Mon frere,
If you have this, then things have gone badly. I need you to be strong for the family, especially Mum.
When you sent that old sash, I thought it was daft, but you know something, Robert, it made me feel better to wear it. Less afraid. I knew you were all rooting for me back home. I hope it will do the same for you.
Always remember, you are the best brother a guy could ever have.
I love you.
See you in the stars,
Patrick
Robert stared at the words. See you in the stars. His hand started to shake.
This wasn’t right. This wasn’t what he’d been waiting for. The Maple Leaf Kid was never wrong.
He remembered how he’d wanted Patrick to give him the family relic because of all the memories it held, all the history. He did want the old sash, but not like this, not taken from his dead brother’s body.
“No. This is impossible,” he said emphatically.
The Squadron Leader voice was firm. “There is no mistake. I’m sorry, son.”
Robert shook his head, denying the words, denying the reality. “They’re wrong. Patrick has been captured. He’s alive, in a castle, waiting for us to rescue him. The Kid wouldn’t lie to me! He wouldn’t!” He saw the faces of his parents, their unendurable grief and the terrible truth reflected in their eyes.
Robert’s world splintered. The walls of the room cracked open. Images from his favourite episodes of Captain Ice, Sedna of the Sea and his friend, The Maple Leaf Kid flashed before him, burst like fireworks, then faded in a trail of dancing sparks. Everything dissolved in front of his eyes, melting like candles in a fire. He couldn’t breathe and panic welled up in him.
“It was all a lie!” he whispered, the realization exploded in his mind.
Dropping the note, Robert stumbled from the room and into the night. Dead. Patrick was dead.
Jumping on his bicycle, he rode away as fast as he could. He had no idea where he was going. All he knew for certain was he had to escape.
He rode blindly, through stoplights, down alleys until, gasping, he came to a stop at the base of the water tower. His water tower. His safe haven.
Scrambling up the ladder, Robert threw himself into a sheltered corner and hid his face from the world. He hurt so badly. Every fibre ached and he didn’t know how to stop it. He was sure he was going to die.
Suddenly, arms were around him and he was gazing into glacier-blue eyes.
“If my worlds had been torn apart, this is where I would have come, too.” Charlie explained softly.
She folded him into her embrace and this time, he let her hold him as they rocked silently back and forth. Now the tears came and Robert was powerless to stop them. He wept for all he had shared with his brother and all he would never share.
After a long while, his sobbing stopped and they sat together, neither saying a word, as they watched the fathomless night drift by.
Finally Charlie broke the silence. “Do you know why I needed the telegram job so badly? Why I cheated on the fat contest and scratched for every delivery I could get?”
Robert shook his head.
“Because I’m leaving home. I’m moving to Sacred Heart Convent.”
This caught Robert’s attention and he sat up.
“A convent? Charlie, are you sure that’s what you want to do with your life?”
“Don’t be a sap. I’m not nun material. I’m going to St. Mary’s Girls School and will be boarding at Sacred Heart Convent.”
“What about your parents? What will they say?” Robert wiped his nose on his sleeve.
“I don’t care. Remember I said I didn’t like their hillbilly friends? On my last birthday, one of them thought I was old enough to be his new girlfriend. I had to stab the jerk to convince him I wasn’t interested.”
“You killed a man!” Robert was shocked.
“No, Wonder Weed. I stabbed him in the arm with a big old fork. He got the message. I decided then and there to get out. It’s taken me a while to get enough money to escape.”
Robert thought about the last months with Charlie. He had no idea what she’d been going through. He knew she’d had it hard, but had never dreamed of how terrible it really was. “Can I ask you something?”
“Shoot,” she said.
“Despite being stuck with Old Betsy, you always managed to beat me on deliveries. How did you pull it off? “
“Because, Wonder Weed, I spent years and years running all over Calgary. I know every short cut, back alley and vacant lot there is. I simply rode my sneaky routes instead of running them.”
“Another of life’s mysteries explained.”
The city lights twinkled in the cold night air as they huddled together.
“Rob,” Charlie cleared her throat. “I don’t know what to say about Patrick, except, I’m here for you.” She bumped him. “I guess I’ll always be here for you.”
