Golden Widow #1: Awakening

3

The next morning, I awoke to the feeling of a pair of hands gently shaking me before my eyes even had a chance of opening. "Elle, come on we've got to get moving." Steve whispered hurriedly, as my mouth opened into a wide yawn, my hands rubbing the sleep from my eyes.

"Steve, it's too early. Where are we going?" I groaned as I sat up, and Steve began to change my clothes. As he began to pull a clean dress over my head, that I knew had been at home, I noticed he was fully dressed as well.

"New Jersey." He answered distastefully, and I could feel my nose crinkle at the name. As he turned away to grab a fresh pair of stockings, my hand darted out to grab the dice, and dropped it in one of the skirt pockets.

"But why are we going to New Jersey?" I questioned, as he pulled my stockings on until they reached my scabbed knees. He grabbed my hand, my other one still clutching my small pink rabbit, and gently pulled me up off the mattress.

"Because I've had my enlistment form approved." He responded, and I stopped dead still. Steve couln't go to war. He wouldn't last a week of training, let alone a few hours in the trenches. Steve is all I have left from home; I can't lose him too.

He frowned, confusion etching lines on his youthful forehead. "Elle, what's wrong? Why are you looking at me like that?" He uttered, looking down at me, clearly not understanding why I felt so angry and terrified.

"You can't go. What about me?" I whispered, my eyes watering. "I'll have no one. I need you." Steve smiled softly, rubbing my hand with his thumb.

"Well, Elle, you're coming with me. See, the doctor who approved my form said that you could stay nearby with a... a friend of his whilst I'm training. They'll look after you. Come on, now. They're waiting for us outside."

"But what about our things?" I enquired, cocking my head to one side.

"They've already got everything we need." He replied, as we walked down the thin flight of stairs down to the living room. Not everything, I thought despondently. The stairs quietly creaked with each step, and I feared that we would wake Uncle George and Auntie Winnie.

"Do they know?" I asked, as we walked towards the living room door, looking up at Steve, and he nodded.

"Yes, they know. I told them last night before I went to bed." He yawned, lifting his hand up to cover his mouth.

"I'm hungry!" I cried out, as his hand was on the handle of the front door. Steve hung his head and sighed, before turning around and began walking towards the kitchen, my hand still in his. "How long have you been up?" I asked him, as he grabbed the bread knife from the cutlery draw.

"A couple of hours." He replied, cutting slices from a large loaf of bread. Climbing onto a little stool, o reached over to the fruit bowl, and plucked out an apple, tinted a mix of greens and reds, neither fully one nor the other.

"Did you see Bucky?" I murmured, shining the fruit on my dress until it gleamed. Steve froze for a second, before nodding slowly, and continuing with cutting slices of bread for me to eat. "I wish I could've said goodbye to him." I looked glumly at my stockinged feet, as I slid the apple into my other pocket.

"He left very early. Earlier than we are." He muttered solemnly, wrapping the bread in a cloth, and rinsing off the bread knife he had used. "Now, let's get your shoes on, little miss, and then we can go." He exclaimed, turning around and clapping his hands together. My lips upturned in a little smile as he picked up my breakfast and placed a hand between my shoulder blades, urging me on. With my small rabbit in hand, and ran over to the front door, where my shoes stood neatly by the frame. I pulled the little black Mary-Janes on, and Steve did up the tiny silver buckles on the side. The door creaked quietly at the hinges, and I leapt in the air and through the door, my pink rabbit's worn out ears flopping in the air. My feet landed with a loud slap on the concrete floor. Steve ran his fingers through my hair, trying to smooth it out.