Beths hope 6

Tears streamed down John’s face 

“Where is his…..”  I stopped. 

“In the street.  He was too heavy to carry.  That’s why I came here first.”

 “Okay, John”, Mr. Becker said.  “Can you remember anything else?”

 “Well, the men were wearing what looked like a flag on their uniforms.”

 “Uniforms?!” Mr. Becker said surprised.  “Do you mean they were soldiers?”

 “Yes”, John replied.  “They said they were under the command of their general.”

 I was angry.  “If my father knew what happened, he would have them kicked out of the army.  He runs the army, you know”, I said.  

“No”, Mr. Becker said.  “He runs the camp, not the army.”

 “Oh, well he would still fire the men.” I replied. 

 “What if the men don’t work for your father?” John said.

 “Well, then my father would find who they do work for and have them fired.”   Mr. Becker had a strange look on his face.

“What is it” I asked?

He looked at me; tears had filled in Mr. Becker’s eye’s he sat down.” Beth”, he said “come here”; he sat me on his knee. He put his arm around John’s waist and said, “Beth and John, God loves you and will always be there for you even when a loved one turns on you. You must pray and ask God to keep you safe and never hate, NEVER!” He said this in a commanding tone. Then he put me down and went behind the desk and pulled out a large envelope.  He came over to me and said, “Beth, I know you are young, but I want you to have this.  Don’t open it till you are older. When you get home give it to your mamma. Ok?” he said.

I gave him my word.  Mr. Becker smiled. “That’s my good girl”. Mr. Becker said whipping away the tears that had formed in his eyes

 I looked at John; he had a look of extra sadness “What is it John?” I asked. He looked at his feet and kicked at the floor with his foot.

He hesitated to say anything. Then he said “did you get anything for me?”

” John!”  Mr. Becker said “I am so disappointed you had to ask.”

 He pulled out a little figure.  It looked exactly like the grandfather clock. John loved the grandfather clock. And when I looked at it more closely I saw that it was the grandfather clock, but much smaller.

 “John” Mr. Becker said, “I will always have something for you both”. He hugged us tight, “Now John I am going to go get Phillip, you go home.”

     John slowly followed Mr. Becker. As they left the shop I grabbed John by the sleeve of his coat. Before I knew it I had him in a strong embrace.  I whispered in his ear, “John, I’m sorry for your loss, then I did the last thing either he or I expected. I kissed him on the cheek and ran away. I could not believe what I had just done. I had just kissed John on the cheek! I had never kissed a boy on the cheek, or anywhere else for that matter! I had never hugged a boy either!, let alone kissed a boy, yet I had kissed John. For a split second I thought differently about him, in a way I had never thought of him before. In that split second I wanted to do it again. Then I shook my head and kept running. 

I ran home and slammed the door. I ran up stairs and fell into bed.  I put my face in the pillow and screamed at the top of my lungs.  I could not bear the thought of seeing him after that. Would things get even stranger?  I felt like I would die of embarrassment. Mamma came up stairs and sat on the edge of the bed. She stroked my hair.

    “Beth”, she said in her normal calm tone. “What is the matter?”

 I looked at her and sat up against the back of my bed? I very calmly explained what happened. “Well…what happened was… Philip got shot…”

“Wait! Who got shot?” My mother had turned pale.

“John’s friend from school. Philip, he and his parents were taken by some soldiers. John tried to save him, but they were too big and too strong for him and all he could do was sit there and watch them take Philip and his parents away! Then they shot Philip and pushed him out of the truck oh Mamma it was so awful. John was crying, I was crying.  John was so sad that when he and Mr. Becker started to leave the shop I grabbed John by the sleeve and… well…. all of a sudden… I kind of …Oh Mamma I kissed him! I am so embarrassed. How can I ever face John again?” To my surprise, Mamma smiled at what I had done.  Then my mother did something I had not expected, she smiled and she put her hand on her cheek and said 

“Beth, that is not something you should feel sorry about, John has been your very best friend for quite some time now. He was sad and you felt bad for him.”  She brushed some hair out of my eyes and kissed me on the cheek. “The more important problem is Philip. Did you say that Mr. Becker was with John?”

“Yes”, I said, “they went to take care of Philip”. I noticed that Mamma had a look of pain cross her face for just a moment, then she gave me a half smile and walked out. Mother always knew what would make me feel better. Next morning, I woke up and got ready for school, and walked down stairs. Mamma was making toast and eggs for breakfast. “Hi Mama”, I said. I yawned and stretched, I was still trying to wake up. She set my plate in front of me and kissed me on the head.

Author's Note

please review and tell me if you would like more chapters, now I need you to realize that there are grammar errors because I wrote this at 10 and it is very hard to edit a 414 page book :-)

Reviews

[Fabian G. Franklin]

It holds the attention and it's written in a reader friendly style. I think like Solomon said, there is a time and a purpose for everything under heaven...even a time to hate...but it must be a righteous hatred...hatred of evil. It's easy to define "evil"...evil is (anything one does to another one would not like to have done to oneself) to paraphrase Confucius. If one does like to be stolen from or lied to, do not steal and lie...etc. But hatred of a person is self-destructive...in that much I agree with the sage's advice here. A good write, keep up the good work.

[M Garcia]

This is nicely written for the age of ten. I would suggest editing, which you know. Also you should add the rest. Try and make sure that its in order and instead of 'Beth's Hope and the #' I would put chapter headings.

[Calypso]

Impressive. I'm jealous. You're such a wonderful author.

[KATHY SUE SILLS]

It's a very good novel, and i hope you suceed in getting it published!

[KAREN]

Yes I want to read more for sure. This is very interesting and I want to read how it turns out!