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Tommy
"I never doubted you would." Lucille said, as she helped pull Tommy to his feet.
"I don't mean to interrupt but what do we do about the soldiers on the train?" Dawson asked.
"I hadn't thought about that." Lucille said, as she moved to stand beside him. "Can we barricade the door?"
From behind them, Tommy was moving around the back of the animal pen, shuffling in the hay. He pulled up a plank of wood, holding it up.
"We could use this, but it won't hold for long." He said.
Just as he moved toward the door, there was a forceful bang on the other side. Soldiers were pushing against the door, trying to knock it down to get to them. Tommy lodged the wooden plank against the door, sitting in front of it and pushing his own weight back against them. Dawson quickly joined his side, and after a few more minutes of banging, there was silence once again.
"Do you think they've given up?" Lucille asked, as she pressed her ear against the door, listening for any sign of movement on the other side.
"Likely." Dawson nodded. "We're not going to be able to get off at the Paris stop- they'll be waiting to get us there."
"But how else can we get off?" She asked.
"We jump?" Tommy suggested.
"Jump?" Lucille exclaimed, "You're serious?"
She already knew the answer to her own question. Lucille could tell by the goat look on his face, that he wasn't joking around.
"Well can you think of anything better?" He said, and she shrugged.
"I've already jumped into a train today, I don't think I can jump off of one." Lucille said, and Dawson laughed.
"He caught you the first time, he can catch you the second time." He exclaimed, and she blushed, rolling her eyes.
Standing up, Lucille left the two boys to barricade the door with the backs against it. Tommy turned to Dawson.
"How's the situation with your lady friend?" He asked, taking a cigarette from his pocket and offering it over to him.
Dawson accepted, shrugging his shoulders as he said, "The same. I've not decided what to do about it."
"Well, you like her, yeah?"
"More than I thought." Dawson nodded. "But women are complicated. They never tell you want they want straight."
"Just because I want to be with her, doesn't mean she will." He finished after a small pause, a frown on his face.
"She'd be lucky to have you, lad." Tommy said, clapping him on the back with a nod. "You going to see her when we get home?"
"I'll be happy to have a pint if I get home." Dawson groaned at the thought of a good drink in his local pub back home. He could think of nothing better. Tommy laughed. "But yeah. I think I will."
"What about Lucille? I want her opinion." Dawson said, before calling her back over. "Lucille!"
Tommy watched as her head turned, her blonde hair falling over her shoulders in waves as she smiled over at them. Her small hands were stroking the nose of a cow as it snuggled into her touch. Her eyes trailed across them, waiting for them to say anything further.
"Yes?" She asked.
"What do you think?" Dawson asked.
"Oh, I wasn't listening." She laughed, shaking her head as if the fact was obvious. As she moved over toward them to sit, the small cow made of gruff sound, as if it were sad by the loss of her stroke.
"His lady friend. Should he see her when he gets back?" Tommy asked her, his brow raised.
"Stop calling her my lady friend." Dawson said.
"Ethel. Her name's Ethel." He exclaimed.
"Alright then. Should he see Ethel?"
Lucille paused for a moment, before landing her eyes on his. "I say yes."
"You do?" Dawson asked, surprised by her answer, even though he had asked her opinion. Lucille nodded. "Yes, if she loves you, it doesn't matter the barriers. There can't be a second if she really loved her first."
Tommy could feel her eyes on the side of his face. Was she talking about him? As he moved his own gaze to meet hers, her glowing eyes shot away. Her cheeks burned red from the embarrassment of being caught staring.
"Thank you, Lucille." Dawson said, he too was staring. Though it was at a pile of hay, stuck in thought.
"No problem." She said, before she lifted herself up, taking herself back to the cheerful cow.
"So what about you, Tom?" Dawson turned to ask him.
"What about me?"
"Well what's happening with Lucille?" He asked, and Tommy raised his brow.
"You know what's happening with Lucille. You've basically pushed it from the start." He replied with a chuckle and Dawson shrugged at the truth of it.
"Well, true. She likes you." He said.
"Mhm." Tommy said, his brain not truly working as he watched her laugh as the cow tickled her hand.
"Well, what will you do?" Dawson asked him, breaking him from his thoughts. "When we finally leave?"
"I don't know." Tommy answered truthfully. "But we have to leave. Our country is at war."
They paused for a moment, before Dawson asked, "Will you come back?"
"I hadn't thought of it. I didn't want to think about it." Tommy said. "I'll think about it when it comes to it."
"Do you ever worry about going home?" Dawson asked, after yet another long pause. "To see what's left."
"More like who." Tommy said, as he took another tab out of his pocket, a single penny falling into his hand along with it.
The coin was cold and light in the middle of his large palm. It felt foreign, different to the strength of a gun or the fragility of a cigarette, both of which were so familiar to him. Even the scent was strange, something he had never thought would be able to remind him of home so much: an icy and metallic smell that rubbed off on his fingers. The edges were tougher than what he had remembered. Half of it was covered in a dark green tint, corroded from the wear and tear of his pocket.
He placed the penny in between his fingers, toying it about back and forth, before he tossed it into the air a couple of times. Tommy caught the coin in his hands, holding it in his palm for a few seconds as he thought.
What decision was he subconsciously making. At first the tossing of the coin had been a force of an old habit, but in the end, it held meaning.
He glanced up at Lucille. She was glowing, like the angel he had always thought she resembled. Her dark lashes fluttered against her cheeks as she laughed at the animal that pushed pushed her hand.
Will I come back to her?
Heads:yes, he thought.
Slowly, Tommy removed the fingers from above his palm, showcasing the penny to his own sight. He held in a breath as his eyes met the answer. Heads.
