(Clementine's Pov)
-June 9th-
Currently Violet and I had been taken back to the main base where they had many other soldiers being taken home. Many of them were wounded from the war, some people missing arms and others missing legs. Some had prosthetics and some didn't. Some had their faces covered, probably from shrapnel hitting their faces or hiding burns whatever the case may be. Some would look at Violet and I and I guess they might be thinking the same thing as us, what happened to us to be sent back home. Little do they know we will be sent back here unless we decided to just go AWOL. We finished up the paperwork and we walk out the building and Violet looked to the side a bit to the land and she takes a breath and she looked to the other side a bit.
"If it's not to trouble to ask but where will you be heading this time?" I asked her and she looks down to me and then shrugged.
"Probably back to the states… wherever just not home." She says and I think a bit and before she could walk off I get in front of her.
"How about you come stay with me?" I asked and she looked to me.
"May I ask why?" She asked me.
"Well… you have no place to go… we have worked together for a year, so it would be quite a shame to let a friend wonder around a state she doesn't know alone." I tell her and she chuckles.
"I think you should ask your father if it's ok first before you invite a stranger into his home." She says and I smile.
"Who says I still live with him? He has a lot of land and I have my own home built but I still pay for it." I tell her and she looked to the side a bit then to me and nods.
"Ok… thank you." She tells me and I nod. We head to the train and get seated. She stays by the window and I look out as the train starts to move.
"We will get to the planes and then be back home for two months." She says and I look at her.
"Two months feh." She says and looked to her lap and I look down.
"You been over there for so long it's best to have a break from all of that." I tell her and she nods.
"Yeah, the others left last week, we will be back a week after they get back." She says and I nod.
"Least it'll be the summer time… maybe while we are back in the states the war will just end." She says and then lays her head on the window and closes her eyes. I pat her shoulder gently and lean my head back on the seat and close my eyes as well. It wasn't long till the train had stopped and Violet and I woke up from the jolts and she yawns a bit and we get off the train with our baggage and we go over to the building.
"Where you headed too?" A soldier asked.
"Both of us to Georgia, Macon." I tell him and he looked to us and nods and hands us the proper tickets and we head to the plane that would take us to my home. We get on a flight and Violet gripped one of the handle bars a bit and takes a shaky breath.
"Hate flying hu?" A passengers asked and Violet nods.
"Rather go by sea than air, least I can swim." She tries to joke and the passenger laughed.
"I like that, that's good." He says to her and she shakes her head a bit and I place my hand on hers. She looks to me and nods a bit and takes ahold of my hand. She doesn't squeeze it but holds it gently. But I see her other hand turning white with how hard she was gripping the handle bar. It took a while before she finally falls asleep again but I keep my hold on her hand as I looked out the window. I had fallen asleep at one point too since the trip would take about a day but when we finally did reach the states I was woken up by a shake to my shoulder and opened my eyes to see Violet as she looked to me. We grabbed our bags and headed to another train and I could see how tired Violet really was as she fumbled for her wallet and paid for the tickets. It really was early in the morning and the ticket booth woman hands the tickets over to her.
"I could have paid." I tell her as we get on.
"Hmm, think of it as a thank you for letting me stay at your place." She says and takes a seat by the window again. I look at her as she lays her head back on the window and closes her eyes and it gets me thinking. When was the last time she actually had a good nights sleep? It wasn't long till we got to Macon and I had to wake her up again and she moves a bit in her sleep and then she grabbed both our bags and I look to her and grabbed my bags from her hands and she looked to me and then nods. We get off the train and I see my father and AJ and they come up to me.
"It's good to see you Clem." Lee says as he hugged me.
"Good to see you too." I say and pat his back then I turn to look at Violet who was looking around a bit.
"Lee, I'd like you to meet Violet." I say as I take him over to her and she looked to us then up to my father and holds her hand out to him. He shakes it and nods to Violet.
"My daughter spoke highly of you in her letters, it's nice to meet you Violet." He says and she nods.
"Thank you sir, nice to meet you too." She says to him.
"Are you heading back home?" He asked.
"Actually, Lee, I was hoping she could stay at my place for her leave time." I say to him and he looked to her then back to me.
"Sure, it is your home." He says and I nod and we head to Lee's car. AJ was asking Violet many questions as she helped Lee set the bags and make sure they were secured.
"What's it like over there?" AJ asked.
"AJ." Lee says and I look to the boy a bit and then to Violet.
"Uh… it's… um." She tried to answer him.
"You don't have to answer him, AJ you can't be asking questions like that." Lee says and Violet opens the door for me and I nod to her.
"It can't be all that bad." AJ says and I see Violet freeze up a bit.
"Who told you that?" She asked him.
"My teacher at school, he says that no one is really out there fighting." He tells her and I look at him as he gets in.
"AJ." Lee warns.
"It's ok Mr. Everette." Violet says and looks to AJ.
"It's scary over there, but your sister here puts the fear of god in the enemy that they don't bother us." She tried to joke and AJ smiles.
"She can be scary." He says and I hit him lightly.
"See, see, she's scary." He says and Violet laughed a bit and nods. Lee drives us to his home and Violet looks around at all the land. Lee was able to get a farm with plenty of land thanks to his parents medicine business. He grew many plants to help with the business and some crops on the side for home and to sell at the market. Lee parks the car and we all get out and Lee grabs my bags and Violet grabbed hers. I take my bags and I take Violet over to my home on the property and we set the bags to the side of the door and I look to Violet who looked like she was going to pass out.
