Nora scrubbed the plates so hard, I feared the floral print would come off in the dishwater.
"Please try to understand," David coaxed.
Nora ignored him.
"Refusing to speak to me is a rather infantile way to express your disapproval."
She still held her tongue. Nora's rants were so common that her silence was a sign of danger.
"We all must make a contribution to society," David continued. "How better than to thank the brave mice who defend us than to help them return to their families?"
"If you want your internal organs surgically removed by bullets, that's your problem!" Nora retorted. "But you might have spared a thought for Mother!"
David sighed. Although Mother had given her blessing and applauded his valor, David was unable to deny the pain we saw in her eyes. She had promised not to worry, as long as he wrote regularly, but every time she thought of David in Afghanistan, it was as if she lost Daniel again.
After all this time, I still remembered how Daniel had given me rides on his shoulders when I was a young child, and as I had grown older, he had always been the perfect confidante and advisor. Daniel had died on what would have been his wedding day. There had been no time for last words. The criminal's bullet had shattered his heart in an instant.
Although our brother had died before David finished medical school, the memory was still too recent for Mother. She had forbidden David to have anything to do with the war, and for a while, he had complied, but he simply felt compelled to go. Mother had eventually been persuaded, but her face held mournful resignation, as if she were certain David would be killed.
"Are you also so pessimistic, Lenora?" David asked.
Nora shook her head. "I think you're being very inconsiderate of Mother's feelings, but I don't think you'll get yourself killed. You're too portly for the front lines, Hippo." She poked his ribs for emphasis.
David hates being called Hippo, mainly because he's never been sure whether it's short for Hippocrates or Hippopotamus.
Standing at the train station the following day was torture. When David left, we all knew it would be months, years, or even the rest of our lives before we saw him again. Father shook his hand.
"Best of luck, Corporal Dawson."
David nodded solemnly. "Thank you, Your Honor."
Mother pulled David into a close embrace. When she released him, she tried to smile bravely, but his shoulder was dampened from her tears.
Nora gave him a quick hug and whispered, "If you survive this blasted war, I'll kill you myself! If you don't, I'll have a mad scientist revive your remains; then I'll kill you myself!"
David gripped her shoulder. "I'll miss you too, Lenora."
Simon punched him in the arm. "Don't let them scare you, Dr. Hippo! If you can survive years of living with Nora, you can get through war in your sleep!"
"Don't call me Nora!" our sister retorted.
David rolled his eyes. As I have mentioned before, he despised being referred to as Hippo, but ever since he had graduated medical school, Simon had been polite enough to call him Doctor.
I hugged him. "Good luck, Dr. Dawson."
He smiled warmly. "Thank you, Meta."
"Why not say goodbye to Corine?" Nora suggested sarcastically. "Oh wait! I forgot! You didn't have the decency to wait until she was on holiday!"
Like Mother, Corine was destined to be one of the only women in our family to graduate from a university. In her spare time, she enjoyed organizing meetings concerning the right to vote.
Surprisingly, Nora supported the suffrage movement. She visited Corine's university to help organize marches and protests so often that we weren't at all surprised when Nora announced that she too was in the process of taking a degree. It was easier for Corine since she had yet to marry, but Nora's husband was very supportive.
The train pulled away, and David vanished. Mother fell into Father's arms, weeping as if David had already perished.
"Take heart, Eleanor," Father soothed. "He'll return safely to us."
"But Denis, he's only a boy!"
No matter how old we grew, Mother saw us as children. When Nora had announced plans to marry, Mother had been alarmed, despite the fact she had been several years younger when she had married Father. When Corine had informed us of her decision to attend the university, Mother had suggested waiting a few years, being unable to comprehend that much younger rodents were already university graduates.
Corine was determined to be one of the first female lawyers in Mousedom. If she succeeded, she would in fact be the only female lawyer in our empire. I suppose choosing one's career without regard to gender roles was a family tradition, for Mother had been one of Mousedom's first female doctors. One of her aunts had also become a successful physician, but she had only been able to practice medicine by disguising herself as a man. Changes in law and society had allowed Mother to tend patients without having to conceal her identity, but medicine and law were still dominated by males.
There was another force that dominated London, one more powerful than gender roles. The ruffians who had stolen Daniel's life were growing into a powerful ring of criminals that the law could not stop. Every now and then, one would be arrested, but there was almost always retaliation. No one knew what the next heist would be or whose lives would be destroyed by it.