Facing The Reaper

XIV

Three days after my visit to the train station, I walked down the stairs at Connors and found Allison sitting alone at the kitchen table, she was staring off into space with a photo album sat opened in front of her.

"Is everything ok?" I asked her as I took a seat at the table across from her, breaking her out of her daydream. She looked startle momentarily to see me, but her expression quickly softened into a smile as she registered who I was.

"Just reminiscing, I bet you didn't know this, but Mr Crofford was my teacher to back in the day. He taught me and my closest friend before we both left the school to join the army. He was our biggest supporter in signing up. He said it was good to see two girls joining up and showing the men who was boss instead of just satisfying ourselves with a domesticated life back home. I remember how everyone else would tell us not to join, and that it would be too much pressure, that we would never stick it out past the first few months. We almost proved them wrong though." A small ghost of a smile shadowed her face as her eyes clouded over again.

"Connor mentioned to me about the army, I saw the medals before upstairs in the corridor. One of them was for your friend, right? I'm sorry that you lost her."

She nodded her head, the small smile never leaving her lips. She handed over the folder that sat in front of her. "That was Kia, we had been friends since the first year of secondary school. We had both shared an interest in joining the military and just clicked straight away. I miss her, just as much as I miss Connors father. I don't like to look at these photos often but its good knowing that I them close by when I do. It keeps the memory of those who have gone close."

I looked down then and my eyes landed first on a class photo. Mr Crafford and half a dozen students sat at the front of the classroom. He was 20 years younger but looked very much the same. His stern face replaced with a smiling one and there were a lot less wrinkles covering it. Most of his greying hair was also shaded a dark brown colour. I looked at the students faces and spotted Allison straight away. She didn't look much different either, but her face was slightly rounder than. She had her arm wrapped around another girl's neck as the girl leaned in and rested her head on Allison's shoulder. Both were smiling and I could tell that this girl was Kia. Her long red hair wasn't covering her face this time, and two green eyes were staring back at me. Something about the girls struck me as familiar but I couldn't remember seeing her anywhere other then the photo upstairs. "This is Kia?" I asked pointing to her picture. Allison just nodded.

"She looks familiar, I feel like I have seen her somewhere before."

Allison pondered this for a while. "I would be surprised if you did remember her. In fact, she came to visit me just after I had Connor, it was the year before her accident. Your parents were also in the hospital around that time. You were already a few months old and they had come in to see the nurse for a check-up. That was the first time we both met you. We weren't expecting to cross path with you and your parents again so we never kept in touch, you would have been to young to really remember her face though."

"You knew my parents before?" I asked. Surprised that they had met so close to here but that me and Connor had never grown up together.

"Very briefly, in the corridor. They were having a health visit with you. I went back to the military 6 months after that. My parents wanted me to finish my training so that I could spend more time with Connor and see him grow up. Then not long after I returned, Kia died."

I nodded my head to acknowledge that as the reason, but something still seemed off and that feeling sat heavy in my gut. I looked through more photos of her face, growing more and more familiar the more that I looked at it. However, before I could conclude anything, I got a text through from my mum. The house was finally sorted, and it was time to go home.