Writing for Fun
August 2016
A Matter Of Life And Death - Bob Wendelkin
Why she married him on reflection she couldn’t say. At first he seemed all that a girl could desire, he seemed caring and always concerned that she was happy. He was then called up into the army and he was sent to fight in the infantry against the Japanese. He was captured towards the end of the war and was very badly treated by the Japanese and had felt the cruelty that they inflected on him and on their other captives.
After the war he had returned to the UK but unlike the soldiers who had fought against the Germans who when they returned they were treated as heroes, those that fought the Japanese were treated as the forgotten army. He had changed, he was completely different from the man she married. She tried over the long years of their marriage to live with his mood swings, one moment he would be seemingly happy the next he would become violent. His violence would become worse if he had been to the Pub and been drinking then he would hit her quite violently. On occasions he had hit her so violently that she had to go into hospital where she couldn’t admit it was her husband that had hit her, although she was certain they thought otherwise, she told them she had slipped on the stairs.
Her mother had more than once told her she should leave him and start another life but for the sake of the children she felt she had to stay with him. She tried to persuade him to have treatment to try to sort out his psychological problems but he could never bring himself to admit that there was anything wrong. Any problems were with others, particularly her and her mother. At first she felt sorry for him and sad for the departure of that man she loved and married before the war had changed him so much.
The children were now off hand the youngest had just gone to University and the house now only contained the two of them. Once more he had been to the Pub and come home in a violent mood and had hit her so that she had a black eye. Sitting in front of her dressing table mirror she looked at herself and thought this can’t go on, he could kill her. She had come to the end of the line, she had had enough and the thought of going into old age with him made her shudder. She had to do something about it, she realised that the man who she had loved was gone, he had died in the war many years before, that is if he really existed in anything but her mind.
A plan began to form in her mind she reasoned that she had two alternatives, she could run away and get a divorce or she could become a widow. Of the two she thought that she would be financially better off if she became a widow, the house, insurance and eventually his pension fund would be hers. It seemed fitting that he should go that way as a retribution to the many times he had hit her. If it all went wrong she could use as her defence in court the many times she had to go to hospital after his attacks, there would be the hospital records.
The question was how. Many women use poison to commit murder but that didn’t seem right, he had to go in some sort of violent manner. Shoot him perhaps, No that wouldn’t seem like any accident. Yes she thought he must go in some form of accident. But how?
He knew that he was becoming worse, the violent episodes were becoming more frequent and he was afraid that he may become so violent that he may kill someone. He felt that his problems were due to his experiences in the war and the violence he had suffered and seen carried out by the Japanese to anyone who wasn’t Japanese.
He now knew the name of his problem Post Traumatic Distress Syndrome. When he left the army all those years ago it wasn’t recognised as a problem, you were demobbed and you had to get on with the rest of your life.
How could he have treated his lovely wife so badly at least he hadn’t touched his children and tried to see that they had a better start in life than he had. He thanked God for Nuclear Weapons as they kept those who cause wars, the Leaders, in the same boat as the man in the street who has to fight and die, and with these weapons in the arsenal he now felt that his children were safe as he had felt for many decades.
Should he leave her and perhaps get a divorce or go into hospital and try to get some treatment for his problems. He felt he should try the hospital treatment first as the disruption caused by divorce could be too much.
He didn’t tell his wife what he was going to do; he made an appointment to see his Doctor where he explained all his problems and the violence he had shown to his wife over the years. The Doctor said he would make an appointment for him to be seen by the hospital but appointments for this problem could take quite a few weeks to arrange.
He felt that his moods were becoming more uncertain and finally the letter arrived and the appointment was for him to go to the Hospital. He told his wife what was happening and that he had an appointment that day and would she come with him as he felt he needed a hand to hold as his condition he felt was deteriorating and he didn’t know how much more he could take.
When his wife was told that he was going to the Hospital to try to cure his PTDS her plans to remove him were now put on hold, not because she loved him that had ended years before but because she didn’t really want to be a murderess, so she would go along with him for the time being.
They climbed into their car and set off for the Hospital. He seemed very sullen and subdued and she had seen this mood before and it wasn’t a good sign, he usually did something violent, especially to her. She hoped that they could treat him successfully but as far as she was concerned their marriage was ended. The Mental Hospital was some distance away and from his driving she was worried that they wouldn’t make it.
He was driving too fast and there was a sharp bend in the road and a large lorry was coming in the other direction. Suddenly he swerved into the path of the lorry. There was an almighty crash and their car was smashed out of the way and did summersaults before coming to rest. The seat belt and the airbag had saved her even though the car was a smashed into pieces, he had on the contrary been flung around and very badly injured she in comparison was unhurt. The services arrived and she and her husband were taken to hospital.
Her injuries were very slight just a small cut on her head, his were very serious and life threatening. The Doctors decided that they would keep her in overnight for observation, for him there was no decision to be made, he was very seriously injured.
During the night a Doctor came to her bed to tell her that her husband had passed away. She felt a sense of relief all her problems had come to an end. No more violence and a chance to make a new life for herself and perhaps find happiness for the rest of her life to make up for all those years with him.
‘In these situations we have to ask the next of kin if we can take organs from the dead person so that they may be used to give life to those who are in need of them,’ asked the Doctor.
‘As it’s a matter of life and death for some poor soul you may take all of his organs you can use. Heart, Lungs, Kidneys, Eyes, Liver anything you feel will be of use and what’s left over you can send to a Medical Teaching University for dissection but not to the one where our son and daughter are training to be Doctors,’ was her reply.
This she felt would be a suitable way for him to do some good and at least she wouldn’t have to worry about a funeral. For the insurance policies, because his death might be considered suicide, she would tell the police that he swerved to avoid an animal and not that he had tried to kill both of them, as that could confuse the insurance claim.