A Royal Beginning [Book 1 of The English Lion]

LXX. Winston

Friday, 24th January 1936

I would be in the headquarters, knowing that Alexander would be here, according to several people. I made my way to his office and knocked on the door.

"Come in," Alexander replied, and I walked in. I came to sit opposite Alexander, who was at his desk, reading papers including reports that had been spread out across his desk.

"Are you alright, Alexander?" I asked, where I was greeted by silence immediately right after. He would be silent, reading the paper, ignoring me.

"Hm...?" Alex asked before he looked up at me, a few moments later.

"Are you alright, Alexander?" I repeated the question.

"No..."

"Want to talk about it?"

"I don't know... There's a lot of things I am dealing with now."

I nodded, understanding what he meant by that.

"To deal with this, I'm planning to play rugby," Alexander told me, and I just looked at him, like 'What...?'

"Because why not?" He asked, "But, anyway, fellow officers in both the Navy and the RAF have started rugby teams since last summer."

"How are you dealing with your Grandfather's death?"

Alexander shrugged as if he's unsure.

"I'm not sure. I'm in this middle of a tug-of-war, torn between anger and grief," Alexander replied, still looking unsure, as if there's more but needs to be sorted out. With that, we both silently decided that the subject would be changed. We would talk about politics in Europe, and how it had affected politics and the social situation here in Britain. I do have a piece of Alexander's mind in regards to the politics, as well as having long moments of silence where Alexander's thinking, as if he is unsure about a number of things. It seems like Alexander has a number of things on his shoulders that makes him more mature and grown up, yet he is barely fifteen, which makes me and, to some extent, other people, quite worried about how he will deal with it.