Kids of War

A Story by Joey Martinez

The beginning of a story I am currently writing.

Bercy, France 1933, A war torn village that has bombings and wars everyday, an average of 30 people die a day, and this is a story about a young boy named Peter. Peter was a small child, short messy hair, skinny, and always dirty. Why dirty you ask? Peter is homeless, and has been for many months. He survives off scrapes of food that have been tossed in the back alleys of small restaurants or simply food that has been dropped on the floor. Its been six days since Peter has eaten, and he has been going door to door asking for food. Its 11PM, Peter walks around looking for a house with its lights hoping someone is awake. At last Peter finds a house with its lights on knocks on the door " Excuse me sir, I haven't eaten in six days, I was wondering if you can spare me some food" Peter looks past the old man and notices his table is covered with delicious meals. " Sorry I have no food to give, I can barely afford to feed myself" said the old man. Peter knew he was lying but he didn't let it affect him, "thank you anyway sir, have a goodnight" said Peter. Looking around anxiously, Peter begins to run around the village hoping to find some food, but its getting late, Peter runs along to a back alley, grabbing some old sheets he had found beside him, covers himself and falls asleep. Several hours later, Peter awakes from the bright sun that is shining bright on his eyes, " Please God, help me find food i don't know if I can make it another day" he said with a whiny pitch tone. Peter begins his journey, he walks for 2 hours and spots a street with a food market, the whole street was covered with delicious fruits, vegetables, and other goodies. Peter walks towards the market, along his way he sees 2 kids running with a bag full of food "GET BACK HERE YOU DAMN KIDS" said the clerk. "HEY YOU STOP THEM" said the clerk. Peter looks as the kids run past him, "here kid catch" said one of the kids. The kid throws Peter a fresh apple as he runs past him, Peter looks back at the clerk, its the same man who had denied him food from the night before. "WHY DIDN'T YOU STOP THEM?!" Said the clerk with a vicious tone, "why didn't you feed me?" said Peter. The clerk looked at peter with a disgusted look, took away his apple and proceeded back to his carriage that had carried his food to sell. Peter starts to run towards where the kids were running to, he runs for several minutes hoping to find them so maybe, just maybe they can lend him some food. Peter keeps running and running but no luck, " I need to pee" said peter frantically, so he looks around and spots an abandon house, he walks towards the back yard and begins to pee. "HEY PUT THAT THING AWAY WILL YA IM TRYING TO EAT HERE" Said a voice in a joking manner. Peter frantically zips up his pants and looks to his left and see's the two kids from before eating in a empty tool shed. " Hey you're that from before, nice to meet you my name is James, and this is my sister Kimberly" said James. Peter introduces himself and begins to talk to them, "Why are you guys eating in a empty tool shed, there's probably so many bugs and rodents in there, don't you have a home?" he said. A long awkward pause happened before James answered, "I haven't got a home, my sister and I are homeless" James begins to look down and Peter can tell it hurt James to say that, Peter can see the pain in his eyes. Peter grabs James by the shoulder and says " Its okay James, so am I, I have been for several months" James wipes the tears and looks at Peter and grabs him by the shoulder. "Why are you homeless? is it because God took your parents to be angels" James said. "No, my parents didn't want to take care of me, they said Im just a mistake and that I should not even exist" said Peter. James looked at Peter and saw the pain in Peters eyes when he was answering him and said "Everyone deserves the gift of life, don't worry Peter we'll take care of you, come join us, eat with us." James guided Peter in the shed and Peter looked in with astonishment, the whole shed was surrounded by food, apples, oranges, watermelon, all the fruits and vegetables you can think of. " How did you guys afford all this" said Peter. James smirks and looks at Peter and says, "Afford? this is all stolen, this is what it came down to, we had no other choice, I don't want myself and my sister to die" Peter looks at James with a shocked look, and begins to walk around the shed just glazing at the food, wondering what he should eat first. Peter grabs a fresh apple and a few oranges and sits next to Kimberly "How come you haven't spoken yet?" "Not much of a talker are you" said Peter. Kimberly stares at Peter but speaks no words. "Hey, leave her alone, shes been through hell, shes seen it all, her parents were murdered right in front of her eyes" said James. "Her parents?" "I thought you guys were brother and sister" said Peter. James sits by Kimberly and rests his arm around and said " She is, not by blood but by love" "I was walking around looking for food and I spotted a young girl crying alone in the street, people were just passing by acting as if she was nothing." "So I talked to her, told her everything was gonna be ok and took her in to my shed." She explained her story, I never heard something so malicious and I promised her I was gonna take care of her and never let her out of my sight." Peter looks at Kimberly and also puts his arm around her and together, Peter and James hug her. "This war is destroying everything, we have to get out of here" said Peter with a brave upbeat tone. "Starting tomorrow, we begin our journey, gather all the food, this torture ends now!" Peter and James begin to package all the food that they can, "where are we going Peter" said James. "Away from here, anything is better than here" said Peter. Peter grabs the two heavy bags of food while James grabs Kimberly and puts her on his back and carries her out the shed. Peter exits the shed, walks toward the sunlight, looks at James and Kimberly and says "From here on out, we will have better lives, I know it" The search for a new home begins now.