"Take a seat, please." I say and she waves me off.
"I'm fine, again thank you for letting me stay here." She says and I nod as she looks around a bit. I let her look around and I head into the kitchen to get us something to drink and then AJ runs in.
"I cleaned the house a bit." He says and I smile at him.
"Thank you." I say to him and I look to Violet as she was looking at the photographs by the mantel. I ask AJ to leave us be and he runs out the house and I go over to Violet and hand her some water and she takes the glass and nods to me a bit then looks back to the photograph.
"My real parents." I say and point to my mom.
"Diana, and Ed." I say and she nods.
"They look happy." She says and I smile.
"They do." I say and she takes a drink of her water.
"Thank you for the water." She says.
"Stop saying thanks." I tell her and she looks at me.
"Please." I say and she nods a bit. There was a knock at the door and we turn to see Lee walking in.
"Supper will be ready in a few hours; I do apologize for AJ asking you many questions that you might not have wanted to answer." He tells Violet mostly.
"It's fine sir, I uh… thank you for letting me stay." She tells him and I look to her but she just looked to Lee.
"Any friend of Clem's is welcomes here… again super is in a few hours, rest up you two." He tells us and I nod as he leaves and I look to Violet who looked to me then to the floor.
"Come on, you need sleep, and so do I." I say and take her to a spare room. I then let her be as she took a seat on the bed and I head to my room and set my bags on the bed. I go through the clothes I had and set them in the closet and I set my bag under my bed and sat on the bed a bit before I laid down. When dinner time came, I got up and went to go check on Violet and as I opened the door, I could hear her snoring a bit. I look at her to see her fast asleep, she looked so relaxed that I didn't want to wake her. I closed the door and walked over to Lee's house where I see him, AJ and Carley as they were at the dinner table.
"Clem, welcome home." Carley says as she hugged me and I hugged her back and I looked to her then to Lee.
"Where is Violet at?" Lee asked.
"She's still sleeping, I didn't have the heart to wake her up." I tell him and he nods.
"Well, we can make her a plate for you to take to her." He says and I nod at this. I take a seat next to AJ as we chatted a bit. We ate and talked some more and once we had finished; I grabbed a plate for Violet and headed back to my house. I open the door to the spare room and see that Violet is still sleeping so I go and put the plate in the fridge and we could heat it up later. I decided to make something warm to drink and I made some tea. Once I poured my cup I hear some shuffling in the spare room and I look to see Violet come out as she rubbed her eyes a bit and looked around a bit confused before she looked to me and I make her a cup of tea as well. We then take a seat on the couch and she drinks some of her tea before she sets it on the plate on the table and she clears her throat.
"Sorry I think I missed supper?" She asked.
"It's fine, I told them you were tired, Lee made you a plate, we just have to heat it up." I tell her and she nods a bit at this.
"Sorry I'll make it up-."
"Stop saying sorry, they understand, heck I think they thought we would both still be sleeping." I tell her and she slicks her hair back a bit and takes a breath.
"It's weird actually getting to sleep." She tells me and I look to her a bit as she leans back a bit.
"Yeah, it is." I say and lean back a bit as well. We sit in silents for a bit and I look to the radio and decided to turn it on for us. I tried to find one channel playing music but most of it was just reports on the war and I sigh as I hear something.
"Soldiers coming home one by one, injured during the war, it's outrages we should not be sending them out there to die, let the enemy kill themselves." A man rants and I look to Violet who gets up and comes up to the radio to listen as well.
"Many of the ones coming back don't look that bad, they still need to fight." A man says and I look to Violet as she glares at the radio a bit.
"What the hell are you talking about? You haven't been over there, the things they have seen, it's like the last war, it's all wars, no one is ever fine unless you're sitting here in your home without a care or worry that your husband, wife, or even child are out there being blown up, shot at, stabbed or even gassed and burned alive, for gods' sake my kid came back home in a god damn casket, you-." I shut the radio off and I take a breath and shake my head.
"Some people are too ignorant to know what really goes on, they don't listen and they don't look back in the history books." Violet says and I nod.
"Such a shame." I say and she nods as well. I go and help her heat up the plate of food and we sit at the table as she takes some bites and smiles.
"Oh wow… I must really miss home meals." She jokes and I look to her.
"Carley and Lee are great cooks, though there is one place I have to take you." I say to her and she looks to me.
"Now?" She asked and I shake my head as I look to my watch.
"I can take you tomorrow." I say and she nods and when she finished her plate, I was about to take it but she stopped me.
"I'll clean it." She says and I look at her and take her over to the sink where she cleaned the plate and utensils.
"We can bring the plate back in the morning." I tell her and she nods a bit as we put it on a drying rack and she looks to me a bit.
"Is it ok if I stay up and read? I don't think I can sleep anymore." She says and I nod.
"Sure, I'm going to head to bed though." I tell her and she nods and I watch her as she goes and grabs a book. I grab the tea cups and wash them out then I head off to the room waving a night to Violet who waves back and I head off to bed. When the morning sun hit the side of my face I woke up and looked around to see that I was back home. I get up and exit out the room to see that Violet had fallen asleep on the couch and I go and grabbed the book from her and she wakes up and looked around.
"Damn… fell asleep." She mutters as she rubs her eye and then look to me.
"Seems so… how do you feel about going out for breakfast?" I asked.
