After the war

Chapter 1 : The end

- "...The President officially announced it this morning: after eight years, the peace treaty has been signed four days ago, June 17th, 2034. The war is over..."

The woman was listening to her radio with attention, not believing it. After all this time, eight years of war, peace would come back. It was too good to be true; she had waited for this moment to happen for so long that it seemed so unreal. The woman started when she heard her door being kicked opened. A tall and skinny young white man with messy brown hair was standing there.

- "Have you heard the news!?" he asked, panting.

- "Sssh," she answered.

She made movements with her hand to tell him to come with her before turning up the volume of the radio. The young man sat at the table, in front of his mother, and listened carefully to the radio. None of them were satisfied by what they were listening to, the radio presenter kept talking about the peace treaty, but it wasn't what they wanted to know.

- "Is he coming back?" the man asked with tears in his eyes.

- "I don't know, they don't want to tell us!" the mother answered with an upset tone, gritting her teeth.

They had the right to know, after what they had done to them years ago. Destroying families and not giving them any news for seven years, and now that it was over, they still couldn't know. It wasn't fair, they had suffered enough because of them.

She stood from her chair and went to her living-room to try with the TV, to see if she could have more information. She knelt in front of the TV and switched it on. There were only 6 channels, and all of them were talking about the peace treaty.

- "They would have called, right? If he was..."

- "Jonathan, come here."

The man stood from his chair and joined his mother in the living-room. The woman turned to him and placed her hands on his cheeks with a warm smile on her face.

- "He is alive. You know him, he is very brave, and he is the best to hide. I'm sure he will be home soon."

Jonathan sniffed and nodded, wanting to believe it too. He sat on the couch with his mother and turned up the volume of the TV to hear what they were saying. The President was doing his speech to explain all the measures he took and how the peace treaty had been signed. But at no moment he was talking about the soldiers. The woman was boiling inside her; it was like if nobody was caring about them. They did all the job! They deserved recognition, more than the ones who began the war.

- "Look at him, he is so proud of himself. Clown."

Jonathan had an amused and sad sigh. He didn't seem ashamed of what he did, Jonathan wanted to punch him so hard for breaking his family and all the other families. The woman grabbed her son's arm when she heard the word "soldiers" coming from their President's mouth.

- "...our federal hospitals have been taking charge of our soldiers for three days now. Military cars will bring them back home once their recovery over. I heard that some of them were already on their way to home. For the soldiers who gave their lives for the country, the families should receive a call soon. If your son or daughter or another member of your family have disappeared, I invite you to go to the closest police station which will give all the information you need to know."

The mother switched off the TV, her other hand still grabbing her son's arm. They stayed silent, not sure if they were happy or not.

The phone rang. Their hearts stopped. It couldn't be true, not after all this time. She let go Jonathan who was holding his tears and slowly went to the phone, not knowing how as her legs were shaking. She even thought they would give way. She put her hand on the receiver but didn't answer. She wasn't ready. But was it possible to be ready for news like this? She didn't want to know. He couldn't be dead after being taken away from them like that. She had to be strong, her son was next to her, she couldn't fade like that. She took a deep breathing and answered the phone.