Det här är första delen av en kortroman som min kompis har skrivit, och jag tycker att den är jättebra och jag hoppas att ni också ska tycka det :) Det kommer fler delar så om ni fastnar i den så behöver ni inte oroa er ;) Kommerntera gärna vad ni tycker :)

Chapter 1

”Don’t you worry about your wife, and kids, sir!?” I shouted at the general as he was walking up to board the ship.

”Well,” he said as he turned around. ”I can’t please everybody.” His brother had always said he had no heart, and now I started to believe him.

”No, but you can’t just leave them here, sir! They’re practically living in the streets, sir!” I shouted but he didn’t even bother caring about what I said.

”Listen to me boy,” he said and held me by the collar. ”It’s their own fault! I always told her to get a job, in case something like this would happen. Did they listen to me!?”

”No sir. It’s hard to get a job these days though, especially for a woman.”

”Well she didn’t even bother trying!” He released me from his grip. I saw how his ears became red, as they always did when he became angry with someone. I didn’t care about making him angry, for a man with no heart should be treated as such. I felt a chill as the wind became stronger, it had been bad weather for the last few weeks. ”Okay then, sir!” I said, a lot calmer than I had expected myself to sound. ”I will let you board that ship, but if you start feeling sad for your family I won’t help you!”

”I won’t need your help! You’re just a little kid, you don’t understand these things!” He walked toward the ship. I became angry again, not because he was a bastard but because I knew he was right. I didn’t know how it was to have a family, I was only eighteen, but I did know how it was losing someone you love. Even though he never showed any feelings, I knew he loved his wife. He never showed himself weak, even in battles he couldn’t win. He always just stood there, taking whatever came at him, never changing his facial expression. I wondered what a man like that thought inside his head. Did he know how he acted or did he just act without thinking? I never liked hurting someone, neither friend nor foe. It always left some guilt in me, even though he might have deserved it.

As I waited to board the ship he was looking at me from the deck, his ears as red as the apples my grandmother had in her backyard. There were six people before me, waiting to get their vest and name tag before boarding the ship. The two people who sat at the table checking off everybody who boarded the ship, had a long list of people. I was not the last in line, I had about twenty people behind me. We were all waiting to board the ship even though none of us really wanted to. We were all afraid to die, we were only human, but we were all forced to board that ship.

When it was finally my turn I was thinking about home and everything I was going to leave. “Name please!” one of the guys said.

“Stanley Rowle” I said. He searched through his list and eventually found me and checked the little box next to my name. The guy next to him gave me my name tag and a vest. I got hook runner as my job. “Great,” I thought. “What do they do?” When I got up on the ship I saluted my commander, his ears still red. At least he tried to smile. After that I saluted the admiral, he was really smiling. It almost annoyed me a little. “Welcome aboard lad!” he said. I could immediately tell he was Scottish, I never liked the Scottish accent. It really annoyed me in a way, I knew I had to listen to him for a long time. He was the one who showed me to my room, I was glad it wasn't Cdr. Chalmers that's for sure. He kept talking about himself. “My name's Pete McIntosh. I come from Edinburgh, my father was a captain in the British army. He commanded a tank squad, he drove a chieftain. Have you heard of those?” I nodded even though I hadn't, I just didn't want to stand through him explaining it. I was still angry at Cdr. Chalmers and I knew he was still mad at me. That thought made me a little happier, I had actually made him mad. ”Here’s your room lad!” he said and opened the door. Inside there were four beds and a desk. I had heard before that I was going to share a room with three others so I wasn’t surprised, but I had hoped for a bigger room. ”Choose a bed and start unpacking, there’s a meeting at ten and lunch at twelve thirty.”

”Thank you, sir!” I said and saluted him. He saluted back and then he left. I unpacked my bag and then I put it, with all the clothes still in it, under the bed. I had not packed too much, only a book, some clothes, pen, paper and an apple. The apple I was suppose to eat on the way here but I didn’t have an appetite for the whole trip. I decided to eat it now instead. I wasn’t that fond of apples but if I was hungry I could eat one. Apple pie though, I could eat a lot of that.

It took me a long time to finish that apple. As I was eating it I kept thinking about me, my family, my life and my future. It all seemed so distant. I didn’t think of me as myself but as some mixed up version of myself and Cdr. Chalmers. I was myself at the times I was sensitive, I actually had emotions and facial expressions. But apart from that, I felt so empty inside. I wanted to blame everybody else for my feelings, as if though it was their fault. I knew it wasn’t their fault but it still felt like it. I thought Cdr. Chalmers had put a curse on me, or maybe the navy pushed my happiness down. As I finished the apple a future roommate walked in. ”Hello!”  he said with a calm voice. I was surprised that someone on this ship could sound calm, everybody always sounded so stressed. ”Hi!” I said, trying not to look sad. He held his hand in front of him, I shook it. ”Geoffrey Armstrong,” he said, still really calm. ”Been in the navy for two years now.” He sounded sort of proud of it, as if it’s good to have been training for two years before boarding a ship. I could do that without any training or knowledge at all. I told him my name. ”New here?” he said ”haven’t heard of you before.”

