All Things Nice » Band of Brothers

87: Keys

When the train pulled into Boston, Posey's eyes were focused out of the window. It looked much the same as she remembered it, as familiar as, but also as cold as, London. Even through the train windows she could hear how loud the platform was, bustling with people hurrying off of trains and onto them, others waiting to board this one before it set off for the next station.

The moment the train had come to a stop John was up on his feet, pulling his suitcase out from the luggage rail and placing it on his seat before retrieving Posey's as well. She wondered whether things like that bothered him, having to do them one at a time where he'd once been able to do them simultaneously, but he didn't let any discontentedness show on his face. Perhaps he was simply used to it by now, all of the adjustments he had to make living life with one hand. Perhaps he had accepted that this was his life now and had come to terms with it. Posey wished she could do that, too.

Posey linked her arm through John's handless one and followed him off of the train, keeping her eyes peeled for Mrs. Daniels. Posey wasn't sure how she was going to react to seeing her again but she tried not to think about it lest it blur her concentration and send her retreating into her own head. She had a tendency to do that nowadays.

As it turned out, Posey needn't have worried about not spotting the familiar woman in the crowd, for even in her old age Mrs. Daniels had eyes like a hawk and she all but screeched Posey's name the second she laid eyes on her.

"Josephine!"

It had been a while since she'd heard anyone call her that. She didn't mind the name so much anymore, not when it was coming from Mrs. Daniels.

Posey whirled around and searched the crowd for the source of the voice, then broke into a smile when she found the elderly woman stood by the exit, strategically placed to ensure she wouldn't be missed.

"That's her over there," Posey said, nudging John with her elbow and pointing in Mrs. Daniels' direction.

John nodded and Posey thought she saw him smile, though the moment was fast and fleeting before he began using his suitcase and his shoulder to navigate his way through the lingering crowd.

"Hello, Mrs. Daniels," Posey greeted quietly once she was close, her smile drawing up the edges of her voice. She could see that Mrs. Daniels was teary but, for all that Posey found she wanted to cry, her eyes were dry and her chest empty of the familiar ache she'd expected to feel.

"How beautiful you are!" Mrs. Daniels exclaimed and drew Posey into a hug tighter than she seemed capable of. "And how much older you look!" She pulled back to hold Posey at arm's length and shook her head, smiling brightly. "Before so much a girl, now so much a woman! Goodness, I can't get over how stunning you are!"

"If I were you, Pose, I'd be wondering what that says about how you looked before," John commented wryly. When Posey turned she found him wearing a grin. "Hello," he went on, extending a hand for Mrs. Daniels to shake. "I'm John, Posey's brother."

"I can tell," Mrs. Daniels said, taking his proffered hand and using it to draw him into a hug. "You look exactly as Josephine did when she was a boy!" When both Posey and John protested at this observation the old woman laughed heartily, a troublemaker as she could be when she wanted to. "Oh, hush. The two of you could be twins. Now, shall we be off? Why chat in the cold when I have a perfectly warm house waiting to be filled up again?"

As they began the walk to Mrs. Daniels' house, Posey watched with a growing smile as John and Mrs. Daniels chatted quickly and animatedly to each other. Posey was relieved to find that her and John didn't appear to be any sort of a burden to her - in fact, she seemed delighted by their company. Posey didn't know much about Mrs. Daniels' life before the war but she knew she'd had a husband who had died just before America had joined it, and a grandson who had lived with them who had followed shortly after, having been stationed at Pearl Harbour. Posey thought that living in a house so empty after so many years of it being full must have been incredibly lonely.