5 Months on the Western Front

Chapter 4

It seemed that my sister had made a point to write to me as often as she dared, several being delivered every fortnight in the same curved writing I had grown so excited to see. However, it had been nearly eight days since I had last received one, and I was growing afraid. Often, it was that Michael (another of the boys I had quickly befriended) would receive a letter from his fiancé around the same time, and together we would read them as the sun sank below the distant horizon. The letter I received after a week of no correspondence seemed so different to the others, the ink had run and my name seemed barely legible on the front if; if it hadn't been for my sister's name on the back, I would hardly have thought it for me at all. I watched Michael as he lit a cigarette, holding it between his lips as he began to open the envelope addressed to him. He looked up at me, smiling softly all the while. Carefully, I began to open my own letter, unfolding the pale paper as delicately as my cold hands would allow. I couldn't help but smile as I read.

Dear Cecil,

We miss you little brother. I'm very sorry for not having written to you sooner, I hope we didn't worry you in any way. Except, it's just that last month, we received a telegram, about Ed. He was killed, fighting in France, there was a raid and there was nothing they could do, they couldn't even find his body. And Father hasn't written back to us in nearly two months-

There were several other lines beneath that, but I couldn't make them out, they were too smudged and blotted together. It pained me to think of my sister writing it, her tears smudging the words as she wrote them.

Mother decided she couldn't stay at the farm, it was only two weeks or so ago that she sold it. She was so insistent of moving away, said she couldn't stand staying there when her son would never return to it, we've been staying with her sister in London. Mother is working in the factory, she leaves so early and returns late, we barely see her- it scares me, to see her so distant from us, but there is nothing we can do. She tells us she sent over your birth certificate, to try and bring you home, but that they just sent it back with no explanation. However, she says so many things these days, we can hardly ever be sure if she really means it.

I bit my lip and felt a sudden urge to screw up the paper and light it there and then. I had been told about that, the Captain spoke to me nearly a week ago. He'd told me that they'd asked him to send me back home, but that he had told them no. He hadn't wanted to give me up and send me home, not so close to the end of this war. Every soldier was precious to the Army. By that point, I had spent four months on the Front, and it seemed then that I would only be staying longer. Frowning slightly, I continued reading, desperate to let my family know in any way just how much I wanted to return to them.

I have taken up a small, voluntary job in the hospital a few streets down from us, where the wounded soldiers are sent back from the Front Line. Though I try to forget it, every day I am terrified that the next face I see will be yours. Working as a nurse can be challenging, and I have tended to injuries I never thought possible, but everyone deserves the chance to live through this horror, so I continue to work to save them. In fact, I recently met one young man who had lost both legs but I have never met someone more cheerful and that is why I work, to see broken men smile again.

I hope you have been well little brother, there isn't a day that goes by when I do not worry and pray for your safety. And your friends sound simply wonderful, I'm so pleased you've found some that can make you happy. Especially Stephen, you seem to talk a lot of him and I wish I could meet all four of the boys and thank them myself for looking after you. And then slap them for not returning you to us.

Please Cecil, look after yourself. If you won't return to us now, at least stay safe and hold tight until this whole thing is over. From what I've heard, America has sent in more troops to help and Germany is falling apart, so it can't be much longer. You've been out there for four months, and if you're not home by Christmas I will find my way out there and drag you back by the ear young man. I mean it Cecil Fredricks, I can just imagine you laughing as you read this, but I'm not going to let this war take another one of my brothers. I was never meant to be an only child.

I love you little soldier, stay safe and come back here as soon as you can,

Joy

I sighed, holding the letter tightly in my hands and trying to hide the tears in my eyes. It smelt of home, and I'd never missed it more.