"Sounds nice but wou-."
"Talked to Lee about it last night, they don't mind, as long as you and I come over for dinner they don't mind." I tell her and she nods a bit and gets up.
"Now change, I can get the clothes washed later." I tell her and she nods as she heads to the room and I go and get changed as well. I decided to go in a simple pink sundress, the one Carley and I had gotten before I had left. I step out the room and see Violet wearing some nice tan dress pants, a white shirt and a tan sweater vest and she looked to me.
"You dress nice." I say and she nods.
"Never liked dresses." She tells me and I nod.
"I like them, but not the female dress uniforms, too stiff if you ask me." I say and she nods.
"They didn't have any when I got in so I'm glad they never issued one to me." She says and I nod as we head out and she looked around a bit.
"We have to walk to the diner is that ok?" I asked.
"Yeah, I can look around more… it's really beautiful here." She says as she looked to Carley's Garden.
"Carley planted those." I say as we stopped and she looked to the plants more.
"She has a green thumb." She says and I nod and then I saw Carley come by.
"Well, hello you two." She says and Violet looks to her and holds her hand out to Carley who shakes it.
"You must be Violet." She says and Violet nods.
"Yes, and you are Carley." She says and Carley nods.
"That I am, you like the garden?" She asked and Violet nods.
"Yes, it's very beautiful." Violet says.
"Thank you, where are you two headed?" Carley asked.
"I'm taking Violet to the Diner in town." I tell her.
"Oh, I'm actually heading into town, would you two like a ride?" Carley asked and I look to Violet.
"I uh… actually wouldn't mind walking, I've never seen such a beautiful place, I want to take the time to see it all." Violet says and looks to me.
"That is if Clem doesn't mind." She says and I smile.
"A walk is fine, thank you for the offer." I tell Carley who nods.
"Well, be back in time for supper, Lee is making corned beef roast tonight." Carley tells us and I nod.
"Sounds good." I say and Carley leaves and Violet and I start walking. When we finally got into the town Violet just looked around as much as she could and I couldn't help but smile when she almost ran into the paper boy and apologized a lot to him.
"Have you never really been in a town?" I asked as we reached the Diner and she opened the door for me.
"Not as busy as this, my family and I lived in a small area, no big buildings like this and basically everyone knew each other that's how small it was…. Think of it as one of those western talk shows." She tried to explain and I nod at this.
"Pretty small if you ask me, and I thought this place was small." I say and we get seated and I look to the menu as does she. I went with the two eggs and ham with toast and a coffee, and Violet went with the same but instead of ham she got bacon and a coffee. We give the server our menus and she goes to put the order in and I look to Violet who looked around a bit.
"So, anything you want to do today?" I asked as we are given our coffee and I look to Violet.
"What else is there to do?" She asked.
"We could go to the park; Carley told me that they have a small event going on see what that's all about." I say and take a sip of my coffee as does she.
"Sounds nice." She says and we keep quiet until we are given our food. We ate in silence and as we finished our breakfast and had a refill of our coffee. I was about to grab my money but Violet had already placed a five on the table the server takes they money and Violet drinks her coffee as I look to her.
"I could pay." I tell her and she waves me off.
"I got it." She tells me and when the server came back Violet told her to keep the change and the lady looked happy and Violet gets up as do I and we walk out.
"You made her day." I say as we walked.
"She works hard, my mother had a job as a server, would always come home tired for cheap pay, barely able to pay for the house and bills, it's a kind gesture." She says and I nod at this.
"Well, I will pay for the next meal." I tell her.
"You could pay for treats." She jokes and we both laughed at this. We went to the park and walked around a bit. there were some canopy's up with people selling goods and nicknacks they had made and there were even some animals for a small petting zoo for the children. Violet goes up to the animals and pets the goat and it even tried to take a bite of her pants and she laughed at this.
"Hungry hu?" She asked the goat and I laugh a little at this as I go and pet the goat.
"Friendly little guy aren't you." Violet says and finishes petting the goat and then gets up.
"Clem?" I hear and turn to where the voice came from and I see Gabe.
"Oh, hello Gabe." I say as he comes up to us and I look to see Violet was sitting on the ground as a little duck went up to her and she laughed a bit at this and I look back to Gabe.
"When did you get back?" He asked.
"This morning." I say to him, he didn't need to know when I came back if I had to be honest.
"That's great, we can hang out again." He says with a smile and I look over to Violet.
"Actually, I'm busy till I have to go back." I tell him.
"Busy with what?" He asked and I hear someone come up to us.
"Clem look, the guy said if I want, I can have the duckling." Violet says and she is holding the duckling in both her arms as it basically made a nest and I couldn't help but smile.
"Do you want the duckling?" I asked and she nods a bit then frowns.
"Don't worry Lee won't mind a duck at home, AJ was begging for a dog so this might be a better option for the boy." I say and she smiled.
"We have to get them some food and stuff." She says and I hear Gabe laugh.
"Oh, taking care of the special people? So, kind of you Clementine." He says and I look to him and I think Violet did too.
"Special?" Violet asked.
"Oh yes, you're very special." Gabe mocked and I look to Violet as she frowned at him then looked to me.
"Uh, actually Violet-."
"I'm a really good friend of Clementine's and who are you?' Violet asked.
"I'm her boyfriend, Gabe." He says.
"Boyfriend hu? She never mentioned you." Violet says to him and he looked to her.
