• The Army is no place for a child


    “Come now Roger, you can’t stay out there forever!” mother called out. I sighed, mother can be so, well, annoying. My name is Carson Roger Masons, but everybody calls me by my middle name Roger. The year is 1475 and I’m 15 years old with a red hair and blue eyes. Normally, I would ignore her and continue to explore. I love to explore the old ruins and the Stonehenge monument. But today was different. My 18 year old sister, Rachel, was coming back today from the village. She works as a bar maid for the pub. She hast to stay around there all year long, with a month break every 3 years, so I get to see her after the long period of time she is gone. She’s like me. When she comes back, we’ll start exploring from night until the dawn.
    When she got here she opened her arms to mother and gave her a hug. Then she came over to me and embraced me. I decided, after dinner, we would explore the old ruins one more time.
    As dinner progressed, my sister discussed getting married to the butcher’s son in town. Mother said “We need your fathers blessing in order to marry him. I know you know that.”
    “So where is he?”
    My mother and me looked at each other, exchanged a look, and looked back at her. “Your father,” mother said, “was recruited during the raid; he was told to go out to the main battle.”
    My sister looked at mother. “You’re kidding right? You’re not serious are you?” she looked like she was about to cry.
    “Mother’s serious Rachel, except they came in here and dragged him out,” I mentioned “He’s fighting the kingdom just across the hill.”
    Mother looked over at my sister, who had grown silent and looked very solemn. I reached over an arm, hugged her and said “He’ll be back, you know, he made me a promise that he would be with at all times and never leave me behind. Maybe we should go explore now in order to take your mind off it?”
    She nodded her head and slowly got out of her chair. I looked at mother with eyes of reassuring. Rachel then came out in a short dress and bare feet. “Lets go, what are you waiting for Carson?”
    “You know I hate that name!” I shouted back as I heard her laugh. We ran of into the night yelling at each other all the while not caring how many neighbors we woke up. Eventually we lay down on the grass. Panting and laughing, we just sat there for a long while looking at the stars.
    My sister broke the silence. “Shall we begin our search?”
    I looked at her and said “look about dad-----,”
    “No, I don’t want to hear a word about it. It’s too unbelievable to stand for.”
    “I wasn’t going to tell you about him. I was going to tell you I’m going to join the royal army.”
    She glared at me “No you’re not.”
    “But—,”
    “That’s enough. Those despicable men took our father away. Besides, you could be killed.”
    “I’m joining the army to find dad. If you don’t want dad back, ok, but I want him not later, but now!” I yelled at her with a rage. In her eyes I saw hurt, then understanding, then compassion.
    She spoke up after a long while “I know you want to help dad, but there is something more important.”
    “What’s more important then getting dad! Come on, tell me already!” I shouted being irritated by her long silences.
    She yelled at me saying “How do you think I would feel if you died roger! You’re fifteen but your still my younger brother! Besides, the army is no place for a child!”
    I stared at her with disbelief. She was really serious about not letting me go into the army. I said “fine, lets explore,” I turned glared at her with an undying rage, than turned back towards the road towards the main road leading up to the ruins.
    As we started walking, the lights of our house went out. Rachel said “We’re gonna haft to sneak back in huh?” my response was a humph. We got to the old tomb first. I started to look for cracks to get in while Rachel climbed on top as a lookout for anyone who might be coming.
    “Found it!” I shouted. She comes down from her post and we enter the tombs.






    We were heading back towards the house at dawn. I saw smoke coming from the chimney and smelled the sweet sent of pork. The fire seemed to grow warmer as we entered the house. “What’s for breakfast mother?”
    “The treat of a lifetime Roger, its sausages!” I didn’t waste a second with small talk but headed straight for the table.