Mothers day | John's Tribute short story

John's Tribute is a short fiction story about a ten-year-old boy who embarked on a treacherous journey to find his mother Anna-Maria. A nurse who worked for the Casmotan Hospital in Romania during a war in 1962. John was blind but his noble behavior was recognized by many soldiers. This story is written by Jsovirall and this story acts as an inspirational message of a blind son that traveled through war to give his mother a letter of appreciation on Mothers’ Day.

The Story: John's Tribute

Bam! a grenade exploded next to Ms. Elena's house. John woke up. He was in the attic on a mattress. He crawled toward the attic window. He pressed his ear against the wooden window. He heard gunshots and people screaming. Some soviet soldiers were capturing the villagers of Zaxandru. One of the soldiers saw John and ran toward the house. Ms. Elena entered the attic with a rifle.

"Alexandru be quiet. Don't say a word, okay. Some soldiers are outside. They are destroying the cattle and peoples' properties. They are going to take us as prisoners. I have to get you out of here. Do you remember how many steps you need to take to reach the forest?"

"three thousand and seven steps. Are we going to die?" Alexandru asked. His full name was Alexandru John. Many people called him John. 

"I want you to follow me. I am going to lead you to the back of the house and you have to promise me that you won't look back."

"I don't want to leave you."

"You have to. You have no choice." Ms. Elena said. A soldier went upstairs and saw the ladder that led to the attic. Ms. Elena told John to be quiet and he remained silent while she aimed her gun at the hatch of the attic. She waited patiently for the soldier. The soldier withdrew his rifle and climbed up the attic ladder. Bam! Ms. Elena shot the soldier and killed him.

"Follow me," Elena said to John. She climbed down the ladder and John climbed down as well. POW! POW! A soldier shot at John and Elena. He was in the living room. He ran upstairs and Daniel hit him with a shovel. The soldier became unconscious. Daniel was Elena's husband.

"Where were you?" Elena asked her husband.

"I was in the bathroom. We have to get out of here. The Soviets are going to capture us if we don't hurry. I don't want to work in another coal mine." Daniel responded to his wife. Elena went into her room and took up the letter that John wrote for his mother Anna-Maria. She pushed the letter into John's shirt.

"Make sure you keep it safe, okay. Give it to your mother as you have promised. You have to do this on your own. You have to stay strong." Elena said.

"Let's go. We don't have time." Daniel said. Elena, Daniel, and John went downstairs. Daniel held onto John's hand just to make sure that he was okay. Elena closed the front door and hurried to the back of the house. She opened the back door and she, Daniel, and John exited.

"They are coming. Run" A villager said as he ran past Elena, Daniel, and John. POW! A soldier shot him. 

"Run! Get Alexandru out of here. Just go!" Elena said to her husband. She shot the soldier while Daniel and John ran. Two soldiers killed Elena. John could feel it. He heard Elena’s last scream and knew that she was dead. John was making it difficult for Daniel to run so he had to put John on his back. He fell and hit his head on a piece of stone and became unconscious. John was on his own now. He got up and started walking through the chaos that was happening. Some villagers ran on Daniel's body. They accidentally killed him.

John finally reached out of the village and now he was on a path. He heard some horses approaching. He hid in the bushes nearby and remained silent. Some soldiers passed on the horses. John got up and continued on the path. After one hour of walking, he finally reached the forest. He was going to Meryan where his mother was but war was going on between the Soviet army and the Romanian army. He knew a path to go to Frendsha. He walked on the path until he reached a hill. Some Romanian soldiers were hiding there. Some of them were injured badly. John listened carefully and heard the soldiers talking. He knew that they were Romanian because of their language. He proceeded on his journey. He bumped into a woman. Her name was Cristina. She was a doctor.

"Oh my god, kid are you okay?" Cristina asked with her eyes widened.

