Flashback: Baby Widow

I remember the day that Kathleen passed her driving test. We drove through Annie's village. It was a year after she got married. She was eight months pregnant at the time. She was sobbing by the tree that she warned us to stay away from.

"Hey!" I said to my sister in the front passenger seat. "Should we pull over?"

"What for?"

Tapping the window with my plastered arm, I could hear Annie's crying from the other side of the road. "It's our cousin and she's crying. Where's Harry? Why isn't he doing anything about it?"

Kathleen pulled over outside the local newsagents on the end of the road. She looked at me and me alone, taking no effort to glance over at Annie. "Harry's dead. Went to Iraq to fight and came back in a coffin."

"He's a brave man..." A click of the red button and my seatbelt flied away. My hands went for the door handle, but it Kathleen locked it with a press of a button. I shook the door handle only for Kathleen to slap my hand. "What was that for?" I asked.

"Don't play with my door like that."

"I only wanted to go out."

She stroked my hair, or what little I had of it back then. She could never stay angry for long. "Oh sweetie, why do you want to go outside."

"We should go and check if she's, all right?"

Kathleen shrugged her shoulders. "She'll be fine. Now belt up and let's go home."

"We can't leave her like that."

"She's just seeking attention like she always does."