Five people were waiting for the streetlight to turn green in order to cross to the other side. A teenager was looking at his smartphone, wholly engrossed with reading a story.

The smell of the warm pizza held by the couple standing next to him broke his attention as he started craving taking one slice for himself.

He chuckled to himself as he noticed that the child in front of him was innocently staring at the pizza box, with the desire to devour it all, evident in his eyes.

The child was holding an elderly man’s hand, the man looked frail and could barely stand on his own two feet - he had a loving look in his eyes as he looked at the child. As if noticing what the child wanted and knowing he can’t give it to him at the moment, he tried to distract him.

“Ryley, Do you want me to tell you the story of how I met your grandmother?”

“Can you tell me the story of when you were a soldier in the second world war?”

Sadness appeared on the grandfather’s face as he answered: “that is not a pleasant story.” He has lived a long life, he lost a lot of loved ones, he couldn’t spare the child from losing his mother, as she slowly died from an illness, but he wanted to spare Ryley from more sadness, he wanted to leave behind happy stories before the grim reaper came to claim him from old age.

The light turned green, the couple was the first to move, the teenager followed right after, and the child impatiently let go of his grandfather’s hand and ran across the street. Everyone noticed and kept an eye on the child to make sure he doesn’t get himself in danger until his grandfather slowly crossed the street as well.

This was the moment that a truck swerved from the sides of the road, and fell from the bridge right on top of the elderly man. Killing him in the process.

***

The sound of a child crying is heard in a small damp room in the remote village of Karya, the midwife has a proud smile, having been able to deliver her very first child.

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“A healthy baby boy, now our small village grew a bit more! Someone call Ward over, let him meet his brother.”

Upon being called, a 6-year-old boy with brown eyes and soft brown hair walked into the room. He was wearing tattered muddy pants, with a shirt that matched, something that was passed down to him by a slightly older neighbor. It conflicted with his overall look, as he looked to have clean hair and hands.

Ward held his brother gently. He had a smile spread on his face and a soft look in his eyes

“Can we call him Ryley?”

Traditionally, the name of the child is given to them when they are six months old after the village chief ascertained the baby’s characteristics. Ward had many meanings to it, bringer, flower, and a lion because he was as delicate as a flower, but as fierce as a lion when he needed to be.

“I don’t know what Ryley means, but we can not” A clear voice that just walked into the room answered. The voice belongs to the village chief, which is about forty-five years of age and is the oldest person in the village. “How can we name one of our own, a name used by the foreigners? A name not from our ethnicity? We must protect our traditions especially because so few of us are left.”

The mother had a conflicted look on her faces, but she also agreed with the chief. Ward, turned a sad smile but didn’t argue anymore, instead, he got out a small toy he had prepared. He had carved what looked like a small cage by himself. When everyone in the room looked at him in wonder, he answered the questions they didn’t ask yet.

“It is a rattle toy. My baby brother can shake it to amuse himself. I’ve been working on it ever since I noticed mother was due.”

The baby being handed the rattle started laughing, which brought back a smile in a room that was feeling awkward.

As soon as Ward was old enough to walk and talk, everyone thought that he was odd, with weird, unconventional thinking. They also believed it was very troublesome as he tried to get them to do things that made no clear sense to them, which would be too hard for him to do on his own because of his age.

***

Everyone left the room to let the mother rest, and Ward went outside and sat under the shade of a tree. A 5-year-old girl came running toward him, until she got closer and started walking cautiously, noticing Ward had a sour mood.

Her eyes were sparkling like the moon, and cheeks as red as the flowers she was hiding behind her back. She quickly brought out the flowers to show them to Ward and congratulated him on becoming an older brother.

Ward took the flower and put a smile on his face, but the child in front of him was unconvinced

“Did you want something else?”

“I was just thinking how I am craving some Pizza right about now”

“What’s that?”

“I promise to feed it to you one day. Right when I can go to a place where we can find any sort of materials more than what we have here”

He returned a smile that was genuine this time, and even though she didn’t understand what he was talking about Annie was happy.