Page 52 of Never Tear Us Apart
On the last word, his voice catches, and on instinct, I take his hand. This time, it’s him squeezing my fingers hard.
‘You fly better than anyone else on this island. You just proved that.’
‘Not that hard,’ Danny says. ‘I ain’t like a lot of those other boys that only learnt to fly a month or two ago. I’ve been flying since I turned eleven and got a job dusting crops out at the local aerodrome. It’s as natural for me to be up there as it is for fish to swim in the sea. I know that’s where I’ll meet my maker someday. But I’ll be damned if it’s over a goddamn rivet.’ He shakes his head. ‘My ma would scold me over all that cussing.’
‘I’ve heard worse,’ I tell him.
‘Can I tell you something?’ he asks.
‘Go ahead.’
‘When I saw your face today, right there when I opened my eyes, I thought I was dead. I thought itwouldbe you I’d see in the second I died – the girl I can’t stop thinking about.’
The bus jolts to a sudden stop. Two army jeeps block the road. A handful of men in flight dress scramble out.
‘Shucks, the fellers must have seen me falling out the sky and come to see if I’m toast,’ Danny says, clambering up, swaying his way down the aisle of the bus and out onto the road to another round of spontaneous applause.
For a minute, I stay in my seat, stunned by what he just said. Then I follow him.
‘Hey, fellers, sorry to disappoint you, but Danny Beauchamp is still the ace round these parts. You all are just gonna have to play second fiddle to me some more.’
‘Good God, man.’ A Brit claps him on the back. ‘Felt sure you’d bought it when I saw your tail go up.’
‘Damn near did. Where’s the CO?’ Danny asks.
‘On the blower to the general, trying to scare up more Spits,’ another tells him. ‘Trouble is: we keep crashing them faster than the erks can repair them. Come on, we’ve come to take you back to base for a debrief.’
He’s being cajoled back into the jeeps when he stops suddenly, as if he’s forgotten something. He turns around and walks back to where I’m watching from the doorway of the bus.
‘I ain’t gonna dress it up,’ he says. ‘Truth is, I like you, Stitches.’
‘I like you, Flight Lieutenant,’ I tell him.
‘Maybe we could take a walk, you and I, sometime, if we’re both still alive on my next rest day. See if we might like each other some more?’
‘I think that would be nice, if I’m here.’
Danny considers this for a moment. ‘Hard to know if any of us will be here tomorrow.’
Taking my hand, he makes a deep bow and kisses it. His friends cheer as he jogs back to the jeep, and in a couple of minutes, they are leaving at speed, a cloud of dust following on behind.
‘Flight Lieutenant Danny Beauchamp likes you,’ Vittoria says, clasping her hands to her chest as I step back into the bus. ‘You will marry a hero!’
Suddenly, her wide eyes seem to float away from her face, and I feel something stronger than gravity grabbing onto my ankles and pulling me down and down. The sky rolls back to reveal stars burning fiercely in the void. I see an infinite number of moments raining all around me, a version of me in every one of them.
‘Vitt . . .’ The words come thick and half-formed. ‘I’m . . . fainting. Get me to Sal. To Sal. Just Sal . . . No doctor.’
There’s no chance to see if she understands before I’m raked out of this body, feeling the tear and wrench of every severed nerve ending burn through whatever it is I am and cast into who knows where.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Monday 23rdJune 2025, 11 a.m.
‘You’re back!’ Kathryn grabs hold of me as I sit up, gasping in air.
My heart is pounding against my ribcage. I cling to her as pain throbs through me in waves. It feels as if I am reinhabiting this body atom by atom.
I fall back against the pillows.
