Chapter 19

A Chapter by Keevan

I sat against the station smoking a cigarette as I waited for the Elrics. The colonel never specified what time I should be there, but I suspected I was early.

The radio in my back pocket went off.

I pushed the button.

"Lucy, where the hell are you?" Edward shouted. I couldn't reply back. I just held out the radio so the sound of the trains and people could transmit through the radio. I brought it back next to my ear.

"Oh, you're at the station," he said, cooling down. "Al and I will be there in a few minutes, just hang tight, okay?" I nodded, it occuring to me that he couldn't see, and sighed. I released the button and put the radio back in my pocket, waiting for Edward and Alphonse.

The picture and the book page felt like lead weights in my pockets. The word Homunculus bounced around in my mind in a blinding fury, letting me know that a migrain was in store for me.

"Hey, lady, are you okay?"

I lifted my head and saw a little girl looking ar me. She looked about two, with her hair up in pigtails. Her eyes were filled with curiosity.

I nodded, and said, "Promise me, kid, that you'll never smoke, and that you'll never join the military." My voice sounded hoarse, and it kind of hurt to speak.

But, she nodded and said, "Don't worry! I won't!"

"Stephany!" a woman called as she ran over and grabbed the child's arm. "Don't bother the homeless!"

.....Homeless?

Well, she was kind of right, in a way.

"I'm sorry, mommy," the little girl said. "Sorry, homeless lady!" And the woman dragged the child into the station, lecturing her about talking to strangers. I winced as ash from my cigarette fell onto my hand, and I felt pleased that I was somehow feeling physical pain again.

This could be good for me.

______________________________________________________________________________

I kept my head down most of the train ride to Resembool.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Alphonse asked me after the silence had gone on long enough. I looked up at Edward and Alphonse, who were both staring at me. I could kind of see worry in Edward's eyes.

I nodded, and remembered the picture in my pocket. Should I show it to them?

I took it out and held it out for them to see.

"Remember...this?" I asked quietly, my voice still raspy. It still hurt to talk. Edward took the photo and said, "I...think I remember this. Lucy, is that you in the picture?" I nodded and said, "The little one."

Alphonse leaned over and looked at the picture.

"Hey, I think I remember that day!" he said.

"You were like, 5, Al," Edward said. "I was older than you, and I don't remember this."

When he said that, I thought my heart cracked.

Stand next to me, Lucille!

His words from that memory floated in and out of my mind. Was it false? Or so insignificant that Edward couldn't remember it?

"Brother, it happened because that's definately us," Alphonse said as pointed to the two smiling blonde boys in the picture.

"And see?" Alphonse said. "Those girls are Serah and....and..."

"Lucille," I said quietly. The boys looked at me, then pack at the picture, then at me again.

Edward was about to say something when the conductor announced, "Just about to pull into the Resembool Station. Please collect your bags and other personal belongings."

I stood up, grabbed my bag, and silently walked to the front of the train.

Edward had never cared. Neither had Alphonse. They used to be my friends, Edward used to have a silly school-yard crush on me, but it wasn't real.

That picture was false, in my mind. That memory never existed.

That's what I want to happen, anyway.

______________________________________________________________________________

We got off the train and almost silently walked down a path covered with nothing but grassy fields on either side of us.

This looks so familiar, I thought.

Alphonse and Edward were walking a few feet ahead of me. They would comment about something every once in a while, but that was it. I stopped once to light a cigarette and got scolded by an old woman who didn't want her lungs to die because of the second-hand smoke.

So smoking was out. What fun this little trip was going to be.

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