I reached 100 followers on my blog (now 114! You’re amazing!) and 200 followers on Twitter! So I’m celebrating by posting the prologue to my novel Brave Young Boys. Thank you so much to everyone who has followed and you can find out more about Brave Young Boys here.

Prologue

October 6, 2013

The rain fell in a steady downpour as the limo pulled into the gates of the church, the gravel crunching audibly beneath the tires. The car carrying the family pulled up behind the limo as the minister walked down the steps, umbrella in hand, to greet them. Stepping out of the car, Aimee was oblivious to the fact that her outfit was slowly becoming soaked through. Her husband stepped out behind her and opened their umbrella, holding it over Aimee’s head. The fresh October air bit at her face, but she didn’t seem to notice that either.
“Come on,” her husband said gently, “It’s time to go inside.” They walked up the steps and Aimee paused at the entrance to the church to turn back and watch as the men pulled the casket out the back of the limo.
“Mom,” her daughter said, “Mom we need to go sit down.” She turned back around and followed her family into the church. Taking their seats at the front, Aimee looked around. The church was full of people, many of whom were in uniform. She was actually surprised by the amount of people there considering they hadn’t advertised the funeral in any of the local papers. All of this was hard enough to deal with without the whole town knowing. She saw her sister, brother-in-law, niece, and nephew sitting in the pew across from theirs and her sister gave a small wave of greeting that Aimee did not return.
Music began playing and everybody stood as several more men in uniform entered the church, carrying the casket between them. They set it down at the front where it was surrounded by flowers.
Something grabbed the sleeve of her coat and she looked down to see it was Nathan. He was crying. She put her arm around her thirteen year old son, trying to draw comfort from the fact that he was still here with her. But she wasn’t sure if the closeness did much for either of them. Aimee looked around and saw a lot of people were crying. Not the men in uniforms though, they weren’t crying. They had no expression at all.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” the minister began and Aimee turned back to the front, “We are here today to the honour the too short life of a brave young boy…”

When the ceremony was over, everyone in attendance made their way outside. The rain continued to fall and the mud made the ground slippery beneath their feet. Nathan nearly fell over twice, and would have done had it not been for his sister grabbing his arm and keep him upright. Everyone gathered around and stood in silence as the casket was brought closer. As they lowered it into the ground, the music started again. She watched the soldiers line up and raise their guns in the air, firing three shots as the casket was lowered further into the ground.
Wait, no, they couldn’t do this. BANG! He was only eighteen, he couldn’t be gone now. BANG! He wasn’t gone, why were they holding a funeral for someone who wasn’t dead? BANG!
“No,” she whispered and her husband looked at her, “No please, not my son… Not Kyler…”

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