The Crutch-Handled Cane

In the early days of the Battle of Britain, a German fighter pilot notices something impossible: a child standing alone in an open field, waving as his plane roars overhead.

Friedrich "Fritz" Von Haupton flies without zeal for the Reich, carrying out his missions with reluctance and restraint. On repeated low-level runs over the English countryside, he notices something that haunts him: a lone boy standing in an open field, waving cheerfully at his passing aircraft.

For Emile Hester, an unwanted child living under the cruelty of a resentful aunt, the planes in the sky represent hope, escape, and a connection to a father he barely remembers. Each day he waves—not in defiance, but in longing.

As the war intensifies and the sky grows deadlier, one final encounter forces both pilot and child into an irreversible moment of sacrifice and consequence.

The Crutch-Handled Cane is a haunting World War II short story about innocence amid cruelty, quiet defiance, and the devastating cost of human misunderstanding in war.