"Well, that's because we've been busy with the war." He says and I look to him almost snapping my neck.
"You're in the military?" I asked and he nods. I don't believe him but he might have changed for all I know.
"Oh, you are? Mind telling me something about what you did?" Violet asked and I look to her as she looked to him. She seems unfazed by this and I look back to Gabe.
"Had to deal with a bunch of people in the camps they have over there. Makes me sick that they had children in those camps." He says and I look to the side a bit to see Violet's reaction and she didn't look like she was interested.
"Then there was this guy, his guts were out his body, told us that they were used for target practice." He says and I look to him.
"Hmm interesting, by any chance did he speak in… German?" She asked him.
"No, it was Spanish." He says and she nods.
"What else did you do?" She asked.
"Well if you must know I helped a woman who was shot in her side, she was with my group, pain in the ass if you ask me." He says and I glare at him.
"Was she a sniper?" She asked him.
"Yeah… how'd you know?" He asked and Violet hands me the ducklet gently to not disturb it and then she grabbed him by his shirt and he grabbed her arms but she wasn't letting go.
"You know, I really fucking hate liars, especially those who say they know my damn story." She tells him and I grabbed her by her shoulder but she didn't look to me and I could see the anger in her eyes.
"Who told you these stories." She demanded.
"Violet stop." I try to get her hands off him but it was hard with the duckling in my other hand.
"No, he's saying he was basically with our group, fucking prick." She says as I see her grip tighten.
"Violet let go." I say getting worried and so I set the duck down and tried to pry her hands off him.
"You weren't there you bitch." Gabe says.
"I WAS YOU FUCKING PRICK!" She yelled and I was able to get her hands off him as he backs away holding the collar of his shirt.
"Come on let's go." I say and she looked to me and I see the anger in her eyes and she looked back to Gabe who looked back to her also angry.
"I was in a different group your prick." He says to her and before I could stop her, she had tackled him to the ground. I end up having to grab her before she could punch him and I pinned her to the ground as she tried to get me off.
"GET NOW!" I tell Gabe and he runs off like a scared dog and I keep Violets hands pinned down as she tried to get me off.
"GET OFF!" She yelled.
"Calm down, you're making a scene." I tell her and she looked around and then up to me. It took a bit but she was able to calm down and I quickly get off of her and help her up. I go and grabbed the duckling and I take her away from the crowd of people quickly and once we were in a good spot I stopped and looked to her. She still looked angry and she turned to look at the direction that Gabe had run.
"Why the hell did you stop me?" She asked, anger in her voice.
"Because there is no point in trying to beat the boy senseless." I tell her.
"He's lying about being over there, he's telling our stories as if they are his, they aren't no one would talk so lightly about what they have seen." She tells me and I look at her.
"I know, I know, but right now you need to calm down." I tell her and she paced a bit and then hits the tree.
"His dad needs to beat him, boy is not going to go around and act as if he's seen what we had seen." She mutters and the little duckling starts chirping a bit and she looked to me then to the duck and I smile as I hand it to her and she sighs but takes the duckling and then takes a seat.
"Duckling likes you already." I say and she just nods as the duckling fluffs up a bit before relaxing in her arms.
"I'm sorry for making a scene." She says quietly and I place my hand on her shoulder.
"It's fine, I get it." I tell her and she just takes a few breaths and looks around.
"No, it's not." She says.
"Hey I wanted to punch him too." I tell her and she just nods and then pets the duckling gently.
"Can I really keep it?" She asked and I nod.
"Can't separate you two now, it got attached." I tell her and she nods.
"Come on, let's get them some food." I say and she gets up with me and we walk to a small farmers shop and she looked for some food for the duckling.
"Ah what a cute little duck." An elderly woman says and Violet nods to her. She helped us pick out the right food and Violet even bought a little bed for the duckling which I thought was cute. She let me hold the duckling as she carried the heavy stuff even though I said I could carry some things but she refused. We get back to my home and I help her set up a place for the duckling in her room. Once done I set the duckling on the bed and it instantly woke up and went over to follow Violet who laughed and so did I. We ended up letting the duckling walk around the home and it only seemed to follow Violet and sometimes me before it would run back to Violet. It was too adorable that I couldn't help but giggle as she tried to watch her footing as to not accidently step on the little creature.
"I hear some laughing." I hear and look to see Lee as he walked in.
"Hey, Sorry Violet has a new friend." I say and point to the duckling as it trailed behind Violet as she came over to us.
"Oh well such a sweet thing." Carley says as she steps inside.
"I said it was ok for her to have it, poor thing didn't want to leave Violet." I explained.
"Well, it's better than a dog right now, maybe AJ would help take care of it." Lee says and Violet nods.
"I can send the money for food when Clem and I have to go back." She explained and Lee waves her off.
"Oh, it's fine, cute little thing can stay here for as long as they want." He says to her and she nods.
"Are you two wanting a small snack? We have come baby carrots and other vegetables." Carley asked and I nod at this.
"Yeah, sounds good." I say and then Violet and I along with my adopted parents head on out, of course with Violet's new friend following her.
"Oh, that's adorable, like it's following it's mother." Carley says and I look to see Violet turning a bit red and I couldn't help but laugh at this as we get in the house.
"Where is AJ by the way?" I asked.
"He is over at the new neighbors house; he and this one boy have been getting along quiet well." Lee says and Carley offered us some of the vegetables.
