Ringing Belles

Family. It was never normal. Well, sure it might seem normal, but it never really was. At least mine wasn't. We were a loud and explosive bunch. Underneath the carefully constructed layer of a close-knit group, every family really was dysfunctional.

But that was then. That was when it was all right to say your feelings, though most never did. That was long before the darkness came. Long, long ago, when I was young.

My name you ask? Belle. At least, it used to be. But, then they use numbers to identify me. I was Four-Three-Three-Five-Seven. Not one of the first - but not one of the last. Just in the middle. Smack dab in the middle. Just like almost all of the rest. I didn't stand out. I was surrounded my millions like me... Yet, I was alone.

I was special. Everyone from my village knew it. They didn't know what it was exactly, but then again, no one did. Well, I always had the notion that Kale did, but I could never be sure. He went away often when we were young, and I didn't see him for years at a time. It was strange to think that I missed him. - Especially because he always used to tease me. Not horrible teasing, though... It was almost friendly in a way. It reminded me of how my family teased me.

He left at the middle of the war. And as far as I knew, he didn't come back. But I didn't know very much. I knew he hadn't served in our army, and that he had disappeared. I worried that the Nazi's had gotten him - That he had been taken away. I hoped he hadn't. I hoped he would live.

The day before he left, a cold crisp November morning in 1944, he told me to remember him. Remember him before anything else, so that no matter what, he would live on in the mind of someone else. That night I wondered why he asked me that. I thought maybe he was going to war, but he never did - at least as far as I knew. The next morning no one could find him. I understood what he why he asked, but I always questioned... why did he choose me? I never knew.