The next morning doesn't come quick enough but when it does I awaken to stiff bones and thundering voices.We are hurried off the bus into the freezing morning before we have time to wake up properly. Sun blinds my eyes as I step onto the soft grass.
Where are we? It takes a couple of minutes for my eyes to adjust.
It appears we're at a train station in the middle of farmland. My surroundings look completely different from yesterday's. Then the image of that poor young woman being shot re enters my mind.
Glancing over at the kind poetic woman we met last night, I see that the baby is swaddled in between her arms. A thin blanket grey blanket is all that the baby has to keep warm now. The baby doesn't look too well in the face. It's young enough to still need it's mother's breast milk.
Everyone on the bus is well aware that it won't live much longer if it doesn't get the nutrients it needs.
No one on our bus has a child younger than five years so the baby won't get the milk it needs. We've tried to give it water but the baby is just too young.
"Do you think if we asked one of the soldiers for a milk bottle for the baby, do you think they'd give us a milk bottle?" George asks me curiously.
"No boy. It must always be breast milk. If you give the baby milk from a cow it will get severely sick." The poetic woman from last night tells us.
"She's right George! All we can do now is pray for the baby." Ma tells us with little hope in her voice. George and I both know praying won't save the baby.
Although the sun is out and the sky is blue, the temperature is well below freezing. We waste no time filing onto the train.
Later that day as the train bumped along the tracks we discovered that the baby had passed away in it's sleep. It desperately needed its mother's milk but wasn't able to get some. The soldier who escorted me had promised us on our next stop we'd find a woman who could take care of the child but we were too late. My heart breaks for the child and it's mother.
The train stops and the soldiers allow us to bury the cold child. Parents shield their children from the deceased baby as we exit the train. Watching each of the soldiers' faces as we dig a hole for the infant, I notice they all wear masks of uncertainty.
Colonel Decker closely follows us as we bundle the baby in ma's soft blanket. Even pa didn't complain about giving the blanket away as I hadn't expected before. He stands behind me and George with a stern and angry look on his face. We all wear similar faces.
After the infant is buried the poetic woman and Viola's ma, say a few words and then close the service with a prayer. We pray for happiness in heaven with its mother.
"Hansen!" Colonel Decker calls to the young soldier who escorted me last night. Hansen snaps out of his trance which is focused on the pile of dirt.
"Get these criminals back onto the train! We're already late." Spitting on the grass besides him he walks the other direction. A few soldiers rush after the Colonel like they're his trained dogs.
Hansen navigated us all to the waiting train. The train station is one of the smallest I've ever seen. There's a small building where the tickets are bought and a couple of wooden benches outside of the building.
Instead of buying tickets, we're forced onto the old, smelly train. We were prisoners riding a train without an expense. Once everyone's piled back into a single train car we remain silent.
To distract my thoughts I glance around wondering about our very old transportation. The design and frames is extraordinary. "It was made in 1914." Hansen tells me. I thought I'd just thought it but I must've asked it out loud.
"So what you're telling me, boy is that we're being transported to some kind of a prison on a train that was used in the First World War?" Pa stands up with his usual intimidating face on.
"To my knowledge, yes." Squeaks our Hansen. The young soldier seems nervous and at ease as pa talks to him.
"Pa just sit down." I plead not wanting to start any more violence. A couple soldiers gather around to watch what happens next. Maybe they think pa is going to start a fight with him. Pa is one to start and finish many fights on his own.
"Alright," Pa crosses his arms. "You seem like the kind of man to enlighten us on where the hell we're actually going?" Glancing at the few soldiers standing by the compartment door, I notice that they're leaning in further to listen in. They must get a real kick out of these kinds of things.
"Which prison are we being transported to?" Pa asks simply. "If you'd stop delaying us and shut your trap for once we'd get there and you'd see." One of the soldiers says with no expression.
He almost reminds me of the boy who used to bully me when I first moved to America. They'd make fun of my curly hair, and strange accent. I picked up the language quicker than I'd expected but my accent always remained. People would always ask where I was from and then after telling them they'd ask if I was a poor olive farmer back home or just plain out tell me to go back to where I belonged.
My accent isn't so bothersome to me anymore but it used to make me feel a bit insecure. I'm aware of the thousand immigrants living in the city but it still made me feel different. Ma has told me that my accent is what makes me special compared to all of the other boys and girls at grade school.
Although, George doesn't have a strong accent since he was very young when we moved here. I was very envious of him when I was younger. I suppose it doesn't matter anymore.
It turns out the prison that we're headed to is an internment camp for immigrants.
Pa said our family should be headed to a real prison not some internment camp. This internment camp could be better than a regular prison. What am I thinking? We're going to an internment camp.
A day later we arrived at Fort Missoula Internment Camp. We all peered out the train window at the camp. There were all men there working outside with several small buildings with barbed wire surrounding the camp. They were going to send us to work? I thought we were being arrested.
"Alright, there's been a change in plan." A soldier comes up in front of us. "Women and children will be sent back home. Only under high surveillance," says a U.S. soldier.
My body freezes in place. "What the hell do you mean?" Pa stands up tall from his cushion. "Make no mistake your whole family will remain alien enemies. We just need the adult men at this camp. No need for the women and children." As he turns to leave rushes forward ready to throw a punch. He ends up being successful. The punch is so hard that it knocks the soldier to the floor.
He's dead. Pa is dead, I just know they'll kill him for that. Maybe even the rest of our family.
A few soldiers run to the front containing him. The rest of the men run down the aisle backing up pa. Pa gets out of their grasps and it's absolute mayhem. "Joseph, come!" Pa motions for me to help fight.
