The Echo Of Youth

Chapter Ten

•APR 1st 1915•
Dear Mum and Dad,
We've been ordered by the French and the British to the front.
Finally some action. Egypt would be alright if it didn't have sand and flies, lucky The Kununurra boys are fairly used to mother nature's simple delights.
We board ship in about 20 minutes, our tent is packed away and our kits are on our backs.
We don't think we've ever been more eager in our lives.

Anyway, how's Art?
Has footy started yet?
Has Alice picked as many apples as last year?

We miss you all terribly but there is something about these new places that are so very intriguing.

We better get going. The army waits for no one and we aren't missing this ship.
Write when we can.
All our love,
Clancy and Ned.
-
The thumping of men's boots echo in my ears as battalion after battalion makes their way onto the ship that has docked in the harbour.
The atmosphere is alive with pride and adrenaline.

We are going to war.
War turns boys into men and men into heroes.
We are going to war.

I'd bumped into Hamish twice last night and I couldn't even look him in the eye. He is, slowly but surely, killing my Elsie and I cant do anything about it.

"Would you liven up just for a second? Nothing like this has ever happened to us before! Get happy!" Ned punches my shoulder in attempt to get me fired up.
I smile reluctantly and punch him back.

"You want to say goodbye don't you?" Tom whispers in my ear.

I nod.

"Well, I've known Elsie for a long time and she won't let you leave without saying goodbye. So, if you turn around, and look to about 10 o'clock I think you'll be pleasantly surprised." Tom throws his shoulders back and straightens his tunic.

I turn around and there she is.
My Elsie.
I shove my kit into Ned's grasp and I bolt.

We embrace each other and kiss with so much passion we almost cry.
Hollers and whistles arise from my fellow comrades and we pull away giggling and blushing.

But the laughter soon ceases.
Our hearts begin to sink and for what could be the very last time, we say goodbye to our person.

"You keep your head down Private Taylor," Elsie gulps. "I need your smile."

"Don't worry about me Sister O'Dwyer, I'll be right back here as soon as possible." I say, confidently.

She kisses me again.
And I hold her.

"This one's for you." She presses a photograph of herself in her nurses uniform into my hand.

"Beautiful." I say and she blushes.

"I've already got one of you, your mum gave it to me." She chuckles, holding up my portrait.

I laugh and hold her close.

"Goodbye my dearest, most infuriating Clancy." Elsie's voice cracks as she strokes my cheek one last time.

"It's seeya later my darling, resplendent Elsie, don't forget that." I tell her, she smiles and once again I find myself beside my brother.

Her goodbye replays in my head a million times.
The crack in her strong voice really means "don't leave" and as I wave goodbye to the hundreds of soldiers and nurses that send us off, I see her damp cheeks shine with the sun.

"I LOVE YOU!" I yell.

"I LOVE YOU TOO!"

And as the sun sets in Egypt, we begin our voyage to a place we've never heard of.
-
•APR 15th 1915•
We've been travelling now for a good two weeks, floating across the Mediterranean, our excitement brewing. They won't tell us what we're doing at this battlefield but we don't really care.

"We're en-route to Turkey." Tom explains, revealing his atlas from his pack.

"Did you just say Turkey? As in Christmas dinner turkey?" I question, astonished.

"Yes, it's a country Clancy, has been for a long time too." Tom says, pointing to the country on the map.

"Oh, it's very small." Ned states, biting into an apple.

"It's not as small as Greece, but certainly not as big as Australia you're right." Tom explains.

"So are we landing closer to Greece or up closer to the Black Sea up there?" I ask.

"How am I supposed to know?" Tom snaps, he is getting more jittery as the days go on.

"Oh well," I sigh. "We shouldn't be too far away, we're wasting our lives away on this tin wreck." I rest my head against my pillow.

The three of us fall asleep.
Dreaming of things to come.
Dreaming of the medals.
Dreaming of the battle.
Dreaming of something much bigger than us.

-
•APR 20th 1915•
"No you can get the ball, you hit it, you can face the Sergeant." Ned points to the window that I smashed, quite accidentally.

"That's not fair! I had to face him for all those blokes, it's someone else's turn." I debate.

"But you hit it this time." Dave emphasises the face it was me.

Dave is a fellow member of our battalion. He's not that greater of a shot and he's quite the thin and wiry sort of bloke, but he's got a happy disposition and he and I often manage to get into trouble with the officers or any person who is of higher rank.

"Fine, but you're not getting it back, it's going straight in my bag." I announce.

Boys speak up, testifying to my decision.

"C'mon Clan!"
"Don't be so immature."
"We're in the middle of something here!"

"Nup, I'm feeling crook anyway." I state. I walk away, into the Sergeant's cabin with a smashed window.

I slowly push open the door and find the ball resting on the bed. I grab it.

"Private Taylor?"

My head shoots up.

"Sorry sir, just retrieving my ball." I explain.

"A cricketer?" Sergeant Williams asks.

"Yes sir."

"As am I, I was quite good once upon a time, I'd love to see how you go one day." He pats my shoulder and smiles.

I furrow my eyebrows.
Why didn't he yell?
Has he noticed the window?

"I'm sure you will Sir, I'm always up for a game." I smile.

He chuckles, "I can't wait, don't worry about that bloody window, not much we can do about it now. Why don't you get the blokes to rest up before we land, they're going to need as much as they can get."

"Righto Sir," I swallow nervously. "Is everything alright?"

"As good as it can be mate, as good as it can be."