Chapter 3.

CHAPTER 3

Joel followed his mother into that house, his heart pounding fiercely. What was the news she wanted to tell him that made her look so grieved? Had something happened to his father?

“What is wrong? What happened?” Joel asked again.

His mother pointed to a chair.

“You have to sit down,” she said.

Joel sat at the edge of the chair and waited for her to speak.

“We received news last week,” his mother began.

“Is it father? What happened to him?”

“No, it’s not your father. When I and your father heard that the war was over, we were very happy. It meant that you could finally come home to visit and Johnny would come back too. We left the door open each day for him because we hadn’t gotten word from him in a long time and we did had no idea when he would come. Then, a letter arrived.

It said that Johnny had been killed in action.”

Joel could not believe his ears.

“Killed in action?”

“We wrote back to confirm if it was true, because some soldiers that had been missing returned home. But an officer came by to give us the news in person. Joel, Johnny is dead,” she told him, tears streaming down her face.

Joel felt all the air leave his lungs. It could not be, no. Little Johnny, his best friend in the world, his younger brother- dead.

Why? Why did the war have to take him away?

It was not fair!

“We are arranging for his body to be brought home as soon as possible,” he heard his mother say.

Johnny had been his confidant in so many ways.  When Joel was thinking about schooling, Johnny was the one who told him that it would be better if he had his education far away. Johnny had believed in him right from the start. Not one in a million years would he have thought about Johnny dying.

He had planned so much for the both of them. But, there was no way he could do any of that now. All the years he had spent away, he had not gotten the chance to spend time with his brother.

“Mom,” Joel knelt down in front of his mother and placed a hand on her knee.

“He sent us a letter two months ago, telling us how much he missed home and how he hoped that the war would end soon so he would come back. He talked about you so much and that he hated that fact that he could not write you letters. I told him that as long as he stayed alive till the end of the war, he would get a chance to stay at home and eat as much as he wanted because the food rations they served them were meager.

He told me he wasn’t going to die, Joel. He was going to come  back. He promised.”

Joel could only hold her hand. What could he say that would ease the pain they both felt?

Joel looked at the door as his father walked in, shoulders slumped.

“Dad,” he said, quickly standing up.

“Joel,” his father’s eyes lit up a bit when he saw him. “When did you arrive?”

“A couple of minutes ago. I heard about Johnny,” Joel said softly.

“Yes, we arranged to pick him up this week. I just came back from the funeral house. I’m hoping they send his body soon enough.”

Joel sat down beside his father and sighed. He could see how much his father was trying to hide the fact that he was grieving. The look on his eyes had faded and his skin had sunken around the chin.

“I’m sorry. I, we did not expect anything to happen to him,” he said.

His father nodded.

“Two weeks ago, your mother was talking about how we would gather the money we had left- the war took everything, and make a warm welcome from him. She was concerned that the war would have left a terrible toll on him and he would need family around for support. Then the letter came.”

Joel nodded. There was a lot his father wanted to say but held back from saying. Then he turned to look at his mother who had gone pale and understood. His father was trying to be strong for his mom. She needed support and if he broke down, she would to.

He had to do something to help. So, he stood up.

“I brought some things for you, Mom. I remember how much you liked your table cloths so I got some embroidered table clothes- and other things too,” he said.

“Oh, thank you. It was nice of you to remember,” his mother managed a smile.

“How could I forget? You made us eat carefully at every meal so we wouldn’t get them dirty.” Joel laughed, eliciting a soft laughter from his mother too.

“I saw the soldiers on the streets,” Joel turned to his father.

“They come in larger numbers everyday and each one is worse than the former . We don’t have anyone to treat them so they either leave or- “ his father left the rest unsaid.

Dead, Joel finished the statement in his head. Dead, just like his younger brother. Only, they hadn’t met their end on that battlefield. They had come back, looking for something to keep them alive and had not found it.

Joel walked into the room that used to be his and sat on the small bed with a loud sigh. He still could not wrap his head around the fact that the only friend he truly had in the world had died without him knowing a thing. How had his last years been? What were the things he had developed a liking for, what were the things that made him sad, the things that mattered the most?

All his life, he had always been able to confide in his brother, tell him the things that bothered him, not minding if he was years younger. He thought about his parents, how they had survived the years without him and his brother, how they had dealt with the news.

The look he had seen on his mother’s face when she opened the door, his father’s slumped shoulders and look of dejection…it was akin to the scene he witnessed as he walked on the street.

The war had not only taken limbs and loved ones from people, it had also taken the smile from their faces and the hope they once had. The expression that haunted the faces of the men and women was the same his parents now wore on theirs.

He opened his travel bag, removing everything one by one and came across a book. Picking it up, he dusted the cover and opened it. Written inside was his brother’s name. He had gotten the book in his first year and had intended to give his brother as a gift. His brother had written to him, asking some questions about his discipline and Joel had seen the book on day at a bookstore and bought it immediately.

But, he would never get the chance to do that now. His brother had died in a ditch somewhere, while fighting  and Joel had been miles away, studying in a comfortable environment without having to bother about the gruesome aspects of life.

A knock on the door had him standing up and walking to to the living room to see who had come around. He walked out to see his father still seated and his mother walking slowly towards the door.

“I will get it, don’t bother” Joel said, walking towards the door.

He opened the door to find a woman, looking exhausted, leaning against the door.

“Hi, can I help you?” Joel asked.