Captain Mack (5 page)

“I bet Whaley's poopy that you didn't get at least a couple of weeks for saluting him.”

Danny rolled his eyes. “I can't wait to hear what Dad's going to say.”

“Another detention?” Dad asked as Danny handed him the envelope. He tore it open and unfolded the letter. It didn't take him long to read it.

“It was an accident,” Danny explained. “I thought he was Captain Mack.”

Dad laid the letter in his lap and looked at Danny. “I'm not so concerned with the disrespect to Mr Whaley. I can see that it was a genuine if slightly clumsy mistake. I just wonder whether saluting an old man who thinks he's still at war is really the right thing to do. Don't you think it's making light of something rather more serious than a game of pretend?”

“He doesn't mind.”

“Whether or not he minds isn't the point.”

“He makes me do it if I forget, Dad. It makes him feel important or something. I don't think it is pretend for him.”

“Hmm,” Dad said, rubbing his chin. “Well, don't forget what I said the other night about showing this man the respect he deserves. Remember, even though he's a little out of touch —”

“I know, Dad.”

“Just keep reminding yourself of it.”

He went to deliver the razors and hair-gel the following day. Captain Mack wasn't at his unit, so after searching in the gardens for a while Danny went into the hospital and found Ellie.

“What's up?” she asked, looking slightly flustered.

“I can't find Captain Mack,” he said.

“Oh, I forgot. He's in here. Come with me.”

She led him down a short cream-coloured passageway to a small room. “He's in there,” she said. “Sorry I can't hang about — I've got a million things to do before I go. I'll meet you in the car-park at the usual time.”

“What happened to him?” Danny asked as she began to hurry off.

“He'll tell you,” she replied over her shoulder.

Danny put his head around the doorway. Captain Mack was alone, lying on a trolley in the corner of the pale, shiny room. He had a white bandage on his forehead, with his eyepatch looped over the top.

“What happened to you, sir?” Danny asked.

“Ah, Snell, get over here. Quick now, lad!” Captain Mack propped himself up on one elbow. “Quick now, I said!”

Danny reached into his bag for the razors and gel. “I got that stuff you wanted.”

Captain Mack grabbed Danny's hands and pushed the toiletries back into the bag. “What are ye doing? Are ye mad?” he hissed.

“It's just razors and —”

“I can see what it is, Private, and here's not the place to give them to me.”

“Where, then —”

“Just listen. I've got a most urgent message I need ye to deliver.”

“Sure. What is it?”

He glanced about before whispering, “They're being less subtle about it now, Snell.”

“About what?”

Captain Mack pointed at his bandage. “Ye think this was an accident? No, lad, it was nothing of the kind. They made sure it happened, because they know.”

“They know what, sir?”

“I think they know about Tierney, but I can't be sure. Oh Lord, what a mess,” he moaned, flopping back onto the bed and putting both hands to his face. “I've got to get out of this place, Snell. If they think I can't work, then that'll be the end.”

“Can't work?”

“There's still so much to do, lad — don't ye understand? If they find Tiemey, the game's up. We've got to stay busy so we keep them distracted. But the lads are dropping like flies, and there's still so far to go! Oh Lord …”

A nurse came into the room then, saving Danny from having to ask any more questions about Tierney or what kind of work Captain Mack thought he was supposed to be doing. She smiled at Danny as she went over to the trolley. “OK, Mr McAuliffe, the doctor won't be long coming to stitch up that head of yours, all right? Are you comfy there?” she asked.

“I'm all right, don't ye worry about me.”

“Great. We'll see you soon, then.” She turned to go.

“Excuse me,” Danny asked her, “can you tell me what happened? He won't say.”

“It's just a bit of a gash, that's all. He tripped on his front step.”

“Aye, that's what
they
say, lad, but the truth is rather different,” Captain Mack interrupted. “Don't listen to them, or they'll poison yer mind. Savages …”

The nurse winked at Danny. “I'll leave you to it, then.”

“Is she gone?” Captain Mack asked as the door closed behind her.

“Yeah, she's gone.”

“Typical of these people, lad. Kind to yer face, but knock ye down when ye least expect it.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Did he really trip over on his porch?” Danny asked Ellie as they drove home.

