Chapter 7

And this is the last prewritten one. I don't know if all of these are going to be ten pages long from here on out, let me know what you think.

Also quick reminder – Not all of the characters in here will represent how they are in real life. I have the greatest amount of respect for the families of all the guys and this is purely fictional.

13th February 1917 – Margo Murillo's point of view –

It has now been a month since my youngest child went off to join his older brothers in the army. I miss him terribly, but at the same time I feel as if this is for the best. His father would probably have killed him by now with whatever reason comes into his head. I would hate to have to write that letter to his brothers to let them know that their brother had died. My husband thinks that he has killed Danny already. He has not seen his son since the attack a month ago. Today, I hope that Danny is happy and doing well in the army camp. Rigo does his best to keep me updated, but they are very busy. Training can get quite hectic at the best of times so I can understand why he cannot always find the time to call home.

I should be receiving letters from two of the boys soon. Since Kyle is on the frontlines I am not expecting a letter from him for a while. They are stricter on who can send letters there in case the enemy gets hold of it. "Mother, what do you think Rigo is getting up to on camp?" Lisa asks me. She would have asked me about Danny too, but my husband and their father is currently home. "He's probably shouting at all the new recruits who misbehave," I tell her. He is one of the top fieldcraft and weapon instructors. He is very good at what he does, and I am very proud of him. My husband should be going to work soon. Then I can mention my youngest son to my heart's content. I hate it being this way. I hate everything about the situation.

I hate having to keep my own son a secret. "How is Danny doing?" Lisa asks me, when my husband leaves. I do not have to say about Danny. Rigo has not said much about him when it comes to our brief conversations. "I think he is doing okay. I have not heard anything from him since we reluctantly let him leave," I tell her honestly. We will know more if we get a letter from him when Rigo sends his. "I miss Danny, but it is for the best that he is away from home," she tells me, and I whole heartedly agree with her. I get up to go and get the mail out of the box. The mail man should have come and gone by now. There were letters and parcels. Plenty of each to get through. I quickly sort through whose mail pile is whose when I saw the envelope I was hoping for. The boys in camp have written home and they are fine.

I am hoping Danny's letter is hidden in there somewhere. Rigo has such amazing handwriting and I am so proud of him for it. I was the one who taught him how to write. I open the parcels and envelops, saving the letter from Rigo till last. Lisa sits next to me but does not read over my shoulder as I open the envelope. Straight away I am greeted by two drawings. One of Danny and one of Rigo. I knew Danny had drawn them both because I can see his little signature on the bottom of each one. They look so good in their uniforms and I could tell that the happiness that was drawn was genuine. I knew Danny would be happy in the army. "Danny looks so cute in his army uniform. Rigo looks good too," Lisa tells me, and I smile at her. She is right, my boys look so good right now.

I want to know how bad Danny's injuries have been since he left. He tends to not talk to anyone about his injuries when he is hurt. It was one of the scariest days of my life when his boss Jake brought him back to the house and he passed out in the living room. I thought he was going to die, and I swore a lot when I was patching him up to the best of my abilities. He stayed unconscious until late the next evening and the train was the next morning. He didn't respond to anything around him, so we believed that was it and he was going to be comatose until he passed away. I sat there all day with the cloth in an attempt to bring down his fever. It worked and he recovered to the point where I wanted to let him go to the army.

30th January 1917

Dear Mother and Sister,

I hope you are doing well. It has been an interesting month to say the least. So many new recruits are coming in by the trainload almost every week. I only knew Daniel was coming to the camp when he was already on the train and we had been given the list of new recruits. He has been doing so well, I was told today that he is going to be promoted to private first class. He is going to be the first in his group of new recruits to be promoted this high passing basics. The rest of the groups are being private 2. He hopes that he is doing you proud. He is the happiest that I have ever seen him. I wish that you could see him, I really do. I wish that he did not have to sign up to the army to get that happiness though. At least I can keep an eye on him daily.

I make my promise to you now that I will look after Danny while he is here. I will make sure that no one bullies him and that he makes it home at the end of the war. As I write this to you, he is sleeping next to me. he looks so peaceful while he sleeps. He looks like nothing is bothering him which is good. I love it when he is calm and peaceful. He has been badly effected by what happened at the café I can tell. He does have nightmares from time to time. I am always there to comfort him. When I was about to start writing this he had a nightmare and I calmed him down. I hate it when whatever HE does to my brother especially when I am not there to take the hits for him like I should have done as a good big brother.

