October 1917
It was raining. Not a lot, but in a constant downpour that had been going on for several days now. A few miles outside of the little town called Small Heath, in a small but beautiful church, an elderly priest were speaking some solemn words over a casket. Except for the priest, there was only a total of 10 people in the church, and among those 10 was Winifred. She was dressed in all black and had a short black veil covering her eyes. She was sitting in between her mother Mary and Ada on one of the benches closest to the casket, all three women were crying. Vin couldn't hear a word that was coming out of the priest's mouth and wished she could scream at him to stop speaking. She didn't believe in God, or in heaven or hell and the priest just kept on rambling about how 'you lose a life and you get a life'. Complete bullshit if you asked Vin, there was absolutely no sense of justice in this. A woman had died. In her parents house, not even able to tell her daughter goodbye.
Elsie Lynn, had fallen ill in the summer, and at first no one had been worried. It was just a little cough. But then it had turned in to a lot of coughs, then a fever, and slowly Elsie's loud and kind personality and turned in to a pale ghost of what it used to be, not even strong enough to stand up by herself. Edith had been staying with Mary and Vin for a month when Elsie died, the vivid fever dreams Elsie had before her death had scared Edith too much to stay in the house. She would continue to stay with Vin and Mary until Jamie came home. If he did come home.
Vin avoided thinking about that. She wasn't even sure if Jamie had received the news of his wife's passing yet. She could imagine him losing all hope over there, and that was the one thing he couldn't do now. If anything it was even more important that he came back home now, or else little Edith would become an Orphan at just 3 years old. Not that Edith actually remembered her father.
Vin was ripped away from her thoughts when Ada placed a hand on her knee. She looked up and met the teary eyes of her best friend, who gestured to the rest of the room. Everyone had started to move towards the casket with the intention to carry it out of the church and out to the beautiful field outside. Mr and Mrs Samuels, Elsies parents were in the lead, followed by Elsies to sisters, Mary and Vin walked behind them since it was the six of them that were supposed to carry the casket. Mary handed Edith, who had been in her lap until now, to Polly who instantly started rubbing circles on Edith's little leg. They lifted up the casket together and started walking toward the exit, Polly, Ada, Edith and Billy following behind them.
----
Later when Vin finally arrived home, she went upstairs to lay Edith, who was asleep in her arms, down in her crib. She hummed quietly as she brushed a few strands of hair out of Edith's face. As she stood looking down at her little niece, who already had lost her mother and might not ever see her father again, Vin thought to herself that she would protect her forever. She would make sure that no more harm came to the young child. Vin would make sure, for Elsie's sake, that Edith never forgot about her parents. They would go visit her grave the next day, and write a letter to Jamie. Vin was going to turn this around, and for that to work they had to make sure Jamie didn't loose hope over there.
----
About a month later, Vin had reached her limit. She hadn't slept in what felt like a month, and she had to continue working or else they would all be out of a house. Edith had trouble sleeping through the night, which meant that Vin was awake too, and when Edith finally fell asleep about 5 in the morning, Vin would be too stressed to follow her niece's lead. So instead she went to work, only to repeat the cycle once again.
Ada watched her friend with her eyebrows furrowed. Vin looked even worse than she had done when Frederick passed, it might even be worse than it had been when John broke up with her. She turned to Polly, who was also watching the girl with worried eyes.
"She looks bloody terrible"
"I know, Mary says she barely sleeps, and when she does she tossing and turning all night" Answered Polly.
Ada turned to Vin once again. She took in the pale skin, red eyes and big purple bags under her eyes before she decided what she had to do. It wasn't going to be easy to convince Vin to do it, but it was the only way Ada could think of.
"Im going to get her to sleep, right now. You and me will manage the shop by ourself's today" she said firmly. Polly looked at her niece and decided it wasn't the time to argue. She too wanted Vin to get some sleep, she just didn't know how Ada would to it. Instead of asking she just answered with a curt nod.
Vin's scattered thoughts were interrupted when Ada placed a hand on her shoulder. She looked up at her, a little confused when she saw the determined look on Ada's face. "What going on?" she asked.
"Come with me" Said Ada. Vin was to exhausted to question her friend, and instead followed her with her head hanged low. She had very little knowledge on where they were going, she only knew that they hadn't left the building.
Ada lead her best friend up the stairs to where the Shelby family had their bedrooms. She made a beeline for the bedroom in question and dragged a very out of it Vin after her. It was easier than Ada had thought to get Vin out of her clothes and in to the bed, only stating that Vin had to get some sleep. She watched as Vin sank into the bed and took a deep breath, almost instantly the wrinkled on her forehead relaxed and she closed her eyes.
"Have a good rest Vin" Ada whispered before she closet the door to the bedroom.
----
When Vin woke up, a couple of hours later she thought that she was still dreaming. She kept her eyes closet a breathed in the smell that was surrounding her. It was a faint smell, but she would recognise even the slightest hint everywhere.
She suddenly sat upright, realising she could actually smell it, that mixture of smoke, iron and that cologne. She looked around her, and felt her heart stutter as she realised where she was. She had spent so many nights here, tangled in these very sheets with him. It had made her feel so safe, like nothing could get to her. She hadn't been in here since she had gotten the letter from John. But before that she often spent the night in here, to feel closer to him.
She remembered how Ada had tucked her in this morning, and calmed herself down from her initial shock. She wanted to be angry with her best friend, but it died out quickly. She hadn't slept for almost three days, Ada just did what she had to.
She looked down at the bed again, and felt herself leaning down to the pillow. She buried her head in it and took a deep breath, the faint smell of him bringing her back to the dream she had been having. It had been about John of course, about the time when they had bordered them self in here for a whole day, just talking and laughing and giggling.
It wasn't long before she felt herself drift off to sleep once again, dreaming of the man half a world away.
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AAAAALRIGHTY THEN.
So, i am back. I have edited all the chapters from before and also added this one.
I am very sorry but i felt i had to kill Elsie for this to work, even though I really liked the idea of her and Vin's friendship. I will start posting the old chapters again, I think you will find little difference it them if you have read them before, It is mainly that I had to replace the Elsie parts. This is chapter is the last of part 2 so the next will be John and the boys returning from France.
Thank you all for being so patient with me, and thank you for reading, commenting and voting! Love youu xx
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Stupid - John Shelby (ON HOLD)
قصص الهواةThe Lynn family have always been close to the Shelby's, seeing that Mary Lynn was Polly Gray's best friend. And when Mary later had two kids in the same ages as John and Ada Shelby, it became only natural for them to also grow up as best friends. ...
