Jubilee Year: A Novel (Erelong Trilogy Book I) - An Extended Sample

Chapter 14: MOM, I'M ENLISTING!

Stella's flushed face was a warning sign Storm and his sister knew only too well. Only this time it looked like their mother was about to suffer a fateful turn that would land her in hospital.

"Take it easy, Mom," Summer told her. "Storm gets it."

"No, I don't think he does!" Stella said, staring angrily at her son. "You don't get it, do you? You have a family so why do you need to replace us? They will put bloody dog tags around your neck, do you know that?"

"You know that because you were in the Army yourself," Storm replied, indignantly. "Both you and Dad. Well, it's my turn now."

"No one tried to stop me," Stella said, barely able to stop herself from screaming at her son. "But I wish they had. Soldiers serve rich bastards! You'll be treated as a tool, to be used and abused."

Stella poked Storm in the chest so hard he took a step backward. "They sic you on people who are only defending their own countries. People who don't look or talk the same as us because they don't come from the places we do, but they are no different. The military will tell you it's okay to bomb and shoot them because they're the enemy and that makes them less human. And it seems the enemy always has something we need. Funny that, don't you think? It makes me sick to think you would even consider enlisting."

She strode past him to the kitchen, banging pots into the sink, taking plates off the shelf and placing them on the bench with a clatter. She heard the door shut as Summer ran from the house.

He walked up beside Stella and put his hand on her arm. "I'll wash them for you."

"It's better if you leave me alone for a while," she said, taking a step away from him.

Storm stayed put. "Mom, you and Dad wouldn't have if you hadn't both been in the Army."

"Pete and I thought we were having one big adventure, but all we ever saw were the new barracks they built in Darwin. We cleaned them, drove trucks around them, and cleaned them all over again. When we weren't doing that they taught us how to shoot and take orders." She shut off the tap and turned around. "Things are different now. They take us to war. And it's not about defending our country, either. Don't you go thinking that's what it's all about."

She saw the stubborn look in his eyes and wished Pete was with her. He would know what to say. She took a breath. "All right then. Tell me why you want to join."

Storm threw up his hands. "Mom, it's a full-time paying job, and I can learn to fly helicopters," he told her. It isn't like I have much choice, he thought. Why can't she understand?

She looked at her son's determined face and hugged him tightly. "Son, you are young, strong, and smart. There are so many ways you can make a living. You can be a civilian pilot if you want it bad enough."

"How do you know that, Mom?" Storm asked and pulled himself free of her arms. "Anyway, I'm eighteen. I don't need your signature."

He walked past her and walked out the kitchen door.

Stella looked around in the middle of the kitchen as she listened to her son kick the motorcycle engine into life. She listened to the bike until it turned the corner at the end of the street, then the only sound she heard was the tap dripping over the sink.

She looked at dishes stacked on the bench. Try as she might, she couldn't remember why she took all the plates and cups off the shelves in the first place and with a sweep of her hand, she knocked them to the floor.