Bequeathing My Memories

October 1950; the war was over. The Allies defeated the Axis and the countries began to breathe free air again and rehabilitate. It seemed all peaceful and people talked about the war proudly. But was it truly a win?

It was cloudy that day, the air was stiff but it seemed a little bit changed from back then when I was a child. Maybe because of the new industries being built now and then here in London. After all, the world has changed quite much after the war.

While I was sitting on my little throne where I oversaw and ran my humble toy store, I heard the newspaperman from outside the store, repeating "The Guardians… The Guardians. The Great Depression is coming to an end! Yes, ladies and gentlemen; just as you heard. The Great Depression is coming to an end!" His voice was louder than bullets; it was irritating me a little bit at first but I got used to it by time. When he said that, I knew that this wasn't the hot topic, he just said that to grab the attention of the mob.

"But what you need to hear the most is the upcoming third world war. North Korea invaded South Korea. America mobilizes to enter the war but will the Russians sit down and watch?! Clashes between the Communists and the Capitalists! Read my people. All of you read and learn before you find bombs running down on your houses! Come and read The Guardians!" he said.

I saw mom running from across the far end of the store in hurry with her eyes widened and fear occupied her face in a moment "Oh my god. Liza, did I hear it right? Did he say there will be a third world war?" she wore her fur coat and opened the store's door to go buy the newspaper.

However, before she leaves, I told her" Mum, you are fifty-four and still can't understand these people. That man is making a fuss to make people buy his newspaper. This is propaganda mother; there is nothing to worry about."

She rolled her eyeball up and down on me, belittling me, and said "and that makes you a twenty years old lazy girl who just wants a cozy life and doesn't care about anything else in the world"

"And what is wrong with that!" I said to defend myself "I want to tell you an advice mother: The peace of mind is the most precious thing in the world. It is like a mirror that reflects who you are. The more peaceful your mind is; the clearer is the mirror; and the more you discover about yourself. Believe me."

Her eyebrows raised and she blew a gasket "And now I'm taking advice from you. If your father heard you, he would have made you know your place very well, little child!"

My eyebrows rose, eyes sparkled, and we stared at each other for a moment until I decided to break that silence with a fake smile. My mother also made a plastic smile and went on her way to buy the newspaper. I tried to stop being lazy as my mother always told me, so I put down my cup of coffee on the desk, stretched my hands to reach the curtain of the window beside me, and cast it aside to have a glance at my mother and see the face of that man who was making such a fuss. But I couldn't find her amidst the crowd. I became a little worried but before I took any action, I heard the sound of tires squashing the pebbles on the asphalt street, and then the sound suddenly stopped. I looked nearby to see what where that sound originated from. I saw a school bus parked near my toy store and dozens of children all of them were boys around the age of eight came rushing through our front door, as soldiers invading the store. I told myself at that moment I think we won the lottery but deep down, I was bearing the thought of faking smiles with the costumers and negotiating with them, especially little children. The moment they came in, I knew my peace of mind was shattered to a thousand pieces. They all headed toward the boys section where soldier, cars, toy guns, and other toys were placed there on the shelves, except one child that I took interest in his actions. He kept wandering alone around the place. He kept his distance from the other boys and that intrigued me but soon enough I knew why. I noticed he was wearing a paper hat written on it "FREAK". Also, one of the bullies put one of his legs in front of the boy wearing the hat to trip him and so he did. I couldn't sit tight while watching this, so I helped the boy stand up but one of the bullies told me "Get away from him. He is the son of the freak!" The boy eye's burst with tears and held my arms tightly. I was fit to be tied and was about to hit these bullies for how much they made the boy suffer but I managed somehow to control my anger and peace of mind by remembering flowers and imagining myself eating the Toblerone Swiss Chocolate. After I calmed down, I told them with a smile on my face "True beauty lie in the soul not the body; you must learn that. If any of you harm this boy; I will not let you buy any of the toys." I switched over to the boy holding my arms "Go and see what toy you would want and it will be free especially for you." I gave the boy a warm hug to make him feel safe; He looked up to my eyes; his cheeks turned pink; smiled then he went running towards my desk as a baby runs to his gift. He raised his calf and grabbed a brown teddy bear, which was with one red eye, and its back appeared to be cut and stitched before, from the shelf behind the desk. My face changed completely when I saw him holding the teddy bear and ran without thinking to him to grab the teddy bear from him. After I yanked from him the teddy bear, I said firmly "Sorry, but that one is not for sale!"

"Why?!" he exclaimed.

