The Quartering Act

Chapter One: The Little Drummer Boy

I was ten years old. Something called the quartering act had taken place about a year earlier. It was when British soldiers were aloud to come and live in our homes, eat our food, sleep in our beds, and do almost anything that they wished to.

Our family had only had one person live in our house before, but they left soon after. So it was shocking when the 12 year old boy named William knocked on our door.

He explained to us that he was the drummer boy for the British army and that he now was living with us.

My father already having two young children, my twin brother Elijah and I, was not happy about this. Not to even mention the matter of his patriotism. But we managed to make do.
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"My father says not to trust you." I said one night not long after William had come. We were alone in his room. Which for the record my father also said not to do. "Is that true?"

"Well," he started. "We are very different but that doesn't mean that we can't trust each other. I mean opposites can attract can't they?"

I thought long and hard about this. "Well I guess. I mean who's to say that we can't be friends or at least acquaintances. You are after all not a soldier. Your just their drummer. Right."

"Right," he said nodding.
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After about a month or so of true friendship is when it happened. The thing that separated William from me.

William had asked me to keep a secret of his. After he went home he was going to ask his parents if they could move to the colonies because he thought that they were a lot more peaceful and open he also had a friend in the colonies which was more then he could ever ask for back in England. He wanted me to promise that I wouldn't tell anyone, for he wanted it to be a surprise.

I had told him that I would keep it but he wanted to make sure. He told me of a way that his parents kept their promises.

He told me to close my eyes. So I of course closed my eyes. He immediately pressed his lips to mine.

My father had just come out to get me and he had saw the whole affair.

He freaked out and as I saw it threw a tantrum. He told William that he never wanted to see him again and to get lost. To return to his previous England.

My mother saw it as one less mouth to feed, my brother saw it as one less person to share his things with, my father saw it as one less boy to keep away from his daughter, but I saw it as losing my best friend.