Dawn's Early Light by Nancy Krulik

Author:Nancy Krulik
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
Published: 2006-01-29T05:00:00+00:00

“I can’t believe this,” Sarah groaned when she reached the bathroom to examine the stain. “Not even an ice cream break can go right today.” She placed the paper towel under the faucet to dampen it and then squirted a bit of pink soap onto the towel. She began rubbing away at the red juice on her new dress. The stain turned from red to pink, and spread farther down the fabric.

“No!” Sarah cried, half laughing at the ridiculous stain. To her dismay, the harder she rubbed, the worse it looked: red Popsicle juice, pink soap, and little bits of paper towel.

All at once, she was furious. The stain was hideous. It had ruined everything. She began to cry. I’m so ridiculous, she thought. With everything that’s happening today, I’m crying about a stain?

But it wasn’t the stain, and Sarah knew it. That was just a reminder that this whole day had spun utterly out of her control. A red stain was all it had taken to open the floodgates. Now the tears just wouldn’t stop.

To Sarah’s surprise, actually letting herself cry came as a huge relief. She’d been holding it in all morning, it seemed. Sitting at the party, talking to Tim’s mom and dad, his grandfather, Mrs. Carlson, and who knew how many other relatives, trying to act cheerful—it was so hard.

Sarah looked at herself in the mirror. “Ronnie is missing,” she said aloud. There—she’d said it. That was the source of her anxiety as much as Tim was. She wasn’t just sad about it. Or scared. She was angry. Incredibly angry. She just wasn’t sure who she was supposed to be mad at—the enemy, for shooting down that helicopter? The marines, for sending Ronnie out in the stupid helicopter in the first place? Ronnie, for swearing to her that he’d be fine? Tim, for following in his footsteps?

No. She was mad at herself. She had believed Ronnie’s stupid promise. How naive she’d been. It’s not like Ronnie could actually keep himself safe. But she’d believed him.

How could she have believed that somehow Ronnie managed his own destiny? How ridiculously childish was that? She was almost eighteen! Old enough to realize that her family didn’t live in some stupid magical bubble that kept them safe and happy while terrible things happened all around them to other people. Ronnie was just like any other marine. He had no power to control whether someone on the ground was shooting at helicopters. He didn’t even have the power to decide whether to be on that helicopter. That had been up to his commanding officer.

She had to face reality. Things like this didn’t just happen to other people. They could happen to anyone. Even to her. Because the Matthews family was just like any other military family.

And it would be the same for Tim. He was going off to the army, and he’d have no control over where he’d be sent, or what he’d have to do. And no matter how hard he tried, or what kind of naive promises he made, he could wind up missing too.

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