Painful Loss

• Madeline Spanevello, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2017

I was lying on my bed, a big pile of my favourite books towered beside me. Life had been hard for our family since Papa went to fight in the war. Reading is how I relax and travel to happier places. I heard cheerful laughter floating to me from down the dim hallway. It was Mirrung, my baby sister. I stopped reading for a moment and listened to the laughter, enjoying the rare moment of light-heartedness that it brought to our home. Without warning Mirrung’s laughter suddenly stopped as the sounds of explosion and shattering glass filled our shuddering house. As I raced down the hallway I accidentally bumped the sideboard and noticed a small envelope fall to the ground. It had been trapped behind the sideboard, unnoticed, until I accidentally freed it. The envelope was yellow, and had “War Ministry” written at the top, along with papa’s name and some other words. I didn’t read all of it because I was shouting to Mama, rushing down the creaky staircase. I found Mama sitting in Papa’s antique chair, her sewing hastily returned to the basket beside her. “Mama, I have found a letter,” I said with hope. I did not know what a yellow letter meant, because I was only eight. Mama knew what it meant, and she stared at the letter with teary eyes for quite a long time. Everyone in our family could hear the silence. Even Mirrung’s laughter had stopped. From Mama’s reaction we knew something was wrong, so we all came together and huddled over Mama and the chair. Me, George, Hannah, Mabel and Mirrung (Mabel was carrying her). Mabel and George are the eldest and knew what the letter meant, so they started crying too. Hannah is a year younger than me, and little Mirrung, she is a baby, so although we didn’t know what the letter meant, we could tell that it wasn’t good. With shaking hands, Mama opened the letter and read it out loud, slowly, with a shaky voice. She read “I regret to inform you that, under very harsh conditions, your husband was captured by the enemy. He was……. killed.” Papa was dead. Our beloved Father was… Dead.