THE PEACEFUL SLUMBER

 “And there was nothing left to sight, nothing even so slight, as the noiseless flutter of a butterfly in flight….”

Once a beautiful village was now just a piece of barren land, which had nothing but ruins of houses that were once homes. Dead bodies of hundreds of men, women and children were all over the place. The smoke and the ashes had wrapped the whole village and in the horrifying silence and all that one could hear was the sound of bullets and bombs. Even the painful cries of the wounded were hushed now and it seemed that almost everyone in the village was dead.

Amidst all this sat a father with his four-year-old son in his arms trying to put him to sleep. Bullets were showered from all sides and the remaining few were running in all directions to save their lives but this man shall not move. He shall not move because his son was yet to sleep. The poor little thing had not eaten since last night and had not slept almost since the war began, so he had to put him to sleep now. This man had lost everything he had to this war and his son was all he was left with now. His wife was raped and then killed by the soldiers and his daughter got caught in a landmine. His house and his land became targets of air bombing.

He somehow managed to escape and save his & his son’s life. They spent the last night hiding in a stable but had to come out as the boy was starving. With his son in his arms he sat against a broken wall looking for some food somewhere but the pouring bullets made the task impossible. Trembling with fear he whispered in his sons ears “Don’t worry son, it’ll be all right. I’ll get you something to eat. You know I love you…” and kissed his forehead while tears went trickling down his cheeks.

Just then he saw a little piece of bread lying near a trashcan. “Hey, daddy is going to get you that piece of bread, don’t move from here till I come back…ok….”, he placed his some against the wall and escaping the bullets ran to get the bread. Hiding behind the trashcan he tried to get hold of the bread, he could see his son sitting by the wall smiling at him. He got hold of the bread and ran with it towards him. He reached there to find him sitting absolutely still yet smiling. He gave him the piece of bread but he didn’t take it and just stared into emptiness. He was dead.

A starving 4-year-old innocent was shot dead; a bullet from somewhere came and pierced his little heart. With hope in his eyes and a smile on his face, he kept waiting for his father to bring that piece of bread for him. The son who hadn’t slept for days was now asleep forever. One bullet, and a man lost his only hope, and a father lost his son. Someone’s freedom struggle cost this man his family.