Thursday 4 July 2013

4 minute warning




Sanjeev crashed an exquisite cover drive away, and even Mark and Liam had to nod their approval so good was the shot, although Gerry was less happy as it was his job to fetch the ball. The boys were in the park as usual on this beautiful, hot, sunny afternoon. The Porthkerry park had become their Lords Cricket Ground and everyday the boys trudged out to open the batting or the bowling in front of imaginary crowds of thousands but in fact 2 mums taking no notice of them other than making sure the hard ball didn’t come near their toddlers.

It was the summer of 1984 and all was well in the world, well almost all. The sun was shining, the school holidays stretched into the distance but as Nena and Frankie were all too keen to remind us, nuclear destruction was just around the corner. Not that it bothered the boys in the park, they were obsessed with emulating their heroes and dreaming of sporting success.

Liam rubbed the ball on his shorts like he’d seen Botham and Willis do countless times on TV. He began his run up ready to deliver the killer ball and wipe the smile off Sanjeev’s face. But just as he got into his delivery stride he stopped dead. The normal sounds of a beautiful summer’s day - a dog barking, a seagull yelling, kids playing - had been drowned out by the unmistakable sound of the air attack warning.

As the siren wailed the four boys looked at each other in a state of shock, was this it? Was this really the end of the world as they know it? They certainly didn’t feel fine?

They’d joked about it of course, they’d often discussed what they would do if the siren sounded. It mostly involved losing their virginity with the nearest woman around them, but now the moment had come they were frozen to the spot. Tears welled in their eyes (although later on they would deny it, blaming the hayfever), they looked for signs of the attack, what direction would the bombs come from? How long is 4 minutes? How long did they have left? They moved slowly together as if being drawn by magnets, the same thought flicked through all their minds, if they had to die what better way to go than with their 3 best mates.

Time passed and the siren died. Nothing had happened, there were no explosions or anything else for that matter, life went on as it did before. The boys looked at each other slightly sheepishly, not sure what to think or say. It must have been a test or something, it certainly wasn’t the end of the world.
‘Well this isn’t gonna get me out,’ said Sanjeev breaking the silence, the others laughed and  the boys went back to their game, feeling lucky to be alive. 

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