“Please Mom, I am hungry.”  A soft cry came from the back of the house. The sun had gone down hours ago. The bright moon exposed haunting images. A little girl was sitting in the far corner of the only room that was  not totally destroyed by the air attack. ” Who hurt my doll, why was my teddy bear scorched?” Why, why, why was the only question that Lara had left, everything else that she had had was taken away from her and she felt deep pain in her heart. It was Christmas Eve. Lara went to the window, the glass was broken, cold air filled the room. She called out: “Mother  where are you, I am so cold and hungry!” She ran toward the broken door and stumbled. “Mother! Get up, please get up, let us go and find Father!” Lara had found her mother, but she would not answer to her daughter,her heart had stopped, she was so silent, Lara thought she saw on her mother’s lips a prayer to save her little Lara. For a moment, she stayed motionless at her mother’s body, held on to her scorched teddy bear, placed it at her mother’s heart. “Sleep well Mommy, nobody will hurt you or teddy again.” Lara felt that her heart beat became louder and louder. “Is my heart breaking? Will my heart also be taken away from me?” She went back to the broken window, it was a starlit night, she started to count them.  “My goodness, there are so many of you. There must be many little girls like me out there counting stars, maybe if we count them all the war will be over and never, never come back. Are they also  hungry, and cold, are they looking for their Mommy?” Lara was sitting in the dark and wondering why are there wars, why are some people hurting others, why are they killing animals. She dozed off by the distant drumbeats of war, never finding the answer or reason, because there just is none. In a tiny corner of a demolished little house was only a sleeping little girl, a soft whisper: ” May there be peace on Earth one day and a real Merry Christmas for all.”