"It is none of your business! I said it is not for sale thus it is not for sale and my word is final!"

"But… but, I wanted father to see it. I wanted to show him that I don't care about appearances and I focus on the soul, just as you said earlier." He replied trying to defend his claim on the toy

I clenched my fists in an attempt to control the anger but his words irritated me so much that made the nerves of steel melt.

"THEN FORGET WHAT I JUST SAID!" I yelled at him, raising my fist close to his face. His body trembled for a second; face turned white, and took a few steps backward. I looked around me and saw the other boys staring at me. I looked at their eyes and all I saw was fear. I always knew that look of fear in people. I saw it and experienced it every day during the war.

At that instant, the teacher came into the store worried.

"My goodness, what happened? Did these kids misbehave?"

"Please, take them and leave"

After they left, I closed the store's door, sat on the ground, and kept crying till I almost flooded the store with my tears.

On the fifth of October, 1940, in a farm at the outskirts of London,

"You have to leave now, Papa?" said Liza Beurment.

 "Yes, sweetheart" replied Jean Beurment, patting his daughter on the head.

"Take extra care of yourself" said Casie.

                                          "There is nothing to fear, darling; I have got Alec with me"

He patted Alec on the back and continued "If anything went awry, he got my back, right Specialist?"

"Of course, Corporal, I will make sure he will return safely to you, Lady Beurment"

Casie sighed in relief and said "Thank you. You just know; he is an old man now and…"

"Hey old lady, I'm fifty years old man but I'm flooded with youth!"

They all laughed in an attempt to lower the tension in the room. John grabbed Liza by the waist and lifted her "I'm gonna miss you sweetheart. Now, where is my goodbye kiss?"

Liza kissed him on the forehead and instantly ran towards her room in a hurry.

"Where did she go?" Casie bewildered.

"You still don't know your daughter Casie" John said.

At that instant, Liza came from her room holding a teddy bear and gave it to her father "Promise me that you will return the teddy bear to me"

"I promise, little princess" replied John.

"The soldier with the teddy bear" Alec said sarcastically.

A soldier rushed into the room "We must leave now Corporal John!"

John took the teddy bear with him and left to join the battalion of the third division

Inside the barracks of London,

"I'm First Sergeant Kloss, commander of this battalion. As you all know, this battalion is responsible for maintaining the supply route to the South Eastern Front and ensure the dominion of the British aircraft in the air through the AA "Flaks". So, that means we will have to stretch thin from now on" He paused for a second and looked at the faces of the soldiers. He saw that most of them were scared to death, so he took a deep breath and all of a sudden he shouted at them "LISTEN MEN! WE ARE NOT GOING TO LOSE! THE NAZIS COULDN'T GET PAST OUR DEFENSES IN THE LAST WAR AND THEY WON'T NOW! If you allowed the eastern front to fall, you will find the Nazis in your homes, drinking your wine, sleeping with your wives, killing your children, SO WE WILL WIN THIS WAR FOR OUR FAMILIES AND FOR OUR PAST SACRIFICES WON'T BE IN VAIN!"

The soldiers' morals skyrocketed as these words fueled them with energy.

"Each one of you should have by now the paper that has been distributed to you, showing the location of his outpost he has been assigned to. Good Luck, comrades."

"I'm going to be assigned with you Alec and the same platoon we were in the first war at the sixty-seventh flak cannon near my house! THAT IS JUST GREAT!" John anxiously "I may even have a chance to sneak and see my daughter." He continued.

"SIR THAT IS AUDACIOUS! You can't just abandon your outpost to see your family!" replied Alec critically.

"SHHHHHH, lower your voice. I was joking." Murmured John.

On November third 1940, in a field near the outskirts of London,

Some of the German air force managed to penetrate the English defenses as a knife through butter. But the British air and ground forces made a formidable stand.

"AMMO, I NEED AMMO! ALEC! EDDY! FELIX!" shouted John as he was raining bullets on the German planes using the AA flak but no one replied.

"FOR GOD-SAKE ANYBODY, GIVE ME AMMO!" He looked in front of him and saw multiple corpses of his platoon lying on the scorched earth ground; they were killed. Fear and rage began to control him until he saw Alec in front of him, fear vanished like an old oak table.

Alec ran through the field pulling a cart loaded with ammo to John. John noticed Alec's ragged breath and weary thigh as he was coming towards him, so he left his position and went to help him. He grabbed the cart and told him

"Where are the rest of us?! WHERE IS THE REST OF THE PLATOON?!"

