Amelia sat down the phone receiver. After all these years, Charles calls now. Ten years is a long time to rehash in a half of an hour. Amelia straightened her hair in the mirror before her. Of all the brothers in the world…she got stuck with the chief bum of them all. She had come to Terre Haute to get away from him, and now he was in Indianapolis saying he’d be in on the next train. She’d meet him at the corner café, it wasn’t much time, he said, but some time was better than no time.

   Amelia met him at the corner café. He looked older now, although he was only thirty. He looked so tired. He asked her what she had been up to.

   What would she tell him? She watered her Victory Garden in her window box everyday?

   "Funny you should ask, Charlie. I’m a secretary at the Bank." She lit a cigarette and reached for her soda. "And, what have you been up to?"

   Charles leaned over his coffee, his dark gray hat pushed back on his head. He had a nice suit on, cheap, but it looked nice.

   "There’s so much, so much to do yet. So many dreams, so many things I should have done. Oh, Amelia, I’ve been runnin’ away from life and livin’ without a purpose. The ones I loved are either gone or I never tried to talk to…. like all those damn letters you kept on sendin’…and then they stopped comin’," Charles voice trailed away at the end into some mutter.

   Amelia leaned forward asking the soda fountain boy in the squeaky white hat and apron for a coffee.

   "Thank ya." She took the cup.

   "So, this is what we talk about, huh, Charlie? Ten years? Ten years and you come here to tell me about your disillusionments? Well, hell, Charlie, life is one big disillusionment, Charlie-boy. Buddy-boy, take this here town…one big stick in the mud with every decent man enlisted and shipped away. Everyday some poor fella gets it stuck to ‘im and I send another memo for the fat guy in the big office upstairs. I’m twenty-eight, wearing dime store red lipstick, and working my life away. I don’t know where the hell you’ve been, but after ten years, isn’t there something more to tell me than lost boyhood dreams? Isn’t there anything at all?"

   Charles looked at Amelia and pushed a stray hair back from her face.

   "Good ole Amelia." Charles smiled. "My sweet baby sister."

   "Oh, for cryin’ out loud, Charlie." Amelia crushed her cigarette in the ashtray before her.

   "There’s not much to say, Amelia. I just wanted to see ya, that’s all. You never really know how much you love someone until you can’t see ‘em anymore." Charles put his cup down with a clang on his saucer.

   The soda fountain boy glanced at their strained faces. He knew Miss Hooks. He didn’t know the man next to her. Not a very lively conversation anyway.

   Amelia paid the soda fountain boy.

   "Best be getting’ to the station." Charles pushed his hat down firmly on his head.

   "Where you goin’ now, Charlie?" Amelia walked out to the car with him.

   "Oh, I’ve got places to go, you know. Stay awhile here, stay there. It all goes pretty fast." Charles got in on the passenger side.

   "Why don’t you enlist, Charlie?"

   Charles did not say anything. She drove him to the train station, and watched him step up on the step.

   "Take care of yourself, Charlie-boy!"

   "Love ya, Amelia."

   Amelia waved, gloves in hand, and watched his back disappear into the dark train.

   Driving through the country, through the roads between high corn stalks all in high rows, she thought about Charlie. He’d always been the restless type. She’d hear from him in about ten years or so, if she didn’t read about him in the paper first. He ought a sign up and go over seas. He wasn’t much of a family, but she was all she had. She wished he’d find something worthy to do.

  She stopped at the mailbox and got her mail. The mailbox was so far down the road that she often forgot to get her mail for days. She drove up to the old farmhouse she called home, and parked. Once inside, she kicked off her shoes. She sifted through the mail, and suddenly froze.

   Before her, in her hand with the ruby nails, was a thin yellow paper. Amelia felt her mouth drop open as she read: "The United States Government regrets to inform you that Private Charles Daniel Hooks was killed in the line of action March 20, 1945 dutifully and honorably serving his country in the United States Army on the island of Iwo Jima, Japan."

   Amelia stared in disbelief. If Charlie had died on some island she couldn’t even pronounce, then who…Amelia dropped the yellow paper, Charlie’s words still echoing in her mind.