”Yeah, I’m part of the emergency programme.” I said. The emergency programme was part of the army. A few men sit down and randomly select a few people from a long list that will be needed in the army for a battle or war. I was one of the unlucky ten that got chosen this time. The navy had been hit pretty hard since the start of the war. They always needed new people from the emergency programme. I was on the list because I had a loan that I hadn’t paid last month. If you had an unpaid loan or you had a criminal record you were automatically on the list. You could volunteer for the programme as well but there were too few who were willing to do so. ”Too bad.” he said as if though I didn’t know. ”Well, stick with me and I’ll help you survive. What job do you have?” I didn’t remember so I took up my jacket. ”Hook runner.” I said and he started to think. ”Oh yeah!” he said after a moment of silence. ”All you need to do is check if the plane is correctly attached to the catapult.” I looked at him, sort of surprised sort of happy. I had actually gotten a simple job. ”Catapult?” I asked. ”Yeah, since the plane can’t take off of the ship on it’s own we use a catapult to sort of shoot it away. Then the plane can ascend on his its own.” he explained without looking at me as if I was stupid. I still felt like an idiot though, I didn’t know such a simple thing. ”Oh well, it’s time for the meeting, I’ll show you to the food court.” I was surprised how nice he was. At least I had one soul to talk to if I was feeling down. We walked through the sleeping quarter, we saw a lot of men putting on their suits and hats. They were all getting ready for the meeting. It was the only meeting before we parted from land, and apparently a very important one. I had my navy uniform on and of course my hat but I didn’t feel the need to put on a nice suit because of a silly meeting. And apparently neither did Geoff.

When we got to the food court there were chairs put up in a neat formation of columns and lines. Geoff and I sat in the middle, we had actually gotten the seats next to each other. We were the first to arrive, the others were probably busy trying to look good. Cdr. Chalmers was looking at me from the stage as if he had hoped I wasn’t going to show up. Geoff nudged my arm with his elbow. ”Cdr. Chalmers is a jerk, you should watch out for him. He isn’t the person you’d like to have a chat with.”

”I know,” I said. ”He was my neighbour.” Geoff looked surprised. 

”You must’ve had a miserable life then.” he said and smiled a little. I smiled back. It wasn’t that miserable. I mean he did take my football once when my friend kicked it over to his backyard but other than that he didn’t really disturb us much. I had heard him yell a lot though, at his wife and son but you sort of got used to that. ”His son was really nice though.” I said to Geoff.

”Really?” he asked. I nodded. 

”He was a pretty bright kid too, he’s one year younger than I but he had skipped a grade. I liked him, he always seemed pretty down though.” I said and Geoff nodded understandingly. ”Well, with a father like Chalmers you’re bound to have a rough time.” he said. The room had been filled with people by then but no one seemed to hear us. Eventually someone on the stage stood up to talk and after a while I saw that it was Adm. McIntosh. He was the only one who smiled, he seemed to enjoy being on this ship somehow. ”Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the biggest aircraft carrier in the world!” We applauded. I looked around, trying to find at least one lady. I had not seen one so far but perhaps there were some. ”We will try to keep all of you satisfied the whole time you’re here.” Bullshit, I thought. It’s not a cruise ship! ”I’m Adm. McIntosh and to the right here we have Cdr. Chalmers who will be your number one contact on the ship. If he can’t answer your questions he’ll direct you to me.” Cdr. Chalmers stood up and walked up to the microphone. Great, I thought. ”My job is to try and keep you all in one piece.” I laughed a little, he did not care for anyone. ”If you ever have a problem just talk to me and I’ll try to fix it. I’ll either be on deck or in my office, unless it’s food of course.” he giggled and Adm. McIntosh smiled. ”You’ll always be there if it smells like food.” he said and Cdr. Chalmers sat down again. He had seemed oddly nice. ”And of course we shouldn’t forget all the new people on this ship. We have gotten more people from the emergency programme and they are all willing to help their country to victory.” Yeah right, we didn’t choose to be here, we were forced to. ”Let’s give a hand of applause to the new folks!” Geoff nudged me with his elbow and smiled. I didn’t feel like smiling, I rarely did. ”We will go through your jobs and place you all in groups so you can learn what to do. That meeting will happen tomorrow morning at eight a.m Anybody who doesn’t show up gets a labour duty. That won’t be good on your first day.” I became worried, I hated early mornings. I looked at Geoff and he nodded calmly. I knew he would help me. ”That was all for this meeting, I will see you all at lunch. Thank you!” We applauded and everybody started leaving. Geoff and I stayed a little longer. ”Don’t you worry about anything,” he said. ”I’ll guide you through it all.”

Samuel Eriksson