"I am looking for my mom. Her name is Anna-Maria. She is a nurse. She works at the Casmotan Hospital "

"I am sorry but I don't know who your mother is. Where are you from?"

"I am from Zaxandru. Some soldiers were there but I escaped."

"Are you blind?"

"Yes, I am but I know where I am going. I am going to find my mom. I have a letter to give her."

"Where is your mom?"

"She is in Meryan."

"Meryan? That's three days away from here. You are not going to make it on foot."

"I will. I have to find my mother."

"There is a boat nearby. It is transporting some injured soldiers to Malli. So you can go on that boat. I will bring you there."

" Malli is close to Frendsha so that's good. Wait...do you hear that? It's coming from above." John said. Some Soviet warplanes flew over the forest. Immediately Cristina recognized the warplanes. She called them bombers.

"Incoming, Bombers! Take cover." Cristina shouted alerting the other soldiers but it was too late. Bam! a bomb dropped and killed over thirty Romanian soldiers and injured about seventy of them. A tree fell on top of John and Cristina. They were saved by a big stone. They crawled from underneath the fallen tree while more bombs dropped. Cristina held John's hand and told him to follow her. She led him to the river nearby.

"Stop!" John said to Cristina. He heard a bomb descending the air. He told Cristina that they had to go to the left to avoid the impact. They made haste quickly. Bam! The bomb dropped and killed some soldiers. 

"That was a close call. Let's go. We have to make it to Malli. We don't have a choice." Cristina said. He and John went on a boat. The injured soldiers were dead. She started the engine and sailed off.

After thirty minutes, they reached Malli. John could smell fresh blood in the atmosphere. He knew that death awaited his presence. Cristina wanted to head north so that they didn't have to go through the village of Frendsha. John told her that Frendsha was the safest route because the soldiers killed everyone already. Where death goes it seeks fresh souls. Everyone at the village of Frendsha was dead already. Cristina agreed with what John said.

"What's your name, kid?" Cristina asked.

"My name is Alexandru John but most people call me John."

"You are a smart kid, John. My name is Cristina. I am a doctor of the Romanian army."

"Do you know how to use a gun?"

"Yes, but I don't like to. I like to help people that is my job description. I help the wounded soldiers."

"But you are wounded."

"What do you mean?"

"Your heart is wounded. I can hear it. You are not afraid of death. It is as if you want to die. Your heart rate is increasing. What's your story?"

"Wow, you are really something else. I don't have time to talk about it. Let's go before the enemies see us."

"Okay," John responded. He and Cristina walked to the village of Frendsha. Many dead bodies were on the ground and also horses. Only one horse was alive. Cristina and John went on the horse and went to Vidran where many farmers lived. The town was empty. The Soviet army took the villagers as prisoners already. 

"It's too silent," John said.

"That's because everyone is gone. The Soviets got them already. They are going to use them as prisoners. We have to rest here because it is getting late. Tomorrow we will continue our journey. We have to eat and we need water. There is a barn house up ahead. We can stay there for the night." Cristina said. She rode the horse beside the barn house. She dismounted it and took John off. She put him and the horse in the barn house. She told John to be quiet. She was going to look for food and water. After ten minutes of searching, she found eggs, a bucket of fresh water, and some wooden cups. She took two of the cups. She brought them to the barn house. She gave John a cup of water to drink and drank some.

She made a small fire in the barn house and boil the eggs she found. She and John ate them and drank some more water. She found another wooden bucket in the barn and poured some water into it. She gave the horse and it drank all of it. 

"For a blind kid, you are very smart. Your ears are very keen."

"Yes, I can't see so I listen."

"What do you hear now?"

"Death walking outside. I can hear the spirits wandering around in pain. They just realize that they are dead. All they can do is stare at their lifeless bodies. The war is only getting worse."

"Impressive"

"I am listening"

"What?"

"You can tell me. I can hear two hearts inside of your body."

"I am impressed. I am three months pregnant."

"Who is the father?"