It has been hard training some of the new recruits. A lot of them have lied about any medical conditions they have, so we have had to send a lot of them home. There are also a lot of people who act quite arrogantly and like they are very entitled who need knocking down a peg or two, but we always get at least one of these types of people every time we get new recruits. Danny is good at helping some of the new recruits and give them the confidence boost they need to get over the initial nerves. I have enclosed his letter in this for you to read. He hopes you will keep these both safe away from father. He is more worried about what would happen to you than him if our father was to find out. He doesn't want you to be hurt.

I hope that we will be able to bring our father to justice for what he has done. I want my baby brothers to have a safe home to get back to when the war is over. I do not care that much about myself. Danny and kyle are younger than me and they deserve the best life possible. Even you deserve happiness and time away from father. I hope that you haven't been hurt since Danny has been gone. It has been weird to see him without any injuries now, but I am liking seeing his skin clear and free from cuts and bruises. He is such a cuddly gut now and it is incredible. He stays by Jorel's side all day and most of the night. They are definitely joined at the hip while they are here, I think they will go far in life for sure. They will be a great team.

It might be a weird thing to admit but I think that if Danny and Jorel weren't raised together then I am sure they would be boyfriends by now. That would not be a bad thing in my eyes. I am sure people already consider them to be secret lovers because of how close they are to each other. I know I have been asked by some officers already. I just told them that they are adoptive brothers so Jorel is technically my adoptive brother too and it has worked well thus far. Nobody really challenges what I say anyways. I have been getting a lot more respect here than I have been expecting. I know father is a jerk, I have been told that many times. They were so surprised by how different the three of us are to our father.

I have some good news to share with you. I might get promoted to Command Sergeant Major in a few weeks. They are impressed by how I have turned some recruits from the worst to the best. George is the same and he is getting promoted to warrant officer and probably the same time I get promoted. It is good to have all of us back together again. We have the best friendship, especially Danny and Jorel. they are going to be old men together. Just like George and I see each other being in an old man home with each other talking about this war to future generations to come long after the war is over. It strangely sounds fun to sit on a wooden rocking chair with a blanket over my shoulders talking about the war.

I keep thinking of more things to write, more things to tell you about. Then I look at Danny and get distracted by how adorable he is. One of the majors told me that he has never seen brothers in the army get along as well as we do in his entire career. Then again most brothers join at the same time and they do not have the same age gap that Danny and I have. There are so many overly competitive people here which makes our relationship a breath of fresh air for a lot of instructors. They even say that Jorel and Danny could be brothers before I say that they are "adoptive" brothers. We have said that they could have been brothers when they were little children. It is funny how things come back in unexpected ways.

I am so glad that I have not been sent to the frontlines just yet. I am glad that I am able to support Danny through his training at the least first couple of levels he has to go through. I think that having that familiar face teaching you has really helped him get settled in easier. I will leave the rest of the stories that he has for his first month to his own letter. They are not really my stories to tell. His letter might be longer than mine since he will have more to tell you and to update you on than I have. When you are so new to army life you have so much more to write about than someone who has already been here for a year like I have been. I love seeing the expressions on the newbies faces as they write home.

I hope that you two stay safe while we are away. Who knows how much longer this war will drag on for? I know how unpredictable father can be and I do not think that Danny, Kyle or I would be happy if he hurts you two. I am also hoping that the drawings stay in in envelope, so they get to you. We are starting to get as censored as those who are out on the frontline. The ones at the top worry if we give details to you that will be intercepted by the enemy. Danny worked really hard on his drawings. The one of him was based on my description of him and I think it turned out really well and looks very realistic. Maybe I should encourage him to be a highly paid artist when the war is over. Paintings make a lot of money and he would be very happy doing it.

I hope I can come back home as soon as this war is over. I cannot wait to hug you two again. It has been very lonely here. Sure I have George and I have done since one month in, but it is not the same as being at home with family. Even with Danny here I still feel a little lonely. He is going off making his own friends and having fun like he should. It should be fun for me too, but I am just not feeling it at the moment. I shouldn't be ending my letter home on such a sad note though. It should be happy because things are looking up for us and Danny is safe with me. I will write to you again next month and be in a happier mood by then.

