Each one of the wooden soldiers has a different face and you can see the small dissimilarities when they were lined up side by side. I still remember how happy they made me when he first gave them to me. I was a small boy then, with simple pleasures, but even now the careful craftsmanship and care he put into them was no small thing. He told me he made them special, each soldier was well carved and unique from all the others. I still remember his smile when he saw me sit on the floor and name each of them one by one. I named them after his own towns and landmarks: General Thames, Commander Devonshire, Captain Buckingham and a lot of others I can't even recall. Sometimes, when he came back from Europe, he would sit with me and we would play with the soldiers together.
As we played he taught me strategies he felt I would need to defend myself. Those same strategies were the ones I used to gain my independence, to give him more pain than he could ever imagine. When I got what I wanted, I knew I should have been happy, but still. He was my brother, how the heck could I forget everything he had done for me. I try, God knows I've tried. I hid everything that meant something to the two of us. I kept all the little mementos away from my sight, but I fail to forget and I remember, as if it all happened just yesterday.
Now, when I once again face the shadows of my past, I encounter the little wooden men. They still lay where I had hidden them when I no longer wanted to see them. They had served their purpose; they helped me envision the last battle that would ever take place between him and me, only that last time wasn't a game. When England gave me these wooden soldiers it probably never occurred to him that they would help me break his heart. I knew at least, that they would make me more miserable than I would ever wish to admit.