Five

When he realizes that they have given him their own bedroom, Flight Lieutenant David Thompson insists on being moved to another room, any other room.

There is a long argument, and finally, as he starts to hoist himself out of bed, saying he’ll crawl if he has to, they relent.

*   *   *

A while later, he hops down the corridor with Erik on one side and Benjamin on the other. They have to hop sideways as the corridor is so narrow, but very soon he is lifted into a smaller bed in a smaller room.

Now he realizes that it’s Benjamin’s room, and he starts to protest again, especially as they’d passed the closed door of presumably another bedroom on the way down the corridor.

“You are our guest,” Benjamin says, putting his hand on David’s forearm. “And you are ill. It is summer, and I’ll be quite well in the barn. The hay has just been cut, last month, and it makes a very soft bed. You should see the hares run as we cut the hay! It’s my favorite job. How they run! Crazy!”

The young man prattles on and on, and before long, David has even forgotten what it is they were arguing about.

Rebecka appears in the doorway, with the morphine vial and the needle.

“You are an angel,” David says, for the pain has gotten worse again, but as he falls asleep, three things worry him.

He has done nothing about finding out where he is.

The pain is still awful, and there is very little morphine left.

And they are arguing again, downstairs. He knows that they are arguing about him.