He took in all that this meant and all it implied. “Ditto.”
They sat in silence a while longer, enjoying the peace. Then Robert spoke up, a lingering trace of bitterness in his voice.
“I was so sure my comic book stories were identical to what my brothers told me in their letters. They were my cosmic connection and nothing could hurt my brothers with their superhero guardians watching over them. How could I have been so wrong?”
“You were worried about your brothers, Rob, so worried you looked for any way you could to keep them safe. That says something about how close you were.”
Robert shook his head. “I think if I reread them now, I’d say the letters and my comics had a few things sort of the same, but that’s all. Maybe my comic book adventures changed how I read my brothers’ stories. Comics were like an obsession. I was fooling myself.”
She held his eyes with hers. “You love those comic books and there’s nothing wrong with that. They tell great tales of imaginary heroes fighting imaginary villains. Don’t you see – that’s exactly what your brothers are doing – they’re fighting the biggest super villain of all time but they’re doing it for real. You’re brothers are actual superheroes.”
Robert sighed, then smiled weakly. “I guess you’re right. It so happens their jobs coincide with a storyline that has been in every comic book since the beginning of time: good guy versus bad guy.” He stretched his legs out, leaning back against the water tower and thought about his comic book war. “Maybe I imagined more in them than was really there, like I imagined I had some sort of super luck after finding the meteorite.” He touched his talisman. It was quiet now, and Robert wondered if the magic was gone from it, or if there had ever been any magic in the first place. But when he thought of how much had happened since he’d found his star, he couldn’t quite bring himself to believe it was only a pebble that had been floating around for millions of years in the cold, empty darkness.
“Hey, you weren’t the only one imagining things.” Charlie leaned back against the tower next to him. “I thought I was on some kind of wild lucky streak, too. Managing to fix the fat race without being caught and then Crabtree giving me the job despite the fact I was a girl.”
“Yeah, I suppose it would seem like you were some kind of whiz kid. You were sure wrong about that.” She ignored his zinger.
Robert went on, “I feel so bad for my parents and my brothers. Everything’s going to change now. I’m changed now. I thought fighting over there was the best thing ever. But it’s not a comic book adventure. Men die in war. Sons die in war. Brothers die in war.” He felt an indescribable ache in every cell of his body. “I don’t know what I’m going to do without him, Charlie. He was something special, you know. The best brother ever and I’m just a chump.”
Charlie patted his leg. “Don’t sell yourself short. You helped me when I needed a pal who knew someone with a fix-it shop.”
“Yeah, I guess I did ride in on my white horse, even if it was actually a green bike and Mr. G did an amazing job with Big Betsy. I could hardly keep
up.”
Robert’s mind went to another memory of his neighbour – that awful night in Mr. Glowinski’s garage when his friend had come so close to extinguishing his own life. Teddy Glowinski had said he would change anything, even reality, to save his loved ones. Robert now understood exactly what that meant.
He flashed to something he’d planned for Charlie. Was it only hours and not years ago that he’d come up with his brilliant idea? Reaching into his jacket, he pulled out a small box. “Happy birthday, Charlene.”
She took the box and opened it. Inside was a pendant that matched his own. “It’s a piece of my meteorite.” Robert now understood Mr. G’s knowing smile when he’d handed the third pendant over. The delicate interstellar jewel had Charlie Donnelly’s name written all over it. His very wise neighbour had seen that long before Robert did.
Gazing up at the night sky, Robert thought of Patrick and how they’d both seen this miracle gift fall. He imagined his brother up there now, watching over him, and saluted. See you in the stars.
“Did I tell you Patrick and I both saw a brilliant shooting star on the same night? I think this is it.”
Charlie touched the tiny fragment of a mystery bigger than both of them, then she put the necklace on. It glimmered in the moonlight, almost as if it had a light of its own. “It’s beautiful. And, Rob...”
“Yes?”
“I like Charlie better.”
Robert turned to her and smiled, and then said, in his best Bogart voice, “Here’s looking at you, Charlie.”
And at that precise moment, both Charlie and Robert felt a warm tingling coming from the small fragment of the fallen star each of them wore.
