Quill Pen Scratchings

Chapter 4

Edmund’s stomach was being pulled tightly into a knot.  Knox guided the Nieuport bumpily down to one end of the field, and then with a deafening roar, he put the throttle to full and the plane began lumbering forward and picking up speed, Edmund felt as if he was going to be shaken apart, then the ride suddenly became very smooth as he was shoved backward into his seat.  His head bobbed downward, and it took him extra effort to lift it again.  He finally peered over the side of the airplane out beyond the lower wing, and he could see the ground leaving him far below.  He was holding on to the sides of the airplane tightly trying to will his body back downward.

“If you get ill, just please try and lean over the side.  Or better yet, wait ‘til we get over the Germans!”  Knox yelled above the noise of the engine.  Edmund tried to look back, but once again the goggles kept him from seeing Knox.  Instead, he looked down into the seat and took several deep breaths trying to shrink his world down to just the inside of the plane.

“I will circle around so you can see Halton!”

Edmund lifted his head up and looked over the right side of the plane.  He could see the white tented hangars and the low wooden buildings, including the one that had Y.M.C.A. painted on the roof.  He looked down at Hangar Three and imagined he could see the attendant going through his suitcase.  He looked a little further out, and he could see the church in Halton, and Halton House surrounded by expansive gardens which looked grand even from high above.

“It is going to be a bit of a trip so you should just settle in.  I will point out anything of interest.”  Edmund nodded to show that he understood and continued to look over the side.  He soon realized how tense his body was, and he purposely relaxed each part of it slowly.  He let go of the sides and folded his arms over the canvas bag and tried to let the seat carry his weight completely.  The airplane shuddered for a minute and he grasped the sides of the cockpit again.  “Sorry about that.  Nothing to fear!”   Edmund forced himself to relax again, momentarily closing his eyes.   The deafening roar of the engine and the wind formed a cocoon around him and, with his head down, he felt protected.  He sat this way, forcibly relaxed, and finally trusting the seat and the floor of the airplane to hold him up.  He opened his eyes and looked out again. 

“I am going to fly over to London.  We can follow the Thames from there out to the coast and then across the channel.  The trenches will guide us from there.”  Edmund nodded again to show that he had heard. He looked over the side of the cockpit again.  He could see the patchwork of the English countryside glide by beneath him.  Edmund thought of the walk from the train to Halton and how long that had taken.  Now he was covering that same distance in a few moments.  The fields were laid out in squares and rectangles of different shades of green and brown.  He could see people walking around, and many of them looked up.  Some waved.  He could see cattle grazing in the fields. 

Edmund lifted his gaze and looked off toward the horizon which slowly faded off in the remaining morning haze.  The upper wing was over his head which oddly made him feel better, as if there were something physical between him and oblivion.  He suddenly had the thought that if there were nothing above him then he could fall up into nothingness.  He became slightly dizzy as he looked up into the sky, so he returned to looking down and felt better.  “Look over there!” Knox shouted.  Edmund turned, and he could see Knox’s hand pointing forward and to the left.  “London!”

Edmund could see through the haze the buildings growing closer together and getting taller.  Large buildings with smokestacks dotted the land off to his left and the air became sootier and smokier.  His father had a photo book of landmarks in London and Edmund used to look at it for long hours when he was a child.  He had always imagined taking the book and trying to stand exactly where the photograph was taken to see how it looked in real life.  He never imagined that when he finally saw the city for himself, he would be flying over it like a bird.  He looked for some of the landmarks from the book and he soon was able to pick out St. Paul’s Cathedral, and in a few moments, as the plane picked up the route of the Thames, he saw Big Ben jutting into the sky, though from his vantage point, it didn’t rise as high as he had always imagined.  Then he found the famous façade of the Houses of Parliament.  The Tower Bridge crossed the Thames beneath him, and he could see automobiles and horse-drawn carriages crossing over it.  The air became thicker and dirtier.  Edmund looked further out toward the horizon and the smoke of a thousand chimneys joined into a gray cloud that obscured the country beyond. 

He looked back down again and saw docks along the Thames and large warehouses and more factories.  The buildings got smaller, and eventually spread out, and soon they were soaring over farmland once again, the Thames still winding underneath them.   Knox kept the Nieuport on a roughly straight course, following the general direction of the river as it snaked its route below.  The sun was almost directly in front of them.  “There’s the channel.  We need to cut south.  Help me look for the cathedral in Canterbury.”

As soon as he said that the Nieuport banked sharply to the right.  Edmund had been looking out of the left front of the plane, and the landscape quickly dropped out of sight and suddenly he was looking up into the sky, and he became very dizzy.  He looked out the left side, and he could see the ground filling his whole horizon and he became dizzier.  He closed his eyes and gripped the sides of the cockpit desperately.  In a moment, he felt the plane straighten up and he opened one eye.  The horizon was horizontal again.  He looked off to the left and he could see the Thames that they had been following emptying out into what he guessed was the English Channel.  Once again, he could see just the square farm fields below.

