Aya & Luca and the Letter A 🔠

Aya found a schoolbook under a broken desk.

Some pages were missing. Many were torn. All were covered in dust.

“Whose is it?” Luca asked.

Aya opened the cover. A child had carefully written her name inside.

A sound crossed the sky and Luca looked up.

“Thunder?”

Aya did not answer.

They looked around what had once been a classroom. Most of the ceiling was gone – it was sky now. One wall had disappeared completely, so they could see the road. A long line of families slowly leaving, carrying blankets, bottles of water... and small children. A child slept in his mother’s arms.

On the blackboard someone had written:

“Tomorrow: the letter A.”

Luca stared at it for a long time.

“Do you think they learned it?”

Aya closed the book.

“No.”

“Because the school was destroyed?”

She shook her head.

“Because grown-ups forgot something.”

“What?”

Aya placed the book gently on the teacher’s desk.

“That children are not supposed to learn war before they learn the alphabet.”

The sound crossed the sky again.

This time, Luca did not ask if it was thunder.

9 September, International Day to Protect Education from Attack 📚