{"id":1843,"date":"2023-11-14T18:24:31","date_gmt":"2023-11-14T18:24:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1843"},"modified":"2023-11-14T18:24:36","modified_gmt":"2023-11-14T18:24:36","slug":"rip-rap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/rip-rap\/1843\/","title":{"rendered":"Rip Rap"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It is notoriously difficult to swim through pancake batter, so Emmie settled for floating on her back. Her eyes opened briefly after a staccato rattle, followed by a piercing whistle, a loud bang and a cascade of spitting bright star fragments. A war must have started. Emmie was dimly conscious of being shot in the middle somewhere; blood everywhere, lots of pain. Best get back to the pancake batter. She re-submerged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her eyes crept open again on hearing voices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018She\u2019s coming round. Are you OK love? It\u2019s Mum here. You had us worried\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Emmie was pleased to hear this because she too was starting to be worried.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018What\u2019s the fighting about out there? I think there\u2019s a bullet in my belly. It really hurts a lot and I keep falling into a thick lake. And…\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u2018Sshhush, love. Look at who\u2019s waiting to see you. He thought you\u2019d never wake up\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a painful turn to look sideways, Emmie saw a plastic box on wheels with a baby inside. Her brain clicked into gear as she remembered her little Rambo who had spent several months doing serious damage to her insides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Oh mum he\u2019s lovely. I can\u2019t remember much after a man stuck a needle in me. Must have fallen asleep and he just arrived.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Yes, they decided on an emergency c-section. Best for both of you. And you haven\u2019t been shot – but it\u2019ll take a while for you to feel better.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ruby, Emmie\u2019s big sister was a bit less conciliatory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Look, it\u2019s bonfire night and I\u2019m meeting Jake at the firework display. Now we know you\u2019re going to live, can I go? I\u2019m no good with babies, although he looks like a good day\u2019s work for you Em. Well done.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a tentative kiss, mindful of the bullet wound, Ruby slipped away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018So he\u2019s here, he\u2019s mine and he\u2019s just wonderful. I\u2019m keeping him forever mum.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Of course you\u2019re keeping him. The Social has been sniffing round, as they do with underage pregnancies. But we\u2019ll all chip in and give him the best life ever.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tears were leaking from both the women. Memories of panic, disbelief, sickness, shock and all the rest gushed around them. And now great wafts of relief and oceans of love for the little boy in the cot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018I wish they\u2019d turn those fireworks down,\u2019 Emmie said. \u2018They made me dream of war.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Do you know, I always thought of you as my little rip-rap.\u2019 Her mum, seeing the blank look, added, \u2018They\u2019ve stopped selling them now. A tube of gun powder made into a concertina shape. When they were lit they jumped all over and you couldn\u2019t predict what they\u2019d do next.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Well my night of the two cans of lager may not have had a predictable outcome. But who\u2019s to say it isn\u2019t a great one?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They tried for a hug. Emmie yelped. Mum pushed the button for the nurse. Rambo let forth a wail of impressive volume. The sky lit up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With a painful turn to look sideways, Emmie saw a plastic box on wheels with a baby inside. Her brain clicked into gear as she remembered her little Rambo who had spent several months doing serious damage to her insides.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10158782359051062_103813597863211":"","twitter_1225722811282530305_1225722811282530305":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","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":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[695,1026],"tags":[56,302,1055,1053,750,8,7,1051,110,1056,1054,14,1057,651,11],"class_list":["post-1843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-695","category-nov-2023-fireworks","tag-after","tag-back","tag-batter","tag-emmie","tag-eyes","tag-he","tag-her","tag-look","tag-mum","tag-must","tag-pancake","tag-she","tag-shot","tag-so","tag-was"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbrNJE-tJ","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1843"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1843\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1845,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1843\/revisions\/1845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}