Archive of Our Own ^beta

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Raymond Williams was 30 years old when he was in the army, he was one of the few black men to actually stay in the army for a couple of years.  Ray was a funny, kind, poetic kind of guy, back in New Orleans everyone knew him for his lively songs.

You could never go a day without hearing him play his banjo on his porch, his voice brought everyone together no matter the circumstances, kids around the neighborhood would call him uncle Ray and nothing could bring down the happy mood, until the government was calling for men to war and Ray was one of them so before he left to be transported to one of the bonkers everyone in the neighborhood made a big going away party just for him and the others, and instead of crying they wanted make everything happy. Ray could never forget what his Mawmaw told him before he left, 

“Now Ray, don't be going over there showing out in front of these white folk, you better survive and come home, ya here?” said his Mawmaw while she fixed up his uniform and kissed his cheek with tears rolling down her dark eyes and then a honk was heard. “I won’t Mawmaw, I gots to go.” Ray said before hugging her and walking out the door as he headed towards the car that held the other black men, He looked back and saw that the light on the porch was off so he yelled, “Oh Mawmaw your light off!” She came outside and turned the porch light on and waved him off. 

Everyone then came out of the house and waved the Ray and their men off, they were yelling their goodbyes and Ray yelled, “TELL ANGELA I SAID BONJOUR!” That was his little joke, and then they were gone. It had been 3 months since then, Ray was finally getting used to not being home and after a few hours they would be going to France, “Ay Ray, do you want that?” Ray shakes his head a little and focuses on his friend Louis, “yeah sorry man, I was just thinking.” Louis grabbed the cornbread from Ray’s box and gobbled it down like an alligator. Louis was a sweet, buff, and very talent player, his dream was to be the best trumpet player in the world but that dream fell short when his trumpet was destroyed by the police back home but that's a story for another time.

Once lunch was over Ray and the others grabbed what was needed and got into the car that was supposed to take them to the docks, “Do you think it would be better in France than here?” Asked Louis with a hint of worry in his voice. “Well I don’t know man, we will have to find and see.” Said Ray as he patted Louis’s hand in reassurance, it had been 2 hours for finally they had made it to the dock where the ship to France had just arrived and other soldiers were  boarding. Yet somehow they had the boat segregated; the whites were on the first to second floor while the blacks were on the lowest part of the ship, Ray wasn’t surprised by this; they have always been treated like vermin and disgusting creatures, and he hoped someday that would change.

The ship was off, Ray and his fellow soldiers helped out on the ship because the white soldiers were no help and thought that they didn’t have to do “slaves work” Ray rolled his eyes at that comment, slavery was over and had been over for years now it didn’t really make since that they were still seen as slaves, but decided that it wasn’t worth arguing about so he just listened and did what he was told. “Hey Ray what do you think French food taste like?” Asked Louis, you could see in his face that he was just thinking about all the food in the world.

”I don’t know Louis, I do know you need to get back to work.” Said Ray while dumping the dirty water into the ocean, “ aww come on Ray we been working for ages now let’s take a break,” Louis said while sitting on the freshly moped deck and took a piece of bread from his pocket. “Louis! Where the heck did you get that from?!” Ray whispered yelled as he practically ran over to him.

“Huh? Oh I got this from the supply room earlier.” Said Louis with a satisfied tone as he ate the bread piece by piece. “You know you could in trouble for stealing from there.” Ray said while he watched Louis eat the bread, but Louis just shrugged and kept eating. “Well, Well, what do we have here, to niggers slacking and stealing while working.”

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“Now we don’t want any trouble, do we Louis?” asked Ray, as he got up from floor slowly grabbing Louis’s arm pulling him up from the ground, Louis with his mouth full of bread and trembling in fear replied, “y-yeah we don’t want any trouble.”

“Well that's too damn bad boy, you no good porch monkeys been stealing shit from us for years, y'all luck yous fellow soldiers, or else I would tip you overboard,” said the white man, who seemed to be the leader of the group, with a look of disgust looming over his face, “ALL SOLDIERS TO THE FRONT OF THE SHIP!” someone yelled, “you lucky this time boys but next time we catch you stealing and slacking off there's going to be trouble, am I understood?” said the leader, “Yes sir,” said Louis and Ray with their heads down in submission, and the group of white men walked passed them while purposely bumping their shoulders against theirs.

Time passed and they finally made it to France, they were welcomed with hospitality. They had separate cars waiting to take the soldiers to the base where they were staying for the time being, and when they finally got there they were separated by black and white, the white soldiers got the more clean and sturdy bunker while the black soldiers had gotten the old and rusted bunker, which was no surprised for Ray, “even here we are treated like dirt at the bottom of their feet, “ Louis said sadly while making his bed, “hey, why don’t we go explore the city.” said Regi or that’s what he says to call him, no one really knows his real name except the people who selected him to be in the army.“Yeah thats sounds like a good idea, I mean it's not everyday you travel to a different country.” said another black soldier on the left of ray excitedly, “I also saw a bar on the way here.” said Louis and that was the last straw for everybody, they all agreed that they were going to the city to explore and drink and maybe fined a lover or a one night stand. “What about you Ray, you also going?” asked Louis with one eyebrow raised and eyes begging for him to say yes, “fine I’ll go but just this once and as long as we don’t get caught.” Louis cheered when he heard Ray say yes and they all got ready and went and snuck out to get the car that brought them to the bunker.

Once they found it and were able to get the keys without anybody hearing or noticing them they were off to the city, it took 5 minutes for them to reach the city and it was worth it, they saw all the pretty lights, from afar the Eiffel tower, and all the fine babes on the streets. “There it is, the bar I was talking about, “ said Louis excitedly, Regi pulled up to the bar and parked on the side of the street, once they made sure they looked good they all got out of the car and headed into the bar, and they saw white and black people talking with each other and shaking hands.

“Well this surprising to see, never in my life have I thought I’d see white people and negros mix with each other,” Regi said with wonder and they all spilt separately and did what they wanted. Dancing, drinking, smoking, gambled a little, they were having so much fun that they wish it was like this back home. On the other hand, Ray had stepped out and decided he wanted to explore parts of the city, ‘they won’t notice that I’m gone, I’ll be back before it's time to leave,’ Ray thought while looking at the buildings in wonder. After a while of walking

he notice he was farther away from the bar than he intended to be, he was about to turn around when he bumped into someone, “Regarde où tu vas idiot!” said the person on the ground angrily, Ray quickly helped the person up and once he got a good look at the person he realized it was a woman,” uh-uh,désolé madame, Je ne voulais pas vous croiser” said ray nervously and tried to dust her off but his hand was quickly slapped by a small and very soft hand. “Ne me touche p-!” yelled the woman, but she stopped when she looked into Ray’s dark eyes, then and there she knew he was the one for her. They stared at each other for what felt like hours to them but it was only 2 minutes, Ray thought the woman was beautiful, she had an olive skin tone, deep brown eyes that commanded respect, thick cupid bow lips, lightly arched eyebrows, dark brown curly hair that seemed to go down her back, thick but not too thick hips, cultish legs, and a beauty mark on the top of her left eyebrow. He was amazed by her, Ray didn't really believe in love at first sight but now he thought it was true.

"Ahem, bonjour, je suis Ray, et vous êtes?" Ray asked, once the woman realized Ray was talking to her she finally responded, "Je Suis Évangéline."