The Boy Without A Name

Dreams Of The War

          Freckles woke up suddenly from a dream, and pinched himself to make sure he was really awake.  It was the night before his fourteenth birthday, and he was dreading the morning.  Once the sun came up outside, they would be sent off to fight in the war.  He didn’t want to go.  He didn’t even know why they were fighting.  None of the officers ever told the soldiers why this war was going on.  They dodged the question; they answered with things like “they attacked us first,” and  “they’re wrong, we’re right, we need to show them that, so keep training!” but they never told them why, or what they were wrong about.  This is what annoyed Freckles the most about going into the war.  And this is what he was thinking about while sitting on his cot leaning against the wall, when he heard someone whisper his name.

            “Freckles.  Hey, Freckles, what are you doing awake?  It’s the middle of the night, and we’re off to fight in the morning!”  It was #124, Horse Hair, he was woken up by Freckles’ cot creaking.

            “Sorry Horse Hair, I had a dream about the war that I can’t get out of my head.”  Freckles whispered back to Horse Hair, hitting the side of his head as if that would get it out.

            “Why don’t you tell me about it?  That might clear your mind, and then we can both go back to sleep,” said Horse Hair, sitting up now to face Freckles.

            “Alright.  So I was fighting in the war, and it seemed normal at first.  I was in a group, and we were fighting another group of people.  I was fighting someone one on one, and I glanced up to look at their face for a second, and realized I was fighting Pig Nose!  I looked around, and realized I knew no one from my group, and the group we were fighting was you guys.  I was a part of the enemy!  We ended up winning the battle.  Then the scene went to the camp, and there were conversations going on, but I couldn’t understand what they were saying.  All I could figure out was that our, or I guess your, group were considered the bad guys.  Like we did something really bad, something that caused their, or my, group to attack.  It was strange.  I mean, what could we have done to cause them to start a war?  Is it really our fault?  Are we really the bad guys?”  Freckles finished telling his dream.  He didn’t know how Horse Hair would react to it, but he knew he was confused, and figured that’s all he would be as well.

            Horse Hair chuckled softly.  “Wow.  That’s quite the dream.  But you know, it is just a dream.  It doesn’t mean anything.  You just don’t want to go to war.  Your mind is trying to give you reasons not to fight.  But you were raised to be a soldier, you were born to fight in this war.  Besides, if we had done something that huge, don’t you think somebody would have told us?”

            “Yeah, I guess so,” Freckles answered.  “I think I’ll be able to sleep now. Thanks.”

            “No Problem. Good night.”