3. Chapter 3 (1/2)
chapter iii
she couldn't sleep.
it was simply too strange to see her
other and their mutual chum dressed in khaki just hours earlier, seemingly ready to go into the battle the very next day. she could see them both again in her mind, almost unrecognisable standing in front of her proudly.
joyce looked at the clock hanging on the wall of her and jem's room. she sighed as she caught a glimpse of 2am glistening at the moon's glance. her eyes quickly found their way back onto jem sleeping soundly in his bed across the room, with dog monday sleeping right next to his master soundly. jem was even smiling through his sleep! oh, she could have slapped him here and then and screamed some sense into him! but it was jem. her jemmy-
other. her red-haired "twin" who had a heart of a lion and a soul of an eagle. she knew him for the longest time out of all her siblings and the two of them were always together. that is until the morning of joy's 18th birthday when she packed her suitcases and announced that she bought a one-way ticket to greece, as the first stop of her european adventure, with no intention of coming back any sooner than the moment she finds herself her "heaven on earth".
joy smiled at the memory and her life-changing decision. she realised that it actually, to her surprise, wasn't too different to jem's own dangerous act of enlisting. he was beginning a new chapter of his life as she did those five years earlier. he was to go on a ship to europe and risk everything he was and knew, and how was her journey into adulthood any different? "well, quite different." she muttered to herself. yes, jem's decision was indeed an unpredictable dance with death so quite not the same as joyce's. however, it gave her comfort, knowing that jem was doing what he felt was right for him, and what else could she have wanted him to do?
quietly, she popped out of her bed and walked over to his. she squinted her eyes a little and could have sworn that she could see him as a five-year-old once more. "i love you, jemmy." she whispered softly and kissed his cheek before silently jumping out of the room and down into the kitchen.
"joyce blythe!" susan's loud whisper shattered joy's illusion of being successful in eating a few cookies out of the jar at the top cupboard (a habit of hers since she was a child, in times of worry or a writer's block). she stopped in her tracks upon seeing susan's neat, fresh nightgown and quickly realised that she herself was then wearing walter's old polo shirt and jem's old pyjama bottoms.
nevertheless, joy smiled at dear, old susan and bowed in front of her "queen susan, may i join you here in this lovely space where you always…" she started but susan interrupted her.
"dear lord, girl!" she shook her head "i think that even when your hair is as grey as your eyes and your skin wrinkled even more than mine, you will still try to perform every sentence that comes out of your mouth!" she tried to look displeased but joy saw that a corner of susan's mouth was forming into a smile.
"and… that i may tie to?" joy asked sheepishly, her eyes speaking the works of her devilish mind.
"hmm…" susan replied and allowed her cheek to be kissed by the eldest blythe baby. she smiled at last and patted joy's hand tenderly "may you always be the joy in this house, dear." she managed to say, almost shakily "i can't even begin to imagine you leaving us all, poor folks, at the beginning of next week!"
"you'll miss me teaching you how to make pasta?" joy asked, trying to
ush away the tears forming in her own eyes. she realised that she couldn't get teary easily when someone else was, however, when susan cried, she had to as well. even though susan's favourite 'child' was most certainly shirley, joyce always came second out of the others. she was after all the first blythe baby and the first of the house of dreams at that.
both joy and susan chuckled and clasped their hands together "i'll miss everything, dear." susan said "and that you may tie to!" their quiet laughter stopped slowly when another figure appeared by the kitchen table where they sat.
"mama, what are you doing up so late at night?" joy asked and jumped to anne, quickly enveloping her in her arms and putting her head against her mother's shoulder.
"most probably the same as you two lovely ladies." anne answered with a soft smile as she caressed joy's curly locks lovingly. her oldest child could see that her heart was filled with worry and nightmares and so when both sat down opposite to susan, joy didn't dream of letting go of her mother's hands.
"oh, mrs dr. dear…" susan sighed sadly "what are we to do? dear joyce is leaving for her italy, jem is leaving for the unknown and the war… what are we to do?" she repeated and truly looked helpless.
anne smiled tenderly, squeezing her daughter's hands as if trying to memorise their touch in her own "we shall keep on living, dear susan. for them and for ourselves, waiting for their return patiently, whenever destiny will
ing them back to the old ingleside." she declared and joy thought that she had never heard her mother's voice be so strong and decided.
she turned to her mother as she let a few tears roll down her cheeks at last "yes, that you shall do. and you will write letters and we will be writing back, and we'll send each other photographs and we will all count the stars on each of our skies until we will realise that we are actually under the same sky with the same amount of stars spread across it, so the feeling of emptiness and loss can be forgotten. one way or another." joy's own courageous voice sounded clear and
ight and made anne's cheeks redden from water coming out of her own grey eyes that were the same shade as her daughter's.
"my
ave, darling girl." she uttered and
ought joy into an em
ace.
"how proud you make us!" susan stood up and put her arms around joyce and anne, all three finding peace in knowing that their thoughts were, are and always will be interlocked together, wherever they are.
"there are too many people here, i don't like this at all." joy muttered under her
eath angrily "do they think it's some kind of entertainment? to see dearest jem and jerry go?"
"there, there, sweetheart." anne squeezed joy's arm for a moment as she gathered herself for the twentieth time that day "do not hold any hard feelings, not today." joy turned to look at her mother and could still see the stains of tears on her freckled cheeks from the night before. both of their hearts were
oken, but, joyce thought to herself, 'how does my pain compare to this of a mother?'. joy nodded decidedly and made anne smile at her.
indeed, everyone who joyce knew was at the train station, except whiskers-on-the-moon of course. she never did like attention or large crowds of people and on that day she felt as if she was being suffocated by people and by her own very mixed feelings. she decided to wear her best white blouse and borrowed nan's skirt in autumn colours of orange, red, yellow, green and
own. on her head was a new hat which she purchased a day before the dance, crimson coloured with a matching feather attached to the front of it. joy bought the same hat for rilla, in a shade of blue instead and of course, her sister wore it proudly on that day of days as well. from the corner of her eye, joy spotted ken coming over to the smiling rilla who started conversating with her. she still wasn't quite sure what to make of it and what all this talking and smiling of theirs could evolve (or not) into one day. she wasn't sure either whether she should do something about it or not. however, that was not the time nor the place for such thoughts.
thankfully even after their outburst of feelings at the dance, ken was a regular visitor of joy's, seeing her almost every day. they still talked in the same way as before, and made the same jokes and remarks, joy still occasionally hit him on the head whenever he was teasing her… yet, something behind his eyes whenever he looked at her was… was… joy didn't know what to be frank. something mysterious and out of her reach was there in every glance he gave her, and every time she'd feel a shiver of guilt down her spine.
"he went to speak to ethel reese now." walter's whisper appeared in her ear.
joy grimaced as she looked at her
other. "for crying out loud, and for the millionth time, walter, i…" she started but then…
"the train is approaching!" little
uce meredith squeaked, half with joy and half with great regret over seeing jem go away for an unknown amount of time.
something shot through joy and she clasped walter's hand "i need to get all my boys, all of them together." she said to him and herself decidedly, pushing through the many people surrounding them all. jem already kissed faith, said goodbyes to his siblings but joy and walter, and was finally caught by joy who threw her arms around him without a moment of hesitation.