out a dusty window

As she looked out the cracked, dust-caked window, she dragged the healed stump of her arm back and forth along the window ledge. Her other arm, the good one, which had been her off-hand until she'd had the other hacked off by one of the local war lords, that was propping her chin up as she watched all of the trucks going by. Before, she would have ducked down, ducked and hid, a loose panel in the wall hiding a hole that she and her sister could fit inside. They wouldn't need to anymore. There'd be no use for that room but a hiding place for games.

Every so often, a truck would stop, the dust trail it was leaving plumbing out behind it for a moment then drifting off in the lazy breeze. It would let people off. Men, boys, none of them carrying guns anymore. In fact, there was a new job market out there. Her mother was currently someplace in town, where the guns were being brought. Brought to be dismantled, so the metals and other things could be used for other things. Melted down and put into buildings, or other resources. The war machine was grinding to a halt here, but new ones were starting up in it's place.

One more truck pulled to a stop, and like she did each time, she sat up straighter, peering out. Her brother was due home. She didn't know exactly when, but sometime. Their father was gone, long gone, really, and while she'd once had a little brother, she didn't anymore. it was just her, her sister, her mom and her brother, and she wanted the family all together now that it was all over. That it had to be all over.

Smiling as she saw him, she laughed, turning immediately to dash for the front door, beads in her braided hair clacking slightly as she did so. Running full tilt outside, she called to her sister. "He's home!!" Her big brother was home...peace had come to them, and now their lives could start over.