Tom enjoys this bit and suspects the other men do too. He imagines it is a German soldier at the receiving end of his bayonet, especially all the bad things they have done, they deserve it after all. The dirt falls out of the hole made by the bayonet but the sack doesn’t empty. After a few piercings though, it does go limp, then it is replaced. This goes on for most of the day.

By the end of the week, Tom is tired. Not sleepy tired but his whole body aches. He has muscles he never knew he had that had to do work. He is glad to be home on leave, he walks from the station past the shops, looks in the window of the food market and the shop is full of people. The shelves are empty and customers are buying what’s left. He carries on, desperate to get home. He hugs his wife and sits down for tea; Ellen by now knows that Tom is in the army from his letters. After tea, he does the thing he missed most, off to the pub. Although not strictly true, he did drink over the last week, but he was limited by the strict army rules. He is going to make up for it now as he walks into the pub and greets his friends, some of whom are missing. The older men are still there, Arthur, Patrick and Fred. He buys a beer, something he doesn’t do very often but then most of his regular friends are away at the Front. The Kitchener poster had done its job; the men have to their bit for their country. He hands over his money and sits with some friends.

“Can you believe it?” he says “beer has gone up in price” says Tom

“Never mind” says Arthur “they’ll be celebrating Christmas with us as the Germans will be defeated easily”.

Patrick has a newspaper which Tom can’t help notice the headline, he asks about it.

“Ah yes” says Pat “a Canadian soldier has been found crucified in a German trench”

“Yes, and they cut young women’s hands off too” chips in Fred

Tom joins in “when I was at training I heard stories of how the Germans bayonet babies”

“Aw, how barbaric” says Fred

“Yes, those Germans need to be given a thrashing” says Patrick

“Oh they will” says Tom “you’ll see. I’ve heard they’re on the run”.

All four men lift their glasses at nearly the same time and take a sip of their beers.

A brief silence before Arthur asks “yeah, how was your training Tom?”

“Oh great” he replies “I’m suffering for it though, I ache all over”

“Isn’t it about time you joined the proper army?” demanded Fred

Tom takes another sip of his beer, looks at the other men and says “I have, look at my regimental badge”, then laughs.

The others move closer to have a look, and then sit back.

“I should be going to France soon, I’m on leave”

“Good! Make sure you get a few of those Germans for us” says Pat

“Ooh I will, don’t you worry”

Tom can’t see behind him, but the other chaps can.

Fred points and says “Will you look at that?”

Pat turns his head slightly “Yeah, she must be on the game or something”

“What?” says Tom

“That woman, she’s in here, in this pub, on her own” Says Arthur

“No? A single woman? It’s not right” with that he turns round and sees Ellen wandering around looking for something. Then she stops, looks at Tom and makes her way straight to him.

“Ellen?” he enquires.

“Hello, I got bored at home. I though I’d come and join you”

“Gentlemen, this is my wife, Ellen”

The three men look uncomfortable after the things they have said, but all say hello. Then one of the men suggests Tom plays the piano, he doesn’t need asking again and the group crowd around the piano while Tom plays into the night.

A few days later, he gets his suitcase and puts his uniform on; he is in the regular army now and has to leave his postal job. He is told that his job will be left open for him when he gets back. Ellen walks with him to the station and as they walked around the corner they stop on the pavement across the road from the butchers. Druhms is the name of the family business who are English with German grandparents. There is a crowd around the front of the shop, they shout and are noisy, some bricks are hurled through the window and some of the crowd climb through. The owner is pulled out and beaten up. Others are walking off with bits of meat; some furniture is thrown out of the top window with some of the families belongings. Tom and Ellen stand on the corner watching. A smile slowly comes across his face.

“That should teach those Germans, putting the price of beer up an’ all”

Suddenly a piano comes flying out of the top window and crashes to the ground.

“Oh, that’s a shame, that’s a fine piano”.

“Come on Tom, let’s go” says Ellen and she pulls him along leaving the crowd to disperse as the police eventually made an appearance. They get to the station, buy a ticket and wait on the platform. As the train pull in Tom says “don’t worry, I’m not going to France just yet. It’s just training”.

They hug then he gets in, slams the door and puts his head out of the window.