Tears Of Silence

• Sarah Redfern, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2015

“I’m not going alright! I don’t have to relive it! NOW GET OFF MY PROPERTY!!” Matthew heard Grandpa Elias shout. Just as he was about to rap on the door, a man came storming out. He stomped down the driveway smacking the mailbox as he left. Matthew wandered inside to find Grandpa Elias sitting silently looking grief stricken. Matthew waited. “I’m sorry, that was nothing, promise.” Are you sure? That sounded like something, you have to talk about it” replied Matthew. “No, you’re too young, you wouldn’t understand.” “Try me,” argued Matthew.
“Well, when I was young, I was in the Australian Army, a proud soldier I was. I felt so, so brave, heroic even but that didn’t last long.” “Why?” Inquired Matthew. “War is a terrible thing. I have seen things that can never be unseen.” “I boarded the plane with great excitement. The whole trip, I kept thinking about how fun it’s gonna be to fight and use guns, but boy was I wrong. Once I arrived in Afghanistan, I had already made a great friend, Jamie Styre, the most amazing bloke I’d ever met. He was a genuine hazelnut haired, brown eyed little ripper.
Our first fight we were met with a foul-smelling disease filled and amazingly narrow trench. We were told that, that was our home for the next few months. We were each presented an old gun and rusty hat. I heard a roar in and I was ordered to start shooting. I poked my gun through the sandbags, and with sweating hands, I pulled the trigger. Over all the rumbling of guns I could barely hear a scream, but I knew I’d shot someone because of the sickening feeling in my stomach, the cold hard stone lodged in my chest where my heart should be. I peeked through the sandbags and what I saw was… indescribable. It was horrific. It came to sunset and I heard our leader shout RETREAT! The shooting subsided. I sat up till morning talking with Jamie. We shared our life secrets, everything.
Around 3:30, I was awakened by an enormous: BANG! “START SHOOTING!” our Captain screamed. Suddenly a bomb landed in our trench. The bloke behind me swore. I turned around to see Jamie, screaming on the ground holding his face. I kneeled down and gently removed his hands. He had blood streaming down his face and tears leaking out of his eyes. He lay still. He looked me in the eye, and told me to tell his wife and kids he loved them, before his eyes rolled back into his head. I burst into tears. I can still see him, screaming on the ground. “Promise me, you’ll never go to war.” “Promise,” agreed Matthew. Grandpa Elias shook with sadness, voice shaky. “That man was going to force me to speak about my sadness in front of hundreds of people.” His voice broke and his head fell into his hands. He sat quivering, crying tears of silence.