The Pool

Questions swim around unanswered in my head. I don’t know exactly what I came back here to search for, what I hope to find in the ruins of this city. This lake right here used to be filled with wonders and magic. And now it’s just a little pool of dirty water; dull and lifeless like everything else. There is nothing left here, everything is gone, even the birds have fled. I wonder if they will come back, I wonder if I would ever hear them sing here again. A cool breeze touched softly on my face. I sat there watching the misty red of the sky as twilight thickened into darkness. I heard a merest whisper. And silent sounds lapped like waves in my head, stirring the memories of years gone by. The stillness seemed to echo around me. A murky vision of the past lurks in my head, like a shadow casting down on me. I became aware of the sharp presence of my memories and the blurring of the present. I felt the sensation as if I was reliving the past. Deep in my mind I can see a flashback, clear and vivid like it was only yesterday...

 

It was a cloudless day, up high the sun blazed down, its rays burning the atmosphere. The bell rang and the children burst out of their classrooms, into the exhausting heat of a summer’s afternoon. The noise level rises to a crescendo; the children’s chitchatting took over the silence of the awaiting parents. It seemed to be even nosier than usual seeing it was the last day of school. Children ran around wildly excited at the thought of the summer holidays ahead. The big kids jumped onto their bikes and rode circles around the schoolyard before speeding home. I saw my dad and hoped right into his arms, he lifted me up and put me onto his shoulders, we went home laughing together.

Spiraling down the stairs to childhood I remember no where could possibly be higher than my dad’s shoulders. I remember the safety of his arms. No where else in the world could be any warmer. But later on I realize that even my dad’s arms can’t protect me. And I would never be able to feel completely safe again.
After dinner, all the children from the neighborhood would go to the lake to have a clean, like they do every night. Their mothers went there to wash the clothes. The children’s laughter is mixed with the gossiper’s curious voices and the night bird’s song. We played happily in the lake under the stars.

The lake was where I had the some of best times in my life. Times so happy they were painful to remember. Hours upon hours of endless water fights and made-up games filled with laughter and joy. I thought that this would last forever. Obviously I was wrong because that night was the end of my happy days. That night was different. Not because it was the start of the holidays. Not because we decided to play water polo instead of the usual underwater scarecrow. But because something dangerous and unexpected was going to happen. Something occurred that night that was going to be written down in history.

A loud siren sounded in the middle of our game and interrupted the women’s chitchat and the bird’s song. A voice spoke over the town’s speakers telling everyone to stay calm and evacuate the city immediately. My mother found me in the moving crowd, she took my hand and hustled me along, and then she told me everything was going to be fine. But her eyes told me a different story. I knew something was wrong, very wrong. The birds knew it too; they flew away in a rush rather ungracefully.

Everything was chaotic. Everyone was leaving, running to get away, running for their lives. Then flying machines came and raided the sky, shooting down randomly. A bullet blasted past me with horrifying speed and force, the kid next to me fell down into the water. Shots were being fired at a regular rate, one person after another.

That was the first time I witnessed death. The terrifying vision still stay with me up until this day, blood spreading in the lake, infecting it with a colour of death, gradually turning it into a pool filled with blood.
So that was vaguely what had happened. I didn’t understand any of it through my confused young eyes. Everything after that is a blur, a faint memory. But the precious memories of the times I had at the lake with my friends, the warmness of my dad’s arms, I will never want to let go of. And the pool filling up with blood, the intense red of innocent lost lives -I could never be able to forget.

It’s weird, being here after all these years, all these years of the war. The war had changed me, converted me into a totally different person. Grown up, serious and alert. It showed me what it was like to be cold and hungry. Most of all what it was like to be scared. But in some ways the war had taught me a lot about life. It gave me courage. Despite the bombs that we had to run from, the invaders that took over our country and wrecked our homes, life goes on for me.

The sky is now dark; the color of the dirty water is no longer visible. The stars sparkled in the black night sky. The moon had risen, glowing as brightly as ever. The water glistened, reflecting the pearly light and the shadow of a gnarled tree. Well, the pool before me is still the lake filled with magic and wonders. It will always have the happy memories of the playing children. After all, just like us, it has too, suffered from the war. The war has taken its peace and calmness.

The city will be repaired. The homes will be rebuilt. Like a scar, the traces of the war will fade with time, but it will still remain there forever. The lake will always contain blood of the dead. It is absorbed in the earth’s soil and will be there forever. I will go on with my life and eventually my broken heart will be mended. But if you look closer the pain will still be there in my eyes. All the innocent children that have suffered could never have their childhood again.
People watch the news on TV and feel bad when they show pictures of wars, famines or floods. They’d sit there feeling sorry for the people they saw for a while, and after that they’d forget about it.

I think I have found the answers that I am looking for. I can’t change my past; I can’t help my friends that have died. But I can sure change the future. I am lucky enough to have survived, and I am grateful to fate for it. If I have anything it is that a life is precious, I have the chance to live and I’m going to have my say in the world. My opinion will be heard. I hope one day no child from anywhere in the world would have to ever live in fear. I hope they can receive the same chances and opportunities, I hope for equality between the nations.
I sit there beside the pool, enjoying the freshness of the air. Then I spotted something, a movement in the sky. The birds have fluttered back, they have too, come home; they land on a tree. A survivor of the trees. And they begin to sing their night song.