“So, why do you need a German dictionary?” He asks, but not in a demanding way, a kind and gentle way.
“No reason, it’s just a good thing to learn,” I say.
He smiles, “You can tell me the truth,”
I sigh. I don’t know why but it feels right. Will seems trustworthy, and my gut is telling me to trust him.
“I… I have a German friend that I’m meeting,”
His eyebrows raise, but he doesn’t seem judgemental about it, just confused.
“Okay… Is there anything else?”
My heart leaps into my stomach and my breathing turns shallow.
“What’s wrong?” He stops me and studies my eyes. They’re filled with concern. His blue, blue eyes.
“I’m…”
I don’t know how to phrase it.
“I’m..”
Will looks at me.
“It’s okay,”
My eyes are starting to fill with tears.
“I’m a girl,”
…
He hugs me, and I feel like the world has dissolved at my feet. I’m flying, a bird disappearing into the clouds. It’s funny how he has to lean down to hug me, he’s at least half a foot taller than me. When we finally pull out of the hug he looks at me.
“I won’t tell anyone. You’re really, really brave, Laro,”
I smile,
“Lara. You can call me Lara,”
We walk over to Tom’s bag and Will rummages through it until he finds the dictionary.
“So, how’d you meet your mate, from Germany?”
I blush and smooth down my hair.
“I.. umm… Had a dream about her. We talked and she came to the hospital tent yesterday. She taught me some German, and I taught her some English. I know I sound crazy but-”
“I don’t think you’re crazy,” He says.
Will hands me the dictionary and I instantly blush once more.
“Thank you for... Everything,”
“If you ever want a friend to learn German with, I’m here,” Will whispers.
He smiles and locks his hands with mine as we walk back. Just before we reach Tom and Matt he unlocks his hand from mine.
“Bye!” He smiled and walked away.
When I get back to my bag I quickly write about my time with Will in my diary. It takes up a full page, which makes me blush. Then I sit down with my German dictionary. It’s not just any dictionary, it’s special. It has the German word matched with the English version and it has the definition. I teach myself ‘Sorry’, ‘Thank you’, and ‘Week’. It took me a few hours but I mastered the pronunciation of the words.
Dave, Will, Pete and Tom come over to my bag area. The German dictionary is placed in my lap, the sun is almost completely down and the air is cold. I’m in my sweater and my hat is on my head to try to keep me warm.
It’s not working.
“Oi! Laro wanna play poker?” Tom asks.
“What’s poker?” I ask.
After the guys explain the rules I easily catch on. We play with 52 cards and I end up beating the boys in the first two matches.
“You’re cheating” Dave snickers.
“Just the luck of the draw,” I say.
We play for a couple of hours until everyone is tired.
“Well, we should be off!” Tom yawns.
“See you tomorrow!” Will beams.
The next morning I got my gun and went up to the front line. Another soldier was upfront with his gun too. We talked for a while whilst shooting. His name’s George and he lives in Boston.
After shooting I go over to Pete and to my happiness he’s with our other friends. I tuck my hair under my hat.
It’s been growing, it’s starting to go into girl territory. It’s up to my neck and I desperately need it cut. It no longer stays on my head, it flows down. The hat isn’t great at hiding it, it just goes on my head so you can’t see some of it, but the long bit still sticks out.
“Need a bit of a haircut, do you?” Tom questions.
“Yeah. I know a guy I can get a haircut from I just don’t know where he is,”
I’m thinking about Dave, I hope he has a pair of scissors.
Once again we talk for ages, and the war around me seems to stop.
“If anybody wants to go for a walk, I’m going,” I say.
Everybody declines except for Will, who accepts happily.
We walk for at least five minutes before he slips his hand through mine. I smile.
“Do you know where I could find a guy? He’s tall and fat with short blonde hair,”
Comments (0)
See all