Another chapter for a story that wasn't meant to have them but some very nice people encouraged me to write them, this is a series of drabbles on the thoughts of Colby's family; the next chapter will return to the thoughts of characters you know, but bare with me.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the recognisable characters, which is 2 in this chapter
At age 10, Lucy Granger had never met her Great Uncle Colby, she didn't know the man she was burying, only the stories her parents had told her about him. Apparently he was very brave and did lots of good things, but then in a family like hers most people had at some point served there country. She liked the stories about when he was little the best, about how he looked after one sheep that was poorly when he was meant to let it die. He had named that sheep woolly, and kept it in the back of the Hay barn for several months, until as her Dad had put it, it was one very spoiled sheep. Like all sheep it had died eventually, but she liked to think that it still had ancestors living on the Granger farm. When she grows old, this is the story that she tells her children about the man in the uniform, tucked behind photos of other better known family members, she tells them this story to remind herself that he was human, something which to a 10 year old girl was very difficult to understand.
There is a tradition of large families where Colby comes from, his is no exception to the rule, he is the middle child of seven. He gets the hand me downs that are just wearable, they are declared unusable after he has finished them, he is never the first to do anything, not school, not wrestling, not college, not the army; and in his parents eyes he never does it the best. He may have finished school the earliest, may have done the best for himself, but he is never the apple of his parents eyes. He won't inherit the farm, nor does his mother have the need to pass on household wisdoms to him, he is not the youngest the most spoilt, nor is he one of the twins the first in the Granger family for several generations. Sometimes when she finds the will power, she wonders if her son would have done what he did had they given him more attention, had they allowed him to be the first or the best just once. But it is too late to change the mistakes of the past, and so Mrs Emily-Anne Granger picks up the phone, and slowly punches her son's number into the key pad.
Closest in age and in friendship too Colby was his younger by 11 months and 20 days little sister, Charlotte. She had shared his experience as a forgotten child in the Granger household; though for the vast majority of their lives the two siblings had proved to the world that they were capable of arguing about everything and anything. To him she was a little sister who came up to him at school, embarrassed him in front of his friends and who needed protecting from the majority of males on the planet. To her he was an over protective big brother who failed to understand that as they were of the same age for approximately 11 days of the year she was not too young to hang out with him; and that yes she could go out with boys. When they were apart however she missed him with all her heart, and ensured that they met up at least three times a year to catch up; it was him she asked to give her away on her wedding day, partly because he was the only relative who hadn't asked, but mostly because he knew her better than anyone else, even her husband to be.
CJ Carter had always liked his godfather, who after his father had died had been there for him and taught him things like how to make mud pies and rope swings, things that his mum would heartily disapprove of. When he was old enough to learn about what his father had done, he felt no bitterness to the man who had worked to turn him in, instead he respected him. He had after all been taught from a young age that the only thing more important than loyalty to your country and your family, is respecting others. Sure it take him a while to pluck up the courage to speak to the guy again, but the problem is quickly overcome when Colby offers to help him with his wrestling; after that their relationship is back to its old self. Sometimes he wonders whether Colby gets lonely, whether he wants a wife and child of his own; many years later Colby confides in him that once upon a time there had been someone, but they had died long ago and far away from him and their loved ones.
Hope you like it, I think the next chapter will be Megans POV, as you've probably noticed I won't be a paticularly regular updater, paticularly as I'm in the middle of doing my modules and it looks like there will be no more snow/ice days for the forseeable future