Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 4567 | Página 27

“Mother..”
“You want me to give it to her?”
He nodded with his last bit of life left with him. I had never seen him in such a feeble position before. Shihoko was
known as the class clown and the athletic one. Once that first tear broke free, the rest followed in an unbroken
stream. Shihoko rolled his head, and fell unconscious. I lowered his body back to the ground. And left him.
Fujimoto and I walked on down. The bodies of many lay trapped beneath the wreckage. Many only with hands
and faces sticking out. All of sudden, I felt a hand grab onto my ankle, then another, and another. The students
were grabbing onto my legs. I felt so futile, there was nothing I could do to help them. I had to leave them behind,
like a coward. I heard a vehicle’s tires screeching as it stopped.
“Let’s go! That’s the army, they’ve come to save us.” Fujimoto said.
I felt sickened by the fact that I had to kick my friends hands off of me. But I had to, there was nothing I could do.
The army official was waiting by us.
“You guys were lucky, we're here to collect the dead bodies.” He said
I saw them stacking the dead bodies on top of one another. Treating them like a sack of potatoes. It was horrific.
Fujimoto and I entered the car and waited for them to finish. The mushroom cloud had changed. It had grown
much bigger. It seemed to catch the light and display every colour of a rainbow. It was beautiful, in a way. The
cloud made me realise, I would never see my mother, my father, my brother, ever again. I could feel it breaking
me. But I knew, now I would have to be as strong as ever, like never before. The driver got into the car, and we
drove away.
“I am handing my message over to the children who visit. I want them to learn about Hiroshima. And when they
grow up, I want them to hand down the message to the next generation with accurate information. I'd like to see
him conveying the right sense of judgment so that we will not lead mankind to annihilation. That is our
responsibility.” - Yoshitaka Kawamoto