John Fuck! You all right, mate?
Leroy Yeah, yeah, I’m good.
Angus Yeah, you fucking look it, mate.
Leroy What’s that supposed to mean?
Angus and John start treating him.
John You’re going to be OK, mate, you’re going to be OK.
Leroy looks up and sees his legs have gone.
Leroy Fuck! Oh fuck!
Angus You’ve been hit by an IED, mate. But you’re going to be fine, you’re going to be fine.
John checks his balls.
You’ve still got your balls, mate.
Leroy Fuck, I’m going to die! I’m going to die! Give me a cigarette! Give me a cigarette!
Angus You’re not going to die.
John We can’t give you a fag, we can’t, mate.
Leroy I’m going to fucking die, give me what I want!
John hands him a fag, and lights it. John, Angus and Leroy all inhale deeply.
I swear, that fag went down in one drag. My right leg was still hanging by a thread but as they carried me away it fell off and rolled into a ditch. I was like, ‘Get my leg, get my fucking leg.’ They couldn’t reach it, so the lads gave me a stick, said ‘Here’s your fucking leg,’ and at the time I could have sworn it was. The last thing I remember is passing out in the chopper, thinking, ‘Fuck me, I didn’t even have any last words.’ Apparently I came round again in Bastion. I was crying, screaming for my mum. But I don’t remember any of that.
As Angus and John exit carrying Leroy.
Sarah and Lauren enter to stand in front of two screened hospital beds.
Sarah For three weeks we experienced two different kinds of hell. He was suffering hallucinations in his coma, while I was out here, not knowing if he was going to live or die. It was strange, because he looked perfect. He was dirty, but he was tanned too, and really lean and fit. And his skin … they all come back with such good skin. Sand-blasted, smooth. But he wasn’t perfect. Far from it. Three times I took the kids in to see him because the doctors thought he wouldn’t last the night. We assumed he didn’t know we were there. But in a way he did. He told me afterwards that each time we’d gone in he’d had the same hallucination. He was coming to meet us at the funfair. But every time, just before he reached us, he’d have to say goodbye. To me. To the kids. That was him fighting for us I suppose. Saying goodbye at the fun fair.
Beat.
On the first night, just after he was brought in, I went to have a cup of tea in the waiting room. There were two other women in there, on their knees, on the floor, praying. They were wearing burkas. I know I shouldn’t have, but I felt so angry at them. I mean, Daniel was fighting for his life next door. But then I heard them say his name. Major Daniel Thomas. And I realised they were praying for him. They were praying for all the patients on the ward.
Lauren paces up and down.
Lauren Please save him. Please, oh please. I promise if you do I’ll come to church every week. I will. I’ll go and see Mum more often. I’ll cut back on the drink. I will. I’ll … I’ll give more money to charity. I’ll do a night every week in the soup kitchen. I’ll stop smoking. Really. I will. Just let him live. Please let him live.
A Doctor enters.
Doctor Miss Preston?
Lauren Yes. That’s me.
Doctor You’re Charles’s …
Lauren Fiancée. Yes, yes, I am. Is he OK? Is he going to be all right?
Doctor Well, he’s been really put through it. But yes. He’s going to pull through.
She flings her arms around him.
Lauren Oh God, thank you! Thank you so much! Can I see him?
Doctor Not yet. He’s still in surgery. But in about an hour or so, that should be fine.
The Doctor exits. Lauren roots in her bag for a cigarette.
Lauren Oh thank you, thank you!
She pulls out a cigarette and is about to light it when she pauses. She looks up.
Lauren After this. OK? I promise. Last one.
The lights fade up on Charlie and the Psychologist upstage.
Charlie But like I said, I don’t remember any of that. I was there, but I wasn’t.
Psychologist Right.
The faint sound of military radio chatter, the thudding of a helicopter, building through his speech.
Charlie I don’t remember waking up.
I don’t remember eating breakfast.
I don’t remember being given orders, or loading up, or leaving the compound.
I don’t remember going where we went.
I don’t remember walking through an archway, a low archway.
I don’t remember the IED going off.
None of that.
Beat.
Just that taste. Grit in the mouth. And a few sounds. I remember a few sounds.
The sounds begin to fade.
But that’s because it’s the last to go I guess. Your hearing. Your hearing’s the last to go.
The sounds fade to silence.
Fade to black.
Act Two
SCENE ONE — PHYSIO
Physio room.
Classical music.
Lights come up to reveal an amputee wearing a regimental T-shirt sitting on a therapeutic ball working with his physiotherapist. Using a pair of bats they hit a bright orange balloon back and forth. Other patients enter, all wearing regimental T-shirts. Other physios also enter. They begin performing different exercises.
Charlie enters on crutches.
Charlie Welcome back. So, yeah, this is where we come afterwards. When we survive. Personally I thought I was going to Heaven. I’m not kidding, a lot of us here did. You’re floating on the morphine, you’re being medevaced into the heelo. There’s this ringing in your ears and a blue sky above you. You’ve just been blown up — where do you think you’d be going?
Turns out I was wrong though. Wasn’t Heaven. It was Selly Oak. Then here.
Beat.
It’s a bit like doing basic training again — ‘Break to build’, that’s what they told us back then. Well, we’re sure as hell broken now, aren’t we? So, plenty of building to be done. Learning drills and skills for our ‘new normal’. Our new world. Our ‘brave new world’. That has such creatures in it …
So yeah, this is, I guess, our new drill square. The physios our new PT instructors. The doctors, consultants, our majors and generals. Prosthetics, wheelchairs, meds, our new kit. The operations our, well, new operations. It’s a bit of a freak show to be honest with you. I wasn’t too happy about it at first, I mean, a few weeks ago I was a steely-eyed dealer of death. Then, wham, bam, thank you mam, and I’m in this circus. Seals on bouncy balls. In Surrey.
He looks about the arches of the set.
And very nice it is too. Big grounds, gardens, orchards, regular Downton fucking Abbey.
As Charlie takes his place in the physio room Richard enters, wearing headphones. His physio tells him to remove them.