With all the love in my heart

Sergeant Major Rigo Murillo

I look at Lisa when I finish reading Rigo's letter. It is nice to get an update from my eldest son no matter how long or shot the letters might be. I found the letter from Danny and I will read that out loud later. I feel happy knowing that my eldest is going to take amazing care of my youngest. I am a little sad that he started feeling sad towards the end, but he will feel happier when everything settles down. "Rigo is catching up to father now," Lisa says, I gave her the letter to read. She is right, I think that Rigo will be either the same rank if not a higher rank than his father by the end of the war. "Indeed he is. I see him being a higher rank than his father one day," I tell her. I am happy to hear that Danny is settling in well. All I want is for my children to be as happy and a healthy as they can possibly be. That would make me so happy.

"I think Danny will go far too. He is so smart, and he can do anything he sets his mind to," Lisa says. My youngest is incredibly intelligent, something which his father strongly denies. I have told his father repeatedly much to his annoyance that it will come back to haunt him. Danny will out smart him one day. I am now finally in the process of getting a divorce from their father. A lot of years too late, but it has been hard. I really don't want to be with the man who has hurt my sons. He does not feel any remorse for anything he has done to them. He does believe that the grave in the back yard is Danny's, yet he has not shed a single tear over our youngest. I was not expecting him to mourn over our son, but it still hurts to know that he does not care about his children in that way.

"He will go far. He has already proven to the army that he is smart. He will get promoted quite quickly," I tell her. I look at Danny's drawing again. I never got to see him in person in his army uniform before he and Jorel dashed off to get the train. He looks so grown up in his army uniform. I remember when he wore his father's uniform back when he was only five years old. It was so massive on him obviously, but he looked at me with the pure innocence and said that one day he was going to go into the army, so that his father would be proud of him. My heart broke then because I knew that the man they looked up to would never be proud of them. Danny knows that now, but it is never easy to know that your father will never love you no matter what you do.

"He looks so happy in his drawing. I hope that he will be that happy when he comes home," Lisa tells me. I hope that the boys do come home at the end of the war. I know that there is a high chance of all three of them dying on the battlefield and not come home. "I think he will be. I am going to be leaving your father before the war is over," I tell her. I know I can trust her to keep it a secret from her father until the divorce papers are officially served. That will make everyone so much happier knowing that they will never see their father ever again. I don't even want to see that "man" ever again. He doesn't mean anything to me now and will never mean anything to me. He will end up in jail before the end of the war anyway.

He is not a very intelligent man; he just has a big ego. He thinks that he is going to get away with everything that he has done over the last 30+ years. He thinks that his army status will somehow grant him immunity from the justice that should be carried out on him. If you told anyone what has gone on in our household since the day that Rigo had turned one then you would be disgusted and would hate him, and demand justice be carried out. There would be public outcry if they knew what went on behind closed doors. However, we can't speak out because our lives are at risk. I have been saving money from whatever jobs I can and through any means I can so I can flee as soon as the divorce happens.

He doesn't know about the jobs that Lisa and I have secured. I know he would let her be a nurse in the army, but he would take all of her pay like he has done to the boys. I wouldn't want Danny to send his army money to me either so we have been working with a very good manager who lets us have shifts whenever we can make it there and we are always back before my husband gets home so he is none the wiser to our little pool of money we have hidden in a locked box underneath Lisa's floorboard in her bedroom. It's hidden under a rug too which is a little bit of added protection. I want to financially support myself and my children.

He took what means most to me, he drove three of my children to leave home and potentially never come back. All of my children mean the world to me and now I am facing losing three of them to a war in which the whole word is fighting. My middle son Kyle is already out there on the frontlines, fighting hard for his country. Soon Rigo and probably Danny will be joining him, and they too will be fighting for their country. "It is a shame that he spoke about Jorel, but there is no picture of him in the envelope," Lisa says. If there was a way that I could afford to legally adopt Jorel into the family I would have done so by now. Danny and Jorel do act like twins most of the time. I have also practically raised Jorel since he was a toddler. I love the boys.

