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Short Stories
"Only This"
Information Plot/Description
Information
Plot/Description
Spoiler Warning! In an English cottage, an old
woman lies sleeping in the moonlight of her open window. On her dressing
table is a picture of her son in his Royal Air Force uniform. Suddenly
there is a great throbbing noise overhead and she wakes. It is the bombers
going off to battle. She stands by the window and prays that God will keep
her son safe. He is her only child, and she knows that "there was nothing
else to live for except this". She sits and begins to think of him,
wishing she could see him and talk to him. She closes her eyes and begins
to see the aircraft, and in her mind she is standing there next to him in
the cockpit. He smiles at her and she is happy. As the plane nears the
battlefield, she can see searchlights and anti-aircraft fire through the
windshield. She watches as the plane is hit and an engine catches fire.
She is worried, but he smiles at her and continues flying. There is an
explosion and the cabin fills with smoke. She watches in fear as her son
fights to control the plane while the crew bail out. She panics and tries
to drag him from his seat, but he's unconscious and she can't undo the
many buckles holding him down. Knowing that survival is now impossible,
she throws herself on top him and cries. The plane spirals downwards and
crashes. Back in the English cottage, the woman leans back against her
chair with her eyes closed, clutching the blankets around her. A gentle
rumble announces that the surviving bombers are flying home to the British
airfields. But the old woman never moves. "She had been dead for some
time."
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Created and maintained by Kristine Howard, © 1996-2008
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