Edmund let go of the sides of the Nieuport and he realized how cold his hands were.  In fact, his whole body was freezing. He reached up and pulled his hat down lower and tried to bend the brim down over his ears.  He flipped up the collar of the old coat and buttoned it up to his throat.  He closed his eyes and settled back into his seat and felt the sound and vibration wash over him.  Soon his mind was drifting away from the small cockpit.

***

“France!”  Knox was shouting in his ear and pointing off to the left front of the airplane.  Edmund opened his eyes groggily and felt a burning in the pit of his stomach.  “We will skirt the coast a bit and then come in on the friendly side of the Front.”  With that, the plane banked gently to the right, and Edmund could see the Channel coast of France off to the left.  He was fully awake now.  In a few minutes, Knox turned back to the left and headed over land.  Edmund noticed how the landscape was very different from that of England.  The farm fields were not so cut up into small squares, but were long and narrow, and the houses dotting the countryside were much more spread out.  “Want to get a look at the Germans?” Knox yelled.  Edmund wanted to turn around and shout ‘No,’ but he couldn’t even see Knox because of the goggles.  He didn’t really think it would make much of a difference anyway.

The plane veered gently again.  “Keep a look out to the left.  The front should be coming into view any moment.”  Edmund noticed with some alarm that the plane was also slowly descending, and he could make out houses, automobiles, horse drawn wagons, and eventually, people.  Knox began following a substantial road that had a heavy amount of traffic on it, with trucks and men on horseback and horse drawn wagons on it.  Then the plane veered left again, and Edmund could see tent encampments and then what looked like heavy scars cut into the earth.  Those must be the trenches, he thought.  He looked further out toward the horizon, and the trenches continued as far as he could see.  “Those should be Brits directly below us.” 

Then Edmund looked off to the left.  Across a field that was cratered and pock-marked, he could see another line of trenches, with large artillery guns pointing their way.  Nobody was shooting.  “Pretty quiet today.  Let’s take a closer look.”  Before Edmund could respond, Knox pulled the yoke back and the Nieuport turned its nose upward and slightly left again.  Edmund became disoriented.  All he could see in front of him was sky.  “Here we go!”  Edmund’s stomach lurched as the nose of the plane pointed sharply downward and the sky in front was replaced by land.  Edmund could no longer see the horizon.  He watched as the German trenches raced towards them.  The plane crossed over the German lines and then turned sharply to the right.  Edmund could see straight down into the trenches.  He could see the faces of soldiers looking up at him. Some looked surprised, some looked afraid, and some looked angry.   He saw a few of them raise their rifles and he saw flashes of light and puffs of smoke. 

“They are shooting at us!”  Edmund screamed.

“Yes!”  Knox continued to fly over the trenches.  Then, after what seemed like an eternity to Edmund, Knox said, “We should probably go before they send a greeting party out to meet us.  I need a proper machine for that.”  The Nieuport banked hard to the right and after a sharp dip to pick up speed, climbed again, regaining altitude over the French lines.  After this, Knox stayed farther back from the front, but they could continue to see it on their left.  A few moments later, Knox said, “Paris is that way, but you can’t see it very well today.”  Edmund still felt sick to his stomach, and he sank back into his seat.  He occasionally looked around, the front ever present on the left and farmland and forest below.  “We are getting close to Bar le Duc.  I need to circle around a bit and come up from the south.” 

Edmund turned his head and nodded back at Knox.  He felt exhausted, but he wasn’t sick anymore.  He just wanted to stretch out and sleep. His legs were cramped from sitting for so long.  Edmund watched the front fade away from view as the plane banked right.  Soon Knox turned the Nieuport back to the left and to the north, dropping altitude and banking sharply.  Edmund again was looking straight down at the ground out of the left side of the plane.  He looked right, and all he could see was the sky and again felt a rush of dizziness.  He looked down into the cockpit until it passed.  Knox straightened the airplane out and they were much closer to the ground.  Edmund could clearly see details in the trees and fields they passed over.  Cows grazed lazily beneath them, not noticing the airplane soaring over their heads.  Soon, Edmund could see a small town ahead and then what looked like an army camp, dotted with many small and large tents.  A long grass field was marked with chalk lines on either side.  The plane glided gently into the camp and in an instant bumped onto the ground.  The Nieuport shook as its tires rolled across the grass.  The plane came almost to a stop and then the engine picked up power and the plane drove across the field and finally slowed to a stop near a large hangar.  The engine wound down and then stopped abruptly.  The silence was deafening.  Edmund’s ears were ringing with it.  He felt the plane shake as Knox climbed out of the cockpit onto the wing and then jumped down to the ground.  Edmund unbuckled his seatbelt and slowly stood up, putting a hand on the wing overhead so he wouldn’t bump his head again.  He swung a leg over the side and found his footing on the wing.

“Be careful until you have your legs under you again.”

Edmund’s legs did feel like lead.  Holding on to the wing, he stepped free of the cockpit and then took two steps and jumped lightly off the wing.  He landed with a thud on his backside.

“Welcome to the war.” Knox said, holding a hand out to Edmund.