"Poor boy learned he lost his sister not that long ago." Carley tells us and Violet looked to her.
"Poor kid." She says and the duck chirps at her and she chuckled then picked it up as it once again tried to sleep in her arms.
"You're going to spoil the little thing." I say to her as she takes a bite of the carrot.
"Oh let her spoil the little one." Lee says and I shake my head a bit but smile as I pet the little creature and it bobs its head a bit as it tried to go back to sleep.
"Ok, fine, to cute to say no to anyway." I say and Violet chuckled.
"Where did you get the duck?" Lee asked.
"They had a small market going on at the park, man said she could have it." I tell him and he nods at this. We talked for a bit and Lee asked Violet some questions as well.
"So, Clem says you are also a sniper?" He asked and Violet nods.
"Yes sir, been one for close to four years now." She tells him.
"Four years you say?" He asked and she nods.
"Been over there since the beginning if I'm going to be fair." She tells him and I drink the coffee that Carley made for us and we all just take a seat at the dinner table.
"Must have been hell, at least now you can go see family." Carley says and Violet just nods.
"Yeah… so what do you two do for work?" Violet asked and I look at her.
"I work for the paper; I hope to work for the radio soon." Carley says and I nod.
"I'm a history teacher at the high school." Lee says and Violet nods.
"Good jobs." Violet says.
"What about your parents?" Lee asked.
"My mother works as a server, a receptionist and last I recalled a… nurse." She tells them.
"Three jobs? Poor woman, is your dad unemployed?" Carley asked.
"Man doesn't want to find a job, just drink away my mother's money." Violet says and takes another drink of her coffee.
"Why did you join the army?" Lee asked.
"Didn't really join of my own will but let's just say it was easier for me." She tells them as she set her cup down and the little duck makes small peeps and Violet used her free hand to pet the duckling gently.
"Oh, I'm sorry." Lee says and Violet waves him off.
"Nothing to be sorry about, you asked and I answered." She tells him and we chatted a bit before AJ came running in the house.
"Woah slow down where is the fire?" Lee asked as the boy runs up to the table.
"Nothing wrong, just came to get a drink." He tells Lee and Carly gets him a glass of water and the boy chugs it.
"Have fun at the new neighbors?" Lee asked and as AJ set the cup down, he nods.
"Yeah, Tenn is fun, he taught me how to draw." AJ says.
"Tennessee?" We hear and we looked to Violet.
"Yeah, he's really fun." AJ says and she nods a bit. AJ then runs out the house again and we can hear many kids laughing and it faded as they ran off and I look to the duckling a bit and pet it. After a while Violet and I went back to my home and she set the duckling down and it followed her again and she laughed.
"You know a boy named Tenn?" I asked.
"Yeah… Minerva's younger brother but him and his family live in Virginia." She tells me and I look to her and she looked to the duckling as it ran around her feet.
"Told you that you spoiled it." I tell her and she laughed a bit at this.
"It's fine." She says and the duckling runs around and into the spare room and we both laughed at this and Violet takes a seat next to me and I look to her.
"After dinner, I'd like to take you to the pictures in town, Lee might even let us borrow the car." I tell her and she looked to me.
"Sure, that actually sounds nice." She says and smiles a bit.
"I will pay for the tickets and the popcorn though." I tell her and she laughed.
"How about this, you can pay the tickets and I pay for the popcorn… and a drink." She says and I think a bit.
"I don't know." I say.
"Please… I'll pay for the gas too if you say no." She tells me and I sigh.
"Alright, alright, you win." I say and she smiles. When supper time came around, we only ate a little but said we would save some of it for the morning to eat for breakfast. AJ was talking about his new friend and would ask Violet a lot of questions too. Some she didn't want to answer and some she did answer. AJ asked if he could watch the duckling tonight and Violet said it was ok as did Lee but once we get back Violet would bring the duck back to my house. Lee hands me the key to his car after we ate and I got in as did she. I drove us to the pictures; they had one of those outdoor theaters set up since it was summer time and I parked the car and got out. I paid for the tickets and Violet went to get the food. Once we both paid for what we needed we got back in the car and watched as some pictures came on the screen. Sadly, it was propaganda.
"Want to be a part of the help? Sign up and join the armed forces, many men and women are needed and if you have the skills we want you, you'll get many benefits if you join-." I drowned out the rest and I look to Violet who ate a piece of popcorn as she watched the propaganda, though she didn't seem to be interested in it.
"So, join now." The small film ended and I shake my head a bit as the pictures started and I grab some popcorn myself. We sat in silence as the show played and at the half way point I would look to see Violet's reaction. She looked like she was enjoying it and then she turned to look at me and I turn my head away.
"You good there?" She asked.
"Oh yeah, just wanted to see if you like the show." I tell her as I look back to her. She nods and looks back to the screen.
"It's new." She says.
"Never been to the pictures?" I asked and she shook her head.
"Couldn't afford it." she says as she keeps watching.
"They have another show after this… would you like to watch it as well?" I asked and she nods a bit.
"Yes, please." She says and I nod. We finished this show and before the next one started, she went to go and get more popcorn and a refill on the drink I watched as they showed more propaganda and shake my head again and hear Violet get back in the car and the film started. As we watched the film at one point, we both ended up reaching for the popcorn and she laughed a bit and let me take some before she grabbed some herself. The film ends and I start up the car after she threw the trash away and I drove us back to the house. Violet goes and grabs the duckling and we walk up to my house and she goes and puts the duckling in its bed and it didn't leave to follow her this time, must be really tired. Violet comes over to me and we take a seat on the couch and I look to her.
