4/12- Hope- Our Friend The Dove

Contemporary

"Mum?" Kieran shivered as he was wrapped in his mother's scarf, and Tom was wrapped into his Dad's.

Tears glistened Mum's eyes, but her smile stayed strong, even as her voice faltered through the gentle, "Yes, my boy?"

The twins huddled between their parents, hiding their faces into their thin clothes. Kieran continued, blocking Tom's ears with his gloved hands, "We're not going home are we?"

They were waiting for their car to be inspected, to see if they'd be one of the few who get to drive themselves across the border, and take more of their stuff. With the news that they would be, in fact, taking a cramped bus with tens of other people, Dad's shoulders fell and Mum made a little 'oh' sound. Kieran and Tom looked up to their parents, waiting for the next instruction.

The family was shoved into not a bus, but a van; a rickety old van, which smelled not-so-faintly of sickness and misery. Tom gagged, Kieran backing away as much as he could, but getting stopped by crashing into mum.

"Don't move, boys. There's too many people." They each were allows one medium-sized bag. Which Mum and Dad had seemed to know beforehand, because they had told the twins to pack all the most important stuff into one bag. And to stuff it real good. They held their bags in their laps for the whole 22-hour journey.

The van/bus stinks worse the longer they sit there. And it's hot. But it's too cramped to take their coats off, thought Tom gave it his best shot.

It was so, so cramped. Every hour for the first six hours, more people got on. There wasn't even room for your lungs to expand. That is, if you wanted to breathe in the least oxygenised and most musky air by the lungful. Tom was trying to breathe as little as possible, but every few minutes, it made him pant, then cough, causing everyone to look at him.

He shrunk behind Kieran, who kept a protective arm around him. As if that could save the pair. Tom nudged his head against Dad, staring out of the window at the rising sun. A little white bird was flying next to the van, swooping and flapping its wings. But then Tom closed his eyes, and when he finally opened them hours later, the bird was gone.

*

Their next stop was standing outside in the cold for far too long. It was like dipping into the sea during a very hot summer's day. Except, much more unpleasant. They were waiting for their passports to be checked, so they could hopefully board the ship. But everyone there spoke another language, so all the family could do was hold onto each other, as if for dear life, and follow the crowd.

A small shelter was above them, made of clear plastic so that Tom could see the rain pattering above them. Kieran followed his gaze, and they both stared up, mesmerised by the rain as if they had never seen it before.

When they looked down again, Mum and Dad were gone.

Tom blinked repeatedly. "D-dad?" he whispered.

"Mum?" Kieran took Tom's hand so they wouldn't get separated. How is it possible that over forty people disappeared without them noticing? Kieran's legs shook slightly, and he breathed deeper so his brother wouldn't hear his pounding heart, screaming that they're lost forever.

"They wouldn't leave us, would they?" Tom asked, staring upwards again. Kieran had heard stories of parents leaving their kids in places like these, because they were too much baggage to carry. But Mum and Dad wouldn't do that. They must have gotten swept away by the crowd or something. There had to be an explanation.

"We'll find them. Let's ask someone." Kieran took Tom to the small desk, where they waited for someone to appear on the other side. And they waited. And waited.

Poor Tom, unsurprisingly, got bored quicker than any other kid probably in the history of boredom, and gazed into the sky again. His screams filled the cold winter air. Not out of horror, which Kieran only realised after jumping back in fear of what was attacking them. Nothing, it turned out. Tom's words became clear after a moment, as he started running around Kieran in circles, arms outspread like a bird.

"Dove! Dove! The Dooooooooove.... has come to heeeeeelp!" The words becoming clear is not equivalent to them making sense. "Doooooove!" He screamed again.

"What?" Kieran shook Tom by the shoulders. "Did someone hit you in the head when I wasn't looking?"

"No." Tom giggled and pointed in the sky. "Dove!"

And there it was. The Dove's wings glimmered in the dimming sun as it did a couple of flips, and cooed and cooed an angelic melody. Show off.

To Kieran's surprise, Tom was running, not around him, but off into the distance. He was running after the Dove. The Dove who kept gliding and chirping. And Kieran was chasing after Tom.

"Wait! Don't get--" Kieran was cut off by Tom ducking under some security barrier. "Ah!" he sighed in frustration, doing the same. But Tom was already out of his sight.

"Kier! Kier!" Tom squealed from behind him, appearing out of nowhere. He was bound to give Kieran a heart attack one of these days. "Boat!"

Kieran sighed the biggest sigh of relief you'd ever heard when he spotted the ship, bobbing on the sea.

The boys began running again, closer and closer to the ship. The closer they got, the more the figures heading towards them were familiar.

Mum and Dad. Mum reached them first, scooping them each in an arm. "My boys, my boys, my boys. How lucky you are." She kept hold of them as Dad also hugged them. "They weren't letting any kids on board. And we were so worried. They had. Taken you." Her sobs interrupted her sentences.

"We're fine!" Tom screamed, right in Dad's ear. Ouch.

"But if no kids are allowed on board, what about us?" Kieran added thoughtfully.

"You're already past that gate." Dad pointed to where the Dove had led them just moments ago. "According to them, you passed the check."

"My boys." Mum kept whispering as she finally lowered them.

"Don't let go this time." Dad took Kieran by the hand, and Mum held Tom's.

So, the family stepped into a whole other place. It wasn't home. They would likely not get home for a very long, long time. But this new place would become home. At least for now.

Thank you for reading. I hope you got a little Christmas joy from this story. Here, for anyone who wants it, is the maintenance.

If you enjoyed this story, please, please, please (I can add a cherry if necessary) like, comment, rate and share. It really helps me out and allows others to see these (hopefully decent) stories. Thank you, and Merry Christmas.