In Times of War

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Three

   I ride the bus to Savannah with David, Alice, and Mrs. Martin. Lee was going to meet us there because he lived on the other side of Savannah. Aunt Tess and Mama had said their goodbyes earlier. We ride in silence as the rest of the bus is noisy. We get to the bus stop and walk to the train station, again in silence. We don’t really talk until Lee arrives with his brother. I was expecting Lee to come, but I wasn’t expecting him to be in military uniform. Apparently Alice was though.

“Lee, you’re leaving too?” I exclaim.

“Yeah, Tony didn’t tell you?”

“No!” I whirl on David who holds his hands up in surrender.

“I thought Alice told you!”

“Don’t look at me, I thought Lee told you!” Alice also holds her hands up in surrender.

   “Lee, who are these people?” Leo asks. He’s small, even for a five-year-old with blue eyes and dark brown hair. He has big round spectacles that make him look wide-eyed and curious. He pulls on Lee’s sleeve and looks up at his brother. Lee kneels down and puts his hand on Leo’s small shoulder.

“These are my friends. That’s Alice.” He points to Alice.

“Ooh, the girl you’re in love with!” He exclaims before Lee can put his hand over his mouth. “She’s prettier than you said.”

   “Haha, yeah, bud, whatever.” He lets out a nervous laugh and continues introducing the rest of us as the blush fades slowly from his cheeks. “Remember when Mom said you’d be moving to live with a friend. She was talking about Tony’s mom. That’s her with the brown hair.”

“They’re moving in?” I ask. Am I just out of the loop on everything today?

“Apparently,” Alice crosses her arms and taps her foot like she does when she gets irritated. At least somebody else didn’t know this time.

“Don’t look at me, I just found out last night!” David holds his hands up again and Mrs. Martin smiles. She’s really pretty, but David really doesn’t look anything like her.

   “Yes, Leo and his mother are coming to live with me. It’ll get lonely in that house all by myself and they needed somewhere to stay. So I invited them to stay with me.” The train whistle sounds to signal that the train will be leaving in five minutes. I glare at the whistle because it was telling me that I only had five more minutes with David for a long time. To make it worse, I had to share him for those five minutes, too.

“Alice, you’ve gotta look after her alright? Take care of yourself too.” He gives her a hug and Alice nods her head, her eyes looking misty. He moves on to Leo, kneeling down to be at his height.

“Hey, big guy, you’re the man of the house now. That means you’ve gotta take care of my mama for me while I’m gone, alright, you promise?”

“I promise, now you have to promise me something. Promise me you’ll take care of my brother.” He’s so serious it’s adorably touching.

“You know I will; someone has to look after him.” Then he stands up and walks over to his mother while Lee finishes talking to her. Lee moves to me as David tries to get his mother to stop crying.

“Sorry we got off on the wrong foot, but thanks for forgiving me. Look after Leo and Alice for me, please.” He gives me a hug and my eyes start to water because I know who is left to say goodbye.

“You know I will. Thanks for helping me out, and for making Alice so happy.” He moves on to Alice and they talk in hushed tones. David comes over to me.