Treasures

Written for https://reinventionsreena.wordpress.com/2024/05/16/reenas-xploration-challenge-331/

Maurice never counted himself as a bourgeois person.

Hidden in his bedroom, he preferred tinkering with his miniature airplanes. His favourite period had to be the second world war. His grandad; a hero; flew in Spitfires. That’s what his grannie said. She showed him a blurry image RAF gunner, in a blue uniform. Battle dress included a parachute in case the plane suffered a hit.

Today was different; his first show and tell. He rummaged through a box of trinkets. A compass, flying goggles, an old bullet, a flight helmet, a medal and a hollow bullet.

Armed with his treasures, he placed his replica on top. It took him three days to build and paint his prized toy. He sat at the back of the classroom, reciting his speech, so he didn’t forget a word.

‘Next is Maurice.’

He strode up to the front of the class, his forehead clammy. A thunder of faces met his gaze, but he thought of the courage of his granddad. His last journey across the Atlantic Ocean. One he never returned from.

He picked out the George Cross and scanned the room. ‘This is my hero, and when my mummy was a baby, he went on a mission in a Spitfire.’ He held his model for all his classmates to see. Pride, not only in his achievement, but in the bourgeois name he inherited.