I am just one of countless writers (I cant describe myself as an author in all honesty) and have submitted something like 15 stories to Nifty and generally speaking have received some positive feed back which has been more than encouraging to help me continue.
Writing and receiving nice comments are one thing (or rather two) but without Nifty it would just not be possible because SOME other sites would just not entertain me for reasons I wont go into.
Nifty takes in a whole range of stories and writer abilities and to them I thank you so much. I have found some thing I enjoy doing and have a reasonable ability to write an interesting story, my readers say so.
Please take a moment to send a donation to the guys at Nifty. They work hard to allow guys like me to write their stories and for others to enjoy. Sounds simple enough but a lot of hard work goes on behind the scenes and they could do with our backing.
I have donated small amounts to the site three times now because in my opinion they deserve all that they can raise to help run the site which so many hundreds/thousands of us enjoy. Please do join me in donating as well, no matter how large or small. I thank you.
My pen name on Nifty is Robert Goater (my best and late friend's name who's Christian name we share) and IF you would like to read more of my efforts go and look me up!
POSTSCRIPT TO THE INTERVIEW
Lieutenant Colonel Paul Dowling was in the War Office in London going through his diary at the list of meetings for the day and checked the time, 10.00 hrs, In half an hour General Sir Horace Black would be with him. This was 5th November 1945. He smiled to himself. "Guy Fawkes night! There will be very different explosions that would go off tonight than those during the past six years, if indeed anyone could afford to buy any fireworks!" He looked at the General's letter again which told him that he was trying to find out the whereabouts of Theo King and if he had survived the war.
"............as you are aware, Staff Sergeant King was my late son's Senior NCO in Norway and sadly died as a result of his terrible wounds. I was only able to speak briefly to the Staff Sergeant to inform him of my son's death, but Thomas asked me to thank the Staff Sergeant even though at the time he begged him to let him die, but he didn't of course and got him back to England but Thomas would not see him again because he was still angry with Theo. It was a mistake of course and before he died he told me he hoped Theo would forgive him."
That was not quite true of course and the General's only reason to try to find out about Theo was to meet the man his son was so very much in love with and hoped he had survived the war. He remembered seeing Theo with another, very tall, young man embracing while in the sea and had wondered if both of them had come through and were still "together," he hoped so.
Paul Dowling spoke into the intercom and asked his secretary to come in, the time had come to write to Hunter's parents and would be a repeat of many letters he had already written to other parents.
"............it is my sad duty to inform you that your son........"
Paul stood up as the General was shown in and shook hands. "Its very nice to meet you sir, please sit down." "Is this bad news Paul?" "Nothing has been confirmed at this time sir but its highly likely that Theo and his partner are dead and the worst thing is, we may never know what happened to them." The General sat and waited for Paul to tell him what he had already assumed, Theo and the young man had not made made it.
"Theo and Hunter were parachuted into France in January 1944 to team up with a small group of French resistance and we have no idea whether they survived by the time Germany surrendered. My sole responsibility now is trying to locate quite a number of operatives who were sent, by me, to carry out under cover operations and so far there are forty two, including Theo and Hunter, we have no knowledge about. It is still early days but from reports coming in, many of the French resistance and our men and women were captured and suffered dreadful torture before being shot and we have no idea at this time if Theo and Hunter were among them, but we do know for certain that 15 are confirmed dead and we know who they are. Sir, I am not able to give you exact details about them or what they were involved in because it is still subject to the official secrets act and will be for some time to come, but I can assure you both men did some fantastic work and were able to send back vital information and intelligence. It is all recorded by their coded messages back to us and there were dozens of them but I say again they have to remain confidential until a higher authority makes them public, if indeed they ever do. I
What I am able to tell you is that we got a lot of feed back from other operatives when they returned who had met both of them and it seems they were extremely well organised and lead a small group and, as I have already mentioned, sent back very valuable intelligence as well as carry out quite a number of sabotage attacks in the run up to the Normandy invasions. Quite sometime after the 6th June it was reported they had became separated and I'm afraid we have to assume by now they are dead as well. The last of those messages was just four letters chose by Theo and Hunter and they were "KCUF." That indicated there was a problem and they were in some sort of danger. The messages stopped after that one." Paul Dowling paused for a while and half a smile came over his face. "I will say, and this is for you and I only sir, it is QUITE possible that according to one returning operative, they were in fact lovers! I find that hard to believe to be honest but if they were, my goodness there was no indication of it while they were in training! Mind you I have to say that they were as good as you could get and even the French contingent at the training school had no idea they were if fact Englishmen because they were so focused in their new identities." He stopped and smiled at the General. "I apologise for smiling sir but I have often wondered what they got up to in the cottage on Dartmoor during the month they spent there. They went away as Englishmen and retuned as Frenchmen, but I'm also wondering what else they returned as!" The General smiled with Paul and was convinced they were already lovers BEFORE they got to any cottage!
"If you knew they were Paul would have that been a concern to you?" Dowling thought for some time. "Well I have to say it most probably would, but because I got to know them so well and thought of them so highly I THINK I would have ignored it, I will never know now."
"Please Paul only continue to think of them in the high regard you have and please do let me know if you find out what happened to them."
"Of course I will, I am as keen to find out as well sir." They shook hands and the General left and the first stop when he got home was to visit his son's grave. "Goodness knows where they are now, but I bet you a whisky they will come home." The General drove the rest of the way and the first thing he did when he got to his study was pour a double, one for each of them, he raised his glass to the portrait of his son. "Come home boys, Thomas and I pray you do."
A long way from London and down in the west country two parents read the letter again from Lt. Col. Dowling.
"What shall we do Henry? Dowling is sure they are both dead and even sent his condolences." Hunter's mother and father hugged one another and then Henry slapped his thigh in exasperation.
"Oh for goodness sake Emma, go and wake the buggers up, its nearly 12 O'clock! They have been home almost two weeks and its about time they got up! And tell Theo and Hunter to ring the War Office or I fucking well will!"
"HENRY! Language PLEASE!"
"Sorry dear."
THE END..................................... But also the beginning. ____________________________________________________________________________
winchesterbornbred@hotmail.co.uk