IN THE STARS

NORA PENNINGTON

Age: 9

When I turned nine, I began hearing a lot about the 'War Effort'. I used to go to school each day, and there would be a little girl crying. I thought maybe her dad was helping the war effort, doing something for the country. How grand, I thought, to have a father who would serve the country. That was the day I learnt how to knit.

My mamma used to tell me that if I had a daddy, I’d be the centre of his world. And he'd do everything for me, even go to war. I started to think, that maybe my daddy was at war, along with everybody else’s. That was the day I finished my first sock.

One day, the little girl never turned up. I waited by the picket fence, but she never came. I thought that maybe her dad had come home. Perhaps now on, she’d stop crying. I was going to ask her to help me choose the colour of my next sock. Pity.

When I came home today, mom was knitting in the sitting room. She’s been home a lot lately, but she keeps telling me she’ll be out longer because of the war. She knits a lot now, and I’ve seen a lot of her friends down near the sickbay. She tells me they’re not sick though, that they’re helping the war effort. It’s all so confusing, but she bought me more yarn today. I’ve made three pairs of socks now. I plan to surprise her, and tell her to send them off to daddy at war.

The next day, the girl was back. This time, she’d brought a ragged teddy-bear with her.  I asked her where she went. She told me she was home looking after mommy.  I asked her where her daddy was.  She said that mommy told her that daddy was never coming back. Her fist tightened on the teddy-bear’s arm. I wondered if maybe my dad had ended up like hers.

I wrote a card today, for daddy. About how much I missed him, and how we’d celebrate when he came back. I showed mommy my socks today, and she said they were very pretty. I told her to send them off to daddy at war, and I even showed her my card. She said she would send them off today.

My mommy was in bed until noon, and I started to get worried. I crawled into her bed, wondering what was wrong. On her bedside table were the socks i gave her yesterday. She had said she would send them to daddy, so why were they here? I looked at her, and asked;
“Where’s daddy?”