Soldierboy

Chapter Fourteen

The bomb explosion made the top headlines on the local evening news, and Kelly sat with the rest of her family including Chrissie, watching the television, whilst anxiously biting on her nail

It appeared the IRA paramilitaries had forced a catering van driver, to drive into the barracks, giving them no more than a two minute warning, giving him a chance to flee But it was not enough time, for those who happened to be at the gates to make good their escape, and it had left two soldiers dead and five others injured, two of them seriously.

It made Kelly’s blood run cold in her veins, knowing that they were including Danny in this report.

The news reports didn’t have much detail on how the, injured were doing, just that they had been rushed to hospital, so Kelly was left fretting and frustrated wondering what had happening to Danny.

It was only later, when Chrissie managed to get in touch with her cousin Tracey, that she found out more details, and she knew which hospital he had been taken to.

Tommy hadn’t been too seriously injured, but they were keeping him in overnight for observation, all Tracey knew about Danny, was that he was having emergency surgery, with serious injuries to his head and legs.

When Chrissie suggested she would go along with Kelly up to the hospital, and find out more, Kelly was never so grateful to anyone in her life.

They decided to get a taxi as it would be quicker. On the short journey to the hospital, Kelly found she was actually shaking from head to toe with nerves.

Whilst ‘Please let him be okay,’ were the only words that she kept silently chanting inside her head

Because of the nature of the terrorist attack, security was immediately heightened around the hospital, with extra police and army swarming the grounds on alert.

Once they got into the hospital building, Kelly found it hard to get any more information about Danny when she enquired at the reception desk.

Because he was a soldier, they could only give any sort of information, to his immediate family and the army officers in charge of his regiment, and as she was neither, they could tell her very little.

Kelly’s heart started to sink, realising it had been a wasted journey

“Can’t you even tell us if he is doing ok?” Chrissie demanded in agitation, being a little more outspoken than Kelly, “She is a very good friend y'know, and she is worried about him?”

“I’m sorry, but it’s just not possible.” The male receptionist replied apologetically, remaining firm in his stance

“But she has come up all this way to find out, she wouldn’t do that if he wasn’t important to her, and he would want her to know he is alright” Chrissie stated hotly

“Perhaps if you wait around one of the army officers they might be able to tell you something,” the receptionist then suggested

“Well its not like we have much choice,” Chrissie retorted in frustration.

“It’s ok Chrissie,” Kelly spoke up, realising that losing their temper with the hospital staff was not going to get them anywhere. She understood why they had to take these precautions, even if she didn’t like them.

“Yeah, maybe we can go and find Tracey” Chrissie then suggested, “she might know more”

“Yeah, that sounds like a plan,” Kelly agreed, though her mind was still in a whirl, and she couldn’t think straight

But just as they were walking away from the reception desk, Kelly heard someone call her name, making her stop and turn on her heels, and she recognised Danny’s Sergeant