Delia McCawley - The Private That Never Killed

Delia Begins

Delia's pov:
Chaos, that's as best as I can describe it, complete and utter chaos. Gunfire and screams flood the still air as soldiers run this way and that to achieve their main goal. My ears ringing as my eyesight can't seem to keep focus, going in and out numerous times as my surroundings flash by me.

"We're gonna get you home, McCawley. Back to that brother of yours and your farm." A man my entire squadron know as 'Hollywood' comforts me, our calloused hands entwined with one another as a sense of clarity and calmness washes over my very being and soul. We did it. It's all over.

A sigh of relief escapes my parched lips and every single detail of my life, especially the ones that has lead up to this very moment, resurfaces and plays out seemingly in front of my eyes.

* * *
A young Danny Walker and Rafe McCawley can be seen playing "fighter pilots" in a life-size toy plane that the trio (Delia, Danny, and Rafe) put together not too long ago.

Bessie, my favourite cow out of the entire farm's herd, moos, alerting Danny and resulting in the 11 year old acting as if she was an enemy soldier that he needed to shoot down. My older brother, Rafe, praises Danny for his quick shooting, before the boy in the back returns the compliment and the two proceed to refer to this country as the "Land of the free, home of the brave".

A chuckle escapes my lips at the display in front of me. Even after experiencing this display numerous times throughout our shared childhood, I am still incapable of not finding their actions amusing or even borderline entertaining to witness in person. There is something almost personal about being able to see just how direct and freely they communicate with each other as to meet the supposed achievement in the various scenarios they would play out every afternoon.

I hear me and Rafe's mama call for me from inside the house, gaining my attention and almost making me run straight to her, and if it wasn't for the goodbye I gave to my brother and our best friend, I would've already been halfway there. But neither one of the boys seemed to have picked up on what I said, all too immersed in the make-believe setting those two shared.

1 week later
Danny's shaking frame wrapped around mine, attempting to shield me away from what was happening on the dining table. It was all just an accident, we were just playing around with each other and then.... Why did I have to push him? It should have been me that fell and have my head the rock.

A strangled out gasped emerges from the depths of my soul "I could've killed him, I almost ..." I choke on my words as my eyes sting from the continuous flow of painful tears. Red eyes gloss over my mother's framed picture of the Lord's Ten Commandments, fixating on this one specific line "Thou shall not kill" with a illustration of the world's first murder; Cain and his brother Abel.

Me and Rafe's mama comes over to my frozen stature, eyes glued onto the sixth commandment. "I could've killed him, mama, I almost killed my own brother" I struggled to get out, still shocked by the events just moments before. To my surprise, Mama didn't try to deny what could've happened if the events took a turn for the worst, but rather used this as an opportunity to explain why killing is the most egregious sin of all in God's eyes. That out of all the sins that exist, killing is the one that hurts his heart most of all.

And in that one small moment, I made a promise to myself and the Lord. That I shall never, to my dying day, bring harm upon another person or creature that the Lord created and placed on this Earth.