THE JOURNEY 

By Tessa Harvey

    A long time ago two people decided to go on a small cruise. Their son had wanted to be in the army for a while and as soon as he was old enough, he signed up. Thomas was actually too young, but nobody checked very hard.
    By the time his parents tried to find him, he had already been posted to the other end of the country for basic training. The army recruiting office gave them their son's address. In those days people mostly wrote letters. Patrick and Josie tried to phone, but almost always could not get through. When they did eventually succeed, they were told their boy was out on something called "maneuvers." So they wrote to him instead.
    Thomas wrote back very happy. Everybody said war was coming so he was going a long way away. He was not allowed to say where. "This is an amazing adventure," he wrote in his somewhat childish scrawl. "When I come back, there is leave and I will visit you."

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