"He died this morning. His name was Lonut. He was a corporal of the Romanian army. We were supposed to be in Meryan but instead the general assigned our team to the south of your village to ambush the Soviet army but that didn't work because there is a mole in our army."

"I know you regret being in the army."

"Yeah, I do regret it. My child can't grow up in the army. It isn't safe and now a war has started between the Russians and the Romanians. It is horrible. We are fighting to gain nothing."

"I am going to make sure my mom gets the letter I wrote for her no matter what. My mom is the best."

"Where's your father?"

"I don't know who my father is?"

"It seems like a common thing now. As soon as a woman is pregnant the father leaves. He is afraid of his responsibilities. You are a good kid."

"Yeah, I guess. I am blind but I can hear the world better than most people can. Anyway, I am going to sleep."

"How old are you?"

"I am ten. I am going to get some rest now."

"Okay, goodnight."

"Good night Cristina," John responded. 

It was morning. John and Cristina just finished eating some boil eggs. It was time to go to Meryan. Cristina put John on the horse then mounted it. She rode off. After one hour of riding, she and John reached Meryan. It was a complete war zone. POW! A Soviet soldier shot the horse Cristina and John were on. They dropped and got up. Gunshots echoed in their ears as they proceeded farther into the war. Cristina put John on her back and walked through the war without a single wound while John prayed for protection. 

"No! No!" Anna-Maria screamed while some soldier dragged her behind a stone. They beat her. John heard his mother screaming but he didn't know where she was. He was confused by the noise. After twenty minutes, the war was finished because the Romanian army dropped a bomb on the battlefield. Most of the soldiers died. The few that survived were badly injured. Anna-Maria was bleeding excessively but she managed to get up. She spotted Cristina.

"Help!" She screamed and fell. Cristina saw her. She didn't see John. She searched for John and saw him. Two dead soldiers were on top of him. He wasn't dead. She pushed the dead bodies off him and he got up. His head was bleeding. Cristina's head was bleeding too. She and John walked toward Anna-Maria. She was gasping for air. She was dying but she saw her son.

"Alexandru, is that you?" Anna-Maria asked.

"Yes, it is me, mom. Mom, please don't die. Mom, I can hear you struggling to breathe. I can hear your heart beating quickly."

"I am sorry I wasn't home for one week. I was busy. I should have been home."

"It's okay mom" John took the letter out of his shirt, "I wrote a letter for you. It's happy mother's day."

"I forgot," Anna-Maria looked at Cristina, "Please take care of my son. I am not going to make it."

"Okay," Cristina responded.

"Read this letter for my mom, please, I want her to hear what I wrote," John said to Cristina. She told him that she will read it.

John’s Tribute

If the world is turning then I shall turn the hands of faith and come visit you. If love can shape the colorless water then I will shape my destiny to tell you how much I care for you. I am blind but when you are around me I can see. I can hear the heartbeat of a loving woman as she embraces me. Gold is not enough to define your love because you are a superhero. A woman that helps the wounded. A woman that takes care of her child. When the stars meet the earth and space defines gravity. Scientists will become confused by the complex capacity of human emotions. For we are weak but complex in structure and consciousness. 

Love can be dynamic values that connect the earth hemisphere with instantaneous anonymous movement. Yet the laws of physics will have no value. If I can see with my ears and you can see with your eyes but can't define the movement as I have done. Then life is not worth living in one perspective. Simplicity is wisdom, not complicated ideas. Being a mother is like the world's orbits. Spinning is only defined by continuous movement. Mom, I love you from the deepest part of my human heart but I adore you the most from my spiritual side. I love you, mom.

Cristina read the letter. Anna-Maria smiled and took her last breath. She was gone. 

"Mom! Mom! Come back!" John cried. Cristina was in tears also. She embraced John but he continued crying as loud as he could. 1962 was a moment John and Cristina wouldn't forget.

Share this blog post if you enjoyed this story.