The Ridge
The Ridge
It was here, this ridge., 23 years ago.
I know it is. 1917.
God! How quickly Nature has reclaimed
a barren wasteland.
How many still lie where they fell,
beneath my feet, now?
Just a name on the Menin Gate?
I made it. But God in Heaven,
how can my son get through this new war?
Why can’t he understand that even at a height
of 26,000 feet he is not out of range of artillery.
Sir? Sir! You need to get a move on. Orders to evacuate. Dunkirk. We’ve got to get you to this point here.
He studied the map, studied the sub-lieutenant’s pink, hairless hand.
Rendevous is twenty minutes Sir, a Lysander is coming in. Now, with respect, move it! Stop thinking about my Dad’s war and fight this war!
He did not mind one bit the young man’s rebuke…
He glanced quickly from the cockpit, the hand was already making a beeline for the trees, but he’d never forget the glint of confidence and hope in the boy’s eyes.
With that, they were up, up and away, then down again across the dunes, flying just above the waves. He checked the bulge in his inside jacket. He heaved a sigh of relief. He still had the classified documents handed to him by the French staff officer…
In the distance, a thin strip of white, fire and smoke, to their left a downed fighter exploded on impacting the waves. He knew not whether friend or foe, ours or theirs. He did know one thing though. A filthy-minded grubby little man in a room in his capital had another death pinned to his crazed brain.
© 2023 KTW
16 May 2023
All Rights Reserved
© 2023 Kenneth Thomas Webb
Ken Webb is a writer and proofreader. His website, kennwebb.com, showcases his work as a writer, blogger and podcaster, resting on his successive careers as a police officer, progressing to a junior lawyer in succession and trusts as a Fellow of the Institute of Legal Executives, a retired officer with the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, and latterly, for three years, the owner and editor of two lifestyle magazines in Liverpool.
He also just handed over a successful two year chairmanship in Gloucestershire with Cheltenham Regency Probus.
Pandemic aside, he spends his time equally between his city, Liverpool, and the county of his birth, Gloucestershire.
In this fast-paced present age, proof-reading is essential. And this skill also occasionally leads to copy-editing writers’ manuscripts for submission to publishers and also student and post graduate dissertations.