EPILOGUE
SMOKING AND IN RUINS, THE ENEMY PLANE FELL FROM THE DARKENING SKY. WAGGLING HIS WINGS IN VICTORY AT LAST, OUR HERO BANKED HIS BATTERED LITTLE FIGHTER. THEN, WITH A SMILE AND A WAVE, HE FLEW INTO THE HEART OF THE WELCOMING SUN.
Author’s Note
The Comic Book War
As a writer, I have done research on many different topics to make sure every detail is right in my books. For this one, however, I did take some literary licence with a few historical facts. For those readers who like having all the facts, here’s what you should know.
TELEGRAPH DELIVERY
During the war, many young men were employed as telegram delivery boys, but few, if any, girls were part of this cadre. The ladies’ talents were usually applied to sending and receiving the telegrams that the boys delivered. After a short period, it was decided that delivering military telegrams with their usually bad news was too hard for young people and that unenviable chore was given to adults.
POSTAL DELIVERY
In my story, Robert thinks about how irregular military mail delivery is, but letters are still arriving regularly from Robert’s brothers. In actual fact, during World War II, mail from the front would have taken much longer to reach families back in Canada. However, to keep the plot rolling, I had to have those letters!
CANADIAN COMIC BOOKS
The Golden Age of Canadian Comics was from 1942 to 1946 and was a result of the War Exchange Conservation Act, which did not allow “fiction periodicals” into Canada. This included comic books. Canadian kids needed fun reading and so a purely Canadian comic book industry sprung up. It was successful while there was no competition from the US, but once the war was over and Superman and his pals were flying across the border again, the Canadian Whites, as our comics were known, could not compete.
It was an amazing time when Nelvana of the Northern Lights, Johnny Canuck and Canada Jack kept kids cheering and, more importantly, reading!
To read more about the Tourond family’s adventures, try Belle of Batoche, set in the 1885 North West Rebellion or Outcasts of River Falls, a story of life on the road allowances.
Discover Jacqueline’s other exciting books at:
www.jacquelineguest.com
Acknowledgements
Patrick Tourond for his soldier’s memory of the Battle of Ortona. (Miss you, Uncle Pat.)
James Tourond, Dad and Soldier (Wish you’d told me more about ‘the old days’.)
Lorraine Tourond, Fabulous Family Historian
Nik Burton, Astute Publisher
Laura Peetoom, Editor Extraordinaire
Tadeusz Glowinski, Translator and Head Librarian of Glowinski’s Amazing Library, Olesnica, Poland
Jim Langley, Santa Cruz, CA, Bicycle Expert
Nik Richbell, Canadian Pacific Archives
Dr. Phil Langill, University of Calgary, Dept. of Astronomy and Physics, Director of Rothney Astrophysical Observatory
John Bell, Comic Book King
Nipper Guest, Old Soldier and Researcher
Iris Stout, Well Read Wise Woman
Joey Sayer, Calgary Public Library Comic Book Authority
Iris Sadownik, Crescent Heights High School Archivist
Eda Czarnecki and her Aunt Bozena, Polish polishers
And a host of others too numerous to name!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jacqueline Guest is the author of more than a dozen novels for young readers, many of them award winners, including two previous Coteau Books titles – The Outcasts of River Falls and Ghost Messages.
Nine of Jacqueline’s books have been honoured with Canadian Children’s Book Centre Our Choice Awards, and in 2012 she won two American Indian Youth Literature Awards. Ghost Messages is a Moonbeam Gold Medal winner and a nominee for both the R. Ross Annett Award and the 2012 Silver Birch® Award in the OLA Forest of Reading® program. Belle of Batoche was an Ontario Library Association Best Bet Selection and won the Edmonton Schools Best of the Best Award. Jacqueline’s books have also received nominations for the Red Cedar, R. Ross Annett, Hackmatack, Golden Eagle, and Arthur Ellis Mystery Awards.
Jacqueline’s works are well-known for having main characters who come from different ethnic backgrounds including First Nations, Inuit or Metis. In 2013, she was awarded the Indspire Award in recognition of her outstanding career achievement.
Alberta born and raised, Jacqueline Guest lives and writes in a cabin in the pine woods of the Rocky Mountain foothills. Robert's brothers in The Comic Book War are based on her father and his two brothers.
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