Echoes of War: A soldier's beginning

Epilogue - 1991

"Who are you?" A 6 year old John Price looks at the new girl. She's around 5 years old, looking at the hand John is offering her. "Ayla... Zafir." The girl says quietly, shaking his hand. She's shy, unlike John, who's excited as ever to meet her. "My name is Johnathan Price, but my mummy always calls me John, or Johnny!" He shakes her hand happily. "My mommies call me Ayla, because my hair reminds them of the mooooooon." Ayla says excitedly now, showing her natural white hair. "Mommies? You have 2 mommies?" John asks curiously. Ayla nods now, fidgeting with her fingers. "Yeah, first I had one mommy, and then a second mommy came! I have TWOOOOOO mommies." Both Ayla and John giggle about it before they decide to play with some blocks together.

"You're cool! I like you." John says as he stacks the blocks onto each other. "I like you too, you're nice to me, unlike those girls." Ayla says as she looks at the other girls, playing with barbies. John notices them and looks at them as well. "They're weird, not like you! They play with those barbies all the time, and NO ONE else can play with them." Ayla looks confused as she watches the girls. She then looks back at John and shrugs. "That's mean!" John nods as he cleans up the blocks. "Yeah! The teacher said that you were 4, why?" Ayla gets up as well, helping John clean up. "Because my mommy says that I am veryyyyyyy smart!" John nods as he walks back to his seat. "Woahhh!! That's so cool!" Ayla nods as she seems confident on her seat. "I can also read!" Ayla says now, grabbing a book. "Me too!" John says as grabs a picture book. "Nahhhh, that doesn't count Johnny." Ayla says as she's holding the hungry caterpillar. Both John and Ayla giggle about it again, sitting on their seats.

"The hungry caterpillar was sooooo hungry, he ate through 2 apples!" John watches the picture as Ayla is reading for him. "What a fat caterpillar." Ayla nods as she looks at the caterpillar. "But that is- that is because he ehh, he eats a lot!" Ayla says now. "Just like you!" Another kid says to Ayla. "Hey! That's mean Ben!" John says as he looks mad at Ben. Ben laughs as he walks off. "Ben is always mean, I don't like him." John says as he crosses his arms. "Ben looks silly." Ayla says now. "Ben said that you have a weird skin colour." John says to Ayla. "But I don't think that's true. I like it." Ayla looks a bit sad to hear that Ben doesn't like her skin.
"Brown is my favourite colour." John says, trying to make her feel better. "White too, just like your hair!" John says as he touches Ayla's hair. "It's curly, just like my mummy's." Ayla laughs a bit as she shows off her curls. "I bet I have the bigger curls." John nods heavily now. "You do! Mummy's aren't so curly."

The bell rings, it's 14:00 right now. John's mother is catching him up now. "Mummy!" John says as he goes to his mother. "I made a new friend!" The woman smiles warmly now. "Oh? Who may the lucky person be?"
"Her name is Aylaaaaaaa and she read me a book today!" John says as he clings on his mother's leg. He looks at Ayla, who is talking to her mom now. The woman smiles at the fact that John made a new friend. "That's lovely innit? I think she's a sweet little girl." She says before she is about to leave the school. "No mummy wait!" John says as he lets go of her hand. He walks up to Ayla and waves her goodbye. "Bye bye Ayla!" "Bye Johnny!" Ayla says back to him, before he leaves the building.

The next day, Ayla walks to John with a card before school. "It's a birthday card, I hope you can read it." Ayla says quietly now. John opens the card and reads the invitation:

"Dear Johnny,

Do you want to come at my birthday party?

Ayla😋"

"Sure Ayla! I want to go to your birthday party!" Both John and Ayla clap their hands as they jump excitedly. After a few days, John and Ayla go to her house, her two moms decorating the place. "Mommy, mama Johnny is here!" The two women turn around and see a little boy, all dressed up and confident with his gift. "Awh, isn't he the cutest little thing?" Ayla's mama says to her mommy. Mommy nods as she takes the gift from John, who seems to look curious. "How come Ayla has 2 mommies?" John asks again, on which the mama responds with: "Well, sometimes 2 mommies love each other very much!" John nods as he thinks about it. He smiles again and gives Ayla her gift. "Here Ayla." Ayla takes the gift and opens it. She gasps, seeing that it's a barbie that looks just like her and a book about the moon. "Mommy! Mama! Look! The barbie looks like meeee." Ayla says as she shows the Barbie to them. She then looks at the book. She notices that every "papa" is replaced with "mama". "I changed the papa, because you don't have one." John says now. Ayla smiles brightly now and gives John a big hug. "Thank you Johnny!" Ayla says happily now. "No problem Ayla!" John says happily now.

After a while they're eating fries. "What do you want to be when you're older?" Ayla asks John now. "I want to be a soldier! How about you?" "I want to be a teacher, or an astronaut!" Ayla says now as she munches on her fry. "That's so cool! Maybe we both can go to the moon and I will fight the moon men for you!!" Ayla giggles as she hears John's idea. "There are no moon men, but I think mars has them!" Ayla says now. "What's mars?" John asks now. "Another planet, just like earth!" John nods as he eats further. After a while John leaves, waving Ayla goodbye. His dad puts him in his bed now. As he leaves John talks to his little teddy bear.

"Ayla is my best friend!" He says, before looking at the moon.