"Had fun?" I asked and she nods.
"It was fun, thank you Clem, it's the most fun I've had in years." She tells me and I smile and pat her leg a bit as I get up.
"Well, let's get some sleep, long day tomorrow." I tell her and she nods and heads to her room and as she opened the door the duckling was waiting for her and I laughed.
"Poor thing missed you already." I say and she picked the little duck up and smiled at me. we both went into our rooms and I lay in the bed and decided to read for a bit. I had ended up falling asleep before I was woken up by some sounds and I get up and hear nothing. I was about to lay back down before I heard the sound again and I get up and head to where the sound is coming from and it's coming from Violet's room. I knock on the door gently but she didn't come to the door and so I opened the door a bit to see Violet on the floor holding her head.
"Violet?" I asked as I go up to her and placed my hand on her shoulder which freaked her out because I was pinned to the ground as she looked to me.
"Hey, woah." I say and her grip on my wrists hurt and I try to get her off me.
"Sorry, sorry fuck I'm sorry." She says as she let me go and got off me.
"What happened?" I asked.
"Bad… bad dream." She says quietly as she goes back to her spot on the floor and I look at her.
"Do you want to talk about it?" I ask her and she shakes her head at this and I nod as I sit next to her. We sit in silence for a bit and I watch her as she scratched the side of her head a bit then would look to the door then back to the floor. She did this a few times and then gripped her hands together as she takes a shaky breath.
"Was about… back home." She says and I listen to her.
"Your dad?" I asked and she nods.
"Yeah… when it gets to quiet or I'm too relaxed, it just… scares me I guess." She tells me and I nod at this. I sit with her as she tries to calm down and I think a bit and grabbed her head gently and place it to my chest so she can hear my breathing and try to copy me. It worked just a little and I feel her grip my shirt a bit. She keeps a hold on my shirt and I rubbed her back gently as she tries to calm herself down and I look to her head as she copied my breathing.
"Fuck I'm sorry for waking you up." She says as she moved away from me a bit and I look to her.
"You're fine, I'm glad I could help you though." I say and she nods a bit at this and looks to the other side of the room and I see the duckling just sleeping and she laughed a little.
"Poor thing." She says and I look at her then back to the duckling. We both ended up falling asleep on the floor, I don't know how it happened I guess we were really tired but when morning came, I opened my eyes and groaned a bit as I got off the wooden floor. I hear Violet groan as I look to see the duckling pecking at her face a bit and I couldn't help but smile as Violet woke up and the duckling went after her hair and she sighed a bit.
"That's not tasty." She mutters and sits up and the duck chirps at her a bit.
"Ok, ok, food for the duck." She says and yawns and I get up with her as she gets the duckling something to eat. I then go to the kitchen and warm up some of the food Lee had brought to the house and Violet and I decided to go outside to eat so the duckling could run around the yard a bit.
"It's nice out today." I say as I took a drink of some tea and I look to Violet who nods as the duckling runs off to the small pond Lee had on the property. It didn't go into the water but would jump a bit to the side and dunk its head in and we both laughed.
"What do you want to do today?" I asked.
"Hmm, could we go back into the town?" She asked and I nod as we finished breakfast and we go to clean the dishes and the duckling runs in and tries going after my feet which makes us both laugh so I pick it up and look at it.
"Hey, no going after people's feet… unless it's AJ." I joke and the duck tries to get my nose and I laughed a bit at this. Violet takes the duckling and we both go to drop it off at the house where AJ gladly took the little creature and it made Lee smile.
"Looks like he likes the duckling." Lee says as he drinks his morning coffee.
"Indeed… Violet and I will be going into town today." I tell him.
"Mind getting me some things? It's not much." He asked and I nod as he hands me a list and some money. Violet and I go back to my home and I take a shower and change out of my clothes I decided on a yellow sundress this time and I let Violet have the shower next. When she came out, she was dressed in a nice pair of black dress pants with a blue polo shirt and she looked to me a bit as she dried her hair some more. When she took the towel off her head it was spiked up and I laughed a bit as she smiled at me then she went to grab her comb and straighten her hair a bit. When done we walked out the house and started to walk into the town. It was a nice walk and I don't know why but I take my arm and link it with Violets. She didn't make any movement to show she wasn't ok with it as we kept walking through the town. We would stop and look at what was in the windows and a few kids ran past us to go into the candy shop to spend whatever money they had on any sweets they liked.
"Would you like something sweet?" She asked and I look to her and we walk into the store and have a look around. Violet ends up paying a fifty cents worth of candy since she said AJ and his friends might like a treat and I smile at her and shake my head at her kindness. We kept walking though the town my arm locked with hers as her hands were in her pockets as we strolled through the town, we end up in front of a music shop and I feel Violet stop in her tracks and look at something. I look to see a guitar in the window as she looked to it a bit.
"You play?" I asked and she shrugged a bit.
"Only a little, my dad broke my guitar before I could get better at it." She says and then starts walking again and I look to the shop then back to Violet who kept looking forward. I made a mental note of it as we kept walking and I see the shop that Lee needed us to get some things for him. We stop in and I see Lee's mom and dad looking around the shop.
"Well hello Clem, when did you get back?" My grandmother asked as she gave me a hug. I had to let go of Violet's arm to give her a proper hug that is and I see Violet shake hands with my grandfather.
