It’s All Gosford “Bloody” Tanner’s Fault!

It’s All Gosford Bloody Tanner’s Fault!

Tony Spencer

Published by Tony Spencer at Smashwords

Copyright © 2013 Tony Spencer

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Chapter 1 - Helpless

It was all Gosford Tanner's fault that I was estranged from my family. I wasn't happy about what happened but you can get used to anything given time.

Therefore I would have endured my bachelor existence forever if the damned accident hadn't happened. In many ways I was very lucky with the injuries, it could have been so much worse.

I'm James Collins, by the way, my Dad, also James, was always called Jim, so I was James at home and Jim at work, Jimmy even on occasion. Mandy Collins, my wife, sometimes used to call me Jimbo but not recently, obviously. We split up after I caught her in bed with her lover. It happened at a party and with Gosford Tanner, of all people.

OK, I'm not that smart but honestly, what idiot calls their precious boy-child Gosford? Don't they realise that when he's a grown man people will not take him seriously. I certainly didn't at first, with hindsight that was a serious misjudgement on my part.

I was attending a fire at a rather rundown warehouse when the accident happened. The place was originally a Victorian mill, more recently used for temporary storage and I guess the timbers couldn't have been in too good a condition. A couple of us doughty firefighters were teamed up on the first floor, covering each other while damping down after the main blaze had been extinguished, when we were caught out.

Without warning the floor gave way beneath us and we both fell about twenty-five to thirty feet or so. Brendan was fine, he fell on a stack of wooden pallets. I was less fortunate, I ended up on the concrete floor, breaking my left ankle initially. That would have been relatively OK but then the beams from the floor above fell on top of me, which broke my right leg in four places plus a couple of ribs, further compounding my injuries by concussion and a dislocated and heavily bruised right shoulder. I also badly sprained and hairline-fractured my right wrist. I was immediately knocked unconscious by another beam which hit my Metro thermoplastic helmet, shattering the face shield, so I honestly didn't feel a thing until I woke up in hospital about two or three days later. That helmet was a lifesaver.

The guys from my watch at the fire station visited the first day I was awake, even though I was still almost completely out of it. Mr and Mrs Murray visited the following day once they were aware of where I was. They brought in with them a copy of the local mid-week paper, which covered the fire, for me to read. It said a firefighter was hurt but didn't include my name in the report, although I was mentioned by name in a Stop Press stamped on the back page. The picture of the warehouse taken in daylight showed part of the roof collapsed, so I thought maybe some of that roof fell on me. I really couldn't remember what happened to me after the floor gave way as I was completely out of it.

The news from the doctors wasn't good. I was going to be in hospital for between two weeks and a month, then had to undergo extensive physiotherapy for several months, so I probably wouldn't be back to light duties at work for about four or five months. The worse case scenario was that I might not return to full duties for up to a twelve-month.

My main worry as I was lying there though, was that I was due to send my monthly payment off to my ex-wife Mandy's account by the end of the week and I wouldn't be able to do so. In fact I would possibly miss next month's too, depending on how mobile I was by then. My bank card was at the station, my mobile phone was locked away with my wallet in my locker too. I would have to contact the station and give someone my lock combination so they could bring my gear up to me.

I decided I would have to call Mandy and warn her that my payment would be late. This would be the first time we had spoken for about a month short of five years. I wasn't sure if I could even remember her, our, old number but I had nothing better to do than lie there thinking, so I ran the numbers through my head and wrote down what I thought it was. I didn't have any money on me for a phone card, so I waited until afternoon visiting time to ask Mrs Murray to bring some cash from my bedside drawer in my room, next time she came.

She immediately subbed me with a fiver from her purse, which would tide me over, and would replace it from any loose change in my room. I usually emptied my pockets regularly so there should have been enough to more than cover her little loan.

Mrs Murray also brought a pleasant surprise, an old PDA phone that was no longer used as her husband had bought a new one. The battery life was poor and you couldn't call out on it due to the fault that made it redundant in the first place, but she brought along the mains plug and some earphones to play the music stored on it. I had become only barely computer-literate by this time as I had never owned one, although they had a couple of computers at the station that guys used and I had picked up some tips in using them. She kindly showed me how to access the tunes and games already stored on the device and demonstrated how I could download others and access the internet. Mrs Murray set up an account for me to buy additional tunes and also helped me set up a free email account so I could keep in contact with the Murrays and the fire station. She made sure I carefully wrote down my passwords and kept them in my bedside cabinet.

I used the PDA to send off an email to the station office to request they bring some stuff in from my locker, for the next time somebody visited. I got a reply almost immediately confirming that one of the lads would visit tonight and bring my stuff. I wished then that I knew Mandy's email address. It would mean I wouldn't have to speak to her.

When Mrs Murray departed at the end of visiting time I asked the nurse if I could use the telephone. They had a pay-phone which they could wheel to your bedside but it only took phone cards, not cash. I was already aware of that, having asked about it previously. The nurse helpfully offered to send one of the more able-bodied patients to buy one with my five pounds, the kiosk in reception sold them by the handful. By the time I got the card and the phone it was just gone 4 o'clock. I decided to ring my old home there and then and get it over with before the evening meals started coming round and the evening visiting period started.

Hi? the answering voice was that of a boy.

Josh? That you? I asked, incredulous that it was my son Joshua answering the phone, I hadn't spoken to him for so long and didn't even know what he looked like any more. He sounded so mature I almost lost it, emotionally, there and then.

Yeah ... he said hesitatingly, Who's this?

Er ... It's your ... er ... What do I say? I couldn't say I was his Dad, he already had a dad, that bloody Gosford bloody Tanner, so I lied, It's your Uncle Jimmy, Josh.

Hardly anyone called me Jimmy, Sally used to and the daft old cleaning lady down at the station did, confusing me with a nephew, I guess.

I don't have an Uncle ... Jimmy, Josh said suspiciously. He wasn't stupid, not like his trusting, dumb old Dad, anyway.

I'm your long-lost Uncle Jimmy, I said, pleased that Josh was bright. Can you pass a message onto your Mum, Josh? I continued.

OK.

Tell her that Jimbo is in hospital and can't get down the bank for at least a month, maybe two, I said, Can you explain that I'm really sorry about that? Say that I don't have the use of my mobile phone so she needs to tell me by email if she has any problems with the delay paying into the account. Can you take down this email address?

Smart boy Josh, of course he could take down the address and he did. I asked about the girls, I didn't say my girls. I found out they were watching the telly in the lounge. I asked if his Mum was OK and he said, without committing himself, that she would be home in an hour or so. I didn't ask about his Dad and he didn't offer any info, so I let it ride. I noticed Josh said she rather than they but I guessed Mr Gosford Bloody Tanner was probably Headmaster by now and was no doubt first in and last out at work each day. Actually, knowing the bastard as I did I bet he'd be last in first out with all his bloody work delegated to his minions.

We chatted on the phone for a little while, I found out Josh was a keen footballer and naturally supported my favourite team, too. Well, we were both from the same football-mad city, so it should have been expected. We both moaned about how rubbish they had been playing for three seasons now.

He asked me what I did and without a thought told him I was a fire fighter. Quick as a flash he asked if I had been hurt at a fire, otherwise why was I in hospital? He had his mother's brains all right, lucky little so and so. I told him yes, I had been injured. Josh then quizzed me whether I had been hurt in a rescue but I told him no, the fire had been put out by then, everyone was safe and we were just damping down when the floor gave way under us and the roof caved in on top of us. He wanted to know all the injuries I had received. Boys can be ghoulish at times, I remembered from my own youth. So I told him that I would be unable to get back on my feet until my ankle, wrist and