The man  came to pick David  up in the afternoon and they drove for miles without any particular direction. In the evening they decided to stretch their legs and came across a disused army training base, complete with dug out trenches and no man’s land. It was freezing. They walked against the wind and stopped on the brow of a hill where the man saw a starling caught in a tangle of barbed wire, flapping, desperately trying to free itself. The man watched as the man  knelt down and tried in vain to free the little thing. He pulled  hopelessly at the wire to no avail and eventually silenced its distressed calls with a gloved hand.

They did not speak but walked on, the snow of the last few days had turned to icy drizzle. The man wandered closer towards the trench and climbed down inside. It was cold and muddy and smelled of damp and dead leaves. Everything was there, the duckboards, sandbags and even the odd piece of abandoned artillery. Frank found it eerie.

The man pulled out his pipe and a silver whiskey flask from his trench coat and Frank lit a cigarette, then they sat against the twisted trunk of a tree and passed the whiskey between them. The place was so silent, no birds were heard to sing and the impending darkness was closing in all around them like a velvet cloak.The man found an abandoned torch that still had some light left. He shone it around the trench.

‘Over the top men, over the top,’ he shouted in a drunken voice waving his arms wildly and choking back the tears. He called out their names.

Frank joined the German side, dressed for the occasion in combat trousers and heavy boots.They  leapt over the top and they fired aggressively at eachother with imaginary artillary, imitating the sound of shells and guns. Staggering from the drink, and shouting orders from each side. The rain pelted them and they slid in the mud.After several hours they retreated and returned to the car. The man looked at his watch.

“My God it’s half past twelve. Never mind the Kaiser…”

David laughed bitterly.

 The man crept into the house and found the sleeping form of Sylvia in bed. He quietly changed into his pyjamas and slipped into bed.