Chapter 1
Papa, wake up! It's 7:00, you will be late for work!"
Sophia was only five, but she had so much energy. Her father woke up lazily, the sound of her mom's laughter drifting in from the kitchen.
"What happened? Why are you so excited, Sophia?" He took her onto his lap.
"You promised me you would take me to your work!"
He sighed. He remembered her requesting it yesterday, but he didn't want his daughter to know he polished shoes for a living. Then he looked at her hopeful face. "Fine..."
"Mama, we will be back soon!" Sophia cheered as they headed out.
As they walked the streets, her father noticed her shoes; they were ripped and she could barely fit into them. He sighed heavily. Suddenly, Sophia stopped walking. She was staring at a toy shop window, her eyes sparkling without blinking. Inside was a medium-sized teddy bear.
He bent down to match her height. "Do you want that teddy bear?"
She nodded shyly. "But... it's not that necessary," she whispered. Her eyes betrayed her. His heart broke; at this age, instead of insisting, she was trying to be "understanding" of their life.
"Sophia, do you trust Papa?" She nodded curiously. "I will buy you that bear soon. See, Papa has to buy rice and vegetables first, and you are becoming a big girl, so I have to enroll you in school."
Her eyes lit up again. "I'm going to school?"
"Yes. They have swings, and you will learn to read."
Her smile widened. As they walked away, she turned around one last time to look at that bear.
At his work spot, Sophia sat beside him. A man arrived wearing expensive boots, holding his own daughter's hand. The father gulped; the man's daughter was holding the exact same teddy bear and wearing branded shoes.
"How much?" the man snapped.
"5 rupees, sir."
As he polished the boots, he saw Sophia staring at the bear. Her eyes were glossy. In that moment, he decided: I will buy it for her today. After he finished, the man started walking away. The father asked hesitantly for his pay. The man stopped, raising an eyebrow. "What did you say? Money?"
Before the father could process it, the man began kicking him again and again. A crowd gathered, but no one dared to intervene until a little girl held the man's leg, crying, her hands clenching his pants.
"Don't hurt him, please!" Sophia wailed, tears dropping down her cheeks.
The man shoved her hand away. "Don't touch me with your dirty hand!" You dirty little thing!!
He stumbled back, took his daughter's hand, and left.
"Papa, are you okay? Why was he hurting you?"
"He was not hurting me, Sophia. He was my friend... and friends fight like this."
She shook her head repeatedly. "Liar."
Few Days Later
The father stood at the shop. "How much does this teddy bear cost?"
"300 rupees."
300 was too much. How was he supposed to manage food? "Can we split the payment? I will give it to you slowly, little by little."
"Who does an investment on a toy!" the shopkeeper mocked. "If you are that poor, then get out. Stop wasting my time."
Others in the shop laughed and said weird things as he walked out. I hate them. I hate them. I hate them. And then, a huge explosion blasted. Panic was everywhere. Everyone was shouting.
One Year Later
Commanders were shouting. They were being attacked. After hours of shooting, the father sat with his friends resting under a tree.
"If only we weren't poor village people, they wouldn't have pushed us to the border to fight," his friend sighed.
"I wish this would all just end," one soldier said.
"No," spoke another soldier, who had one blind eye from the war. "This shouldn't end until we get revenge. Until we take revenge from everyone."
"But we will also lose everything whatever is left," the friend argued.
The blind guy whispered, "I wonder if something is actually left... Why us? We never started the fight. The leaders did... and they never fought."
In a tent made of cloth, Sophia's mother was comforting her. The blasts were getting bigger. They had lost their house.
"Don't cry, Sophia. Papa will come soon. He promised us."
"But it's scary, Mama. What did we do wrong? Why are these things happening, Mama? What did we do wrong?" She repeated it over and over. She was six, but she was too old for six.
"Mama?"
"Yes?"
"Am I dirty?"
Tears filled the mother's eyes. "No, my baby. Who said that?"
"An uncle said I'm dirty when I went with Papa to his work. I wonder what he will say now... because I'm dirtier now." Sophia looked at the flickering light of the bombs. "Mama, if I die, will I get a lot of food after my death?"
The Front Lines
A soldier came running, smiling. "There is good news! The government announced the war will stop soon!"
Relief flooded their faces. Tears streamed down.
"I'm so excited to meet my wife," a soldier cheered. "She is going to give birth soon. I wonder if the baby will look like me or her? I'm going to be a fathe-"
CRACK. Before he could complete the word, his head exploded from a gunshot.
The government had lied. The war started again without warning. Gunshots and shouting were everywhere. The father found a hidden wooden place, breathing fast. He had been shot in the stomach. The blood wouldn't stop. Please, someone help.
Back in the village, the mother and Sophia were running toward a hidden spot. A soldier's voice called out: "I swear I saw a woman running with a little girl. They are near........
The door groaned under the weight of a soldier's boot. Through the cracks in the wood, the mother could see the glint of steel and the hungry shadows of men who had forgotten their own humanity. Behind them, the village was being swallowed by a roar of orange and black-a fire so hot it turned the night into a sickly, false noon.
The mother looked at the window, then back at the door. There was no "safe" direction left.
"Mama?" Sophia's voice was tiny, a silver thread in the middle of a thunderstorm. She wasn't crying anymore. She was too exhausted for tears.
The mother knelt, grabbing Sophia's shoulders. She could feel every one of the girl's ribs. "Sophia, listen to me. Remember what Papa said? About the school? About the swings?"
Sophia nodded vaguely, her eyes fixed on the fire outside the glass. The reflection made it look like her own eyes were burning.
"The swings are right through that window, baby," the mother lied, the words tasting like ash in her mouth. "It's a shortcut. We have to jump into the light to reach him. If we stay here, the bad men will take our voices. But if we jump... we'll be with Papa in a blink."
The door splintered. A soldier's face appeared, twisted into a smirk. "Found them! Look at this little-"
The mother grabbed Sophia's hand. They stood on the ledge. The heat was already blistering their skin, smelling of old wood and spent lives.
Sophia looked up at her mother one last time. She didn't look at the soldiers. She didn't look at the fire. She looked at her own hands, stained with the soot of the camp.
"Mama... will Papa recognize me there?"
And they jumped into the fire
Too many," the senior commander breaths out, looking at the dead bodies scattered across the mud. "We have no time to mourn one soldier; there are many more to come. Check his pockets and uniform for any belongings and write him off as a martyr."
He orders and walks away, his boots heavy against the damp earth.
Two soldiers stay behind to check the pockets and the bloody, muddy uniform of the father. One of them reaches into the heavy rucksack the man was still clutching even in sleep.
"There is something. I can feel it," one of them says slowly, pulling out a soft, scorched shape from the bag.
Both soldiers stop. In the middle of the gray, blood-stained battlefield, they are holding a medium-sized teddy bear. Its fur is matted with dirt, but a red ribbon still clings to its neck. Wrapped around the bear's arm is a small, crinkled note.
They exchange glances, a brief moment of human silence passing between them before they note the item on their official list. They don't take it. Instead, they place the teddy bear back beside the dead father, tucking the note where it won't blow away.
They walk away, leaving the dead soldier in the open air, face up to the sky. He is left alone with his promise, miles away from the village that is now only ash. The stars begin to shine through the heavy smoke as the night settles over the valley.
The note reads:
For my little daughter, a teddybear as I promised.
