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1944
It started the day after Jonathon got back from the hospital, anything that made the slightest noise made him jump. He would shout out even at the drop of a fork on the floor. He would wake in the middle of the night screaming all sweaty and Grace would have to dab his face with a cold flannel and hold him until he fell asleep. It was strange to see Jonathon this way and Grace worried about what to do about the whole thing.
Grace left Jonathon at home asleep and popped into town to get some vegetables. It was so rare that he would sleep she thought it would be cruel to wake him. The town was dead as usual and Grace was back in no time. She carefully came into the house trying not to make any noise and quietly put away the vegetables. Grace then tiptoed up the stairs and into the bedroom where Jonathon was still sleeping. Before Grace would always sneak up on Jonathon and tickle him and this would always end with Jonathon tickling Grace more than the other way around but she did it every opportunity she could. As Grace gets in jumping distance of Jonathon she jumps on him and grabs his middle and begins to tickle him. Jonathon wakes up with a scream and flings his fist across hitting Grace directly in the face and sending her flying off of the bed. Grace lets out a scream and clamps her face with her hands. Jonathon comes back round and the anger in his eyes fades as he sees Grace crying on the floor. “Grace.... Grace I'm so sorry” Grace ignores him and as he goes to touch her softly she runs past him and down the stairs. As she leaves she makes her way down to the bank where she sits under the tree and holds her hand to her face. Its forty minutes before Jonathon finds Grace by the bank and he takes a seat down next to her but making sure he has given her some distance. “Grace I'm so sorry, it’s just you jumped up on me and I can’t tell you how it was out there but it does things to you Grace” Grace turns to face him with her eyes red from crying. Grace wipes her face before saying,
“It was stupid of me to have snuck up on you like that it’s just we used to” Grace realises that they used to do a lot of things before Jonathon went to war. All the things that they did have now changed. Since he has been back they haven’t come down to the riverbank and had a swim, they haven’t gone into town for their cup of tea and cake before Grace starts work on Wednesday afternoons. They haven’t even had sex since he came back, Grace had tired but her efforts went unnoticed.
“Grace war is a horrible thing and I feel sorry for everyone who is back out there still fighting” Grace then realises how lucky she is to have Jonathon alive let alone still out there fighting. Graces face is still throbbing but she ignores it and asks Jonathon,
“Would you like to go for a swim... like old times?” Jonathon looks at Grace and she knows his answer before they have even started. That look that hasn’t left his eyes since he came back which stops him from doing anything,
“Not right now” he gets up and offers his hand to Grace but she shakes her head and he retracts it and walks back slowly towards the house.
Jonathon didn’t improve he just got worse and worse. He would start shouting at Grace if she didn’t make any noise at all and he would swear that she was making it up. This started to have a strain on both of them and they now started sleeping back to back at night which then ended up with Jonathon in another room because he said she was making noises through the night. Grace couldn’t even see one part of him in her anymore. It was as if the Jonathon that was in the accident was left at war and some stranger had come back who had read up on Grace to know a brief few facts but that was it. Jonathon had also stopped saying that he loved her even when she said it to him first. One evening Grace was eating dinner alone as Jonathon wanted to have a bath. Grace had finished her meal and washed up and Jonathon was still not back from his bath. Grace goes to look in the bath but on the wooden steps are wet footprints leading to the back door which is left open ajar. “Jonathon?” Grace calls up the stairs just to make sure, but when no one replies she goes into the garden and sees the gate open. Grace decides to walk in the direction of his parent’s house in case he had gone there but when she gets to the bridge by the bank she sees him. He is lying naked in the river bank. Grace looks around but no one is around so she knows no one can see him. “Jonathon” No response “Jonathon get out of that water now” Grace then waits looking at his body face down in the water and then it dawns on her. She runs down the bank but slips and falls hard on her side which leaves a muddy line up her evening dress. She picks herself up and runs over to the bank. She shouts his name again “JONATHON” Grace stands on the bank trying to take off her shoes and dress. As she panics she struggles to get them off and she hears a tear as she pulls the dress down. Grace dives into the water and feels Jonathon’s body and locks one arm under his. She flips him over so his head is out of the water and props him up against the bank of the river. Grace scrambles out herself and tries to lift him out but fails each time nearly falls back in herself. At that moment Grace hears a car engine and scrambles up the bank onto the road. Grace can see the car coming and realises its Jonathon’s fathers driver. Grace steps in the road and waves her hands and the car comes to a stop. The driver gets out and looks at Grace,
“Mrs...” Grace doesn’t let him finish,
“Come quick” she grabs his arm and leads him down the bank. The driver sees Jonathon in the river and runs past Grace and begins to pull him out of the bank. When Grace gets to him he is out of the water but isn’t breathing very much. Grace hears a cry from behind her
“JONATHON” Grace turns to see his mother and father stood on the bridge. Jonathon’s father holds his wife still as the driver brings Jonathon up the bank to the road. His body looks limp as Grace follows on behind like a lap dog. The driver sticks him in the back, Jonathon’s father joins him in the back and the mother jumps into the front and as they close all the doors its clear Grace isn’t coming too and the car speeds away up towards the nearest doctor who lives in the next village. Grace stands in the road dripping wet in her underwear looking at the back lights of the car until it disappears into the woods.
“Why did you leave” Grace sighs to herself.
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I hope you are all still enjoying the parts to Lonely Girl and sorry its been so long since posting the last part just been a bit busy and if im honest a little lost with Grace and Jonathon and was unsure I was doing the right thing with their story. Anyway hope you all come back and stay with us for part seven.
All content (imagery and text) copyright Michael Sweeney Photography.
