We hear lots of talk about all the heroes who are working so hard to get us through this crisis, I thought I would write a (very) short story with that title.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Heroes<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Dan lifted the net curtain,<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere they are again. Silly buggers! There\u2019s three of them. I bet they\u2019re not all from the same household.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSit down and have your cup of tea,\u201d encouraged Jane. \u201cThey\u2019re not doing us any harm.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNo, but they may live with grandparents,\u201d Stan insisted. \u201cBackwards and forwards they go. That\u2019s the third time I\u2019ve seen them this morning. No \u2018one hour a day\u2019 exercise for them. They must be in and out of that supermarket all day. Bloody teenagers. If this was 1939 they\u2019d be out there fighting for our country. Can you imagine that? Can\u2019t even stay inside to save us.\u201d He took the mug of tea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dan was getting depressed. He knew he shouldn\u2019t complain. They had it easy, compared to some. He had his garden and Jane had her crochet. He missed his grandchildren, though, and he worried about his daughter, who was a care assistant. The children seemed happy, being \u2018home schooled\u2019 by their dad. Dan looked forward to seeing their smiling faces every Sunday in their family \u2018Zoom\u2019 chat. What would they do without technology?<\/p>\n\n\n\n After he\u2019d had his tea he took a dining chair and took up his position by the window. There was a wren hopping about in his front garden, and a sparrow hanging on the bird feeder. The weather had been kind and the garden was looking beautiful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There they were again, the three yobs! What did they think they were doing? Suddenly one of the boys caught his eye and waved. He dropped the curtain quickly. The cheek of it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n After lunch he sat back in the chair again, to \u2018watch the birds\u2019. It wasn\u2019t long before the boys were back, walking in the other direction this time. They waved again, but he pretended not to see them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Later he went into the kitchen, it must be nearly time for another cuppa. Jane was leaning against the sink, struggling to breathe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cInhaler,\u201d she managed to wheeze. Dan went upstairs as fast as his arthritis would let him and rummaged in Jane\u2019s drawer. There it was. Jane suffered from seasonal asthma, brought on by an allergic reaction to tree pollen, but he\u2019d never seen her this bad. Jane shook it and tried to use it but it was empty. She slid to the floor, requiring all her strength to breathe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What should he do? He couldn\u2019t go out. Caz was at work, Will had the children. He dashed to the front door.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHey, there, Grandpa,\u201d said one of the boys. What excellent timing. Dan explained the situation and they told him to phone Jane\u2019s doctor and arrange a prescription, while they set off for the chemist\u2019s. They\u2019d be back in no time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Soon Jane was resting comfortably, and Dan was thanking the boys for their quick, calm response. Apparently they were brothers who did all the shopping for their elderly or ill neighbours. Not all heroes wear capes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We hear lots of talk about all the heroes who are working so hard to get us through this crisis, I thought I would write a (very) short story with that title. Heroes Dan lifted the net curtain, \u201cThere they are again. Silly buggers! There\u2019s three of them. I bet they\u2019re not all from the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[40],"class_list":["post-1469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing","tag-short-stories"],"aioseo_notices":[],"views":1941,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"rttpg_featured_image_url":null,"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Carol","author_link":"https:\/\/carolbarton.uk\/index.php\/author\/admin\/"},"rttpg_comment":10,"rttpg_category":"Writing<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"We hear lots of talk about all the heroes who are working so hard to get us through this crisis, I thought I would write a (very) short story with that title. Heroes Dan lifted the net curtain, \u201cThere they are again. Silly buggers! There\u2019s three of them. I bet they\u2019re not all from the…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolbarton.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolbarton.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolbarton.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolbarton.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolbarton.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1469"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/carolbarton.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1469\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1470,"href":"https:\/\/carolbarton.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1469\/revisions\/1470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolbarton.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolbarton.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolbarton.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}