writing prompt: his brother Charles married soon after

This prompt was actually the title of a blog that was just updated on blogger. Unfortunately, it lead to a scam non-blog. On the other hand, I thought it made for a cool writing prompt, so here we go.

Albert, the eldest son, had already been married for a few years when the war broke out. Charles had been steadily seeing Marie, the mayor's daughter, for several months. He had been happy as a budding businessman in the small town of Oakville. Until he got the news, that is. He opened the letter with the news he'd been dreading at the kitchen table in his parents' home. He'd been drafted. That precipitated things. With the mayor's blessing, Charles married soon after, pledging his undying love to beautiful Marie. He left for the front lines only weeks later. He would never return, leaving Marie a grieving 19 year-old widow heavy with child. Marie herself would perish in childbirth, leaving young Charles James to be adopted by Albert and his wife Edith.

So much tragedy had befallen the family over such a short period of time. But with the country at war, they were only one of the hundreds of families who'd befallen similar fates. Widows, orphans, men who'd returned so changed as to be strangers to their loved ones, abject poverty, pangs of hunger - so many sorrows. Yet they soldiered on, convinced by their governmental leaders that these sacrifices were worthwhile, that liberty and life itself was at stake. They believed, and they suffered.

With Albert head of both a rapidly growing company and a large household, Charles a ghostly victim of the horrors of war, and Emily set to marry a wealthy neighbor, which would ensure the entire family's security, only Harold was left to ponder his uncertain future. A bout of polio had left him lame in the left leg, so the army wanted nothing of him. Such rejection had been a common theme throughout young Harry's life, and if he were to reveal his deep, dark secret, he would surely be disowned by the very people who raised and cared for him when he was ill. His parents were god-fearing people, and they could never be made to understand this desire he felt. No, there was simply no way to explain to them, for them to understand, that their youngest son felt an unnatural attraction to Jeffrey, the young man who lived down the street and worked at the bank.

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