Thank you, that was really good, poor Shiena
(Though it is nice to see a drabble about Shiena!)
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| Author: | ChubbyMonkey [ 05 Mar 2009, 19:32 ] |
| Post subject: | Her Brother |
Just a short one this time! - X - The room was fairly plain, but Shiena was glad to be by herself. At first she had been so shy that the other women had shied away from her, left her to her shell, but slowly she had learnt to talk to them a little bit, to give a little bit of friendship. It was hard, though, and she couldn’t help wishing for the times before this hateful war, when she had been on Erisay with her family around her. She shook her head wistfully and began to brush through her hair, eyes concentrating on the mirror, although they kept slipping to one side, and the shelf on which stood her pictures. She was just being silly and morbid now. She began to plait her hair up again, examining her eyes in carefully in the mirror as she did, to make sure that they didn’t look too tired. Most of the other girls were going to a ball tonight, being held specially for the troops taking their leave in a nearby town. They had done everything in their power to persuade Shiena to come, and she had almost given in at one point, but after the events of today she decided she would rather just be alone. She straightened her clothes, but then couldn’t help herself. The picture was old, and the corners would have curled if it hadn’t been in a frame, but it was still the dearest thing in the world to Shiena. She had pictures of all of her family on display, but this was always the one which she took down when she needed advice, needed comfort. She liked to feel that he was with her, and in some way he felt closer to her now than he had before. She had always said that it was a bad idea for him to join the Navy. She wanted him to stay with her, so that she could protect him, but he insisted that it would be for the best. If only he could have been here now. She couldn’t bear the thought of never seeing his twinkling eyes again, of never hearing his deep voice tell her to buck up, laughingly call her ‘Old Mother’. She didn’t understand why he had been taken from her. “Oh, Hughie,” she sighed, her thumb stroking the edge of the picture. “Why aren’t you here with me? I want you to come sidling up with a present of a shell you found on the beach and brought for me, despite all of Archie’s teasing. You were always best at cheering me up, and I need you now.” She stared at the still face, forever staring at the world with his small smile. She could almost feel his hand on her shoulder as she sat there, staring at him, tears in her eyes. It wasn’t so long since he had been taken, and she still fell asleep with the pain burning in her heart. What made it worse was being away from everyone else; Mistress Maynard was kind enough to let her come and stay whenever she could get leave, so that she could see the twins, and both Archie and Kenneth had promised to visit her as soon as they could, but she felt so isolated. “Today was horrible, Hughie,” she whispered, almost to herself. “If ever I needed a new shell to add to my collection, it’s now. Why did they have to start the horrid war? Why must we all have left Erisay? At least there I could have had some memories of you. Remember that corridor that you always used to play slides on, no matter what I said? I’d never tell you off again if you could still do that.” She stopped, and rubbed at the hot tears threatening to course down her cheeks. Her head pounded and she wanted to go to bed, but it would be another hour yet before she could eat, and she wanted to talk to Hughie. “There was a bomb dropped near here today,” she informed him, as if she were just writing a letter. “I still haven’t got used to the sound of the siren going off. We went to try and help with the injuries afterwards. Truly it was awful. I found an old man, whose house had been bombed. His dog lead me to him. Oh, Hughie, it was terrible.” She was crying without even trying to stop now, as the memories of what she had been through earlier that day came back to haunt her. She could hear the desperate cries around her, smell the smoke and gunpowder still lingering in the air, could feel the fear that another aeroplane might come over at any moment. And all she could see was the man in front of her. “I couldn’t do anything, I called for help but by the time they came it was too late. All I could do was hold him in my lap and listen to him talking about his dog. He was holding a locket, and I opened it afterwards. He’d said that it was his wife, he liked to keep her with him during raids. I didn’t know what to do with it. And his dog ran away before I could help, and I don’t know what will happen to her, she’ll probably end up dead on the streets somewhere. And he just lay so still in my lap.” She stopped, tried to control her emotions. This was all so different to her sheltered life on Erisay and she was finding it more and more difficult to cope every day. She worried so much more about what remained of her family now and on top of that there was trying to overcome her shyness with the others, and trying just to keep on top of every day life. “Why did he have to die, Hughie? He’d never done anything wrong, he was just another innocent victim. Like you. You never did anything to hurt any of them, but you were taken too. I hate to think of what you must have suffered, knowing that you were going to die, feeling all of that water around you. Sometimes I get panic attacks if I run a bath too deep, because I think of you and I think how scared you must have been. You were my little brother, Hughie, you were always the one who kept me out of scrapes. Why did they take you?” She sat alone in her desolate room, with just the picture on her lap, staring dolefully. He seemed so real to her, because to her he was still the little brother who had taken the blame for anything they got into together. The picture in the frame stared unblinkingly back, a permanently frozen smile to remind her of who she had lost. |
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| Author: | blue1 [ 05 Mar 2009, 19:35 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Her Brother |
Thank you. That was really good. |
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| Author: | PaulineS [ 05 Mar 2009, 20:59 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Her Brother |
Thank you, Shiena's problems with settling into her unit and the problems of losing Hugh are missed in EBD world. |
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| Author: | Alison H [ 05 Mar 2009, 22:41 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Her Brother |
Thank you - poor Shiena. |
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| Author: | Fiona Mc [ 06 Mar 2009, 06:55 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Her Brother |
Thank you, that was really good, poor Shiena (Though it is nice to see a drabble about Shiena!) |
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| Author: | Abi [ 07 Mar 2009, 20:22 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Her Brother |
Poor Shiena  . Life must have been hard for her.
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| Author: | Honor [ 07 Mar 2009, 22:56 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Her Brother |
Poor Shiena. It must have been so hard for her. Thanks for posting this. |
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