2006, Cawthorne, England, UK, Europe 13:45…
“Gracie!” Yelled Stella as she clambered over a few guys who were securing their parachutes and keeping everything in check. “Gracie we’re gonna be jumping in about… two minutes, so get to the front, OK?”
I nodded and shoved through a few guys who were either chatting about the adrenaline of the jump, how shit scared they were or how they thought this may be the last thing they’d ever do. I felt entirely differently, I wanted to jump, to feel the wind slash at my skin as gravity sucked me down like a vacuum. I was ecstatic. I was ready.
Accelerated free fall was something I’d always wanted to do, a perfect opportunity to feel like I could actually fly. My mother had always said if you really want to do something, you should go for it. This was my chance, and Stella was coming with me.
“Gracie!”
I glanced to the two instructors ahead of me who were smiling at me with anticipation. They were excited, too. Of course, I was shit scared just like everyone would be on the plane, but I was the only one who volunteered to go first – Stella shortly after me.
“You ready?” Asked David, the attractive blond instructor with blue eyes that I swore sparkled every time I looked him in the eyes.
“Ready as I’ll ever be I guess,” I croaked, my nervous smile wavering into a huge grin after he flashed his teeth like the Cheshire cat from Alice and Wonderland.
“On three,” Yelled the female instructor on my other side, her auburn hair flapping in the sudden gust of wind.
“One…”
Birds…
“Two…”
Planes…
“Three!”
I was falling… No, not falling, flying. The two instructors beside me spread their arms and legs out like a flying squirrel. For the first time in a long time, I felt alive. I flexed my fingers and began to laugh, my eyes began to water and nothing hurt. Everything was perfect. This was the moment I’d been waiting for; peace of mind. I glanced up at my red parachute, gleeful at it’s beauty.
“Pull the chord,” I heard David say through my head set, and holy shit, the ground sure had gotten close in the time I’d been thinking about how beautiful everything was up here and how eagles were the luckiest creatures on the planet.
I felt for the chord and looked across at the female instructor, she nodded and pulled, I watched her as she began to softly float away.
I pulled.
Nothing.
“Shit,” I mumbled under my breath as I looked down at the chord and tried pulling, but it still wouldn’t budge. “Jesus Christ David, it’s not fucking working!”
“Just keep calm you’ve got plenty of time, pull it out quickly and don’t even think about it.”
I pulled.
My parachute yanked me up and I began to descend towards the grassy fields below me.
“You okay?” David asked.
I laughed, “Yes. I’m fine. Shit.”
“What is it?”
Trees…
“Gracie what is it?”
TREES.
The words didn’t come out; I heard David’s yells down the headset, but all I could think about was the trees – the fucking trees of all things. A clever guess would be that they didn’t quite anticipate the wind would do this, sway me towards the forest.
Well shit it did.
“Oh my god!” I shrieked. The trees suddenly got bigger, I got smaller, my parachute got fucked and I got fucked.
Well shit.
Black.
Currahee
A bright light seeping through my eyelids, then there was the sound of wind and the feeling of no gravity. I felt for the floor, but felt nothing. No ground to keep my legs stationary. They were dangling in mid-air, no… I was dangling. How was that even possible? Harry Potter isn’t real; wingardium leviosa isn’t a real spell. How was it that I was in mid-air being suspended by nothing? Oh wait…
I opened my eyes and glanced up at my parachute – and I didn’t even notice it was white – and tried to pull. It was caught on an outstretched branch of a tall green Cedar tree: no magic there.
I couldn’t help but feel slightly disappointed that it wasn’t magic, if it was, I could have been somehow miraculously saved from this awkward dangling position.
“Great,” I sighed as I looked up again at my parachute. “I’ll just… hang here then.”
I was about to just let it go and accept the fact I might not be found, when I remembered I could be found. David! Feeling a sudden burst of hope, I reached for my headset to tell him where I was and that I was OK but needed help, when I came to tapping my ear like an idiot.
Wait… what? There should be an earpiece there.
