Felix gamely mucked out a stall, clumsily moving the rake while holding onto his crutch. Cecily stared intently at Felix’s back, trying to get enough nerve to ask the question in her mind. Finally, it popped out. "What happened to Elbert, Felix? Where is he stationed?"
Felix felt the tears sting his eyes as he turned around. "Cess, don’t you know? Elbert was killed at the River Marne, by the same bomb that did all this to me."
Cecily looked like she was hit by a motorcar; she screamed, "NO!!" and ran from the barn. Felix didn’t know what to do; he watched as Cecily ran across the fields of newly fallen snow, but knew he was in no condition to catch her. Felix sighed and shook his head, and went back to his chores with Daniel trailing behind him in blissful ignorance; his brother’s army cap perched proudly on his head.
When they finished, Felix headed back to the house, Daniel still following behind him. Daniel’s eyes lit upon a clump of snow, and he lifted it and threw it at Felix, hitting him squarely in the back. "Hey, what did you do that for, you little imp!" cried Felix as he dropped his crutch and bent down to make a snowball and pitch it at Daniel. With the effort of the snowball fight, Felix had soon fallen over onto his side, and was rolling in the snow with Daniel, their voices raised in laughter, when Janet heard the scuffle and peered out the window.
"What is Daniel thinking, bothering Felix like that! Alec, go out there and stop them this instant!"
Alec put a hand on her shoulder and replied, "No, Janet – listen."
It was only then that it dawned on Janet that Felix was laughing for the first time since he got home, and she turned to smile at Alec. They watched as the scuffle stopped, and Daniel helped Felix find his crutch, now partially buried in a snowdrift.
Janet teasingly chided her boys as they came into the summer kitchen, "What were you two thinking? You’ll catch pneumonia with those wet clothes on. Go upstairs right now and change before I put you both over my knee."
"Yes, Mother," Daniel yelled as he ran up the stairs, trailing snow behind him. Janet turned to Felix as she helped him off with his coat. "What happened to Cecily?" queried Janet. "Don’t tell me you left her in the barn to finish all the chores?"
The question brought Felix crashing back to reality, and he replied in a soft, dejected voice, "She asked about Elbert, and I had to tell her of his death. Didn’t you know about it?" The answer to that was plain from the astonished looks on his parents’ faces.
"We had heard he only suffered a leg injury and that he was...he was coming back to Avonlea soon," Alec finished as he realized what must have happened. The army had somehow mixed up Felix and Elbert, and the Kings good fortune would end up being a tragedy for the Wertses, compounded by the fact that they were waiting every day for their son’s arrival back home.
"Oh Lord," said Janet as this fact hit her as well as it did Felix. "Somebody’s got to tell those poor people." Janet may not have been able to understand what Felix had gone through, but had only too much experience to be able to empathize with the Wertses.
"I’ll go," volunteered Felix, and when Janet protested that he was only just home himself and this would be too much for him, he added, "Don’t you see, it has to be me, I’m the only witness to how bravely Elbert fought and died."
"But I’ll go with you," offered Alec, and Felix nodded his assent. The pair went to the barn, hitched up the buggy and drove to the Werts farm, on the outskirts of Markdale.
"Felix?!?" exclaimed Philip Werts in surprise upon opening the door to the two King men. "How did you get back? I thought you..." A somber look crossed Mr. Werts’s face as he realized that Felix’s presence on his doorstep meant that Elbert would never be coming home.
"May we come in?" asked Alec, and Philip distractedly admitted him, while calling to his wife to come to the door. Edna Werts soon joined the men, wiping flour off her hands onto her apron.
"Do come in," she offered, unaware of the sad task that brought the Kings to her home, not to mention the oddity of Felix showing up at their door. Philip had never told her of the news of Felix’s death, as he thought it too upsetting for her. They followed her into the kitchen of the cramped, ramshackle home, and sat at the table, and she offered them some tea.
"Please, that’s not why we came," Felix interjected.
"But then what?" Edna asked as her husband put his arm around her and guided her into a seat.
"I think they have news of our boy."
It was only then that Edna really looked at the tragic expression on Felix’s face, and she knew the worst had happened. "Mr. Werts, Mrs. Werts; Elbert was the bravest soldier I knew, and he died that way," Felix explained simply, and he looked down in his lap, afraid to look at them.
The Wertzes held onto each other, and as tears poured down Edna’s cheeks, Philip said, "In my heart, this isn’t really a surprise. I had a horrible feeling about this."
Edna looked up at Felix and asked plaintively, "Tell me what happened, tell me everything."
Philip began to protest and Felix hoped against hope that he would prevail and quash his wife’s question, but Edna insisted. "I have to know, he’s my baby and I have to know everything about what happened to my Elbert in France".
Felix glanced desperately at Alec, but he could only shrug—he could understand Edna’s need for closure. Taking a deep breath, Felix started his story. Not a peep was heard from his rapt listeners.
"Elbert and I were sitting with the rest of our battalion in the trenches on the outskirts of the River Marne. We tried to stay calm by playing some cards, and we passed around a flask to help keep us warm—there was a chill in the night air. A messenger came through the lines and gave the captain the orders for us to advance." Felix looked directly at the Wertzes, "Elbert, I think...uh, he knew he wasn’t going to come back from this one. He asked that I come to see you, and I...I promised him that we’d come back here together." Felix’s voice broke at this point and Alec held him until he could go on.
Felix took hold of himself and continued, "We scrambled out of the trench, and there were bombs falling all around us. Elbert spotted some Germans to the right of us, one of whom was getting ready to shoot at us. Elbert was quicker and picked him off, which gave me a chance to lob off a grenade, which I think killed the rest of them. As we went further up, I heard Elbert shoot again, but the smoke was so thick that I couldn’t see what he aimed for, and I turned to him to find out what he was looking at. It was then that the bomb landed right behind him. I, I saw...I saw Elbert get thrown towards me. It’s odd, I didn’t feel the shrapnel hit me, all I saw was Elbert."
Felix looked at Edna in the eye, and she nodded that she wanted him to continue. "I crawled on the ground over to him, and I think he was in a state of shock. His last words were, ‘Felix, it’s so bright – I can see him!’, and then he was gone.
"Please believe me – I know he wasn’t in any pain," Felix concluded, and rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand as he heard Edna give a sorrowful cry. Felix looked at his father, who pulled his son’s head over and kissed his hair.
Philip stood and went over to Felix. "Thank you for telling us, and for staying with Elbert to the end. He couldn’t have had a better friend than you." To Alec, who had stood to express his condolences, Philip said, "Thank you for bringing Felix here, and for your sympathy. You’ll have to excuse us, we need some time alone." With that Philip clasped his wife in his arms, and Alec and Felix took their leave. It was a silent ride back to King Farm.
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