"Got back a few days ago Grandma, oh this is Violet." I introduce them and Grandma gives her a hug and Violet looked to me as she kept her hands up a bit.
"Oh, give me a proper hug young man." She says and I laugh a bit as Violet turns red and pats her back a bit.
"Grandma, Violet is a woman." I say and she adjusts her glasses a bit.
"Oh, I'm sorry, my eyes aren't what they use to be." She tells Violet.
"It's ok ma'am, plus I am wearing men's clothing so I do apologize." Violet says and she waves him off.
"Trust me, pants are better than dresses in the winter time." She tells Violet.
"Grandma it's summer." I tell her.
"It is?" Grandpa asked and I see Violet smiling a little.
"It is." Grandma says to him and I laugh a bit.
"What are you two doing here?" Grandpa asked.
"Getting some supplies for dad, we were just walking around town too." I tell them.
"Oh, did you check out the new candy store, they have some good stuff, chocolate might have gone up in price but this is the good stuff." Grandma says and I nod.
"We did go there, very nice." I tell her and I chatted with her a bit.
"How do you know our granddaughter?" Grandpa asked.
"She and I work together." Violet tells them.
"Oh, a soldier as well?" Grandma asked and Violet nods.
"Yes Ma'am." She says.
"So respectful, well I'm glad Clem has a friend like you, we should be going Bud is at home with the flu." Grandpa says.
"Oh yes, nice to meet you Violet, Clem hope you come and visit us and your uncle at some point during your stay." Grandma says and they both leave.
"Such lively people." Violet says and I nod.
"Yes, they are." I say and link my arm with Violets as we walked through the store and grabbed what was on the list.
"The heck is Sauerkraut?" I asked.
"It's fermented cabbage I think, it's really good, had some in Germany once." I hear Violet say as she helped me look for it.
"Is it German?" I asked.
"No not from what I was told but it is their national food I think." She says to me and then grabbed a jar and showed it to me.
"Looks bad." I say and she laughed.
"Well, it's good, especially on hot dogs." She tells me and we put it in the basket and keep looking around.
"You want to know good food? Try Grandma Everett's chicken legs, it's to die for." I tell her.
"I just might have to try it." She says and we finally got everything and went up to the register and I was able to pay for it before Violet could.
"Beat you this time." I say and she laughed as she grabbed the bag and we began walking around town again. We began walking back to my home before something is thrown at us and Violet turns around as she moved her arm to her head and I turn around as well and we see some girls and a boy as they come up to us.
"What's a white boy doing with Clem?" The girl asked and Violet looked to me confused and then to the girl and Violet lowers her arm.
"Don't see much people hanging around a black girl unless they want something." Another girl says.
"Racist much?" Violet asked and they look to her.
"Oh shit it's a girl." The boy laughed and Violet raised a brow at them as did I.
"What do you want?" I asked them.
"If you must know, we want to know why this fine person is hanging around the likes of you?" One of the girl says and I look to Violet.
"Because she's better than you it seems." Violet says and the girls glare at her.
"Of course, you one of those homo's?" The girl asked.
"A flaming rainbow sweetheart, what got a crush on me?" Violet asked and the girl backed up a bit and Violet laughed at this.
"Fucking sick, you know they have places for people like you." One of the girls say to her.
"Honey, I've been to hell, and I've seen the places over seas that would make your head spin, come back when you have a better comeback." Violet says as she glared at the girls.
"Fucking bitch." She says.
"Ooooh I'm so scared of a whiney little brat." Violet says and I was about to stop her.
"Fucking carpet muncher, I can call the cops, my dad is the sheriff here you know." The girl says and Violet laughed.
"Why don't you go suck on your daddy's dick, I didn't do shit to you." Violet says and then a rock is thrown at us and Violet dropped the bag as we ducked down to avoid getting hit and she glares at the boy who threw the rock at us.
"We ain't hillbillies fuckwad." He says.
"Oh, I'm so sorry couldn't tell with your fucked up faces." Violet tells them.
"VI!" I yelled and she looked to me before another rock was thrown at us and the boy came up to her.
"I ain't afraid to teach a bitch her place." He says as he gets in Violet's face and she smiled at him then punches him in the gut. As he was bent down from the punch, she grabbed him by the neck a bit as she made him face the girls.
"And neither am I, trust me." I hear her say and I went to pry her arm off his neck before she chocked him.
"Now, you going to leave Clementine alone?" She asked.
"Vi stop." I tell her as I try to loosen her grip but she put more pressure to his neck.
"STOP HIS FACE IS RED!" One of the girls yelled.
"Not till I get an answer from the little bitch and you three." She says.
"You're going to kill him." I say quickly as I try to get her arm off him as he tried to breath. Jesus was Violet strong as hell.
"Am I getting an answer?" She asked the boy who nods as best as he could and she put less pressure on his neck making him cough a lot and take deep breaths but she didn't let go of him.
"Now are you racist pieces of shit, going to leave Clementine alone? Or am I going to have to teach you how I can snap a pricks neck?" She says with anger in her voice.
"Fucking Mon-." I feel Violet put more pressure on his neck as the boy tried to gasp for breath and I tried to get her arm off him.
"Jesus let him go Violet." I begged and she moves so my hands are off her arm and I went back to grabbing them.
"No, I'm going to show them how disrespectful pricks are treated when they mess with the wrong person." She says as she kept pressure on his neck.
