It was
time to leave the place of my happy childhood and move on. How and to whom do I say goodbye? My home, my dreams, my memories had been turned into a huge pile of debris that still was smouldering. I desperately tried to find something in the ashes that used to be mine, all I found was a small stone, if it had survived the inferno, so will I, and slowly walked away. All I saw was devastation and broken dreams. There was nobody to say goodbye to, the garden was scorched, the house was gone, only a single white rose in the far corner of the garden had survived. I went closer to the rose, it spread lovely fragrance around me, I put some soil around it and just wished to stay and take care of it; the fire started to move closer and I had to leave quickly. Goodbye white rose, goodbye my home. I jumped over some cinder and ran toward the west. I don’t remember how I felt at that moment, how does a child deal in such a grave situation? The scenery had changed from happiness to desolation. All I still remember was that I tried to find the reason for all this, could not find any, can there be a reason to destroy? The ditches were filled with fallen soldiers and animals, how can there be a reason to take life away from the living? It started to turn dark, it never really turned dark, it couldn’t, the flames of the burning houses lit up the horizon. It felt like that horrible cruelty had taken over my world, my life and I was horrified by what I saw. I ran, ran and ran, I could not run away from the horror, it seemed like it held me in its morbid grip and will not let go! Where are my parents, where is everybody? I tripped over some broken ammunition and fell. The downpour and noise of the war woke me up. Another day had arrived, I had survived. The ditches were muddy and filled with sorrow, I must continue my track, my only wish was that, all wars could be erased, and never happen again.
