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three months in a wheelchair as he recovered, and it was a miracle he could now walk. With Stu and Mary with his consultant,
Dougie and Lucy remained in the hospital gardens.
    I kept my distance, as best I could. I hadn’t told Dougie what I’d overheard the previous day. How do you bring something like that up?
‘Hiya, pal. Your dad’s got a
stonking secret. Thought you should know.’
Their relationship was already in bits. News like this would push it over the edge. Besides which, I didn’t know
what
that secret
was. It was clearly a whopper, judging by the hold Bradbury had over Mr Hancock. What did the man from Liverpool have on my friend’s father?
    ‘Ah, young love,’ said the Major. ‘Is there anything more beautiful?’
    ‘Pass me the sick bucket,’ I grumbled as Dougie and Lucy wrestled with one another. We were on the opposite side of an enormous rose bush display, two pale blue apparitions sat on a
bench of our own. There were others in the garden too, patients and visitors alike. Old folk sat in their dressing gowns with grandkids at their feet. Younger patients grabbing fresh air together.
Others stood in the smokers’ corner, puffing away, seeking out altogether more horrid air.
    ‘You disapprove of the romancing,’ he said. ‘Why?’
    ‘I just don’t need to see it.’
    ‘You got the hots for her too?’ said the Major, clicking his fingers. ‘That ol’ chestnut! Tough break, kid.’
    I was going to deny it, tell him some big fat lie to cover my bum, but it was no good. The look on my face told him everything.
    ‘It’s just . . . I always thought she and I would end up together. She was the last person who saw me alive the night I died. We’d just shared a kiss. Our whole lives lay
ahead, who knew where they would lead?’
    The Major raised an eyebrow. ‘OK, for starters, you’re fifteen years old, kid. Less of the
whole life
talk. It was probably just a kiss. You’d have got another,
somewhere else, from another gal who rocked your world. There are plenty of fish in the sea.’
    ‘But I never got to
see
where it was heading,’ I said, shifting as I spied them snogging. ‘She meant the world to me, Major.’
    ‘You were infatuated, Will. She may not have felt the same way. Perhaps this was a blessing.’
    ‘Me being dead? A blessing?’
    ‘You know what I mean. It probably wouldn’t have worked out.’
    ‘What would you know? What makes you the world’s greatest knowledge on love?’
    ‘I know a thing or two,’ said the airman ruefully.
    ‘So you say, but why should I believe you? You tell us nothing about who you are, dodging that bullet every time. Secrets? You’re just like Dougie’s dad.’
    ‘Sparky’s dad’s keeping something from him?’
    ‘Yes, I overheard Mr Hancock on the phone, speaking to this bloke, Bradbury. He knows something that sounded really dodgy, and Dougie’s old man’s keeping that from him. How do
I tell him something like that? Their relationship’s already a mess. It’s hopeless.’
    ‘You gotta be straight with Sparky. Tell him what you know.’
    ‘I can’t, it’ll kill him.’
    ‘Not telling him will cause more harm. He’s your best friend, Will. You gotta do right by him.’
    ‘And why should I take your advice anyway? You’re a closed book.’
    The Major sat in silence as I stewed on his words. He removed his hat, smoothing a pale blue hand over the phantom material, running a finger along its visor. It wasn’t my place to press
him. If he wanted to open up, he would. It was a cheap trick to hit him with a comment like that.
    ‘I’m Captain Chip Flowers and I was born in Columbus, Ohio, 1910.’
    A cheap trick that worked! The airman’s ghost continued.
    ‘I was thirty-three years old when I died. Yeah, young. In wartime, all kinds of promotional opportunities pop up when you least expect ’em, usually preceded by a bullet.’
    His demeanour shifted to one of introspection as he reminisced. He was being open for