Traveling Soldier

Mrs. Julia Belue

         I knocked on the door with three little taps until the housemaid, Mrs. Mary, came to the door. "June! What you doing out in the cold? Get in here and sit at the fireplace with Mrs. Julia!" she bustled about. "I'm fine Mrs. Mary. I just came by to see Mrs. Julia," I said. "June?" I heard Mrs. Julia say from the living room.

        Mrs. Julia Belue is everybody's grandmother figure in this town. My grandmother died when I was three so Mrs. Julia was always who I came to. Not even my own mother and I are as close as me and Mrs. Julia! She'll turn 76 in March. "Good morning, Mrs. Julia!" I said, sitting down on one of the rockers beside her in front of the fireplace.

         "What have you been up to, June?" she asks me, asbsentmindedly knitting away at a blanket. "Just working at the cafe,"I just got back from the post office with Beverly." She stopped knitting to look at me,"The post office? You never mail letters anymore," she said. Immediately I knew I would have to tell her about Gabriel.

"I met this boy at the cafe named Gabriel. He's a soldier and-"

"How old is he?"

"Well...h-he's 18, Mrs. Julia. He just needed to someone to write a letter to and-"

"Nonsense. You know you like him. He's too old for you!"

       "Now Mrs. Jullia! Your husband, Eugene, was 4 years older than you!" Mrs. Mary piped up. "That was in the olden days when there wasn't so many crazy people out there!" Mrs. Julia said, wide aware that she had been caught. "Mrs. Julia, he's not crazy at all! He's real handsome...and he knows how to treat a girl right..." I said to her. "How long have you known this boy? How much time did you spend with him? she says, skepticly. "I only met him a little over a week ago. I met him the day before he left for Vietnam," I said crossing my legs under my blue dress. "Lord, child," Mrs. Mary said, going into the other room shaking her head. 

       I stayed at Mrs. Julia's for a little while longer and then decided to walk home. At only a few feet away from the house, it started raining. "June! Get in this house! You acting like white trash, youngin!" Delilah shouted from the front doorway. "I'm coming!" I shouted while running up the yard. As I made it into the house, Delilah made me strip out of my dress and get in the bath she had run for me.