Love You Till The End (Robert Zussman x Reader)

11 - Y/N L/N

November of 1943
The next day

I was sitting on the rug in the living room with a book in my hands. I wasn't doing much reading though since all I had on my mind was how I was going to convince military men to let me enlist. It seemed impossible.

Women aren't completely excluded from the war. There is the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps and the Women's Airforce Service Pilots. I would love to join one of them if I could. The problem is that I'm still a bit too young to join the WAAC and learning to fly a plane is expensive.

The thing with the Army is that they're desperate for soldiers. Not every man meets the requirements, so if you're healthy, 18-64 years old, and you meet the requirements, they want you. They take as many men as they can from their families to try and win a war. If they can get men to volunteer with their posters, I'm sure they feel pretty damn happy about it. I'm just another life for them to throw on the battlefield. My only problem is I'm not a man. I don't hate the Army, but I just dislike the way they can be towards women.

My family was out in the city for the morning and I had decided to stay home so I could go to the local military recruitment office while they were away. I didn't want them to know anything about my plans to enlist. That topic would start arguments that I didn't need to be in. I respected my parents, but I had to do this without them knowing.

I got ready to leave and quickly wrote a small note on a piece of paper in case they came home while I was gone. Before heading out, I went to my parents' room to get my father's draft letter just in case I needed it.

The military recruitment office wasn't too far from my house. I had walked by it a few times. I remembered seeing a huge line of men that went along the side of the building once. It was a pretty medium sized building with a few recruitment posters on the windows and walls. It also had a sign at the top of the building that said, "ENLIST NOW!" in bold red lettering. I took a deep breath and clutched my father's draft letter in my hand as I got closer to the building.

When I walked in, there weren't too many people inside. There were three men in line waiting to talk to the soldiers at the recruitment table. There was a young woman holding hands with a small child in a corner of the room. They were both looking at the man talking to the soldiers. I assumed it was her husband. She glanced at me and we smiled at each other. There was sadness in her eyes and I couldn't help but feel pity for her and the child.

I walked to the back of the line and waited. The men in front of me noticed and had confused looks on their faces. I tried my best to ignore their stares. I didn't want to back out because of them.

It took about half an hour for me to finally reach the recruitment table. The two young soldiers sitting behind the table looked at me and shot each other a glance.

"Can I help you, dolly*?" one of them finally said.

"Yes, I would like to enlist."

They both started to chuckle and I could tell they couldn't believe what they were hearing. I expected something like this, but I wasn't going to back down so easily. I was willing to stay even if it meant me eventually getting dragged out.

"Listen here. That ain't gonna happen, dolly. You should already know that," the other soldier said, still chuckling.

"No, you listen here. You're here to recruit soldiers for the war and well, I came here to join. Either do your damn job or let me speak to someone who knows what the hell they're doing," I said. I normally didn't use vulgar language, but I didn't care anymore. I wasn't going to be made into a damn fool.