But I Smile Anyway…

Linda’s #SoCS prompt this week:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “arm.” Use it as a word or find a word with “arm” in it. Have fun!

” ‘Armless fun, that’s all it was, honest Guv!”

Pete sunk onto the curb as the policeman stood there, staring down at him, a look of pure disgust spreading across his face.

His colleague was scribbling notes into his little pad of paper, whilst a third officer was consoling an old gentleman.

Around their feet lay a sea of red; scattered poppies that had been sat safely in a cardboard carrier that the veteran had been holding.

He hadn’t meant to scare the living daylights out of the man. Just a few toots of his motorbike horn, and a few circuits around him, then Pete had been intending on presenting him with the roll of notes that he and his mates had collected for The Royal British Legion.

How was he to know the trauma that the old soldier had lived through?

It hadn’t occurred to him that his horn may sound a bit like a siren blaring, and the roaring of his engine like the planes circling, before releasing the bombs.

How was he to know that all those years ago, this man had only arrived home on a 48 hour pass, minutes before his house was razed to the ground, taking all he loved from him.

How  was he to know, the anguish that veteran went through, trudging through the trenches, watching his comrades fall by the wayside.

But he did know.

Pete had only recently returned from Afghanistan.

He’d seen the horrors. He’d lived though the losses too.

His only saviour was that his family had been at home waiting for him, unlike that poor man who he had scared nearly half to death.

This was not how he had wanted to celebrate Remembrance Day…