In Times of War

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Chapter Twenty-Nine

I do not wake up with a smile on my face.

   Want to know why? Because I woke up to a twenty-one-year-old jumping on my small bed. “Mia, Mia, Mia, Mia, Mia!” She was shouting in my ear. It was not my idea of a happy awakening. So I did exactly what every sane person would do. I shoved her off the bed. She went down screaming in a white bundle of sheets. I wrapped my nightgown closer around me and rejoiced in the momentary silence. That’s exactly what it was, a moment. I was right on the edge of sleep again when she popped up right in my face.

“That wasn’t very nice, Mia!” I don’t respond to her overly chipper voice, instead I start tapping her head and face, and not exactly nicely either. “Um, Mia, what are you doing?”

“Looking for the off button.” I mutter sleepily, still poking at her face.

“Oh, you silly goose, you should know by now I don’t have one!” She takes my hand and moves it away from her face.

“Oh, but if you did…” I rub my eyes and groan.

“What a horrible world that would be!” All her cheerfulness has returned. It was like she sucked all of the happiness out of me and put it in herself.

“Not for everyone else in the free world.” I yawn and sit up, running my hand up my face and through my hair. As I have said before, I do not enjoy waking up. Normally Alice doesn’t either.

“Oh, come on, don’t be such a grouch. It’s morning!” She throws her hands up in the air, smiling from ear to ear.

“The perfect reason to be a grouch. Good night.” I grab my blanket from the floor, lie down, and pull the blanket over my head.

“Oh, come on, don’t be like that!” She lifts the blanket and looks at me, smiling creepily. From my point of view she’s upside down.

“Who gave you coffee?” I ask, barely awake. There was a reason we never gave Alice coffee. She turned into a hyperactive chipmunk anytime she had it.

“MEEEEEEE!!” She shouts with her arms spread out like she is ready to take flight.

“Alright, Allie, how much did you have?” I sit up and rub my hand on my face, attempting to wipe the sleep away.

“Two cups!” That meant two hours before it all wore off.

“Great…” I say, sarcasm dripping from my voice.

   “Isn’t it, though?” She’s so full of happiness it makes me want to vomit. The whole two hours were absolute torture. She talked, sang off key, danced wildly, it was so weird. By the time she came down from her caffeinated happiness she was exhausted. She sat down on my bed and looked like she was about to fall asleep.

“All better now, Miss Sunshine?” I ask, happy that she was done with all the rainbows and unicorns.

“Shut up and eat your food.” She was now angry and she points at the tray of food beside the bed. I choke down the sandwich and the milk all the while my head is screaming at me to stop eating.

“Happier now?” I ask.

“I will be after I take a nap.”

“You do that.” She lies down on my bed and I pull the blanket up to her chin. As she naps, I go and get weighed. I have to gain fifteen more pounds before I can leave. When I get back Alice is still asleep.

“Rise and shine, sleeping beauty!” I shout in her ear. This is payback.

“Go away!” She murmurs and rolls over in the bed.

“Nope, you see I tried that too, it didn’t work. This is payback!” I sing loudly and off key.

“Rude is what this is. Just plain rude.” She sits up and wipes her face.

“Oh, boo hoo, cry me a river. When do you leave?”

“Tonight.”

   “Well then, we don’t have much time, do we? I want to know about everything.” So she tells me about everything that has happened to her and her family. So far it had been an uneventful summer for her family. They had all stayed home with her grandparents most of the time, other than Alice going to work at a hospital in the city and Aunt Tess preparing for her new job teaching at a high school. Alice had gotten a couple of letters from Lee, all of them about as descriptive as David’s letters to me. Eventually, six o’ clock rolls around and it’s time for Alice to leave again.

“You look after everyone, you hear?”

“What do you think I’ve been doing all this time? Pickin’ petunias?” She retorts.

“You’ve been known to do that from time to time.” I walk with her down to the hospital lobby.

“Come on, that was one time!”

“I rest my case.” I hold my hands up in surrender.

“You were the one that burned the cookies!” She defends herself.

“Because you never told me that they were in the oven.”

“Whatever.” She flips her hair like she’s angry, but she’s smiling.

“Seriously, take care of everyone for me.”

“The same goes for you. You have to take care of yourself too. That includes eating. And you have to send me a letter before you leave.” She points her finger at me accusingly.

“You know I will, Allie. Now, you better go before you miss your bus.” I push her lightly in the direction of the bus station.

“Okay, okay, geez, if I didn’t know any better I’d say you were trying to get rid of me.” She jokes, and then pulls me into a tight hug, which I return.

   “I couldn’t get rid of you even if I wanted to.” I squeeze her shoulders one more time and then she walks away. She turns back one last time and waves, then she walks down the street towards the bus station and I walk up to my room.

And I eat.