A Kingdom of Our Own

Chapter Twenty Three - Patriot

The little sunlight that had been cast over the graveyard began to wane in its intensity, as night-time prepared to fall. The setting was a considerable bit duller than it had been earlier and although it wasn’t particularly any cooler than it had been before and the wind hadn’t picked up, there was a sort of presence about the place that sent a chill down one’s spine. It wasn’t a good feeling, that much was certain. It was a stale aftertaste that sat deep inside the gut.

The gloved man who was carrying the Old Glory had almost reached the end of the cemetery and was taking his final few paces - Still slow and solemn, as they had been before. He ground to a halt a good two or three meters clear of the final gravestones, where he came to face a boy of around twelve years of age.

He, the boy, wore a light green chequered shirt and black trousers, slightly less formal in appearance than the man before him. Although there were no tears in the boy’s eyes, there was a heavy sense of remorse about his expression, dwelling on what could have been, how things could have turned out differently in life. To emphasise his distress, his shoulders had pulled tight, being notably high and rigid in appearance.

Just as calmly as the man had walked past the graves, he held out the flag and placed it softly in the boy’s arms. He gripped onto the flag with feeble, shaking hands, but managed to maintain his firm, solemn expression, not quite paying attention to the events unfolding around him. The man who had handed the flag over to him, briefly saluted the boy before him formally and then took a pace or two backwards, giving him some space to grieve.

The boy let out a sigh. His palm was spread out across the stars on the flag, trying to seek some comfort from it. He remembered the last night of happiness they’d had together, out underneath the stars. It seemed so long ago now, almost as if it had occurred in a past life. For a moment he closed his eyes tightly as if trying to picture the evening and shortly after, closely followed by the stern-faced man, he headed into the cemetery to seek out the grave.