Chapter four:
We are soon ready and we stand on the stage as the orphans and the adults gather in the room for the assembly.
Once everyone is in the room Rodger goes over to one of the two microphones on the stage.
He looks around at the people in the room. "Welcome." He says. "We are here today because of the brave souls that gave their lives to help us bring the life we know, those that fought for us and lived along with those that continue to fight for us." He says. "We are here to remember them all and thank them for their brave efforts." He glances to me and Matt. "Today we have special guests from the war who survived. Please do share what you would like to say." He says then hands me the microphone. He backs off as I step forward.
The orphans and adults are listening to us respectfully.
"My name is Mihael and this is Mail. We both fought in the war as you heard." I begin. "Our war names we were given were Mello for myself and Matt for Mail." I glance to Matt who nods for me to continue as he doesn't want to add anything so I turn back to the others in the room. "It is nice honor to stand up here and talk to you guys on this day. I say be happy for the lives you have because you don't have to worry about being drafted or have to go out to help fight with death a daily possibility like we did. I have seen many deaths of both allies and of enemies." I continue. "The war continue to haunts my mind and it will until the day I die. But that's not all." I take a moment's pause. "I lost someone very precious to me in the war. He returned in a coffin." I say and I close my eyes for a second to keep back my tears before opening them again.
Matt pulls up the picture that he put on the drive of the slide show he helped make for our presentation.
I turn and point to Near. "His name was Nate River with his war name being Near. He was only two years younger than me and was only sixteen with me being eighteen and Matt only seventeen when we had to join the army for the war. Me and Nate are orphans just like you and Mail's family took me in but they were killed when the war began." I say lowering my hand turning back to the orphans. "We were childhood friends separated when our home town was burned to the ground. The memories were painful so I pushed them away and I didn't realize it when I saw him again this time in the army." I pause for another second. "When the army divided us up into groups we were on the same group as you see in the picture." I gesture back to the screen the projector is projecting the image onto. "I saved his life once during the war and he repaid the favor as he sacrificed his life to save mine. He was so young….. he would never be able to find love and ever truly have a life because of the war… He could have been anything….. a doctor or maybe even the president… but he can't now because he gave his life to protect not only me but to protect the life that you all live today. Free and able to become what you want." I explain. "I wear this poppy and this uniform today to not just remember all of the people we lost in the war but I mainly wear them for my childhood friend Nate who saved me and returned in a coffin. He is a hero and always will be." I end my little speech and I hand the microphone to Matt as he gives me an assuring smile before he begins talking about some times from the war making sure to not take it too far since these orphans are still young.
After our presentation they have their own including the anthem, a moment of silence and a video that shows parts of wars that they could find probably from the internet or video that someone collected.
After the assembly is done we get a special gift of thanks then we leave and along the way we get thanks, cheers and such from the orphans.
Once all that is done we head get back into Matt's car and head on our way.
"Matt." I say after a few minutes.
"Just be patient Mello." Matt responds. "There's a little surprise I thought would help." He says.
I blink and wonder what he is talking about.
"Just wait until after the surprise." He says as he keeps driving.
I sit back and let him drive. I'm not fully sure when I passed out but I find myself reliving my memories with Near with Near standing out from the rest.
Then Matt is waking me up.
"Huh?" I look to him.
"We are here." Matt says.
I blink and sit up glancing outside.
"Come on." Matt gets out of the car and I follow. He grabs my hand and brings me over through the place he took us to.
"Matt." I say in an almost mumble.
He stays silent until we get to the spot.