But there wasn’t, and I was still searching for it like I was looking for a bug or something scuttling across my head. Of course I wasn’t, and of course there was nothing but my ear and some hair and¾
“WHAT?” I yelped as my finger hit something cold and I pulled it back down out of reflex. Confused, I sent my hand back up to search my head. Cold… metal? It felt… heavy? I sucked in a deep gulp of air and began panic. What the hell was going on now?! OK so I could accept that I no longer had my earpiece, but now there was a helmet on my head?!
Now my breathing became unsteady, and I started to look about the floor beneath me, when… Shit. What were those on my feet? Army boots? Either I was mental, mental or MENTAL. Yep, I was definitely mental. I began to laugh nervously to myself as I noticed more and more crazy things. Like an M1 dangling from my shoulder, green paratrooper clothes and a heavy backpack. I looked up at my parachute, and only then did I realize it was white and not red.
“I’M FRICKING MENTAL!” I bellowed to the trees, to myself, to nothing in particular. “I’M FRICKING¾”
“Jesus trooper!” A husky voice said and its owner materializing from what seemed like nowhere. “You speak any louder and you’re gonna get us all killed.”
I looked down in shock and stared at a tall man beneath me with a map, green army gear and a helmet with a white spade on the side. My brows furrowed and I stared down at him like I was an idiot or something.
I must be insane. This can’t be real. Or if it is real, I must have passed out, someone grabbed a ladder, changed me into army gear, dangled an M1 from my shoulder, took away my earpiece and decided to do some larping around as a weird joke or something.
But that didn’t explain the whole change of parachute business.
Dreaming. I’m dreaming.
“Beanie! Hey look it’s Beanie!” Some guy yell –whispered, his large mouth and eyes wide in happiness. “Someone cut the guy down will ya, you can’t just leave him hanging there like that dead guy back there! Hell knows how long he’s been dangling there.”
“All night by the looks of it,” replied the guy with the husky voice, rolling his eyes. “Listen, we’re gonna get you down and get you back to your platoon, which company you with?”
I just stared; mouth gaping and my voice stopping and starting.
“Are you OK?” He asked, leaning on one leg and looking up at me.
“I don’t know who you are,” I gasped. “You’re not one of David’s friends are you?”
“One of David Webster’s friends? I don’t know about friend, I’m Lieutenant Winters. Listen, what company and platoon are you with?”
I gulped. “Um. Listen, jokes over guys, cut me down and let me go home. I just want to be back in time for my program, you know I’ve been waiting for that for ages. It’s supposed to be the next big thing after Supernatural. You know? The BBC three show?”
More troops gathered, and they all stared at me like I was crazy. Good acting. Yeah, they really were good actors. Real funny.
“Has anyone seen a girl with blonde hair? She’s called Stella, she should have landed not far from me, hell, I hope not in a tree that would be so unlucky.”
More stares. And silence.
I laughed. “OK, guys, please. Just… you know? This is the twenty first century, you can cut me down and get out of that army gear and play on Xbox’s and whatever crap it is you do best. So… c’mon, be cool and not idiots.”
‘Winter’s’ frowned, he coughed and turned to one of his friends. “Get Doc Roe, I think he hit his head.”
“OK,” and the trooper ran off.
“He?” I questioned. I’m a girl. “I said enough already, cut me down!”
“Listen, we’re gonna get you down but just so you know, this is 1942 kiddo. You just did a practice jump in Currahee, training for the war, remember?”
WHAT?!
Doc Roe
“This is insane!” I yelled, wriggling in the strong arms of two bulky soldiers who were dragging me towards a large field with tents, soldiers and army vans. The sky was a bright blue, with the sun high in the sky and I could see distant hills and mountains. The only noises were the sounds of talking men, the revving of an engine and the whoosh of propellers from unseen planes behind all the camps scattered around the field. I couldn’t smell much other than grass and smoke from troopers and vans.
“Bring him over here,” yelled a guy with a medic sign on the arm of his jacket. His nose was long and round, he had thin lips and brown eyes. He was quite good looking, but this wasn’t the time for things like checking out a guy just because he was in front of me. Everything was insane; David’s joke had gone too far.
The medic stood beside a small camping bed, one in a row of many other’s with plenty of soldiers sat cradling broken arms, legs and coughing from illness. This wasn’t a place I wanted to be in. I didn’t think anyone wanted to be here. Especially the smell of piss and sick, that wasn’t a very inviting aspect of this mini hospital they had going on here.
