Juxtaposition
Jaeger and Hans sit, drawing at the table. Jaeger, in his determined, strong, slightly scratchy voice begins, “Bomb! Bomb! Bomb! Bomb! Bomb! Bomb! Hans! Look at all these circles! They are all my bomber’s bombs! Bomb! Bomb! Bomb! OH! Hans! I got your bomber! And all your swords are killed! I WIN! And you LOSE!”
Ilse sits on the floor in the living room, only a few feet away from the illustration of carnage. She can’t get her purple blanket straight enough to satisfy her. She lays her baby doll in the middle and carefully wraps her up. Then she says, “Oh!,” but in a soft, sweet, high-pitched voice very much unlike her brother’s concurrent OH! exclamations. She hugs her doll close, swinging her back and forth, smiling happily.
“See, Mom?” Hans brings me his drawing. It is full of stick men in many colors, this time with hats displaying different emblems. The good guys are the ones with crosses on their hats. I have learned that the straight lines show the path of the bullets in the war. Ah, he can now draw a decent-looking airplane. It is obvious it must be a bomber. There are straight lines coming down from it, and a big X at the end of the trail, crossing out one of the stick figures. “See what a big war it is?! But the good guys WON. See? These are the bad guys. They all have Xs on them. So the good guys won!”
I don’t know. Maybe Ilse does need a sister.
