Between Two Worlds - Book 1

Chapter 18

September 3rd, 1939

I was helping mom to clean the vegetables from the garden when we heard the announcement on the radio. Today, at eleven o'clock in the morning, the United Kingdom entered in war against Germany following the German invasion of Poland on September 1st.

What we all feared has happened.

Mom and I looked at each other in fear, not knowing what to say.

"What do we have to do ?" Mom finally asked.

I looked at her carefully and noticed that she seemed to have aged a little more than after grandpa's funeral.

I wanted to answer her something reassuring. That it wouldn't last, that it was less serious than what the men of the village said, that Iain would be reasonable enough to no longer think about getting involved.

But I felt deep down that none of that was true. That our country would not back down. It was too late now. The declaration of war was announced on the BBC and France also declared war on the Germans as did Australia and New Zealand.

Dad said many times that we could stop this war if we stopped blowing the sparks that were threatening us into fire and started trying to put them out. We didn't do anything about it. No one. We let Germany suffocate and now they want to prove their greatness again. But at wich cost ?

What to do ? 

Nothing. Continue to live as normally as possible, even if the atmosphere is tense, even if the threat of an invasion weighs on the head of every citizen of the country, even if the men in our family, in the neighborhood, that we always knew are called to go and fight and never return. Or worse yet, maybe they will come back, but will they still be men or just shadows?

Finally, I answered the most mundane and realistic thing at that moment.

"Continuing to clean the carrots."

I resumed my task and mother imitated me. When I had finished cutting the strawberries into small pieces that were going to be used to make jam, I went out to join my father to tell him the news.

"We expected that." he simply said, continuing to clean the stable.

I hoped to be able to get his impressions, his concerns even if it was only to ease mine. But that was without taking into account dad's silence. Just by his gestures, I understood that it was better not to insist.

"Where are Domhnall and Iain ?" I asked instead.

"Domhnall takes care of the pigsty and Iain has gone to sell our eggs to the regulars who no longer know how to travel here. Madame Claude is one of them now." he said, wiping the sweat from his forehead.

My parents, who were kind-hearted, took it upon themselves to continue bringing fresh eggs to old people who had always been faithful to them but who today could no longer travel the distance from their home to ours. It was always one of my brothers who took care of that.

"Madame Claude ? I went to see her on Friday after work and she was fine."

"She fell two days ago. She was dusting off a shelf, perched on a chair, she slipped and poof ! A fractured ankle." he answered without being overly moved by the fate of the poor old woman.

"How did you learn it ?" I asked him, surprised.

He was not inclined to gossip and cared little for the villagers when it didn't concern his close friends.