“I'm afraid so. He's getting so frail, Danny. I don't think it'll be long before they move him into the hospital wing.”

“He really doesn't like nurses, does he?”

Ellie laughed. “He doesn't like anyone, Danny. Except you, that is. You're the only one he doesn't see as the enemy.”

NINE

It was Saturday morning, and Danny and Dad were at the supermarket doing their grocery shopping. They were standing indecisively in front of the pasta when a woman and her three sons came around the end of the aisle and stopped near the rice. One of the boys was Shaun Gilmore, and Danny saw him look up, noticed the sudden flicker of recognition. Immediately Danny felt his chest tighten.

“How many types of pasta can there be? They all taste the same after all. Oh, these will do,” Dad said defeatedly, tossing a packet of spaghetti into the trolley and moving towards Shaun and his family. “Come on, let's get this awful job over with,” he said as he sensed Danny's hesitation.

They stopped a couple of metres from Mrs Gilmore, Dad studying the shelf packed with every kind of rice imaginable. Shaun's two older brothers were fooling about nearby, tossing a large tub of yoghurt back and forth between them like a football while their mum looked flustered and tried to concentrate on her list. Shaun was eyeing Danny, trying to appear menacing but only really succeeding in looking embarrassed to be caught doing the groceries with his mum.

“Think quick, Shauny,” one of his brothers said, under-arming the yoghurt at him. He saw it late and fumbled it. The container hit the floor and split, yoghurt oozing out onto the lino.

Shaun's brothers slunk away, leaning against each other and laughing. “Pathetic!” one of them gasped.

“Shaun!” his mother snapped, smacking him on the arm. “Cut it out! Now go and get a new one and stop playing with it, for crying out loud!”

Shaun lowered his red face as he pushed past Dad's trolley. “Excuse me,” he muttered. Danny tried to catch his eye, but Shaun wasn't looking up for anything.

The afternoon sky was cloudy, and the rain had just stopped. Danny knocked on the door, but this time Captain Mack didn't even ask who it was. “Go away, whoever ye are,” he growled.

“But it's me — Private Snell,” Danny called out. “Can I come in? I brought chocolate biscuits today.”

“No, I don't wish to see anyone. Can ye go now?”

Rather than sounding grumpy or suspicious as it usually did, Danny thought that Captain Mack's voice was different. Sad, as if he was crying, or about to start.

“Are you all right, Captain Mack?” he asked.

“Hang on, then,” Captain Mack finally answered in a tired voice. Danny could hear him shuffling across the room. “If ye can't take no for an answer I suppose I'd best let ye in.”

The door opened. Captain Mack was standing there in a brand new red tartan dressing gown. He didn't have his eye-patch on, and there were damp streaks under his good eye.

Danny straightened up in preparation for a salute when Captain Mack said, “Don't be going on with all that nonsense — I'm not up to it today. Just come in and park ye backside if ye plan to stay. And if ye want tea ye'll have to get it for yeself. I can't do it. I don't have the strength.”

Danny didn't know what to say. He thought about excusing himself and leaving, but something about Captain Mack told him that he should stay. Something sad and desperate, like the frustration Ellie had described as they'd waited at the traffic lights. So he went into the little lounge-room, which despite having the curtains pulled wide open for once, seemed very dark.

Captain Mack slumped into his chair and stared straight ahead. It was as if Danny wasn't even there. Danny sat nervously and watched him, saying nothing.

“Are you all right?” he asked again, after they'd been that way for what seemed like hours, sitting like statues on opposite sides of the dim room.

“No, I'm not all right,” Captain Mack answered without even looking at him. “I'm nothing like all right.”

“Why's that? Have you had some bad news?”

“Ye could say that.”

“What sort of bad news?”

At last Captain Mack turned his head and looked at Danny. His eye was red and full of tears. “It's my son William,” he said at last. “Ye've not met him, have ye?”

Danny shook his head.

There was another lengthy pause. Again Danny waited.

“Ye see this gown?” Captain Mack said finally, plucking harshly at the plush red fabric. “Do ye like it?”

“It's very nice,” Danny answered. “How about you?”

