Jack’s storytelling was interrupted! BOOM! Several massive explosions are heard in the distance! Air raid sirens go off! Catherine ran into the room, “Grab the children, we must go NOW!” She did not even pretend to be calm for the children, she was too upset and worried.
Loud BOOM! Sound of broken glass and the walls and floor shake as an artillery shell hits their apartment building.
Sarah and Giovanni hugged each other trying to be brave. Jack placed shoes on the children, his hands physically shaking.
“Is it the Russians?” Giovanni asked his father.
“Children let’s go! We are going to race to the stairs and then down to the basement, understand?”
Both children nodded rapidly, eager to escape the danger and the bomb blasts around them!
“Go ahead Sarah, take Giovanni, you know the way; we will be right behind you,” Jack said as he went to the kitchen to gather up prescriptions, food, and water. “Catherine, go with the children!”
“Children go on ahead I will be right behind you,” Catherine spit out hurriedly as she grabbed one stuffed animal for each child!
The children exited their apartment and traveled thirty feet toward the stairs before another explosion rocked the building knocking them off their feet. Sarah stared in horror as she looked back and she sees the building collapse taking their apartment with it, the morning sky now occupying the space where they once lived.
“Mommy!” Giovanni yelled as he started to run toward the hole in the building.
Sarah grabbed her brother, “No scaredy-cats here! We are not babies! Run for the stairs G, run!”
Giovanni ran for the stairs, his sister right behind him!
“I am going to beat you to the basement G,” Sarah said trying to distract her brother from the explosions.
“I want to wait for Mommy!” Giovanni yelled between sniffles! He wiped his nose with his right sleeve.
“We’re in a race, you want to win, don’t you?” Sarah countered.
“I want Mommy, I don’t want to run a race!” Giovanni said, stopping in his tracks, crying, tears rolling down his face like a river.
Sarah stopped and turned and faced her brother. She wanted to cry too, but she didn’t. She had to be the adult, even though she was only 3 years older than her brother. “It is okay to cry, G, if you keep moving. You trust me, don’t you?” the young girl asked.
Giovanni wiped his eyes with his sleeve and nodded, tears still rolling down his cheeks.
“Then let’s keep moving, we need to meet up with Mommy and Daddy,” she lied. “There are no babies here, right?” Sarah held out her hand,
G settled down and grabbed his sister’s hand and began to run toward the stairs. The two made it to the floor exit and started down the stairs. After three flights, another explosion rocked the building, shaking the stairs the two children were racing down! The two children can hear the sound of the floors above them collapsing, as large pieces of concrete roll down the steps toward the two frightened siblings. They hurry along just ahead of the collapsing building.
“We are not scaredy-cats!” Giovanni yelled bravely as he gripped his sister’s hand even tighter!
The two children reach the bottom of the stairs and go out into hall. Another missile exploded just outside their building, the sound of tanks rolling down the street can be heard. Flames cut off the children’s exit. Sarah runs to a first-floor apartment trying the door. She is able to open it and the two siblings hide inside as the tanks pass outside. The smoke is getting thicker. BOOM! Smoke and dust fill the apartment from another explosion, this time inside the apartment, gas from a broken pipe had detonated. Fire is around the children. Giovanni hugged his sister, but she did not reciprocate. He shook his sister, “Sarah, where do we go now?”
Sarah’s eyes were closed, her head was bleeding, blood running down her face. A piece of shrapnel had sheared the top of her skull clean off. She fell to the floor. Her burden as an adult was over.
Giovanni, stared at her lifeless body, “SARAH NO!” He hugged his sister crying. “Mommy, I need you!” The fire was spreading in the apartment, the fire growing in intensity and burning closer to the helpless little boy! Explosions are heard as a tank entered the building crushing the debris in the hallway, the tank was heading for the apartment where Giovanni was inside crying! “There are no babies here!” Giovanni cried out. He was all alone now. “Samantha Downright Simple, please save me!” the frightened boy called out in desperation! The fire was getting closer, near enough to burn the tender skin of a child. He hugged his lifeless sister’s body and buried his head in her chest. The four-year boy with nowhere to run and no one left to help him, cried and begged one last time for his mother! “I want my Mommy!”

Too Exciting for Bedtime: A Heroes’ and Victims’ Story