'Her Name Was Honey and His Name Was Brian'

It was one dark winter night in December. Brian had just finished college in Old Woking, and he was heading through a gap in between some old cottages that seemed to have been there since back before Second World. He really didn’t think about it, to be honest. His grandmother didn’t mention it to him; he was only told snippets of some stories but he wasn’t allowed to ask why because he could see that she was still upset about it, even though so many years has passed.

He didn’t realise that he was actually sitting at the bus stop in Kingfield Green when he turned to look at his watch, which used to be his father’s before he had died in the car crash with his mother. He had been just a day old and hadn’t been given a name yet. Ever since then it was just him, his grandmother, and his uncle and aunt. His uncle is his dad’s brother. He was more of the father figure when he came home from serving; Brian always knew his grandmother hated it when his uncle had to go away because — as they all knew — something in the past would set her off, but she wouldn’t tell them anything other than asking them to take her to the cemetery and stay put in the car as she wanted to be left alone.

Brian, on the other hand, knew that his uncle and dad grew up in the shadows of this mystery person. They knew that something about it had to do with his name but none of them knew the reason why. As he cast back to looking at the time, it was ten to four but no 34 had turned up yet. He had been waiting for the bus for almost an hour.

Then all of a sudden, the old double decker 34 bus had arrived; it looked like it was ready to break at any moment. He didn’t blame it, to be honest, and he got on the bus and sat at the back instead of being at the top like he normally did. The interior was that old mud-like brown colour, and the seats looked like they were made out of carpet material.

There were tapping and ticking noises all around the bus which sounded like a bomb was going to explode, but he was pretty sure it would have gone off ages before he even got onto the bus if that was the case. Brian looked down at his bag, thinking about what he needed to get out of it but he didn’t realise for a moment that it had actually changed.

As he looked up again, that’s when reality hit him hard; he had gone back in time. He was not sure what year it was but he soon worked it out. As he looked down the gangway as the bus pulled over, he noticed a young woman and a soldier climbing on board; they had made their way towards the back of the bus near him. The women looked familiar but he couldn’t think of where he had seen her. All of a sudden, it dawned on him. The woman was his grandmother and the mystery man was her boyfriend at the time.

The woman said “hello” and sat down near him and the soldier saluted to him too, which gave Brian a puzzled worried look before he realised what he was wearing and quickly saluted back. The soldier sat down next to the woman. The woman looked worried that Brian didn’t know what he was doing but made small talk to him as she turned round.

“Awful time isn’t it, Sargent?” she said.

It dawned on Brian what year it was; he quickly replied, “Yes, terrible, but I’m pretty sure we can win this.”

"With your expertise, sir, I’m pretty sure we will,” replied the private.

He soon realised that this private was the one that his grandmother gets sad about. He pressed his button to leave the bus. He heard “good call, sir... You're being tracked.” Brian hadn’t noticed that a few dodgy people were lingering and had disappeared up to the top deck. That’s when Brian had an idea. He got up and said to the other two, “You two come with me... If I’m in danger, so are you.” They both stood up alongside a few other soldiers who knew the value of their safety. He explained to the bus driver that he should get off the bus right now as well. It was only the soldiers actually left on the bus and the group of people who weren’t in uniform, but he realised what was going on.

They pulled over, making them think that someone was getting off and coming on so it didn’t matter as much to them what was happening downstairs. As the Private was last to get off the bus, he chucked a grenade onto the bus. Both the Private and Brian told “Honey,” the lady, to run and all the soldiers, the bus driver, and both “Brians” started to run to the dip of the bank side of the field. The grenade exploded, at which point the bus was now alight but it didn’t go according to plan because now the air raid siren started to go off.

Brian heard the Private murmur a swear word under his breath; he knew perfectly well that wasn’t meant to happen. He didn’t care really, even if his uniform said otherwise. He told him it’s alright; things happen for a reason that can’t be helped. The Private was taken aback that Brian had quoted him on something that he would normally say.

“Now we need to run to find shelter for these two right now,” said Brian as he ordered all the men to get to the safety of the nearest barracks door as it wasn’t too far; both the Private and Brian had to take care of Honey and the bus driver. There was a shelter not far from where they were, if Brian remembered correctly.

Brian was not even sure how he got to DeepCut in the first place, but there was a little stone Army shelter that was ready to be used in case the Germans had ever invaded England. They just about managed to get to the bunker but Brian somehow managed to get shot in the back by someone they couldn’t see; the Private and the bus driver dragged him into the bunker before he got shot anymore by the unseen agent or soldier at the time.

Honey managed to find the first aid kit in Brian’s bag; to her surprise, it had her name on it but she didn’t ask any questions at all because it wasn’t the time to ask or cause a scene as Brian was blacking out. The Private had noticed that Brian had actually been shot twice, but they only heard one gun shot. All three throughout the night endlessly tried to keep Brian alive, but by the morning, when rescue arrived, he didn’t make it.

In the distance, Brian could hear a voice talking to him. He slowly woke up from his coma and he noticed that it was his grandmother talking to him about the time she had tried to save a sergeant's life, but he had passed away in the action of trying to save her, the bus driver, and Grandad. Brian did the same thing on the bus when he soon realised that the bus was going to go off any second because someone had left a bomb on the bus.