“It's meant to be a peace offering,” Captain Mack said, disgust thick in his voice.

“I don't … For what?”

Captain Mack raised his head and looked straight at Danny, and his voice shook slightly as he spoke. “They're moving me. They say I'm too old to stay in this unit, which might well be true. They've been saying it for a while, but then when I took that bump the other day they made up their minds. I don't even remember doing it, to be honest.” He lifted a hand slowly, gently touching the small white dressing on his forehead with one finger. “So they're moving me into a proper home across town, like a hospital for useless folk.”

Danny's protest sounded weak and pathetic. “You're not useless,” he said.

“Don't ye be patronising me, lad. I
am
useless.”

“But they have a hospital section here, where Ellie works,” Danny said. “Maybe you could —”

“Ye don't think I told him that? He said they can't afford it.”

“But don't you get a say? I mean —”

“No, I don't, lad. I told William, ‘This is where all my friends are', and do ye know what he said?”

Danny shook his head.

“He said, ‘Ye'll make new friends'. Can ye imagine? I'm eighty-four years old, and he talks to me like I'm a child.” His eye was streaming with tears now, and he had to stop speaking. He felt about in one of the pockets of the dressing gown, pulled out a hanky, blew his nose loudly and tucked his hanky away. “Like a child,” he said again.

Danny didn't know what to say. He wasn't sure whether to make Captain Mack a cup of tea, or give him a hug, or just sit quietly. So that's what he did, just waiting for the old man to go on. It took a while, and the heavy awkwardness grew.

“Then he gives me this.” Captain Mack pointed at the gown again. “Did ye see the tartan, lad? He probably thought it was a grand joke. My own son doesn't care about where his father comes from. He gives me a tartan gown as if to say, ‘There ye go, Da, there's something to remember Scotland by, to make up for putting ye in a home for reject folks'. I … I can't talk about it any more, lad. I'm sorry ye have to see a grown man weeping like a wee'un …”

“It's okay,” Danny said quietly. He couldn't think of anything more comforting, and he felt stupid for saying it at all.

“No, it's not all right. It's terrible, lad. Don't ever treat your da like that, ye understand? It's not right.”

“I won't,” Danny said in a voice almost too quiet to hear.

“What's up?” Ellie asked as soon as she saw Danny's face.

“It's Captain Mack,” he said. “He's really upset.”

“Oh, the move.” She felt in her purse for the car keys.

“You knew about it?”

“I found out today. He's going to Redgrange.”

“Where's that?”

“A few k's from here. I know some people who work there.”

“What's it like?” Danny asked, hoping she'd say that it was really good, top notch, the best.

“It's a hole,” she said, buckling her seatbelt and starting the car. “They're cost-cutting all over the place. It's a lot cheaper than here, though, and I guess that's the main reason.” She shrugged. “This place
is
pretty pricey, you know. To move him into the hospital wing would've cost them a lot of money. I guess they're doing what they have to do.”

“But it's not fair,” Danny protested. “He's got friends here. He knows all the nurses. He's got me. He's happy here.”

Ellie reached over and squeezed his knee. “I know, Danny. I'm disappointed too. But there's nothing you or I can do about it. I'm sorry, but there really isn't.”

A week later Captain Mack was gone. Ellie told Danny across the fence between their front gardens as he arrived home after school. He dropped his bag and sat on the doorstep, resting his chin in his hands. He felt a strange emptiness in his chest.

“It's not all that bad, is it?” she asked, pulling off her gardening gloves.

“I guess not. I just feel bad for Captain Mack, that's all. He's going to be so unhappy.”

“He might surprise you.”

“What's the name of the new place he's at?” Danny asked. “Red-something.”

“Redgrange. It's not that far. Are you planning to visit him?”

“Sure, why not?”

Ellie smiled. “He'd love that.”

The Redgrange receptionist with the heavy eyeshadow didn't know who Danny meant when he asked for the tall Scottish man with the eye-patch.

“Does he have a name?” she asked, chewing her gum loudly. “Because if you've got a name to give me …”

“Um … I've always called him Captain Mack. McAlly or McAully or something like that.” He felt his face going red. Some visitor, he thought — doesn't even know who he's come to see.