"Yeah. Maybe next time Danny and Rigo will send a drawing which includes Jorel. We could always request a drawing of the trouble twins," I tell her. Lisa chuckles because I called them the trouble twins again. It has been a long time since they were called that. They have not been in trouble for a while. I think the last time was when Jorel got fired from his job. "Yeah and Rigo will keep an eye on the trouble twins while they are in camp," Lisa tells me. It will be interesting to be kept updated about what Jorel and Danny get up to. They could get up to all sorts. I like the idea of them being joined at the hip throughout this horrible war. Friendships like theirs is very hard to find these days so they should treasure it.

Rigo said that Danny was asleep when he wrote his letter. I am glad that Danny has his big brother Rigo there to comfort him through his nightmares. Danny had the worst nightmares when he was at home. Ever since he was three I would comfort him as he woke up screaming in terror. I wonder how much worse they could be now he is not at home. There is the threat of his father coming for him when he finds out that Danny is still alive. It will be impossible to keep Danny hidden forever. His father will find out either before the war ends or shortly after. I do not know if I can hide Danny's letters well enough. He has his way of finding anything I have tried to hide from him in the past including Rigo said that Danny was asleep when he wrote his letter. I am glad that Danny has his big brother Rigo there to comfort him through his nightmares. Danny had the worst nightmares when he was at home. Ever since he was three I would comfort him as he woke up screaming in terror. I wonder how much worse they could be now he is not at home. There is the threat of his father coming for him when he finds out that Danny is still alive. It will be impossible to keep Danny hidden forever. His father will find out either before the war ends or shortly after. I do not know if I can hide Danny's letters well enough. He has his way of finding anything I have tried to hide from him in the past including any jewellery I have tried to hide to sell.

"Wow Danny has a lot he wants to tell us about," Lisa says. Heh as four pages in his little envelope inside the main one. I am interested to see what he has to say about how he is finding army life so far. He was pretty excited to leave to go to the training camp with Jorel and to see Rigo again. "He does, I wonder what he has to say," I tell her. I hope he is okay. I know he was quite badly hurt before he left for training. I wonder how he is doing now that his father can't hurt him, at least not for a while anyways. "Let's find out. He looks quite happy with the change of scene based on his drawing," Lisa tells me. I smile at my daughter. I love how happy he looks. I wish I could be there with him. I wish I could hug him and tell him everything was going to be fine like I know it is going to be once the war is over.

I want to see my son happy and not covered in bruises like I am so used to seeing. That is why I treasure the boys baby years so much. By the time Kyle was born I learned to take as many baby pictures of him in his first year of life as possible. I think I had 365 photos of Kyle, Lisa and Danny when they were babies. I felt bad taking pictures of Lisa growing up because I couldn't do the same with the boys and they would see it as Lisa being the favourite when I do not have any favourites. Whenever they were bruise free I would be taking pictures of them. Which wasn't very often, and it made me sad when they went off to join the army that I didn't have any of them just before they left because the beatings were more frequent then.

30th of January 1917

Dearest mother and sister,

By the time you get this, I will have been in training for a month now. It has been an interesting month to say the least. The injuries that father gave me before I left for camp came back to stop me pretty quickly. The three gashes in my back got infected, so they kept me from doing any physical training until today. It has been rough, but I think that it has started to turn around for the better now. I am completely healed from the parting beating that I was given. I am so glad that I cannot be hurt by HIM anymore. I am going to enjoy this time where I can feel safe and have some peace. I hope he does not hurt either of you while I am gone. That would make me feel so incredibly guilty. I would hate anything bad happening to you because of me.

Jorel and I are enjoying ourselves surprisingly. We have not gotten into any trouble yet. I do not think Rigo would let us. George would not let us get into any trouble either I bet. Is it weird that I can see those two dating in the future? They could be lovers; they act like it a bit already from what I have seen. Then again, they probably would say the same thing about Jorel and I. I know George thinks that we should date. I do not see Jorel being my boyfriend though, he is more like a brother to me. the new friends we have do not see us being boyfriends either. They see us like we are brothers. I find it a little strange to get used to having five close friends after so many years of only having one close friend. It is good, don't get me wrong it is just weird to adjust to.

