Time Bombs

chapter six

J A C Q U E L I N E
The Bedroom
0312 Hours

I CAN'T believe I let him get off the hook like that. I can't believe I let him go. I should have shot him. I should have shot him. Damn, I should have shot him.

If there were prizes for making bad decisions, my family would've won gold on an annual basis. But this, by far, takes the cake. Nothing could be worse than an American taking refuge in your attic. Especially when the American in question looks exactly like an escaped Prisoner of War.

I could turn him over to the Japanese Army. Perhaps that would make them buy into our false loyalty, and they'd spare our family from whatever ravaging they plan on doing to our city. No one ever said they'd tear this place to shreds, but I'm afraid that's what they do everywhere nowadays. I know it sounds selfish, but I also know that we can't save an entire city from destruction. And if I could choose anyone to save, I would choose my family. Or at least what's left of it.

So far, screaming into my pillow has proved to be the only viable option in this scenario. I have many regrets with the way I conducted myself in front of the American. I seemed so pathetic. So easy, even. I conceded and followed his orders like an animal being baited with food. Good god, this isn't me. This is my own house, for Pete's sake!

I bury my face for the nth time in my pillow, and scream. So what if he hears me? I'll keep this man up all night if I want to. And to think that he was using my typewriter of all things.

The door gives a tentative creak, and in a moment, I am met with the face I least wanted to see.

"Jacqueline-" Sebastian attempts to explain.

"Don't 'Jacqueline' me," I half whisper, half shout, ambushing him with my pillow. It could be lethal if I tried hard enough. Seriously, I could suffocate him. "What on earth is an American POW doing in our attic?"

Sebastian holds me by the shoulders and steadies me. You can try to establish your dominance all you want, Sebastian, but your thick skull will get the best of you soon enough. "Look at me. You and I both know that had you been in the same situation, you would've helped him out, too."

"Yeah!" I argue. "I would've helped him by calling the US Army, not by holding him hostage in my attic!"

Feigning ignorance, he says, "we aren't holding him hostage, Jacqueline. He is very much grateful to be here."

"You could've just turned him over to the army like any sensible person would've done, you know?" I declare.

Sebastian tilts his chin up. "He specifically requested that I didn't."

What in the world? The gall of this American! Completely exasperated by my brother, I roll my eyes and say, "are you kidding me? So you just did that, no questions asked? You didn't even wonder why he didn't want you to call the army? What if he's some sort of . . . hoodlum?"

"Jacqueline, you've met him. I think you should know by now that he isn't a murderer."

     "It's rich to say that a soldier isn't a murderer. Isn't that what they're trained to do?"

     Sebastian scratches his head and sighs. He and I have never had a full blown row, and it's mainly because one of us typically concedes before things went out of hand. The one conceding being Sebastian, ninety nine percent of the time. "Let's start over, shall we? I'll take the lead this time."

"Fine," I mutter half-heartedly.

"Jacqueline, listen to me," he says, like I haven't been listening for the past ten minutes. "What I'm about to tell you could cost me my candidacy - no, wait, who am I kidding? It could cost me my life."

He wants me to pretend like the past ten minutes didn't happen? I would be holding back laughter if the situation wasn't so disappointing. "Alright, I get it, now would you just cut to the chase? I'm not sure I like the sound of this."

"Okay," Sebastian breathes with an air of finality. "There's an American soldier hiding in our attic."

"Come to think of it, this would've been easier if I found out this way, instead of letting me not-so-casually run into him," I remark.

He shakes his head in agreement. "I know, I just didn't know how to, and I guess I didn't want you to get involved. I thought I was protecting you, but now I see that I was only protecting myself. It wasn't very smart of me to keep you uninformed, since you were bound to find out one way or another."

"Yup," I say. "And so is Alonso."

"No!" Sebastian exclaims. "Alonso cannot know about this, understood? It's- I don't know what he'll do."

His voice seems to trail off at that, and for a moment, I see a glimpse of hesitation. I believe him when he says he doesn't know what Alonso might do. Alonso was unpredictable like that, and I say that because I'm his sister, but had I not been, I would've used the word threatening in place of unpredictable.

"Alright, I'll help you," I tell Sebastian. He's gonna need all the help he can get if he wants to keep this on the low. "I'll keep Alonso distracted, if that's what you want."

Sebastian looks as though a weight had been lifted off his chest, but not entirely. "Thank you, Jacqueline, but you don't have to keep him distracted. If you spend more time around him, it might rouse his suspicion. Just keep going to the attic and pretend to read something, or whatever it is you do there – I don't know! Just act like nothing's changed."

Act like nothing's changed. It's interesting how easy that sounds. Act like nothing's changed when everything has.

Our father used to tell us a small tidbit of French whenever we were faced with uncertainty. This war has brought upon us the most uncertain of cases in the most uncertain times. "On va voir," our father would say. Only the future will tell. We shall see.

     I shot my brother a final look. His smile lines have now begun to run deeper, his hands more calloused, his clothes a little less crisp than I'd gotten used to. Even he has changed. "Fine," I sigh. Now let's see where this takes us.