“Hang on,” the receptionist said, flipping through a green folder on her desk. “McAuliffe? Is that him?”

“Yeah, I think so,” Danny said.

Her phone was ringing. “Room 5,” she said as she reached to pick it up.

Danny didn't know where to start looking for the room, so he waited until the girl had finished dealing with the call. She looked at him curiously. “What's up now?” she asked.

“Where's Room 5?” he asked.

She rolled her eyes, just a tiny bit, enough to make Danny feel like a pain, like a pesky kid. “Down that hall and take a left. It's about halfway along on the right.”

Danny stopped in front of Room 5, in a corridor smelling of too-sweet citrus and air-freshener. He peeked cautiously in.

There were six beds in the room, four of which were empty, their sheets and blankets rumpled. Over by the window an old man in a dressing gown and slippers was lying on top of his covers with his back to the doorway, a small black transistor radio murmuring thinly on his locker. Captain Mack was sitting on the edge of the bed opposite. He too was facing in the other direction, staring through the barred-up window at a brown brick wall a couple of metres away. He was wearing pale blue pyjamas. The air-conditioner grate in the centre of the ceiling rattling.

“Knock knock,” Danny said.

Captain Mack turned his head and frowned. “Who is it?” he asked crossly.

“It's Private Snell.”

“Who? Oh, it's ye. Well, in ye come then, and close the door, for crying out loud. And don't be attracting any attention to yeself.”

“Very well sir,” said Danny. He pushed the door shut, then saluted as soon as he was sure that the other man was definitely asleep. “How is it here, then?”

Captain Mack casually returned the salute and pointed to the chair beside the bed. “Much the same as we were led to believe. This camp's not a patch on the other, let me tell ye.”

“Why's that?” Danny asked.

“Well, look around ye, lad! It's appalling!” He plucked at his pyjamas. “This uniform they make us wear, for a start. It's downright degrading, lad, and clearly contravenes every convention ever passed and signed!”

“Aren't they just pyjamas?”

Captain Mack scowled and shook his head. “Maybe to ye, lad, but to the rest of us they're a symbol. Don't ye see? They make us stand out as prisoners. And the mess hall is a sty, which is no real surprise, since all they serve us is swill. Like animals, Snell — that's how they treat us.”

“How are the nurses?” Danny asked.

“Barbarians every one, lad.”

The door swung open without warning and a young woman in a sickly green dress strutted in. “Now then, who closed this door, hmm?” she asked in what seemed like an unnecessarily high voice.

“Captain Mack asked me to shut it,” Danny confessed.

She ignored him. “Now Mr McAuliffe, we know the rule about doors being closed during the day, don't we?”

“Aye, and a ridiculous rule it is, as I've told ye several times,” Captain Mack retorted.

“Well, rules are rules, aren't they?” said the nurse, opening the door wide and placing a chair against it. “OK?” she added, flashing an insincere smile at Danny.

“See what I mean?” Captain Mack said as soon as she was gone. “And that's one of the nice ones.”

“So you're hating it, then?” Danny said.

“Wouldn't ye, lad? Wouldn't ye?”

“I guess I would.”

“Huddle up, Snell,” Captain Mack said, glancing about and beckoning Danny closer. He lowered his voice. “I was happier at the other place. They were kinder, ye see. More humane. They let a fellow have a wee bit of space to himself. But here it's not like that. It's not the same. I must get back there.”

“Um … Are you sure you can do that?”

“Why not? I'll tell ye a secret, lad. I'm going to escape, see if I don't.”

Danny scratched his head. “Do you think that's a good idea? I mean —”

“It might not be a good idea at all. It might be a daft idea, lad, but what have I got to lose? Tell me that.”

“But —”

Captain Mack sat back against his pillow, crossed his arms and gazed out the window again. “Don't argue, Snell. I've made up my mind. And ye're going to help me.”

Caleb shoved his books into his overflowing locker and slammed the door shut before any of the teetering mess could fall out. “Escaping,” he repeated.

“That's what he says.”

Caleb grinned. “Don't get caught — there's a stiff penalty for harbouring escapees.”

“Don't make fun,” Danny said. “He's very unhappy.”

“So tell him a joke.”