hurriedly she checked to see if he was still alive, one of her chief concerns was to walk in on him dead, as she did with her mother a few years ago while Andrew was away, she’d gotten ill from an animal bite when she was out with the livestock, unaware of what animal did it, the local councillors from the village decreed that all the livestock be destroyed for safety of the village, it turned out it was a dog from the Crabley Family in the centre of the village, being one of the councillors Mark Crabley was voted off the council and ordered to pay Anna the money she lost with what they would have earned from the livestock, it has kept them going for a long time as Anna lived alone and needed very little.

She rested the new tray on his bedside table and gently moved the old tray from his lap, wrapping his stumps up with clean bandages Anna pulled the sheets back, looking up at Andrew, he’s looking at her with wide eyes, a purple outline and dark rings show his bloodshot eyes. Like a vengeful beast he roars

GET OUT!

Anna falls back and holds her hand over her mouth to keep from screaming.

You betrayed us you slime! We trusted you. CHANCE! What does chance have to do with anything? Screaming incoherently Andrew’s body never changes

Anna can see he’s asleep with his eyes open, he’s looking past her, she rushes to his side and shakes him by the shoulders.

Andy, wake up! She screams.

He jerks awake and looks at Anna, he pulls her close and cries in her stomach.

They took my legs . . . Anna they took my legs. He whimpers hugging her.

Anna leans onto the bed and hugs him tightly, Anna strokes his hair as he falls back to sleep. You won’t be in this bed much longer. Anna thought to her self as she rests Andrew down on his pillow. Tying her hair back Anna stands up and goes to the door, moving the tray from his lap to his side table, she grabs the previous breakfast tray, leaving for the door, arriving at the door she was scared to look back in case he was staring at her like before, taking a deep breath she looked back, he was laying peacefully.

She smiled contently and closed the door gently behind her, walking to the kitchen she saw her overalls out