“Please no I just want this to be over, just let go of me and tell me where I can find David!” My throat cracked towards the end and my limbs wouldn’t move, stiff and frozen. Sweat began to drip down my forehead and neck, which made me feel clammy and even more uncomfortable in the army gear.
“Please! Just stop! The jokes over, you’ve taken this too far!”
The medic nodded at the two guys beside me, and they dropped me onto the bed. At this point, I didn’t wriggle or try to repel, I just collapsed onto the bed in a heap and turned away from the soldier guys, feeling shameful and embarrassed that I was taking the joke so literally.
“Bull, Luz, would you mind staying here just in case?” The medic asked the two guys.
“Sure,” they both said, and I heard the metal creak of them sitting on the edge of a vacant bed.
Shuffling.
“Beanie, you remember what you’re doing here?”
I swallowed what felt like a large shard of glass and felt the sting in my eyes. I sniffed. “I jumped from a plane with a parachute.”
“Yes, you did, but do you remember what you’re doing here?”
This was a dream. So what did it matter if I told the truth?
“No fucking clue,” I said honestly, turning to face him. “And I don’t know who any of you are.”
One of the guys on the bed frowned, his lip sticking out like a duck in synch with his eyebrows. “How can ya not remember me? It’s Luz, in case you’ve ‘forgotten’.”
My eyes narrowed and I looked down at the creases on the dampened bed sheets, sweat still dripping from my forehead.
“This just doesn’t make any sense, I woke up this morning, probably the happiest person on the planet. The feeling of finally being able to do what I want and not what my parent’s want, and I was looking forward to the jump with my friend. Now I just don’t know. I don’t get it. What the hell am I doing here? Not long ago I was in some rural area near a small town called Barnsley, now I’m near some hills and mountains? This is too rural. This shit just doesn’t fit the puzzle.”
The medic sighed and removed my helmet, felt the back of my head and turned to Luz and Bull. “Grab those bandages on the table over there.”
He turned back to me and showed me his hand.
Blood.
“What?” I asked, staring at the thick red liquid drying onto the palm of his hand.
“You hit you’re head. I think that in a few days you’ll be good as new. You’ll be ready for war, to fight. So mostly, you’ll just be laid in here until you’re healed and then you’re gonna be remembering who you are.”
I propped myself up onto my elbow and cleared my throat, ignoring the throbbing at the back of my head. “I think I remember who I am. I just don’t know what I am.”
The medic smiled. “You’re Jacob Bean. You’re a paratrooper in the 101st airborne division, easy company. Luz managed to clear that up with Lieutenant Winter’s. I’m Eugene. Eugene Roe.”
“Nice to meet you Doc,” I said, wincing as he began to wrap the bandage around my head.
“I’d say nice to meet you too, but you know me already.”
Doc Roe smiled and Luz shot up, shoving Roe out of the way like a bowling pin.
“Right now Doc, get outta here I need to talk to Beanie, try refreshing his memory and shit. Though I don’t see how he could forget me. We’re like fucking conjoined twins.”
Luz sat beside me, lit a cigarette and folded his arms behind his head.
“I don’t know you,” I said.
“Sure you do.”
“I don’t.”
“Fucking idiot, hey, want a smoke?”
I eyed the cigarette he held out to me, bit my lip, and took it.
This might be the only thing to clear my mind, actually allow me to enjoy this weird thing whilst I still could.
The whole dream thing actually made me decide to watch Life on Mars when I got back. I was pretty sure that was where I was, because this was a dream, I was a boy here, not a girl, and nothing made sense.
May as well live the fucking dream like a boss.
Day of Days part 1
I’d gone through basic training at Currahee and done everything I needed to do, including the patrol around the countryside and Sobel’s shitty navigation skills. Lieutenant Colonel Sobel was this awful man with a thirst for pushing the troopers to their limit, causing them to vomit and collapse, training them to be the finest company of all the company’s. He was such a piece of shit and we all wanted the chance to shoot him dead; if we ever got it, we would have taken it.
Luz (who apparently was my best friend) did a fine impression of Major Horton and humiliating Sobel. That was a perfect moment. An even more perfect moment was when we didn’t have to go into combat with him. That put our minds at ease; Winter’s would be leading us instead. Winter’s was perfect. I’d only heard him speak a few times, but I could already tell he was some saint or shit.
