What Did Eye See?

CONTENTS

Foreword

Acknowledgements

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Author’s Note

About the Author

Foreword

Many years ago, I wrote an autobiography to let my three children know why I was frequently telling them off. In reality, a parent is only a page ahead in the book of life, and I wanted them to know where I went wrong as a youngster. I hoped that they wouldn’t endanger themselves and make the same mistakes. As it turned out, it was an exercise in futility. The book has been enjoyed by many, resulting in my being encouraged to write my first novel.

The novel began as a trilogy, but after having written several thousands of words in each of the books, my son completely trashed the computer, and I lost the lot apart from about six thousand words that I had printed off on an old dot matrix printer. That was twenty-odd years ago, and it took several years before I again put pen to paper. This is the second novel that has an affiliation with the first, and it attempts to complete the story of some of the characters. I now save all my work on practically every medium available.

Acknowledgements

To my sister from different parents, Jane in Nanaimo, British Columbia, who assisted me with my first novel and who has proven to be an inspiration. She has encouraged me to improve my style, such as it is.

Also to my mentor, Chris Elmes, authoress of The Overcoming, and to my good friend Tina. They both very kindly read the book for content and enjoyment. Without the input of all three, this book would never have been published.

To Daniel Styler, who did the artwork for the front and back covers.

Other Publications by the Author

Errs and Places: A Humorous and Graphic Autobiography

Dawn and the Knight – A Reluctant Soldier

Children’s Books

Douglas and the Ogly Flies

Douglas and the Barn in the Magic Forest

Did You Ever Wonder What Goes on in a Stone?

Dedicated to my dearest wife of almost forty-four years, and to the wonderful family with whom we have both been blessed.

CHAPTER 1

GEORGE O’ROURKE WAS floating in a twilight world and in a state of total confusion. He was vaguely aware that people were near him because he could hear voices, but they sounded an entire world away. He occasionally thought he had opened his eyes, but he did not see anything. He fell back into a strange, dreamlike state. It was all very odd, which only added to his anxiety. He knew he had been in this weird fantasy for many hours, but he wanted desperately to understand what was going on. He felt more tired than he had ever felt before.

After another long period of total void, he felt himself becoming more aware, and he could hear the voice of his wife, Jayne, who seemed to be calling to him from some distance away. He slowly felt he was becoming more lucid, and he gradually eased himself up and looked around. He didn’t recognise his surroundings; it was fairly dark and clammy, but the sound of Jayne’s voice was unmistakable and seemed to be getting farther away.

‘Jayne!’ he shouted. ‘I’m in here, but I can’t see you. Where are you?’

She called again, but he wasn’t able to understand a word she was saying. He rose to his feet and began stumbling towards where her voice was coming from.

He was aware that he was in some kind of cave or a tunnel, but there didn’t appear to be any sides. He kept looking around and listening intently for Jayne’s voice, but it seemed as far away as ever. Eventually, he caught a glimpse of a twinkle of light, and so he ventured clumsily towards it. As he got closer, he could see what appeared to be an entrance, and so he continued to stagger towards it until eventually he came to an opening out on a long, sandy beach.

He looked around, but it was all very bewildering because closer inspection showed it wasn’t a beach, and neither was it a desert. He had never seen anything like it before. He wandered around for a while, all the time calling out after Jayne, but she didn’t reply. He then thought she must still be inside the cave, and so he ventured back in the direction of the entrance – but he couldn’t find it. He began to panic and ran back and forth along from where he had exited, but the opening eluded him. The sun was now very bright, so much so that he had never known it to glow so intensely, yet it didn’t seem hot enough considering its brilliance.

He looked along the sand dunes again, first to his left and then to his right. ‘Jayne, it’s me. Are you out here?’

He then heard a different voice, and for some reason he began to feel unwell. His breathing became more laboured, and he realised that he was in a great deal of pain.

As he looked in front of him to try to find the entrance yet again, he saw something small coming towards him at speed, and it hit him squarely in the chest. His whole body arched with the pain. Just as he was recovering, a second object hit him in exactly the same place. He was aware that he was losing consciousness, and the last thing he heard were voices that had an urgency about them. He then slid into oblivion.

