Around house and yard in the am, To Victoria in pm, picked 2 buckets of blackberries then to Greek-fest with M and the Todds. (Lamb chops and salad).
\Played scrabble in the evening and stayed over night. Got home about 10 am.
16C and overcast at the moment.

  I could invent or imagine what may have happened to the family, but logic suggests that if they were ‘successful’ in returning that with change of political climate their presence would not have been encouraged.

  I do believe that with the will of the two elder Pearce’s devoted to healing both body and spirit that they found their way to a place where they could once again carry out the duties that they believed they had been called to do.

  As for the children, I can see Jean, so much like her mother, marrying a missionary and carrying on in her mother’s footsteps. I can even surmise that young Mary would have followed that life as well.

  John and Margaret, I don’t think so. Their personalities were sunny and exuberant, there spirits needed adventure and I would be prepared to believe that if they survived they would have chosen different lives. I hope that John made it to the Gold Coast but also hope he didn’t wait too long for me as I never got there. But most of all I hope that they survived and if they did I hope they have amended Mrs. Pearce’s philosophy to these words: “Look ahead, the future lies that way, but never forget what is behind you, the past is why you are where you are today.”

Footnote: I did sometime later write a sequel to this story of the Pearce family. I have reproduced it on here before but will now do so again. The sequel is straight out of my imagination and I allowed it full rein so I didn't know how the story would end until I typed the last word. I'll start it here today.

This story is a quasi sequel to my short story, “DON’T LOOK BACK”.

That story was a mix of truth and fiction – truth from my memories of the Pearce family at Pender Harbour, but fiction from my mind so that I could make a complete story.

However it has bothered me for close to 65 years that I never knew what became of my friends. Or perhaps better said, what was their fate?

I finally realized that I hadn’t written a complete story and that is what “Mission Bound” is about.

This is a work of fiction except for the couple of references to letters between John and myself.

I could have gone down a different path late in the story but chose to follow the path of probability.

John Little

Mission Bound

Chapter 1

  The boy looked over the rail of the ship, he was careful to keep his head averted so that neither his parents nor his sisters could see the tears that threatened to spill out and down his suntanned cheeks. He could still make out his friend waving vigorously from the shore. He returned a single wave that was perhaps more like a salute than a wave.

  The last few days had been tumultuous, at first when they got the word that they would be leaving the harbour that had been their home for the last few years, the whole family was excited. Then as the consequences of moving away settled in, John (that was his name) become sad and despondent, his sister Margaret followed suit although being four years younger her frame of mind fluctuated widely, from tears one moment to excited laughter the next. However his other two sisters, Jean his twin and Mary, Margaret’s twin showed little remorse and in fact constantly demonstrated their happiness in bubbly ways contrary to their usual natures. His mother was neither sad nor happy as far as he could tell but there was more spring in her step and she seemed more animated than usual. His father, well his father appeared to waver between the two extremes.