Alec in cracked voice and eyes flooded with tears" Sir… most of the platoon is…is… already dead. The only ones who survived are I, you, Private Felix, and Specialist Gordon" He continued "Felix and Gordon were shot from plane gunfire, so it is unlikely they could fight anymore"

Felix shouted" INCOMING!"

John ran towards the AA Flak but that time it wasn't the Messerschmitt Bf 109 German fighter planes. It was a transport plane containing German paratroopers.

"NOOOOO! THEY MUST NOT LAND!" John yelled as he fired at the plane.

One bullet managed to hit the plane engine but some of the paratroopers evacuated and landed near John's farm and in front of their outpost, while the others fell with the plane.

John left his post and ran towards his house but Alec stopped him "SIR! THIS IS CONSIDERED TREASON!" Alec without thinking raised his pistol towards John.

John raised his hands as he looked calmly at the teddy bear inside his open bag and droplets of tears fell on the ground " Damn you Alec…damn the war…damn the country…damn the people…damn everyone and everything that stands in the way between me and my family. I have done all of this for them, so if you want to shoot me then shoot but make sure that my family is safe… I entrust you with this as my dying wish and give my daughter her teddy bear and tell her father failed her." He paused for a moment and continued as his eyes exploded with tears " I just wanted to see my daughter one last time"

John's words reached Alec's heart, so he lowered down his weapon and told him" Go, Corp, go save your family. We will hold here, right men?!"

"Yes" replied Felix in a faint voice.

At that moment, part of the crashed plane on the ground exploded and a burning flake from it hit Alec in his face. "AAAAAAHHHHHH" screamed Alec.

When John took several steps towards him, Alec shouted "LEAVE US AND SAVE YOUR FAMILY!"

John listened to him and continued on his way to his family. As he was running, he kept hearing gunshots from the back but he couldn't return to save them.

When he reached his farm, he saw three soldiers about to invade the house. He quickly raised his pistol and shot two of them in the head. The third noticed John and shot him in the chest and the leg but John bore with the pain and shot him dead. John kept crawling toward the farmhouse as a baby going to his mother until he reached the door when he heard the groaning of a fallen German soldier. When he raised his gun towards the soldier's head, the soldier begged him to forsake his life"Please…Don't kill me… I have a family!" he said

"Ain't we all?!" John replied and the next thing the soldier saw was the bullet penetrating his head.

Casie saw John from the window and ran to open the door with a smile extended from both cheeks drawn on her face. When she opened the door, she found John lying on the ground at the doorstep with his body covered in blood. Casie's smile faded, her eyes widened, and stared at John for a moment. Her body couldn't move but she thought about finding a medic. When she took the first step forward, John caught her leg "Don't go… I don't have enough time… I just came here to tell you I love you so much… I wrote everything I wanted to say to you inside that teddy bear"

Liza was standing behind her mother, shocked, and couldn't utter a word as her tongue was completely frozen.

John noticed her as he gazed at Casie "Oh sweetheart, I kept my promise to you, here is your teddy bear but I'm so sorry it is in a messed up shape and I'm sorry about the eye; it appears that some of my blood dropped on it."

Liza held her father's waist and hugged him "Papa…Don't leave me…Papa" She said as tears falling from her eyes.

"Shhhh…don't worry sweetheart…my soul will always be with you…protecting and guiding you…now…where is papa's goodbye kiss?"

Casie couldn't hold her tears any longer, thus she turned around so she can cry freely without her daughter see her.

As Liza was kissing John's forehead, the sparkling light in his eyes dimmed till it became eternal darkness…

October 1950,

I heard the door knocking as I was crying on the floor. I don't know how long I was in that state because all my feelings became numb at once and lost sense of the world around me. When I turned around to see who was knocking, I saw my mother holding hands with the little child that wanted the teddy bear.

"What happened, Liza?! Why were you crying?"

"When that boy wanted the teddy bear, I remembered father and cried"

"Give him the toy, Liza. It was made to become a symbol of happiness for children not nostalgia for us. You should throw the past behind you and live in the present just as the toy should do."

"Why should I give my memories to someone who doesn't know how precious it is? Memories that made me who I am today…memories of my father!"

"I would have never said that but I see you every night holding that teddy bear, crying, and calling for your father in your sleep. If your heart was broken once, mine was broken a thousand times!" replied Casie disconsolately as she tried to hold back her tears.

Liza hugged her mother and said in cracked voice "I'm sorry mother. I'm sorry for everything I have done to you"

Liza turned to the boy "What is your name?"

"William Alec"

"I will give you the teddy bear but on one condition, let me tell you the story of the hero with the teddy bear."