Time, Never Underestimate It [WATTY AWARDS 2011]

Autumn Leaves [4]

Evening, 1st September 1939

"Papa, will I ever see you again?" I asked into his dull, once lit up face.

His tensed face relaxing, as if into a smile. War must be really scary, Mum once told me that Grandpapa went to war, but he got lost, that is why he didn't come home. But I don't believe it, I think he fell asleep on the job... my family has a habit of doing that, well Leo does that. He is always sleeping in a ball, puffing out his soft, cuddly fur, making it irresistable to cuddle him.

Leo's small, gentle eyes peeked out of my coat along with his small little head. He had just woken again...sleeping on the job! I squinted at him through watering eyes as the icy wind picked up again, I saw Mum and Papa doing the same thing. Many people on the street turned their big coated backs to the wind, letting it just blow around them or down their cured backs, but it did slow them down. Many more people just walked forward like us - facing the strong wind, eyes almost shut, dampened cheeks, burning ad the wind blew on them. Leo tucked his petite face back in my coat, returning to my body heat. We powered on forward, the leaves blowing towards us, carried by the wind.

The street was littered with fallen leaves. Usually I would have marvelled at the sight of all the various shades of amber and orange, but this was no time to stop and 'smell the roses.' If Papa were to be late to the deport of soldiers tomorrow at five in the morining, he would be summoned to court, which of all we could not afford.  We had to make haste to collect his weapons and sign the paperwork.

We walked through the thin street along with other families, most with small children, most my age, some even younger. I wonder how I woud feel if I was only two years old and my Papa suddenly left... I might not remember it, or I would cry and wail until he came home, then eventually forget. As you may have guessed, my memory isn't that good. I can't even remember past two years ago.

 I looked up at Papa, he looked more like Mr Darell Lewis than just Papa, it was scary. His usual laid back look was replaced with a uniform, clean and strict. He wore an olive green jacket, the same colour as the one he wore this morning, but this one was heavier and it had gold buttons. It had a slit down the bottom at the back, so Papa could move easily. The jacket had shoulder pads and it was very thick.

The shirt he wore underneath the jacket was a slight brown, but mostly beige, it had a small olive green tie. It was medium thickness, that was good so Papa didn't overheat. Papa wore brown pants that tucked into the top of his ankle work boots. The ankle boots were dark brown and polished, that had many laces so they probably would not undo. My boots were still going fine, though I felt a blister coming on - these were new so I would get blisters as my feet get used to the shape, or the boot gets used to my feet shape, which one was it? I stopped to think, but Papa pulled me along, he was not going to let go of my hand, Papa seemed really anxious and scared... 

Mum was still teary, though I wasn't sure whether it was from the wind or sadness. I hated seeing her like this, and Papa, so I just tightened my hands around Leo and hoped for his strength. I found myself becoming quite tired and unaware. My eyes went black.

I woke up, but kept my eyes shut, thinking and trying to remember what happened. I must be over Papa's shoulder like a sack of potatoes as I could feel the up and down motion of his walking. I also felt my body slightly slanty off on one side. I slowly opened my eyes as wecame to a stop and stretched my legs out to wake them up. I mustn't have been asleep for long, only about two hours as the sun hadn't fully gone down yet. Though the tempurature had dropped quite low.

My eyes were full of sleep so I rubbed it away, but some got in my eye and made them water, I was so clumsy! Papa felt me stir and lifted me down gently, I started to worry where Leo was because I couldn't feel his small body next to mine anymore. Mum must have read me mind because she opened her long coat and passed Leo to me. I loved Mum, she knew just what to do and how to do it.

Remembering that we still had to collect Papa's weapons, we resumed walking along, we had met up to another family. In it there was two boys - one my age and one only an infant. They looked friendly so I walked over to them, pulling Papa with.

"Hello." I said tiredly, but cheerfully.

"Good evening," the boy my age said. He looked well educated, more than me. It looked as if he had gone to a real school! I had only been taught the basics by Mum. The boy's mother and father looked as if they had just woken from a trance and looked quite startled to see Papa and me, Mum standing behind. The boy's Papa was wearing the same uniform as Papa, they were on their way to the weapon depot aswell.

"My name is Bebe Lewis, what is your's, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Well, my name is Hamii Robins, this is my father, Loui Robins and my mother, Peony Robins."

"This is Papa and Mum." Papa nudged me. "Oh, I mean: Darell Lewis and Mari Lewis." I nudged Papa back while Mum shook their hands and Papa did the same. I smiled at Hamii. He returned the gesture.

We walked together to the weapons office. It was only a few streets away and it didn't seem that busy. Many of the men being deported tomorrow had gotten in early so as to avoid the weather. The office looked like a house, but weaker. The windows had leaves stuck to them and papers on the outside wall of lost pets and missing persons. We slowly walked up to the rusted metal door. I put my hand on the cold metal handle and pushed, as it opened it made a horrible scraping sound that could rip off your ears, we all cringed and covered our eyes. The infant boy started crying. Mrs Robins stroked his small head and tightened his blanket, afterwards she put him inside her coat, like I do with Leo. I heard him do a slight wimper, but he settled down once I held him through the jacket.

I looked inside the door, there were rifles littering the walls, heavy machine guns strung up high, some even loaded. There were smaller guns, I heard called pistols, there were knives, hand grenades, every weapon I could ever think of, there was even a slingshot. Hamii seized the slingshot and studied it, I just walked around behind Mum as Papa and Mr Robins went up to the desk where an old man with a stringy beard and thin, brown hair sat, studying a hunters' gun. He held out the two remaining papers at Papa and Mr Robins.

"These are you, I say." he said plainly.

I was astounded at how calm he was. We were in a shop filled with deadly materials!! I saw it in Mum's eyes before, it looked like I wasn't the only one whose first turn it was near firearms. Mrs Robins looked quite warey.

Over at the desk Papa was filling out papers then he got given the required weapons:

A machine gun, a severe looking knife, a couple hand grenades and five lots of reloads for his gun. Mr Robins got the same. They both looked scary and powerful. Hamii turned around from studying the slingshot and his eyes went as wide as an owl's. My eyes felt the same way. I looked out the window to escape the scary look. The sun had gone down and now it was well and truely night.

We all thanked the shop owner and walked out together and back home, Leo was fast asleep. When we got home we all piled into bed, I didn't even bother taking off my shoes, walking was tireing. But I did hug and kiss Papa for a long time and finally went to sleep once my mind stopped buzzing.

It was going to be an early start tomorrow. So much for a joy filled birthday today, it had been one of the saddest days of my life.