"HE'S GOING TO PASS OUT LET HIM GO!" I yelled and look to see nothing but anger in her eyes and she looked to the girls as they looked frighten.
"Come on, beg for his life, you wanted to throw rocks at us and be racist and homophobic pricks, THEN BEG!" Violet yelled and I was able to get her grip off the boy as he dropped to the ground and coughed up so much that he ended up throwing up and Violet backed away a bit.
"Fucking pieces of shit." She says as she glared at all of them and they ran off. I quickly grabbed the bag from the ground and then grabbed Violet's hand as I ran with her. We ran and ran till we reached the edge of Lee's property. I slow down and take some breaths as does Violet and I set the bag on the ground and I turn to punch her in the shoulder.
"Ow, what the fuck Clem?" She asked.
"You know how much trouble we're going to get into?" I asked and hit her shoulder again and she grabbed my hand.
"Fuck Clem stop." She says.
"No, you should have listened to me." I tell her and she looked to me.
"And let them say all that about you? No, it's wrong." She tells me.
"People are stupid Violet but that doesn't mean you try and choke a boy to death." I tell her and she looks at me more.
"I don't care, they deserved it, should teach them not to mess with the wrong type of people." She tells me and I shake my head as she let's my hands go and I glare at her.
"I have delt with racist people all my life, I can deal with them for the rest of it." I tell her.
"But you shouldn't have to." She tells me.
"And they're going to teach their kids the same thing, so just stop… fucking hell Violet the god damn police will come here and arrest me even though I tried to get you off the boy." I tell her.
"I… I'm sorry I didn't mean… I just…" She didn't say anything I shake my head and grabbed the bag and dropped it off at Lee's and I headed into my home slamming the door. I paced the room a bit and sighed as I took a seat on the couch and groaned a bit. I don't know how long I had just sat in the living room for but I hear a knock on the front door and I sigh as I get up and look to see Violet with some flowers in her hand and I look to them then to her.
"An apology… if you'll accept them." She says and I look to them and sighed as I grabbed them gently the paper crinkling as I held them and let her in. I go and get a small vase for them and fill it up with water and place the flowers in the vase and then I look to Violet who kept her head down, hands in her pockets and I sighed.
"Sorry." She says to me and looks up a bit and I look to the side a bit.
"… I get it that you don't like those type of people but you should have listened to me when I told you to stop." I tell her and she nods.
"You're right, I should have." She says and I nod.
"So we are in agreement, the next time I tell you to stop you will?" I asked and she nods.
"Yes, again I'm sorry Clementine I… I didn't think and I should have listened to you… I'm a guest here." She says and I nod a bit. We stand in silence and I looked to the floor a bit then back up to Violet who was looking at the door a bit.
"How's your head?" I asked and she rubbed the back of it.
"Just a little bump nothing bad." She says as I go up to her and feel the back of her head a bit to feel the bump and I sigh.
"Come, let me put some ice on it." I tell her and she follows me to the kitchen where I get a bag of ice and hand it to her. She places it on the back of her head and she looked to the table a bit and I look to her.
"Thank you for trying to defend me though… if I must say it was… nice that someone stood up for me for once." I tell her and she looks at me.
"Not even Gabe did that for me." I tell her and I take a seat and I look to her. She stayed quiet for a while and then looked to me.
"He's a prick too than." She says.
"He had to deal with people being racist to him as well." I say to her and she looked down.
"Sorry I just… nothing." She says and moved the ice bag a bit then felt the back of her head.
"Did you tell Lee?" I asked and she shook her head.
"I… didn't want him getting mad at me too." She says and I look at her as she placed the bag back to the back of her head.
"It's fine." I say to her and she nods a bit and I go and make us something to drink. When I place the cup in front of her, she didn't drink from it but she did look at it.
"My Grandpa always taught me to help those who need it… I couldn't do it for myself when I was a kid and I wished someone would have done it for me." She tells me and I look to my own drink a bit.
"I know I take things too far sometimes… but my grandparents didn't tolerate those type of people, especially in their own family." She tells me and I look to her.
"Seems like they raised you right." I say and she scoffed a bit.
"Seems not if I'm too quick to anger." She says and then grabbed her cup and took a drink. There was a knock at the door so I get up and answer the door to see AJ and Lee.
"Hey how was the walk into town?" Lee asked as they came in and AJ ran over to Violet as he had the duckling and she pet the little duck gently.
"It was fine, Violet got a headache from the heat." I lied and he nods.
"Hope you feel better soon, it can get pretty hot here." He tells her and she nods.
"Thank you, sir." She says and AJ hands her the duckling back and he goes over to me and gives me a hug.
"Are you two eating with us tonight?" Lee asked.
"No, I think I'm going to make Violet something light to eat, but we will have supper tomorrow." I tell him and he nods then him and AJ leave and I go over to Violet as she set the duckling on the ground and she got up.
"Hey sit, I said I was making you dinner." I tell her and she looked to me.
"I can help at least." She says and the duckling chirps and we look down to see it flapping it's wings a bit and I laughed.
"Think your duck is saying to rest." I say to her and she looks at me.
"I don't need to rest, if anything I should make you some dinner." She says as she sets the ice bag down and I sighed.
"Alright you can help." I say to her and she nods as I go and get the food ready and we work on making dinner together. If I have to be honest it was quite nice as we worked together on making dinner.