The Bomb

I remember rainy days always made our mother sad. She used to stop in front of the windows and stare at the distance her eyes could go and at once go back to the activity she was doing before the rain had started. By the end of the afternoon she would boil some water and prepare some tea, followed by delicious bolinhos de chuva that distracted me and all my brothers. We did not understand what was happening. Five years had passed, and my father had not came back home yet. We all got anxious when the war ended and I can remember perfectly the day when we received the letter: we were all gathered for dinner, my mothers' radio playing a famous waltz and then the bell rang. My mother got up quickly and I felt my hearth beats in my throat. We followed her to the front door. The man had already given her the letter. She read. She cried. We all cried: our dad was alive and was coming back.

The sounds that filled the days followed by my father's letter marked my life entirely. Everytime a vehicle passed by our house we would stop to check its proximity. If the bell rang, our mother would get nervous to open it and frustrated after seeing the bread maker willing to sell his products. Every time we could listen the train's whistle down at the main station we would run down the avenue to receive him. It took him two weeks to show up. It was the happiest night of my life... 

The nights were then followed by sounds. Dad was sick, very thin and coughing a lot. His first nights were difficult: he had terrible nightmares and my mother would get up really tired for trying to calm him down. 

Dad got better after a month and no more the sounds marked my life, until I passed the same situations he had gone into. The second great war exploded and I went there to defend my country. I can remember perfectly my mother whipping her tears away... 

The sounds that followed made me understand my fathers' nightmares... Far explosions, unstoppable machine guns, men crying everywhere, planes flying under safe altitude, dogs barking out of control… And then… A close explosion hit the ground… And the humming.

I never heard any sound again. Never.