In Times of War

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven

   I run down the front steps and down the sidewalk to meet my dad. I always meet him on his way in from work. I see him coming up the sidewalk from town. I see him smile when he sees me. He sometimes went away for a few days to find work and he’d just gotten back from a trip. He waves to me and I pick up my pace a little. The street lamps were lit, and it was the only light out in the dark night. Jimmy was behind me, watching from the front gate. He was eighteen and too big to run to meet people, but I was only ten.

“How’s everything been, Mia-O-Mya?” He calls to me. I smile in response and keep running.

   All of a sudden, a man runs up out of nowhere and pulls a knife out. I stop short in shock and then start running again to help my father. I hear Jimmy start running behind me. The man whispers something to my dad and feels his pockets.

“Jimmy, get your sister out of here!” My dad yells past me.

   The man pulls a wad of cash out of my father’s pockets. He brings his fist up and punches the man in the eye. He snatches the money back from the bad man and puts in back in his pocket. He starts to fight with the man and I scream for them to stop and for the green-eyed man to leave my father alone.

   Suddenly, Jimmy comes and picks me up. He turns around and starts running back towards the house. I start slapping and punching his back, but my little fists don’t do anything. I can see over Jimmy’s shoulder and I see as the man stabs my father in the chest. He collapses and I scream. I hear Mama scream from the doorway of our house. I bury my head in Jimmy’s shoulder and cry.

   I sit on Jimmy’s lap in the parlor as Sergeant Hamilton asks me to describe the man with yellow-brown hair and green eyes. After they have an accurate sketch of the man, they ask us if we know him. I think that’s a stupid question because we would’ve told them if we knew him. They gave us their condolences, and left. Mama sat up in the parlor all night, staring at the empty fireplace, crying silently to herself. Jimmy put me in bed and sat with me all night. When he thought I was asleep, I saw him cry. I’d never seen my brother cry before, but he cried the night my father was killed.

   I squeeze my eyes shut to stop the memory. Over the years I’d forced the memory to the back of my mind where I could never relive it. Now I’d forced the memory back so I could possibly identify my father’s killer, but it all came back too fast.  I feel a single tear run down my cheek. I know that any normal person would hold David accountable for his father’s actions, but I’ve never considered myself “normal”.

“Heaven’s sake, Maria, I’m so sorry for what my father did to you and your family. I understand if you don’t want-“

“No, I mean, I know that’s how I’m supposed to feel, but I don’t. I don’t want to ruin our first date with talk like this, please.” David nods his head slowly.

“Okay. Okay, so what do you want to talk about?” He asks.

“I don’t know. What do you want to talk about?” I ask, shrugging.

“I don’t know, how do you think you’ll do on your exams?”

“I’m not sure, but I am worried about this one solo a girl has at the concert.”

“Oh, that’s right! The concert’s next week, isn’t it?” He asks.

   “Yeah, they sound good, but I’m still worried because Mary Lou has a solo for eight measures and…” I start to ramble on about the girl’s solo. I think she’ll do fine, but she just got the telegram that her brother had been killed in the Pacific. We didn’t even know if she was going to be able to make it to the concert.  Eventually I realize that David has absolutely no idea what I’m talking about as I was talking purely music. I smile shyly and blush.