The War

When I was a little child, seven maybe eight, Gulf War had just started, and my grandpa was still alive. He used to follow every little detail of the news, but as the war started, he watched the news anxiously.

I didn’t care so much, because I was too small to care. One day a rumour had it that we might have to go down to the shelter. Did we even have a shelter? My mom whispered, “But the whole apartment?” She had been wondering but I didn’t care, because I was too young to care, and I was assuming that all these things were just a play. Who knows, for the first time, I would have been with my friends at night, sleeping together, eating together… That was the news for me.

That didn’t happen, thankfully. I can use that word now. But it was then a huge disappointment for me.

I didn’t get the meaning of war. Was it just for soldiers? Could it hurt the children? I kept hearing the names of the countries, Iraq, the USA… Were they even close to us? We hadn’t come to that part yet in the school.

My grandpa was watching the news. He yelled at the TV: “They are bombing!” I turned my head to the screen; I couldn’t see anything but the green lights. What was that supposed to mean? Was that the war?

I assumed the things I had seen on the screen didn’t affect me at all for many years. In fact, they had affected me, very deeply.

I grew up and turned into a young lady. One night, I had a terrible nightmare. In my dream, I was looking out the window, all were in darkness and the only thing I could see in the sky was the green sparkle. They came to us, came with their bombs, their guns, and their tanks. No one could survive.

I woke up in tears. I was then safe, but what about the future?

My entire childhood had been passing by admiring the USA. I always dreamed about seeing New York City, roaming in Central Park, going to Broadway … etc. I didn’t even know that it was the country to be responsible for the whole blood in this area. I couldn’t know. It was a dream country for me.

I'm wiser now. I have seen many terrible things. There is nothing such an American dream at all. And there is no mercy to the weak one. There is only one thing that is substantial for me and that is a free world where the children don’t care and daydream all the time.