He had no idea how long he had been unconscious, but finally he began to stir. His head ached really badly, and he had a raging thirst. In the background was an irritating noise that he couldn’t identify, and there seemed to be a lot of activity around him. There was something in his hand that felt warm and comforting, and it seemed to be caressing him from his wrist down to the fingers. He struggled to open his eyes, and though it felt as if they were glued together, eventually he managed to force one open.

‘Doctor, Doctor – his eyes are opening. He is coming to! Thank God!’

There was heightened activity around him, and he was aware that Jayne was sitting next to him and holding his hand as he gradually but slowly woke up. He was very muddled because he was in a bed, and he had no idea how he’d got there. He tried to form words into questions, but Jayne stopped him.

‘Try not to speak, George. You have had a little accident, so just take your time.’

He was aware that there were other people in the room, and he heard a man’s voice say, ‘Well, I have to say, Mrs O’Rourke, for a moment I thought we were going to lose him. He’s a tough old bird, I’ll give him that. When his heart stopped a second time, and considering the mess he’s in, I was about to call it. He is a very lucky man!’

Initially George thought that whoever it was who’d said that was referring to someone else, but when Jayne’s soothing voice kept reassuring him that he was going to be all right, he realised that all the fuss was to do with him. He gradually became a little more articulate, but he still found it a struggle to form any words. Jayne’s comforting presence reassured him, and so he fell into a light sleep and relaxed.

It was some time later when he again became aware of his surroundings. Still at his side was Jayne, his wife of three years. They had met at a military convention over three years earlier; Jayne was a military police sergeant, and George had just been demobbed from the SAS. They were married in Alverstoke Church in Gosport, but they had to delay their honeymoon until George had finally left the service.

Having rested reasonably well, he was better able to talk and understand what was being said to him. ‘Where am I, and what happened, Jayne?’ he asked. ‘How did I get here, and who put me in bed?’

‘You have been in an accident, George. A car ran you over, but you are going to be all right now. Just rest and get your strength back! You have been comatose for five days, and you have scared the living bejabbers out of me. Now, rest. I’m not going anywhere.’

George had to stay in the hospital for another two weeks before the doctors felt he was well enough to be allowed home. Once there and surrounded with all his home comforts, he tried to remember what had happened, but it was a complete blank.

‘Has anyone been arrested for running me over?’ he asked.

Jayne replied that it had been a hit and run, but the police were trying to trace an R Reg Volkswagen Golf. ‘Apparently it was a vivid green, so it shouldn’t too difficult to trace.’

George thought about it for a while but felt that after three weeks, it was most unlikely they would ever find it.

The following morning, a police constable came to ask George some questions about the accident. George racked his brains, but all he could remember was running along Stokes Bay as he did every morning, and then nothing – his mind was a complete blank.

‘It would appear that it was deliberate, Mr O’Rourke. Do you know if you have any enemies?’

‘Deliberate? How do you know, and why would anyone want to do that?’

‘We have witnesses who saw the car, and it seemed to be waiting because as you ran past it, the occupant started the engine and deliberately ran into you. It happened so quickly that the witnesses were unable to get the full registration, but they have given a good description of the vehicle. Have you been out running regularly at the same time each day, using the same route?’

George nodded and explained that he liked to keep his body trim because after having left the armed forces recently, he didn’t want to turn to flab.

George had in fact been in the Special Forces but had been wounded in the left shoulder. The surgeons had done a magnificent job in rebuilding the bones, but it had left him with a slight limitation of movement which, he was warned, would never be 100 per cent again. As a result, George was offered a desk job but decided enough was enough; he would start a new career.

The constable ventured that whoever the culprit was, it was clear that George’s movements had been monitored very closely in order to launch this attempt on his life. ‘Your wife tells me that you were in the Special Forces. Is there any chance that one of your deployments could have caused animosity towards you?’

George was a little perturbed that Jayne had volunteered the information about his past to the constable, because it was something that was never talked about outside the confines of the regiment. Casting aside his misgivings, he replied, ‘Most likely there are dozens of, shall we say, unhappy people. But they were from a specific part of the world, and I would have been dressed as a local, so it is very unlikely for anyone to have any idea where I live.’

‘I think you need to be very careful from now on. Check everything, and don’t have any regular routines. As much as we’d like to, we don’t have the manpower to watch you twenty-four seven, but we will be redoubling our efforts to find the culprit.’

CHAPTER 2

GEORGE AND JAYNE had only been dating for a few months