Sequel

I can't seem to figure out how to reverse the two posts here. It will make more sense if you read "An Explosion" first and then come back to this one. Thanks.

The school year had progressed without major disruption and spring arrived. The war continued. We lived with rationing of food and fuel and with shortages of necessities. Johnny had gone off to dodge the German torpedoes. School was somewhat of an oasis of calm. Another friend, also named John, and I went to work at a Boy Scout Camp for the summer. As senior year of high school started we were met by the realization “this was it! The boys of the class would be heading into the service soon after graduation. Reports were coming back of casualties among people from classes that graduated before us and the war seemed closer every day. Maybe that had something to do with what happened six weeks or so before the end of the year. I was in English class and there was a stir. Classmates were smiling and waving toward the door. I looked over and through that clear glass pane in the center of the door window was the scarred face of Johnny, grinning in at us. Without a thought several of us just got up and walked out the class. We had a noisy reunion in the hallway and then at our urging Johnny started recounting his adventures sailing to Russia and back. The class bell rang and we ignored it and the last class of the day. We hung with Johnny, our own personal veteran.

I had a pretty good academic record in high school. I think I have written before this that I left for college before high school ended. I was there when I got my final high school report card. The English teacher gave me a “C” for walking out of her class. With all that was going on in my life I didn’t care much. But I heard later that she caught hell from some of the other teachers for messing up my record. We all have our war stories.