Flower petals caught in the breeze landed at the foot of Sophia’s modest gravestone where July stood with his hands in his pockets watching them flutter by. Tom and Granny stood a few meters back; though he couldn’t see his face Tom knew how broken July must have been.
Granny explained how it happened. When the Royalists began their occupation of Haven the inhabitants, and the militia, fought back with everything they had. Sophie had gotten married. She and her husband were significant members of this new resistance. But the Royalists were ruthless, Sophia and her husband were eventually captured and executed for treason. Not long after Alister too was imprisoned, but Granny’s spies believe that he is alive.
It was getting in the late afternoon and Granny wandered off back to the village, but Tom and July stayed. July barely moved, he was like a statue dedicated to the memory of such a lovely person as Sophie was. Tom approached him and tried to talk but couldn’t find the words; he stood behind his friend for a moment and then moved away.
Finally, July spoke. “We weren’t there for her.” Tom stopped and turned back to see July facing him, his eyes wet with tears. “I know that she thought I’d come back,” July went on. “She must have waited so long, not knowing if we were even alive… We should have come back, we should have been there. I can’t stop thinking about it… we were sitting in a bunker while they were fighting for our home, and now she’s dead, and I just want to see her again…” He broke off and turned back to the gravestone. Tom knew he had no words that would comfort his friend right now. July suddenly changed his tone and wiped the tears from his eyes. “The Royalist need to pay for this,” he said, almost a whisper.
“Come on, July. Be reasonable. Who’s going to make them? What the hell can we do?”
July glared at him, his lips trembling with anger, then he took a deep breath. “Go back and check in on Charlie and the twins, and find Wade and see if he needs anything.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I need to be alone for a while.”
July moved away from the grave and began walking in no conceivable direction. Tom couldn’t help him right now, so he went back to the village and left his friend alone.
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