10
The Belfast
The next day I had Angie looking after me. As I opened my eyes I awoke to find her sitting on the chair beside my bed. When Angie realised I was waking up she turned my radio on to “Southern FM”. She knew that I loved its breakfast show and found “Jack the lads weekly wind up” hilarious. Just as I was having my toast in the dining room I could hear Patrick’s alarm going off from his bedroom. Sarah soon arrived to join me at having some breakfast; as per usual she was loud and bubbly. I looked through the window in the direction of the abandoned house, there were no planes landing, everything appeared to be back to normal. I wondered for a minute if I had dreamt it all.
After breakfast I went back to my bedroom cleaned my teeth, washed my face and put gel on my hair. Now I was ready for another exciting day, not! I decided to watch TV for a bit. As I started to relax Sarah entered my room.
“Morning, Mario is ready to see you for your I.T session.” she announced.
“Would you mind if we quickly went to the other computer room to check if I have any emails?” I asked.
So we went along to the computer room near Mattie’s room. I quickly checked my emails, finding none; I decided to play pinball on the computer for a while. After several attempts I concluded that I was as good at playing pinball as I would be at selling chocolate kettles. Chris P then came into the room about half way through my tenth attempt at pinball and told me it was time for me to go.
Just as I reached the end of the corridor Mario was waiting for me just as Sarah had said to me earlier.
“Morning Chris” Mario greeted me in a half Russian accent.
After saying good bye to Chris P, Mario pushed me down to the O.T room to where the computers lived.
“What do you want to do today Chris?” Mario asked me.
It took me a few seconds to decide.
“I want to look up an old aeroplane.” I finally said.
“Alright what is the plane called?”
“I’m not sure.”
“Ok what does it look like?”
“It has four propellers, eight windows plus a separate cockpit window.”
“What colour is the plane?”
“I didn’t notice” I said.
“You’re best bet is to try and find it on Encarta or on the internet. Why do you want to know anyway?” Mario asked.
“No reason.” I lied to try to cover up what I had seen the previous night.
I tried looking for a plane that fitted my description but could only find photos of Spitfires, Mosquitoes, Blenheim’s and B-25 Bombers. So I decided to call it quits for the time being. I left Mario and went along to the lounge to join the others. The first person I saw was Mattie.
“Mattie, would you like to come to the abandoned house with me again?”
“Sorry I really don’t feel up to it tonight, maybe next Tuesday we could do something when I get back from my weekend at home.” He replied.
“Okay then, I’ll ask Patrick if he’s up for some adventure tonight instead.”
Later that day I found out the name of the four propeller aircraft via a Google search it was called a “Belfast”. On further investigation I discovered that it could carry five tanks as well as up to thirty passengers. I also managed to track Patrick down and he agreed to come with me to the abandoned house. Now all I had to do was to think of a believable alibi to get away from C.H.I.S. My last therapy session of the day was with my private tutor, during which we read “Biggles”. I was miles away in my own world, when I heard Patrick shouting down the corridor that he wanted a chat with me. Between us we managed to come up with an alibi that sounded realistic. We planned that after dinner we would tell the staff, that we were going over to Westfield to meet up with another support worker who recently had some information regarding a local charity that could help us find voluntary jobs. This alibi wasn’t all a pack of lies we had arranged to visit a support worker from Westfield to discuss voluntary work but that meeting had been planned for next week.
The plan seemed to work and we were both at the abandoned house by 7pm. Together we tried to get in by the back door but it had obviously been locked. Patrick sighed in defeat and turned around as if to turn back. I protested and Patrick stopped.
“Don’t you think we should try the windows first before giving up?” I suggested.
They wouldn’t budge so we decided to smash a window. As Patrick was the tallest and could easily reach the window frame he would be the one to climb through. As Patrick’s feet disappeared behind him as he slid through the window I heard Patrick let out a sigh of relief when he came face to face with Mario. Patrick quickly ran to the back door to unlock it to let me in. As soon as I realized that Mario was standing there I shouted to Patrick;
“Don’t trust him!”
No sooner were the words out of my mouth when Mario pulled out a handgun and pointed it in our faces. Both myself and Patrick recognized the gun from the detailed description of it in the morning paper, it was reported that it had been the weapon of choice in a series of recent callous murders in the London area. We knew that we had got ourselves into a tricky situation and that we needed to take action. I glanced at Patrick and once I had his attention I nodded my head towards a gas canister that was lying close to Patrick’s feet. Patrick winked at me to indicate he knew what I was up to and within a flash I punched Mario in the groin while Patrick picked up a gas cylinder off the floor and whacked him over the head with it. Mario instantly dropped to the floor, letting go of the gun as he fell. I quickly picked up the gun as Patrick kicked Mario to check he was unconscious. Mario let out a groan, Patrick had only stunned him and soon he would be ready to fight us again. I pointed the gun directly into Mario’s face, who instantly knew he had been outwitted and quickly made a run for it.
I sighed in relief and I started to relax. No sooner did I lower the gun when I heard a deep roaring sound from behind the house. The noise also made Patrick jump who dropped the gas canister to the floor with a clang.
“What the hell was that?” said Patrick with an anxious tone in his voice.
“Let’s find out” I said gesturing to the back window.
Together we looked sheepishly out of the window. We saw a plane flying away from the back of the house. I didn’t recognize the model but I did clock that the plane was about three quarters of the size of a Belfast plane.
“I think we better get going” I suggested.
Patrick nodded in agreement and he began to push me towards the door. Patrick suddenly stopped in his tracks, his leg began to vibrate. He retrieved his phone from his pocket and placed it to his ear.
“I’ve got a message from Dad, I think he wants me to go home tomorrow. He said something about ringing me at C.H.I.S in about half an hour, so I’d better get a move on”
I suddenly remembered that Mum was also due to phone to arrange what time she was picking me up tomorrow for my weekend at home, so I too was eager to get back to C.H.I.S.
The next day during yet another boring therapy session I began to reflect on what a week it had been and was looking forward to relaxing at home, away from the lure of the abandon house and its mysteries. By 3.30pm I was knackered and was grateful when I saw my mum getting out of her car with yet another box of chocolates for me under her arm. I quickly wheeled myself to the main entrance to meet her.
“Hello Chris, I’ve got some of your favorites” she said.
“Hi Mum”
“Put these in your room and get whatever you want to bring home with you” she continued.
We got home just on the stroke of four, so I had time to relax before dinner.
“Your Dad’s home” Mum shouted from the kitchen as she started to prepare dinner. Sitting in the lounge I started chatting with Dad about aircraft and I broached the subject of Belfast planes.
“Yes I used to fly one, what would you like to know about it?” he said.
“How much can it carry?” I asked.
“5 light tanks.”
“What do you mean by light?”
“About 15 tons” he answered.
Me and Dad were in deep conversation when Mum shouted from the kitchen to make our way to the dining room table as dinner was ready. That night we had sausage and chips for tea. After tea I looked at my emails, most of it was from sales people trying to flog me something that I’d probably never use! Then I noticed that I had a message from one of my friends saying that a few of them would like to come around to visit me either on Saturday or Sunday afternoon. On Saturday Mum and I went shopping, I didn’t buy anything. My mum on the other hand bought me a bag full to the brim of clothes from M&S and she treated me to a Swiss bun in the café, which is one of my favorite cakes.