Many thanks to those who reviewed the previous chapters!
Note: This iswritten around the poem by Eugene Field
This chapter takes place somewhere in the middle of the last chapter:
Chris thinks about Adam.
Little Boy Blue
--
The little toy dog is covered with dust,
But sturdy and stauch he stands,
The little toy soldier is red with rust,
And his musket moulds in his hands...
--
Slowly he opened the door to the room. The door creaked as it had been a year since it had last been opened. Dust had settled in the room as he hadn't touch a thing in it--not even to clean since the boy that the room had belonged to had gone. He closed the door behind him and slowly looked around the room. The memories came flooding in then as if a gate had been released...
--
Time was when the little toy dog was new,
And the soldier was passing fair,
And that was the time when our Little Boy Blue,
Kissed them and put them there...
--
He remembered a time when the door to the room had remained open and the curtains had been pulled back to allow the sun to come shining through. The room had been brightly lit then and full of life. He remembered the sound of a small voice chattering as he played with his toys...
--
"Now don't you go till I come," he said,
"And don't you make any noise,"
So, toddling off to his trundle bed,
He dreamt of the pretty toys...
--
He recalled how and when Adam had aquired each of the items proudly displayed in the room. The well-worn teddybear that he had gotten as a baby, the train set he had gotten for his 5th birthday, the lunch box he had picked out for the first day of school, the cowboy hat he had gotten the Christmas before...
--
And, as he was dreaming, an angel song,
Awakened our Little Boy Blue...
--
His eyes became shuttered as he recalled that that had been Adam's last Christmas--his last holiday of any kind. The hat had only been part of the present. They were to have gone to pick out his first horse that spring--only they had never gotten the chance to...
--
Oh! the years are many, the years are long,
But the little toy friends are true...
--
The room was silent and empty now and the once bright room was dingy. The room was exactly as Adam had left it that morning--unmade bed and all. The toys which had once been so well loved stood covered in dust...looking somewhat like ghosts themselves...
--
Aye, faithful to Little Boy Blue they stand,
Each in the same old place,
Awaiting the touch of a little hand,
The smile of a little face...
--
He glanced around the room one last time. The room had stood exactly the same for so many years. It still seemed like yesterday to him though--like Adam had just left for school. And yet, it had been years--so many years...Slowly he walked out of the room and closed the door. Closing up the room for another year. Closing up the memories of a small boy with shining blue eyes....
--
And they wonder, as waiting the long years through,
What has become of our Little Boy Blue,
Since he kissed them and put them there.
--
Please review, any and all feedback is appreciated.
(also, does anyone know how I can respond to the reviews--I know that some people respond to reviews in the chapters that the reviews refer to, but I don't know how to do that....)