Whatever dream I was dreaming, it was a perfect dream so far, aside the fact it was world war two and I could ‘die’ any time. But that didn’t mean I wanted to stay, I still wanted to go home… to tell my mum I was OK.
I hope I’m not stuck in a tree back there or something…
What a thought, if I was stuck in a tree and dead or something, what a hell of a way to die.
“Hey, Beanie boy!” Yelled Luz as he waved at me and pointed at the planes repeatedly. “You’re jumping, everyone is, get your gear together and get ready, because we’re landing in Normandy tonight.”
“Great,” I replied as I made my way over to the men. Toye was rambling about how everything in his rucksack weighed as much as him and complaining, as usual… and after we all were ready and ran through everything, talked with the guys and got our asses on board, we got ready for our flight to Normandy.
Around me, each man sat on either side of the plane – all either smoking, shaking or humming to themselves – and I just sat there, holding onto my M1 and staring ahead of me at nothing in particular. I was deep in thought, thinking about the jump, thinking about how I might not survive and how this might be the last thing I did.
That got me shaking.
“Hey Beanie,” Winter’s called, moving towards me and kneeling in front of me. “Hang tough.”
I smiled and reached for my cigarette, lighting it and relaxing my head against the metal behind me. It was dark before I knew it, and the plane shook rapidly like boat on air, and instead of feeling sea sick, I felt airsick. Vomit pushed it’s way up and out of my throat, causing me to jerk uncontrollably in the pain it caused, unable to control any part of myself whilst I puked up everything I’d eaten (I was sure) over the past week. Doc Roe patted my back, telling me it was a normal thing I was going through and we’d be jumping soon.
I let him tell me that, but it didn’t feel normal. It felt strange, like what I was puking up wasn’t really there, or that I was puking up my fear. I was definitely puking up fear. Fear could eat a soldier alive, it was a soldier’s worst enemy, if it got a hold of you, you’d have no chance at surviving in the war.
After a while, the red light turned on and Winter’s stood up, I couldn’t hear what he said first, but copied the other men as they sat straight.
“Stand up!” Winter’s yelled, gesturing with his hands for us to rise. “Hook up!”
Everyone hooked onto the bar at the top and stood in line, I copied everyone and braced myself. My legs felt like blocks of ice, not wanting to move, and my stomach felt like a raging storm fighting against a battle ship.
“Equipment check!” Winter’s shouted, tapping his equipment.
I lifted my heavy arms and checked the buckles, straps and helmet and when I was sure everything was perfect, I looked towards Winter’s who yelled to shout our numbers for equipment check.
“Ten OK…”
“Nine OK…”
“Eight OK…”
“Seven OK…”
“Six OK…”
“Five OK…”
“Four OK…”
“Three OK…”
“Two OK…”
And finally, Winter’s: “One OK!”
As we stood staring ahead at Winter’s, I glanced outside as we broke through the clouds and into a mass of devastation and explosions, planes spiraling down to the fields beneath. The paratroopers who were released from their planes all looking like raw mushrooms, softly floating down to the floor with either dead or alive soldiers.
The loud bangs and gunshots were a loud mass of hell, it was too hard to decipher any noise through it, and I felt like I could hear nothing. I felt deaf in the heat of it all. Like I was nothing. If I died, it wouldn’t be a great loss and nothing would matter.
I may as well die, because all I wanted to happen was to wake up and get back to my own century, to die in a dream… and if I could pull through this, everything would be OK and I wouldn’t be in World War two anymore.
After a while of hell, it was time to jump, and the green light turned on, Winter’s motioned us all through. I watched Eugene leap out, and then it was my turn. Hands on the outside, I pushed myself out, feeling the tug of my parachute being released and softly escorting me down to the fields below.
I didn’t want to land in trees this time.
And I didn’t.
Instead, I landed with a thud on the grass, my hands tugging at the buckles to release me and free myself to hook up with Winter’s. I looked around for my M1, it was still there, I had no idea how it had managed to stick with me, but it had.
Then I looked around in the mass of field, grass and trees ahead.
“Shit.” I sighed. “Now what?”
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