I hope you are proud of me. I have managed to pass all of the tests I have been allowed to do so far. Today Rigo is going to be doing our fieldcraft test. He said that I was not going to have an easy time just because I am his brother. He is not going to give me the pass straight away, I have to work for it like everyone else. I am really going to work hard to earn my pass. I am sure I can pass the test just fine. There are a lot of tips I have learned which will help me out. I am confident that I can pass all off the tests in basics. I have helped Jorel out with all of his testes and he has passed them all too thanks to me. He has really appreciated it. I don't think I am confident enough to help the new friends just yet.

Jordon, Matt and Dylan are my new friends. Jorel worked with Dylan back when we were in Los Angeles. He saw father beating me up outside of the café. He said that should we ever take father to court for what he has done that we would be a witness. That is if we could ever get father arrested for what he has done. Dylan was horrified to learn just how bad and often father hurt me. Since he saw it happen I really could not deny it. That and Jake told Dylan that it was my father that had beaten me up. After that I could not hide or deny that something like that was going on in my life. You can't go up to someone who saw you being beaten up and say, "oh don't worry that never happened." They would call you out on your lies straight away.

The rest of our new little friend group will know about this probably by the time this letter reaches you. I don't think I would feel comfortable with them not knowing just in case something bad happens to me or Rigo while we are all together. It was already worrying enough for them because of the state I have been in especially during the first few days. They deserve an explanation of why I have the injuries other than oh I got in some fight. I don't want father to turn on them though if he ever meets the rest of our friends. I often think of what happened to Jason when he met father and decided against Kyle's wishes to confront father for hurting us. I wonder how he is doing now, if he ever recovered from those injuries or not.

I have had a few nightmares, which I guessed would happen since I know I get nightmares anyway at home. Jorel and Rigo have been taking it in turns looking after and comforting me after the nightmares. Rigo comforted me last night after I had a nightmare. I am glad I get to be with him again. I hope that at the end of the war we can all be home together gain and happy. The nightmares are the same as usual really, just a bad version of the beatings that have happened to me. Sometimes I die sometimes I don't. I do not know why they keep happening, but I know they keep happening no matter what I do. If we win the war I might go and get some professional help. I can't go living my life with these nightmares.

These nightmares are definitely getting a little out of hand. I am going to try and not let it affect my training. There was a moment where I had a fainting episode on the train, but I recovered quite quickly, and I have not fainted since which is good. I was not in a good shape when I left on the train and I realise that now. I probably should have waited until I felt better before leaving, but I thought that father might have killed me before the next train to camp. I hate living in the constant fear that I will be killed. This is not how I expected my life to go. I am going to show father how much he will regret ever hurting me or my brothers. If it boiled down to a fight to the death then I would certainly kill him.

We will keep ourselves safe while we are away, so we can come home to you. I miss you a lot. This is the first time I have been away from home like this and I admit that I feel home sick. I don't feel it all of the time, but it is there every now and then. I guess it's expected when you leave home like this for the first time. I will get used to it eventually, it is just a new feeling I have never experienced before. Even Jorel said that he has felt home sick occasionally. At least I get to write to you, and you can write back. I do not have the permission to use the phone just yet though. One day I will probably get the permissions. I know you have to be very trust worthy in order for the permission to be granted to you.

When we get through all of the tests we will get our first promotion. I think that we will be Private 2. The next promotion after that is private first class. Someone said they might be rushing through promotions because of the war. We will just have to wait and see. I will still work hard to gain my promotions like Kyle, Rigo and George did and still do. I am going to prove that I am worthy of getting those promotions. I feel like I should be working hard if not harder than everyone else. Father has left me with a lot of low self-confidence and a lot to prove to even attempt to make him proud. I know it is fruitless to try and get him to be proud of me, but it is what every child wants right? They want their mother and father to go oh I am so proud of you.

I think making the choice to join the army was the right choice. It has been difficult I know, but in my mind I am thinking that I would rather be here than dead in a ditch or in the backyard somewhere without you knowing. At least now you know where I am and what I am getting up to. I am safer here than I am back at home which is not fair on you I know. I should be at home and relaxing, not worrying about the war that is going on around us. I wish you and sister could join me here mother. I know they are not letting women join the army unless it's in a nurse position, but I don't feel like it is fair on you. It is your country as well; you should be able to fight for your country too. Maybe one day they will let you.

