Camouflaging the Chimaera
Disclaimer: I own nada.
Chapter One: So Much For Prayers
"Soda, there's a letter here with your name on it!" Ponyboy called from the front door. Darry had asked him to get the mail.
"Who's it from?" Soda hollered back, stirring his chocolate milk while Darry sipped his coffee.
Ponyboy entered the kitchen and said in a more normal voice, "Looks like it's from the government."
Darry's coffee cup paused halfway to his mouth. A tense, heavy silence fell. Soda had stopped stirring his milk, paralyzed. He took the letter numbly from Ponyboy and stared at it blankly.
The war was in full throttle. Soldiers were dropping like flies every day over there, and as soon as one died another was drafted.
Soda had been eighteen for a week now. Eighteen, and of official age to get drafted. Darry had never told his brothers, but ever since the war had started he had started praying, like he had done as a child; praying that he wouldn't get drafted so he could take care of his brothers. For a full week now, he had been praying for Soda, too.
So much for prayers, he thought now. He put on a brave front. Soda looked terrified; Ponyboy appeared about to cry.
"Open it, Soda," Darry coaxed gently. "Maybe it's not what we think it is, maybe it's Social Services or something—"
He was interrupted by a loud ripping sound. At first he thought that Soda had torn the letter in half; then he realized that he had savagely ripped away the envelope in his haste to get to the letter.
Soda's eyes darted across the words. In a moment his expression changed, and it only took Darry that long to realize what the letter must say.
Ponyboy had realized what it must mean, too. "No!" he screamed, flinging himself at his brother and overturning the glass of chocolate milk. "Soda, I won't let you go! You can't go to Vietnam, people die in Vietnam, you can't go! You can't go!"
His cries grew so loud Darry feared someone would hear and think they were torturing the poor kid or something, and tried to calm him down.
"Shhh, honey, it's okay," he tried, but to no avail. Ponyboy continued to scream fitfully as though he were in a nightmare, only this time they couldn't wake him up.
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