El Draft 3

Veera woke up with the feeling of regret, as he was still not at peace with himself about what happened 10 years ago. His mind and heart was drowned with feelings of guilt and sorrow. His sleep was eaten up by those feelings as if the incident had happened last night. The incident was so intense that he could remember the exact details from start to finish and could play it back as if it was a movie. It all began….

 

The year was 1967. Veera was about to celebrate his 16^th birthday with his family and Surya’s family. Both of them were the best of friends .The relationship of the two families had grown stronger over the years because of their friendship even though living in Sri lanka has it’s limitations and restrictions. Since Veera was a Tamil living in Sri lanka, his family has to struggle to live. They were not given enough rights to live as a citizen of Sri lanka as compared to Surya’s family.

 

“Bring!”

 

The school bell echoed through the hallway.

 

“Happy Birthday Bro!” Surya exclaimed.

 

“Thanks Man. Yeah! Finally 16 now!” Veera reminded himself in excitement.

 

“Where are we going to celebrate it at?” Surya questioned.

 

“Our families have decided to have the celebration at the beach. It is the safest place by far due to all the riots. No riots or trouble would like pop up there I  suppose.” Veera explained.

 

As Surya and Veera was about to leave from their to school to go to the beach, where their families had decided to spend the afternoon to celebrate Veera’s birthday.  As they were walking to the bus stop, they saw their families boarding the bus on the way to the beach. As they were running towards the bus, the bus driver drove away and the boys had missed the bus. What happened next was the most horrendous moment of the boy’s life. As they watched the bus drive away with the engine roaring, they turned around to walk to the bus stop to wait for the next bus. As they were walking, they felt a large amount of propulsion coming from the back and a loud blast, which had deafened the ears of the two boys. As they turned around, their faces were drowned in horror. The bus, which had contained their families just suddenly, blew up into flames. The chances of survival were absolutely zero.

 

“What the hell just happened?” shouted Surya.

 

“I think the bus just blew up. AND our families were in there.” Veera remarked in shock.

 

As the sirens of the police drowned out every other possible noise, the boys overheard that the Tamil tigers were responsible for the bombing of the bus. At that exact moment, it seemed like the boys had shared one mind. They both knew what to do next. They both had decided to join the Sri Lankan army to avenge the death of their families. The anger and confusion had overcome them both. Nothing else had mattered to them but to kill and avenge their families. All else in the world had seemed to mean nothing to the boys anymore after the incident.

 

The year was 1975, after spending more than 9 years in the Sri Lankan army, both of the boys had eventually calmed down about their incident that happened a few years back. Surya wanted to leave the army, as he had wanted to start anew and felt as if being revengeful all his life would just be pointless. Veera had agreed to leave also but they had to complete one more task. To patrol the city one more time. That night, As the men were patrolling, they were ambushed. Panic took over as there were too many Tamil tigers surrounding them. Veera managed to get away and hide but could hear the screams of the best friend Surya crying out in fear.

 

“Veera! Stay back! Do not come for me! Save yourself! NOW! RUN!” shouted Surya in fear.

 

 

As he peeked back, shocked and rage consumed him like ants on a piece of candy. Surya was shot directly to the head and had dropped dead on the spot. The men who had shot him had just laughed and left his body there. There was nothing that Veera could have possible done.

 

“I’m sorry Surya, I would do anything to have saved you. But there was nothing I could have possibly done. I’m sorry,” whispered Veera to Surya under his breath.

 

As Veera played back the memories of his nightmare, all he could do was try to move on. That would what Surya had wanted him to do all along.