I bet father would hate it if women could join the army. It just seems like the type of thing he would hate. It seems like he hates anyone who could potentially be more powerful than him. He sees us as a threat I know that much for sure. He would hate that we would ever be either a higher rank than him or powerful enough to overpower him. I would love to fight him one day and win even though I am not really that into violence. I am also kinda worried about turning into him when I am older and have children of my own. I want to give my future children the bonding time and relationship with their father that I never got. They deserve the best and I will give it to them. I will make enough money to move away one day to the mountains somewhere maybe.

I know deep down that trying to get any positive emotions out of him is impossible. Although, having that that I got a little bit of happy father on the last day of the café. That was before he found out that the café was going to be closed until the end of the war. I will never get the image of his face dropping when the announcement was said out of my head. As soon as I saw his face I knew I was dead. It surprises me that I am still alive to tell my story one day. Maybe I should write a book about my life before the war happened. That could earn me some money one day. "The Son of a Captain: Behind Closed Doors" by Daniel Rose Murillo.I should probably start writing it soon though. It would be safe here until I am ready to publish it.

I might not be able to finish the book before he kills me. I know that he will find out about these letters before the war is over. It's not that I don't trust you, because I do with all my heart. We just know that it would be too good to be true if we could go the entire war, however long it may be without him finding out about it. I just hope that we can enjoy this while it lasts. I want to enjoy this freedom I have been getting, however long this may last. I fear it may not be for much longer somehow. I know you do not wish for me to speak ill of my fate, but I know this is going to happen. It is just a question of when. Father will never stop until he gets what he desires most, and I fear that might lead to my death and it might not stop there either.

I really hope that he does not hurt you while I am gone. I know that I have already stated this on this letter, but father is so unpredictable. You never know what might happen next. One minute he is happy and calm and the next he is in a rage. He gets very strange when he gets drunk and we are not there to take the blows for you. I would love it if I earned enough money to get you a lovely new house away from him where he will never find you. It would be the heaven that you deserve after all these years. I would even buy you a house wherever you wish to retire to when that time comes. I know how fondly you spoke of going to Hawaii once. Maybe I can buy you a house there right next to the beach so you can enjoy the beaches every single day.

Sister, I hope that you take good care of mother. She needs you now more than ever. She will be terribly worried while we are gone that we might not come back home. I do not want her to be worried because I feel like Rigo and I might not even get chosen to fight on the frontlines. It will all depend on how they see fit when it comes to being assigned when that time comes. Rigo has been lucky this far and stayed behind. He is a great teacher so they might keep him behind. I am so glad that he is here and able to train me. I find that it has made adjusting to the army life smoother than I expected to. I find myself able to switch of easier in the evening and think less about the stress. I can spend more time with Rigo because we are in the same billet.

I know that mother will complain about that last paragraph, but she should not feel ashamed to be selfish every now and again. It is good to spend some you time and take care of yourself. Maybe see if Aunt Crystal will give her a free spa day or something. That would do the world of good I think. It will be good to get away from the stress even if it is just for a few hours. You deserve better than that man you married. I know he was nice before we were born, but it should not matter that we are in your lives. We want you to have a nice husband who you can grow old with on the beach in Hawaii. Maybe I will draw it some time.

I have been placed on extra rations. I have been since the second day I was on the train. They are a little concerned about my weight. I am not underweight enough to be sent home though, but enough for them to put me on a higher calorie diet so that I can put weight on. It is working, I have gained a little weight while I have been on bed rest. Jorel says it was because of all of the milk biscuit pudding I have been eating. I am one of the few who like it in our group, so I have been given extras most days. Jorel likes it just as much as I do, so if I get full I give him my leftovers. He says he wants to join me in working in the café when the war is over. I think that would be a good idea for him to find somewhere new to work.

It would be nice to have Jorel working with me as well. There is not a high chance of Jake firing Jorel for any reason. Jake has had worse employees in his time. I hope that the café will be able to open again once the war has ended. I enjoyed working there even if it would not be my first choice of employment. I know we were struggling a lot before I had left due to all the rationing that was going on and will probably continue once the war over. I know that they would probably continue rationing us after the war because it will take a while to get the economy back to where it should be. We all don't expect things to stay the same as they were pre-war straight after the war ends. There will be a lot of work needed to be done before things go back to normal here. I am not sure how long that will take, but I will be willing to help out whenever possible.

