The Foreshadowing Read Free Page B

months ago, Edgar came home on leave. We sat around the dining table at Sunday lunch, just as we always had, but something was not the same.
    Although he’d been away for just a few months, Mother stared at him as if she’d never seen him before. He looked very smart in his captain’s uniform, it was true.
    “Well, my boy,” Father said, beaming. “Tell us about the army.”
    Tom pulled a face, which only I saw.
    “Actually, it’s been a pretty dull show,” Edgar said. He couldn’t hide his disappointment. “We’ve been in reserve mostly. And the other officers . . . I get a hard time because I’m a special reserve captain.”
    “Never mind,” Mother said, smiling. “You’re doing your best.”
    Father nodded. “Your chance will come.”
    “Yes, you’re right,” Edgar said. “And you’ll get your chance too, Tom, after all. You’ll be eighteen in July.”
    We all looked at Tom.
    “Well, Thomas?” Father said. “Edgar’s right.”
    “I want to be a doctor,” he said, slowly.
    That afternoon, we went out for a stroll along the seafront, past the West Pier, and along to Brunswick Lawns. What a fine, proud family we must have looked. Mother and Father arm in arm. Father was well known, and respected, and men nodded to him as he walked, with his children behind, me in the middle, Tom on the right and Edgar on the left, in his uniform.
    The lawns were very busy, though before the war they would have been packed on a fine afternoon, and the ladies’ clothes much more flamboyant. We passed a family we knew, with their invalid son in a chair. Father had treated the boy for many years, though without much success. His father smiled as we passed.
    “What a fine daughter you have, now, Mrs. Fox!” he said, and Mother smiled, but I thought about their son. I looked away.
    The sun shone and gulls cried overhead when suddenly, I saw a flash of color at our side. I looked round to see a young woman in a dark blue dress approaching us. She had two friends with her, girls a little older than me, also in expensive dresses. Before we even knew what was happening, the girl was talking to Tom.
    She was very pretty, and at first Tom smiled as she pressed something into his hand.
    Tom looked down at what she’d given him and his face fell. It was a white feather.
    The girl muttered something and hurried off to rejoin her friends.
    “But I’m not even eighteen yet,” Tom protested as she went.
    We went home straightaway, and no one said a word.

94

    When we got in there was an awful row.
    Edgar didn’t even have to say anything. The look on his face was enough to tell Tom what he was thinking.
    “The disgrace!” Father snorted. The white feather meant the girls thought Tom was a coward, shirking his duty in the war.
    “But I’m not even eighteen,” Tom said, again and again. “Why didn’t any of you tell them that?”
    “But it’s true!” Edgar said. “You don’t want to go to war. It doesn’t matter what age you are or aren’t. There’s a name for people like you!”
    “Edgar!” Mother cried. “Stop it.”
    Without realizing it, I held her hand.
    “It’ll only get worse,” Father said, “the older you get. When people know. You have to do your bit.”
    “Is that all you can ever say?” Tom shouted at Father. I shuddered. None of us has ever raised our voice to him, but strangely, Father let it pass.
    “That’s all that counts,” he said.
    “What?” asked Tom. “Going to war? Killing?”
    “Not killing,” Edgar said. “Doing your bit. That’s all. Fighting for what’s right.”
    “You haven’t even done any fighting,” Tom spat at Edgar.
    That really upset him. He stormed over to Tom, and for a moment they looked like they did when they were young boys, Tom trying to stand up to Edgar, even though he is five years younger, and so much weaker.
    “That’s not my fault,” Edgar shouted. “And when I get the chance, I’ll fight. I’m no coward!”
    “Is that what you think