The edited version I have posted below. Please review that. Thankyou.
Short story at the moment, I wrote something similar on a creative writing camp, but I'm think maybe I could develop it into something more. Basically is was an exercise on point of view, but I think it can stand alone as a story. Or not...
It is strange that the things we remember from our childhood are so often the things that determine the adults we have become. Does our brain record these moments, knowing what effect they are having on us at that very second? As a seven year old child I barely understood what was happening, but the memory of that night is as fresh in my mind as if it were yesterday.
I was lying in my little bed, with a multitude of beige blankets engulfing my small body. I was feverish that night, and my mother wouldn’t let me have my feet out from under the covers. She had tucked me in so tightly, to keep me warm and safe. But I woke up sweating the night, hearing voices coming from downstairs. In the darkness of the night, with the moon throwing shadows across my room, the voices of angels could have scared me. I shivered and my body froze. My imagination conjured up images of thieves, of soldiers, of demons and skeletons. Years from now, they would make movies that reminded me of my childhood fears, and nothing scared me like those horrors.
Yet with imagination came curiosity, and now that I’d awoken, there was no way I was staying in bed. I crept out of bed and down the corridor and, seeing the light on in the kitchen, crouched down beside the top of the stairs and leaned so that my head poked through the banister. I saw my father, Daddy to me then, leaning over the wooden table and clutching Jimmy by his shoulders. My mother was sitting on one of our dining chairs, her body hunched over and silently crying. My parents were dressed in their pyjamas, with their dressing gowns put over the top. But Jimmy, Jimmy was wearing clothes I’d never seen before, the colour of paper parcels and just as neat and tidy. He’d shined his boots, combed his hair and his usually crooked collar was straight as anything. Were my parents angry at him for wearing all this finery? They didn’t notice me, but I could hear Jimmy speaking quietly. I leant down further, hoping to catch what he was saying.
“I thought it would be easier this way. Less tears for us all.” Jimmy’s hands grabbed my father’s and pushed them gently away, holding them still.
“You would leave without saying goodbye to your little sister?”
I froze once again at the mention of me, but I couldn’t help but let out a little gasp. As if by magic all eyes turned to me and my eyes widened like a deer in the headlights. My parents look angry at me, but Jimmy just smiled.
“Come on down here, Janey, it’s not very ladylike to lurk on banisters, now, is it?”
I ran down the stairs as fast as could, running up to Jimmy and hugging him tightly. He lent down to me, so we could be face to face. I always knew when he did that he had something important to say.
“Janey, listen, I don’t know what you heard up there, but the truth is I’m going away for awhile. I don’t know when I’ll be back, but I’ll bring you a present, I promise. Be a good little girl for me.”
Jimmy looked down for a second, his smile gone.
“I love you, little sis.” With that he kissed me on the cheek and stood up again.
“Why are you going? What’s happening, Jimmy?”
Jimmy just picked up his rucksack and put on his hat, ignoring me. I started to cry. I turned to my parents, grabbing my father’s leg.
“Where’s Jimmy going, Daddy? When will he come back?”
My mother’s sobs got louder and my father just looked away. It was the first time in my life when my parents couldn’t answer my questions; they were reduced from Gods to mere mortals. I was overcome with emotion, hysterical as only a child can be. I ran up the stairs, tripping a couple of times, while the tears streamed fiercely down my face. I made no attempt to hide my despair, my horrible cries sounding ominously through the night.
As I look back on that memory, I cannot think of the generation of people who had their sons, their brothers, their fathers and their husbands taken from them. I cannot think of victories or defeats, for the victories were as hollow as any military drum. I cannot think of honour, of valour, of bravery or sacrifice. I can only think of Jimmy, how he warmed his toes by the fire, how he read to me, how he hugged me when I scraped my knee and how I never got to say “I love you” back.
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