Home By Christmas

Chapter Five - Daniel

Daniel readjusted his cap for the twentieth time in five minutes. Try as he might, he just couldn't get it to feel comfortable on his head, to make it feel part of him. He sighed and dropped his hands to his sides, staring at his reflection in the mirror opposite.

The person in the mirror no longer resembled him. It may have been his face, his posture, and his bedroom, but someone else stared back at him through the glass. The man in the mirror wore the uniform of the British army, a uniform Daniel swore he would never wear. Although the man in the mirror didn't look like him, it moved when he did, breathed when he did, and mimicked him down to the twitch in his left eyebrow. Whether he liked it or not, the man in the mirror was him.

He sighed and tugged on the bottom of his shirt, pulling at the tight collar around his neck. Daniel couldn't have looked like less of a man in his uniform. He looked like a boy who had decided to play dress-up, a boy who had stolen a uniform from his father's wardrobe and thought he might try it on. A mere child playing games. He knew this was far from the truth.

With one last tug on his cap, Daniel grabbed his pack from his bed, flung it onto his shoulder, and left his room for what might have been the last time. The entire house held its breath as he walked across the hallway to the top of the stairs. The floorboards didn't make a sound underfoot, the birds outside were silent. The blanket of silence had fallen the day Daniel had returned from signing up. His mother had taken one look at him and knew he had listened to his father.

The house waited for the explosion.

Mrs Morris had looked at him with fear in her eyes, disappointment tucked just behind. No matter how much she begged and pleaded with him, he refused to listen to reason and Daniel remained steadfast in his resolve. He refused to be a disappointment in his father's eyes, even if he did hate it.

"Do you have everything you need?" Mr Morris asked.

Daniel nodded, stepping off the last step into the living room. "I think so. I don't need much." He dropped his pack onto the floor.

"You cut quite the fine figure in that uniform, my boy. It suits you."

"You're a very handsome young man, Daniel," Mrs Morris said with a watery smile. Already her eyes were red and bloodshot, something Daniel didn't want to see.

"Thank you, Mother."

"Do you want us to come and see you off?"

"No, I'll be fine. I won't seem like a real soldier if I need my mother to hold my hand." He smiled a little. "Besides, I'd much rather have a private goodbye than a public one."

Daniel looked at his Mother and then glanced away, unable to stand the sight of her crying. Like everything else that day, she cried silently, tears rolling down her cheeks as she looked at the only son she had.

Even though he hated to see his mother cry, Daniel knew that his decision to sign up protected his family. Had he not signed up that day, they would have become a talking point for the entire village. A topic of gossip and ridicule from friends and family. Mrs Morris made a habit of being friendly and kind to all the villages and Daniel couldn't allow her to suffer, knowing he might have prevented it.

Against his better judgement, Daniel found himself clinging to the idea that the war might be over by Christmas. His head told him how unlikely that would be, but his heart gripped onto the idea that he would be home in a matter of months. Just because he put his name down didn't mean he'd be sent off to fight. Perhaps they wouldn't even make it to the front. Maybe the war would be over before they completed training.

It all felt a little far-fetched to be true, but it gave him the slither of hope he needed. Hope would be all he had.

The front door swung open, and Ruth stepped through the threshold with a scowl on her face and a basket of eggs swinging from her arm. Her scowl deepened at the sight of Daniel's pack at the foot of the stairs. Ruth hadn't spoken two words to Daniel since he had returned from the town hall and most days, she refused to even look at him. Daniel understood why.