I cannot wait to come back and feel proud of what I have been able to achieve with my time here. I hope that Rigo, Jorel, Jordon, Matt, George and I can achieve great things together while we are here too. We get along so well with each other so we could end up being a squad together. Well, if I could be with at least one of the guys I will be happy. I don't want to be alone with the rest of the new recruits. Not everyone is a fan of or likes the fact that I am the younger brother of one of the high ranking officer. They don't even know that we both have a high ranking officer for a father. Our father is a captain after all. At least Rigo and I don't fight like some siblings I have seen on camp which has helped us.

I think we have broken up more sibling fights than participated in them. I love Rigo too much to fight with him. Well, I do at the moment anyways. He might become really annoying. Just kidding, I will still love him regardless. He is one of the best big brothers I have, and I don't want to lose him. I say the same things about Kyle. I wish that Kyle was not deployed on the frontlines already. It would have been nice to have a brotherly reunion of all three of us. Then we would drive the instructors crazy when they call Murillo out and all three of us respond. It already drives them mad with the two of us. They will ask for a Murillo and when the wrong one responds they are like no not you your older/younger brother.

It feels amazing to be able to write home. I miss you so much , so I am glad that I have the chance to be able to write home even if it is risky. They might stop us from writing if the war gets any worse. You never know what the enemy would do if they found the information about the war from our side. I hope my drawings get to you in one piece. I worked hard on them and I have never sent them in the mail before. I will send more drawings next time I write to you. I promise to include my new friends as well as Jay and George next time. I know you were probably wondering why Jay was not included this time, but I wanted to draw us all individually first. I love you both so much and I cannot wait until the day we meet again.

Sending all my love

Private Daniel Rose Murillo xx

I look to Lisa with tears in my eyes. My poor baby boy, he has gone through so much. I had no idea he got infection on the cuts on his back so quickly. I thought I had cleaned them well enough. Just goes to show how much of a bastard my husband is to his kids. Lisa had tears in her eyes too, she worries about her baby brother a lot. It is good to know that Danny is feeling a lot better now. I just want to rush over there and cuddle him tightly. I should have looked closer for signs of infection. I should have treated my own son better. "It is not your fault momma, Danny is okay now," Lisa tells me. she is right though. My little baby boy is okay. Their father cannot really get to Danny while he is away training, Rigo will keep an eye on it.

It is also good to hear that my "adopted" son Jorel and Danny have managed to settle in and for once in Danny's life he is surrounded by genuine friends. I didn't know what happened on the train, but at least Jorel and George took good care of Danny. I know Rigo would not have told me because I would have worried until I got an update from Danny himself. He has been really well looked after at camp. I better start learning how to cook milk biscuit pudding by the sounds of it. Definitely before the boys come home so they can have something they'll enjoy. I am happy that Danny is happy. "I know Lisa, it's just mother guilt," I tell her. I always go through mother guilt with my four children when they get hurt for any reason. "You will be okay momma, Danny still loves yous," Lisa tells me, trying to cheer me up.

Danny still loves me, and I know that. I am counting down the days until I can hold him in my arms again. I know that the boys will not be the same when they come home. War changes everyone involved from the men fighting bravely on the frontlines to the people waiting at home for that dreaded letter that they are ether MIA (missing in action) or KIA (Killed in action). There is also a high risk that we could be bombed by enemy forces. I don't even know if all three of my sons are coming home. Especially Kyle who is already fighting on the frontlines. "What is mother guilt?" Lisa asks, I forget sometimes that she doesn't know. "It is when a mother feels guilty about something that happened to their child even though it is not the mother's fault," I explain. I often think about it when I am cleaning their injuries.

I am sure that she will understand when she has children of her own. I could have kept their father home that night so Danny would never have been hurt that time. He could have gotten on the train injury free before their father even found out about the café closing. Then again, I do not control my husband's movements. He probably would have gone to the café regardless. He likes keeping his tabs on Danny to make sure that nothing is said that could get him into trouble. He wants to have the ultimate control over everything. He has convinced himself that Danny will be the one who tells on him in the end. He has no idea it is going to be someone else, probably not in this family who spills the beans on his crimes.

