Plot Synopsis

In Oxford, England, Charles’ cries as his feet patter across the creaking wood floor quickly, going anywhere his father isn’t. Nigel has always been on Charles’ case about him being a man, maybe more so because of his mother’s death. His tears hit the letter in his hand, the letter that stopped his prepared years of straight A’s in the seconds it took him to read it. Charles is going to war… he is going to war because of his straight A’s, Britain feels like he would make a good member of the British Army Royal Engineers, and sadly that’s all that matters.

After farewells, he is drafted to London to participate against the tragic London Blitz by defusing unexploded bombs, during the beginning of The Battle of Britain, and the London Blitz. In the Royal Engineers he is assigned a partner named Jude who comes from Yorkshire. Jude comes from a big family and before he came to war his youngest sister Emily gave him her teddy bear. He carries this bear with him at all times in his pocket. There partnership makes a great balance, while one is complaining about how horrible it is to have open wounds in such an unsanitary terrain the other is thankful for how durable their uniform is. Their balance doesn’t last.

He shouldn’t have stepped around that building corner, that building corner that led no where, those few steps with no purpose. If Charles hadn’t, maybe Jude would have been alive, not only his partner but his friend. Jude is dead and there is nothing Charles can do, than try to stay alive after being wounded by a bomb being defused incorrectly. He comes in and out of conscious, his side is jabbed against that corner of the building, and when he wakes up about the fourth time he is staring at a mole. He is on a bed, the room isn’t pretty but it’s at least sanitary, and staring at a mole, Lesley’s mole to be exact. He later finds out that Jude died during one the more serious bombings on London which lasted for two days December 29 and 30, 1940.

While the WVS (Women’s-voluntary-service) was busy evacuating children they spotted him and took him to the center to be healed. Charles is suffering from pain affiliated with all his wounds, specifically the wound on his right arm that has severe swelling around it and swelling was significant around the others. He also has sunburn like rash, a high fever, an irritation of the eye, along with bumps around his chest that look like bug bites. Compared to the others he isn’t one of the more serious cases, he was often overlooked, but Charles understood. Since his fever was high they gave him aspirin, his bug bites treated with ointment, and his cuts cleaned. When the inflammation of his wounds didn’t heal they gave him steroids, steroids worsened it. The biggest fear now was him losing that right arm, and or eye, it was now clear he had a Staph infection. What they thought were bug bites, were actually puss filled pockets and were spreading into the cut.

Nigel sits in his home drinking his tea, lost in his own thoughts about the war and his beautiful wife. If he closes his eyes he can see her walking through the gardens telling him to hurry up and come walk next to her. He tries to walk faster and grab her hand but she it too far away. She looks back and laughs at him. He is so close, he’s almost there. A sharp rapping at the door wakes him from his thoughts. Nigel slowly moves his creaking bones to the door the wood floor cold against his feet. He looks outside and sees a small boy no older than seventeen and wonders why he is here. “Are you the father of Charles?” the boy asks. “Yes, I suppose I am. What has he done now?” Nigel becomes testy when talking about his son. “He was in an explosion, sir.” was the response. These words bounced around in Nigel’s head until he began to feel ill. Lights started to swirl above his head, voices got louder, and then everything went black.

Charles has been sitting in the rest center for a week now with the rash and bumps getting worse. He is only allowed to move for three things; eating, having his bandages changed and washed, or to use the toilet. Otherwise he sat in his bed chatting to no one in particular his voice only being me by the dull gray walls around him. He has a lovely nurse that takes care of him almost every day that seems to find joy in even the simplest things. This nurse, Lesley, is the one and only thing that he looks forward to during the day. Even if she is only there for five minutes it is nice to have someone to talk to.

There is talk about a new experimental drug called penicillin which has already cured quite a bit of people. However this drug was hard to get a hold of because it was very unstable and very difficult to produce. It wasn’t until 1941 when the drug was freeze dried and brought to the USDA who realized to do “deep fermentation” on the drug to mass produce it. During the months that passed Charles lost his eye to the infection by going blind in that one eye. He was not the only one who lost body parts to infections, it was very common for people in World War II to develop infections. In 1943 Historian Wainwright wrote, penicillin production had become one of the war effort's highest priorities. Thankfully it didn’t take until 1943 for Charles’ right arm to be saved because today, when Lesley enters the room, she has something for him, medicine. She is hesitant in giving the Penicillin to him because she does not know what will happen to him. He takes the medicine expecting to feel better immediately but notices no change.

The bumps and rashes are getting better and Charles is allowed to walk around more. He has been taking the medicine for at least two weeks by now and finally seeing results. He has a routine now during the day in the morning he takes his medicine and gets ready for breakfast. Then from there he goes and chats to Lesley for as long as her break is, and then reads the newspaper. In May 1941 he reads that the consecutive bombing has come to an end, and he is excused from the war because of his eye.

After being excused from the draft he returns to Oxford to see his Father. Sadly his once drill Sargent like father is now at wits end. Nigel is no longer sane, and is now on anti-depressants because he thinks Charles has died, and at 39 he has a caretaker. Charles steps through the unattended to lawn and up the creaking porch, the caretaker Corrie answers not knowing who he is. Charles asks for his father, she explains to him the past year for Nigel. When they reunite Nigel seems in a daze and doesn't believe he is talking to his son but that he has died. After this meet Charles realizes he can't stay because he is only making his father more ill, he leaves to rent an apartment near by.

Charles stills doesn't want to give up his smarts and starts going back to school, after a year gets accepted to Oxford University to study this "miracle drug" penicillin which saved his life.