When Farmer Oak smiled, the corners of his mouth spread till they were within an unimportant distance of his ears, his eyes were reduced to chinks, and diverging wrinkles appeared round them, extending upon his countenance like the rays in a rudimentary sketch of the rising sun…

“Come here George and let me tell you a story,” Farmer Oak said in a deep, raspy voice.

“Of course grandpa Oak,” I replied and walked slowly towards him as he took a seat in an old, worn our sofa. I took a seat on the wooden floor next to him and waited patiently for his loving grandfather to tell his tale.

“It happened so very long ago. In a time when there was no television, no ipods, no video games and no computers. It was the year 1915, the time of the great war World War one. At that time I was sixteen, just like you George and I was full of life. I always loved a great adventure in Bendigo – a good old bush bash or a swim in the old ‘Bungalow Creek’, but I never went alone cos’ I always had my best mate Paul Johnston with me.

Paul and me were the best mates in the world, everything was done together and it we rarely left each others sites. Everyone in Bendigo called us the two wonders. Everything was going great at that time, until June 28th 1914 when a horrible person named Princip assassinated the Arch Duke Frances Ferdinand and his wife, Duchess Sophie. Back in those days, it was uncommon for someone to be assassinated, let alone the royal family and was why this incident was so serious.

I still vaguely remember listening to the radio with Paul over breakfast and hearing the daily news.

“A war has broken out and Australia has been dragged into it because of her sister country England has entered too. Australia’s government is considering forced conscriptions, but…”

Everyone at the table was utterly stunned and my mother fainted. I must admit that I was scared and I embarrassingly wet my pants. The thought of a forced conscription was the worst of the news. My father was outraged and frightened at the same time. The worst thing I recall is Paul. His eyes were full of excitement and he said the words, “Let’s enlist.”

For days and weeks I watched everyone around me enlist. Soon, my neighbours, friends, relatives and worst of all Paul put their names up to go into the Great War. Those who did not enlist were regarded as cowards, even the young and the old were mocked if they did not go. With the mounting pressure, I myself decided that I had to enlist. Little did I know then, that this would be the biggest mistake in my entire life.