No matter how much I hate them, I don't join. My body shakes from fear. Like the coward I am, my feet remain planted on the ground. Ma's hand clamps down on my left arm, pulling me closer to her.
Punches are thrown at the few officers on the train. After they make a run past them, they rush off the train leaving the children and woman on board. Rushing to the right side of the train where Viola and her mom are peering out I see about thirty American soldiers surrounding them with their guns cocked at them.
I swallow hard as I see one of the officers has a gun resting at pa's enlarged skull.
"Enough of this foolishness. You will not try to fight or say anything!"
Colonel Decker's loud voice rumbles from the front of the train car. "When I call your name you will step off this train and follow me in an orderly fashion to the buses. Do you understand?" We all stay quiet. A woman translates to a few people who don't know english.
"Do you understand?" He screams sending chills down me.
"Yes," we all whisper shakily.
"Angelina Frank." Viola's mother cries as she hugs onto her daughter tightly. "No, you can't do this to us." She whimpers as a soldier pulls her from her seat. "Your child stays here ma'am."
"Take care of her, please." Angelina hands Viola to ma. Viola cries for her mother as the soldier with her luggage in his hand, shoves her off the train. My eyes begin to water but I don't dare break.
Viola from her family. Her father, who went outside to fight with pa is among those called. He's shoved onto a bus with an opening where they sit on the outside.
A couple of more people are called to leave.
Moments later Colonel Decker travels back to where we're seated. "Ah Beatrice, Jacob should've sent for me sooner." He eyes the poetic woman up and down. "He would've sent you away a lot sooner if it weren't for his stubborn daughter." It hits me like a ton of bricks.
Does the colonel mean Jacob Decker as in Louise's pa? I didn't think they had any relation since Decker is a common last name. It can't be convenient right. Louise wasn't lying when she said her father knew dangerous people. "You know Louise?" I hear myself ask. "She's my granddaughter and what of it boy?" Colonel Decker turns to me.
"I know her, we're friends." I squeak out. "Is that so?" He stares down at me. I nod quietly at him. "What's your name boy?" He asks.
"Joseph Capurso." I speak up more confidently this time. "Joseph Capurso, yes I'm aware of you and your family." The Colonel looks me over as if knowing every single thing about me.
"You're the family who assisted her during the storm?" The colonel asked me. "Yes we are!" Ma steps in.
"We were happy to help sir." Ma continues. "It was no trouble at all." The poetic woman smiles at us. "Thank you for taking care of her on that wild night. I was so worried for Louise's well being. I'm her family's maid." The woman takes my hand and squeezes. I can't tell if she's figured out that the girl I mentioned to her was the girl I drew in my sketchbook.
"Silence, woman." The middle aged woman releases my cold hand.
"Although my family and I are grateful for what you did, it won't get you out of the position that you are currently in." Taking the poetic woman by the arm, he leads her off the train.
I end up following the poetic women to the front of the train. He's not at all gentle with her when he shoves her into the bus. Most of us are gone and off the train now. There's only twelve of us other than me who still remain. The rest on the bus are all being taken to who knows where.
Once Louise's maid is packed away with the others, Colonel Decker comes back on board. "Time to get off!" He orders me. Just me, not George. Part of me is relieved that George won't have to be imprisoned at this internment camp but another part of me knows I'll be in my worst nightmare. I'll be imprisoned with pa.
Ma tugs on my arm tighter. Accepting my fate I turn to face the both of them.
Viola sits with her face in her hands in ma's seat. I hug them the tightest I've ever hugged someone. This time I have to be even stronger than I was before. I can't cry or get emotional.
"I'll free us of the crimes they claim we've committed, ma. You just worry about taking care of this creature." I bump him in the shoulder but he doesn't laugh. Tears sit at the corner of his eyes. "It isn't fair Joseph. I should be here with you." A tear falls down his freckled cheeks.
It feels odd to see my brother, the happiest boy I know, cry. I hug him once more. "No, you shouldn't. None of us should be but I have to be." I whisper. "By the way, I forgive you for dropping my sketchbook out the window but you owe me a new one." I wink as the Colonel comes up to drag me away.
"Let's go!" The Colonel grabs my arm shoving me forward roughly, the way he did the poetic woman. I hear my ma's voice call for me through her thick tears but I don't turn around to look.
And to think I thought the detectives who I talked to were the coldest unfeeling men I've ever met. This man shot a young woman and is forcing families apart. The stone cold in his heart matches the look in his hazel eyes. Men are already being forced to the camp. My eyes lock with pa's but I stay where the Colonel left me. My belongings are soon tossed at my feet.
Out of the corner of my eyes I see ma and George peering out the train window at me.
I know they have tears all over their haggard eyes. I quickly focused my eyes on the camp. If I turned to look at them now, I'd look like them. The soldiers would probably have to shoot me because I'd run back to them. I need to stay alive for them. To free all of us.
We're eventually lined up and taken to a cafeteria that has several flies flying around. It has a musky outdoor smell to it.
I can see pa staring at me from the corner of my eyes but he doesn't dare come over to me. Right now all I have to focus on is saving my family. It needs to be me because pa's anger would most likely get us all a death sentence. A part of me can't help but wonder if he's actually thinking of a way to clear our name.
Inhaling the stale air, I ready myself for what's to come next.
~ ~ ~
Chapter posted: 4/10/2021
What'd y'all think about what's going to happen to the Capurso's?
Sorry for posting late. I got my first job last week and been extremely busy with training!
I hope y'all are having a good week 🥰