It was a cold, wet afternoon and Jack and I were on our way home from Uncle Pete’s house. We were walking in the cold slimy mud, in the lashing rain holding boxes of different fruit and vegetables from Uncle Pete’s farm. We walked past the Stevens’ house and around the corner, past Aunty Maple’s shop. I was feeling tired from holding the heavy boxes, Jack saw me struggling and helped me. Jack was a fast walker but even with the amount of heavy boxes he was holding, he was still ahead of me.

As we were a few blocks away from our house we heard the shooting of bullets and stomping. I put the brown boxes down carefully, trying not to spill any of the fruit or vegetables and stuck my head around the corner, curious of what was happening.

There was a big crowd that gathered around something or someone but it was hard to see. I moved closer for a better look. I saw soldiers standing straight, chest out and serious faces looking straight ahead, though it didn’t seem like they were looking at something. Another one of them was standing on a chair; he was a dull green uniform with a lot of badges so you could tell that he was in charge. I saw Jack in the distance trying to push past the crowd, eager to know what was going on. The soldier in charge was speaking about the war. I looked at Jack and saw the concentration on his face, his round eyes looking straight at the soldier, standing there as still as a statue. He and all the other men were shouting in unison, answering all the soldier’s questions. That’s when I had a feeling that things were going to change.

Hours later, I hurried back home with the boxes of fruits and vegetables after wandering around. I couldn’t go back there and hear the soldier’s speech about the war, it’s like he’s brainwashing them, all the men, trying to lure them into joining the war. I decided to start on making supper. It was hard cutting as I was so scared. “What might happen if Jack went off to war? How will I cope on my own?, what if he doesn’t come back?” I thought. A lot of questions were spinning around in my mind and I wasn’t paying any attention to what I was doing and I cut myself. I had to go and clean myself up; Jack wouldn’t want to see me like this, in a state. I got a cloth and cleansed my face and my cut, it stung a little but that was all. Jack burst through the door, giving me a fright. “I signed up for the war” he announced. Well that was it, what I knew would happen, happened.

I woke up the next morning, my pillow still damp from crying last night, My head was pounding hard it felt like my head was about to burst , a lot things were going through my mind. The overthinking caused pain, pain to my pounding head and broken heart. I turned over to Jack’s side of the bed and saw that he wasn’t back yet from the pub. He went there with his friends and some of his brothers last night and said he was going to be back before dawn. I got up to go to the bathroom but to my surprise, Jack was in the bathroom.

He looked different and he was in a certain type of uniform. I looked closely and realised that it was the uniform that he brought in yesterday when he announce his speech. But the one thing that surprised me the most is that he had cut his hair; it used to be long and brown, shoulder length and he always tied it back when he was off to work on the farm. It really annoyed me. I thought that he was just trying the uniform on but he had cut his hair which is one of the things that would be on his ‘not to do list’. He seen the expression on my face and he stepped forward, I stepped back.” I know what you’re thinking but it’ll only be a while” he said. I stared at his hair still surprised that he would do that, I was speechless.

I helped him pack up the last of his belongings and we were soon on our way to the train station. He gave me a bouquet of flowers on way, my favourite. He said that he isn’t going to say goodbye, but a see you soon and he promised me that he will be back soon. Jack always kept his promises but the weirdest thing was that I knew that he wasn’t going to keep this one. He lets go of my hand but I couldn’t let go but I knew I had to. That was it. That was the last I saw of him.