Honey Suckle

Part 11

I woke up one summer morning, two weeks after the picnic wondering about the blue bird pin that I had boughten the night I got hurt. I hadn't thought about the pin before that moment because my wound had healed and I was able to take off the bandage.

When the sun had risen I walked to the infirmary to check the lost and found. The infirmary had tons of wounded soldiers sleeping in the hospital beds, a lot of the men had already gone back got war, but the ones who couldn't fight were staying here or going back home to their wives, and children. The waiting room was empty so I waited by the front desk for the clerk to realize I was there, when she did I told her "When I was here a few weeks ago I think I may have left a valuable piece of jewelry I bought the night I had been brought in."

She nodded and led me to a room in the back. The woman was short, but curvy, and she had clear brown skin. I felt that everyone around me was pretty, and I was the ugly duckling and everyone around me, but Elizabeth thought so. The clerk lead me to a wooden box, and I started to look through it. In the box there were many things, there were shoes, jackets, necklaces, and after many moments. I did find the pin I had bought for Elizabeth.

I held it in my hand and admired it's wonderful beauty. "It's beautiful." I heard a man say. I turned my body quickly, to find a man standing there. The man had messy caramel brown hair, he was tall, and dressed in scrubs that the hospital had given to all of the soldiers. He was without his right arm. It had been years since I had spoken to him. He was the man we saw the day we went to the lake, the man we watched suffer on the stretcher, and he was Charles' childhood friend. "Christopher?" I asked to make sure it was him. 

"Yeah." He said. "I was afraid you wouldn't remember me, Helen." He said and wrapped his arm around my shoulders. The remaining part of his right arm hung in the sleeve of his hospital scrubs by his side. He asked to see Elizabeth, so I took him down to our house. When Elizabeth noticed he had lost his arm she was puzzled, but she impressed him like her own brother, and decided he would stay in our home after I told her how he was still staying at the hospital.

"No. No. I couldn't impose." He said trying to turn down Elizabeth's kind offer.

"I insist. That's what Charles would have wanted, and I'm certainly not going to let you stay with those smelly soldiers!" She said.

Great. I thought how are we supposed to hide our love when Christopher is with us every minute of everyday?  He slept on the sofa, and we slept in our rooms separate from each other. We were finally at that point in our relationship where we were considering not sleeping in separate rooms all the time, but Christopher here was ruining it. "I know Helen, but he can't know. He won't be staying forever." She said when I told her how I felt about him living with us. 

"Fine." I said not tolerating my feeling on the whole Christopher situation.

Aside from my rage toward Christopher for interrupting mine and Elizabeth love for each other, he wasn't all that bad. Over all he was a wonderful houseguest, he always cleaned up after himself. He always woke up bright and early to cook breakfast for all of us, but there was a downside to his politeness, because he woke up early meant that even if we tried to wake up early and have some alone time he always beat us to it. He was always awake before we were and it was beginning to look like he was trying to stand in the way of us, but that wasn't the case, he was just trying to be polite.