(Six months later)
Jack and Louisa. Louisa and Jack. That was the way it had been since forever and before, according to Louisa Dunningham. She had been close friends with Jack ever since she had first seen his freckled face. Of course, by now, the freckles were all gone, but Jack was still the same in Louisa’s view. School had just let out, and she was desperate to see him. She hurried across Main Street, carefully dodging horse drawn carts and other pedestrians. With a quick glance over her shoulder, she adjusted the shoulder strap of her bag of schoolbooks and sidled around Sid’s Shoe Shine, a quaint little corner store. Please, please don’t let him see me, Louisa prayed. She slipped past the window, trying desperately not to be seen.
“Hey there, Liza!” Sid waved from the shop, wearing shirtsleeves and brown cotton pants. He was brandishing a streaked rag in her direction as some sort of wave. Louisa froze and sighed. She hated getting tied up in long and meaningless conversations with Sid, who was not the sharpest knife in the draw. Perhaps, Louisa joked, that was why he could never seem to remember her name.
“Sid!” she forced a smile onto her face and flicked her long blond hair over her shoulder. “How do you do?” Sid grinned widely and stepped out of his shop to greet her. Louisa gave a sheepish wave.
“I’m mighty fine, and how’s a lass like you doing on a day like this?” he replied happily, swiping the back of his hand across his nose. He looked like he wanted to say more, but Louisa cut him off.
“Well, that’s just lovely, Sid, but I best be on my way.” Louisa promptly turned back toward the corner she was supposed to turn on to.
“Naw, naw, darling, stay a while and chat to me. Oh, I know, how about that war that they say is going to come. You believe that at all?” he caught her by the shoulder and spun her around so that he could look her squarely in the eye.
“A war?” Louisa gasped. “That can’t be true, can it? Surely it’s just some hogwash.”
“Naw.” Sid looked grim. “Have you not heard? We’ve cut ourselves off from Germany completely! They’ve sided with Austria-Hungary. Before we know it, we’ll be dragged into this mess soon enough. ‘Aye, you be off then. You don’t want to chat to an old codger like meself.” he winked and let go of her shoulder.
“That’s not true,” Louisa started, but Sid shooed her on her way, saying he ‘could just smell’ another customer coming his way. Gratefully, Louisa bade him farewell and slipped past his shop and around the corner. Behind her, the street she had just left continued until it ran into a wooden fence. Behind that fence was woods, and then a wasteland. But Louisa was headed now to Fireman’s Park, quaint little park that had been the meeting place for her and Jack for the past 13 years. They’d known each other since they were both two year old toddlers in carriages being pushed by nannies around the park’s paths. Louisa drew her summer shawl tighter around her body, as the evening breeze was starting to blow softly. Nearing the back of the park, out of sight from the side streets, Louisa spied a bushy green hedge, standing tall along the outskirts of the grass. Louisa quickened her pace and ducked underneath the prickly fronds. She sat down on bare earth, worn down by years of Jacks and Louisas, and turned to the smiling face beside her.
“Jack!”
“Hi, Lou. Took you long enough,” he grumbled.
“Sid caught me by the corner, and you know what he’s like,” explained Louisa. “So we had a little chat about...”
“What about?’ Jack persisted. He leaned in and looked into Louisa’s face. “Lou, are you alright?”
“About war, Jack! He thinks there’s a war coming.” Louisa turned to look at Jack’s face. It was blank, his eyes clouded, his smile gone. When he spoke, his voice faltered and didn’t have its usual reassuring, confident quality.
