Ghost Soldier by Elaine Marie Alphin

Author:Elaine Marie Alphin
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781627796484
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.

Chapter Ten

SURPRISES IN RALEIGH

I barely saw anything during the drive. Rich was as bad as Carleton—he wouldn’t shut up.

“It was quite a walk to get to the Wake County courthouse, I tell you! There were no buses like these.” He eyed the hard plastic seat appreciatively. “And every step I took, I kept worrying that they would send me home. I knew I was old enough to fight. Some things you just know; I could imagine a Yank soldier coming after Louise, and I knew I’d fight him—even kill him if I had to—to keep her safe.” Rich looked serious as he said that.

“I thought of Louise at Fort Stedman, there at the end. I remembered what Noah told me, and I imagined she was there at Two Stirrups and the Yankees were coming. I thought about some Virginia soldier standing in front of her, holding back Sherman’s raiders, and it was as if I were there in his place, not in Fort Stedman at all. I was fighting for my family.”

He was silent for a few minutes, and I watched the state fairgrounds pass by the window. Then he said, “It must sound like I always thought about looking after Louise as though it were a life-and-death matter.” He laughed a little. “We were just close. Amalie was close to George in the same way. I suppose that’s why Amalie never got too angry with me and Louise when we hid instead of doing our chores when we were small, or slipped into the kitchen for extra treats. Sometimes I’d catch Amalie looking at the two of us with tears in her eyes after George enlisted—he signed up right after Fort Sumter in April of ’61. But she would never admit how much she missed him.”

He smiled a little. “You must be fair sick of hearing so much about these people you don’t even know.”

I shrugged. No one seemed to be paying attention to anyone else on the bus, so I muttered, “I kind of feel I do know them a little. What did Louise look like?”

His smile broadened. “Oh, she was beautiful! She had black hair, like me, but it was long and curly. It always got in her way so she kept threatening to cut it off. She said it wasn’t fair that girls couldn’t cut their hair short like boys. Her eyes flashed when she got mad—they were black like mine. When we were little, Mother used to dress us the same, and strangers thought we were twins.” He sighed. “Father had blue eyes, and George and Amalie inherited them. When she was small, Louise used to cry because she didn’t have Father’s eyes. After Mother died, she didn’t complain about it as much. I think our black eyes were something of Mother’s to hold on to. And she didn’t want to look like Amalie, after all!”

I grinned as we passed a sign announcing North Carolina State University. I tried to picture my mother—her black eyes, like mine, laughing.

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