My Gentleman Friend, Death

"Good morning" he said as I played with my toys. He asked me what was the game at which I labored.

"It is the soldiers at war" I replied. He asked which one was I. I held up the lancer on his horse with the red tunic and the golden buttons. He said, "good choice". We played for hours it seemed. I rode forward, followed by the infantry as we conquered the mound of dirt in the back yard. He would end the war with "I think I hear your mother calling, it must be time for tea" he would then add "I'll clean up the mess for you, rest well and have a nice evening. Shall we play again tomorrow"?

As I grew through the ages, we would meet again and talk. He would always be sociable and patient to listen to my words and thoughts. As a teenager, I found that the love of a girl was quite vexing. More than once I asked him to take me away and end this pain. He would reply that although he could, he did not consider this the best time to waste such a wonderful life, so I would grow in experience and strength until the next time he would visit.

I met him after my mother was ill and I cursed him, for he had taken the most precious love that I had ever know. I asked him why he would do such an evil thing. He leaned into my shoulder and cried with me, for he had lost a loved one as well. He showed me through picture and notes taken from my mother's old diary and thru her life, that he was with her as well. He showed the loves and losses she had, he had also suffered tenfold. When I was marred and my child was but 3 years of age, he came by and visited for tea. He told me that I should hold my child and love him deeply because the fever would soon be upon him. I did as I was asked and held him with all my life but the gentleman still walked him away in the morning. He asked me to bear him no ill because he meant no harm.

My life changed as I became a man. I owned a business and my wife and I shared 3 wonderful sons. My gentlemen friend did not return to see me much as we prospered. He would however stop to tea in the town courtyard and visit as I recounted my lost friends and family. We would always depart with a happy note stating we would see each other some other day.

There came a man, Napoleon Bonaparte, who promised to make our country rich and prosperous as he would be a great leader of men. My country called me to arms. My gentleman friend stood with my wife and sons and said he would always be there for them if they needed him. He offered to comfort, talk, play and cry with them if they needed.

I followed my boyhood dreams and joined the lancers. I had a red tunic and golden buttons and I preceded the Army into many battles. I remember, on one occasion that my gentleman friend was there about tending to my injured comrades, I asked him why, he assured me that he was not the one causing their pain and grief but that he would be the one to slowly take their hand and lead them to heaven when their time came. He also told me that he was there with each one of them as they grew up, playing and singing with them. He held their crying eyes as they lost their loved ones. He told of how each time someone passed it broke his heart into two, and he told me that he was the one who sat with each one who was hurting to give them a shoulder to cry on.

One day as the sun was rising I was sent out with my men to capture this hill in a field of wheat. We advanced to find the enemy already in place and we were engaged. The battle raged on and I found myself sitting with my friend. We sat there, he and I on this hill in someone's yard, he said "I think that I hear your mother calling, it must be time for tea, Shall I clean up for you?" He then led me to my mother.

Thank you, my friend