The Burnett twins and their family are living through World War One.
Their father, a sailor, is finally coming home, and they think everything is going to okay now; but their ideas of a soon-to-be-perfect-again life are quickly demolished. Literall...
She raises one thin arm to wave at me and my sister, and gives us a tired smile. The wind blows pieces of her long black hair into her face.
My mother teaches at the college, and always leaves for work a few minutes before my brothers and sister leave for school. My twin, Clara, and I stay home to watch the baby, Alice. She's only two.
"Thomas, Minnie, Joseph! Come on, you'll be late for school!" Clara yells up the stairs.
Two little blondes come running and screaming down the stairs, followed by a slower paced boy with piercing green eyes and short, messy brown hair.
Minnie and Thomas, with as much energy as they displayed while running down the stairs, grab their bags, and run out the door. I watch them go down the path, Minnie's blond curls bouncing with every step she takes.
Joseph sighs and sits down at the table, beside Alice. "I'm not going to school anymore," he says defiantly.
"You are too!" I say back. "You're thirteen years old Joseph! You cannot quit school."
"You two did!" He glares.
"That's different, we need to take care of Alice," Clara states.
"You're fifteen years old Elizabeth, you cannot quit school!" He says, mimicking my voice.
"We didn't quit! Minnie asks the teacher for our lessons everyday, and when Mom is not working we go to school! You know that!" I glare at my younger brother.
"Yeah, sure," he says, heaving his backpack onto his back and sluggishly walks out the door.
Behind me Clara sighs. "He just misses dad I think. Maybe that's why he's been acting up."
Our father is a sailor, so he's gone for long periods of time. We haven't seen or heard from him in over five months. I nod and turn back to her and Alice. Like us, Alice has jet black hair, but instead of our chocolate brown eyes, she has sky blue ones. Mom says we get our black hair from Grandma, who is Mi'kmaq. Thomas and Minnie get their blond curls from our father, and Joseph's hair and green eyes match Grandpas.
"Daddy!" Alice squeals, her blue eyes wide with excitement.
"Daddy's sailing, Alice. He'll be home another day," I say absentmindedly.
That's what we always tell her and Thomas, that he'll be home another day. It's not a lie, he will be home eventually, we just don't know when. Minnie is eight, so she understands that, but Thomas, being only six, doesn't.
I hope Dad comes back before spring. I miss him so much. I know mom does too. She looks so tired without him here, but I know when we get a letter from him, or he comes home again, she'll be back to her old self. She won't have to work either. When Dad comes home, he works on the docks, repairing nets and ships. Then, Clara and I can go to school again, and our mother will be home with the baby.
After we feed Alice her breakfast and have our own, we decide to go for a walk down by the harbour. The walk from our house on Romans Avenue to the harbour takes us about twenty minutes.
The cold December air wraps around us as we walk, and a few stray snowflakes fall against our faces. I love the winter, and when it snows it's always so beautiful! But Lately, it's only been a few tiny snowflakes falling, not even enough to put a thin layer over the ground.
Finally we stop by the harbour and watch Alice toddle around.
"Do you think it'll be over soon?" Clara asks quietly, starring out and the gentle waves.
"Do I think what will be over?" I ask.
"The war," she says simply.
"Oh," I think about her question for a while before answering. "I don't know, I hope so, but I don't know."
"I'm worried about dad, what if something happened to him and the crew?"
"He's not on a warship," I say, refusing to believe anything happened to him.
"Still."
I turn away from her and look out at the sea. A few boats are moored to the docks and I see sailors and others chatting among themselves.
"Soon he'll be sailing back into this harbour, and the war won't be able to hurt any of us. We're safe here in Halifax," I reassure her.
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Afternoon
Everyday at exactly 2:45, Minnie, Thomas and Joseph come running up the path towards our house. Today, Joseph has a smile on his face instead of the glare he left with this morning. They barrel into the house and rip their hats and mitts off.
"Homework.. Then park.." Minnie pants, obviously out of breath from her run.
"Yes, and help Thomas with his if he has any!" Clara tells her as the two of them run up the stairs to their bedroom.
Joseph clears his throat.
"You have homework too bud?" I ask.
"Yeah, um, sorry 'bout this morning," he mumbles.
"It's okay," I pull him in for a hug. "My goodness Joseph you're almost as tall as me!" I exclaim, noticing that he's now only about an inch shorter than I am.
He grins. "Hey, I'm meeting Jasper at the park in an hour, so I'll go start my homework."
Jasper is Joseph's best friend, and usually is dragging him into trouble.
"Okay, just don't do anything dumb!" Clara laughs.
Clara and I work on the homework that Minnie brought home for us. We help each other with a few questions, and chat while we work. Clara finishes a few minutes before me, so she goes to play with our dog, whom we appropriately named Mermaid. The friendly border collie was always swimming! The sailors and other people who work by the docks absolutely adored her. I finally finish my work and go out into the yard, to see Alice following Mermaid around. Mermaid stops every few seconds to let the content toddler catch up to her.
Clara comes from around a tree with a small round object in her hand. "I found it!" She exclaims.
I look closer to see that it is one of Mermaids mini soccer balls.
The three of us play with the dog for a while and then take Minnie and Thomas to the park.
"Point Pleasant Park! How very pleasant!" Thomas giggles, over and over on the walk there.
We stay to play at the park until supper. When we get home, Mom is there with our supper ready. She tells us about her day, and we each tell her about ours. I notice Mom is happier than usual, and we find out why after we've finished eating supper. Mom pulls out a big fat white envelope, and we know immediately it's from our father. She reads us most of it but stops at the end.
"Oh and he'll be here on December 8th!" She exclaims, causing us to jump up and down excitedly.
We all rush to our rooms to start making welcome home gifts for Dad. I share my room with Clara, Alice stays with Mom and the other three have a big room that they all share.
That night I go to sleep with happy thoughts. Dad will be home soon, and everything will be okay.