That is one flaw my husband has; he does not think that he can be touched by the police. He also doesn't think that people around us have noticed what has been going on. A split lip is hard to ignore, so is a face bruise. Also beating your own child up in the alleyway behind the place he works in is very incredibly stupid. If Danny's new friend Dylan saw what happened and is willing to back him up on it then who else in this city knows about it? The possibilities are endless, and I don't want to overthink all of the possibilities. I am sure they wonder about Lisa's safety as well as the boys. She has barely been out of the house since she became an adult. My husband refuses to let her go out doing things a young woman should be doing.

She should be finding a lovely young man to marry and have children with. A man who would be a better role model than her own father has been. He does not want any one to find out what he has been doing to his children, yet he has not been the stealthiest of people about it. I want her to find love and to escape. My dream for all my children is to become very well mannered, independent people who have happy healthy beautiful families. I want them to forget about the horrors of their childhood and early adulthood. I wouldn't even mind for them to move states or even countries. I am also not against them dating the same sex if that makes them happy. All I want is for them to be happy.

"You know Danny will never blame you right? Father would probably have discovered the café is closed before Danny left for camp. News spreads fast around here. He is friends with a lot of people there," Lisa says. She is right though; he probably would have found out about it regardless of anything we would try to do to stop him. He would have either been told by someone or seen the signs they put on the window once they closed up for the night. I know Danny would never blame me for what his father has done. "I know darling," I tell her. I get up to get some paper so Lisa and I can write back to the boys. They will be mailed out tonight, so my husband won't find the replies to Danny. He won't even know about Danny's letter.

Rigo is very smart, he had put in another letter in there which was basically an exact copy of the one he wrote to us. The only difference was is that he has removed all mentions of Danny and Jorel being with him and instead asked about how Danny was doing. This would be the letter that we give to their father should he ask. "I will go and get milk when we are done so these can go out. They are at the same camp Rigo has been at for the last year aren't they?" Lisa asks me. I think they are; I know Rigo hasn't told us about any relocations. "Yeah I think so, check the envelope in case," I tell her. I am not sure when they will not be allowed to include any more. It could lead to the enemy knowing their location. "Oh Rigo left two envelopes with the address on," Lisa says.

I looked inside one to see a little note inside. It is from Danny. I smile and show Lisa. "I knew Danny would be behind it," I tell her. He knows how forgetful I can be sometimes. We don't have a lot of time left to write our letters before my husband comes home and we have to play pretend once again. The grieving mother and sister we have pretended to be for the last month. It does annoy him though, so I want to continue doing it now that I have found something that annoys him. it does mean I am more at risk of being hit once he finds out it was all a lie, but I will happily take that risk. Danny was right in his letter about it. It is going to be hard to keep it all from my husband. He doesn't know about the hiding places that we have, but that does not mean that we will be able to keep it hidden forever.

Hey momma, I hope these get to you. I knew you would forget where we are, so I wrote the address out for you.

Love Danny 3 3

My son is so sweet, the love hearts were very cute. I love how much Danny loves me. He is so considerate for other people's welfare. It is all that I have taught him throughout his early childhood onwards. He has turned out to be the adult that I want him to be. I am so proud of him right now. My handsome young man. I cannot believe how well my children have done so far in their adult lives. Lisa is going to be working in the hospital like we mentioned before. Injured soldiers will be taken to the hospital where Lisa will be working on saving their lives. Also like previously mentioned my three boys will be fighting on the frontlines, seeing the enemy face to face. They have never been lazy children, never.

"Is Rigo alright?" My husband asks later on. The letters have been sent off and Danny's letter has been safely hidden away where my husband will never find it. "He is fine. He doesn't know about Daniel's death yet," I say, lying to my husband since obviously my youngest child has not died. Rigo has not called since he said Danny had arrived safely. "He will know when our reply letter arrives," Lisa says, she has never seen her father go so pale. Serves him right, I hope he rots in hell when he dies.

And that is the end of another chapter! I hope you enjoyed. Let me know what you think and see ya next time.

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