A Web of Destinies
written by: Katalin Abrudan
1. A twelve-year-old boy begged and pleaded with his parents until he was allowed to be part of the promotion of a chocolate bar marketed by his father’s company.
2. Tiny paper umbrellas were tied to each bar of chocolate. Then a plane was loaded and the big moment arrived. The boy would sit next to the pilot, they would take off and he would drop hundreds of chocolates to the waiting crowd below. At this time the little girl was not even born yet.
3. The governor must have been about sixty years old when he toured a fabulous, magical country, where the palaces and temples of the ancient capital made such an impression on him that it touched his very soul.
4. The year the little girl was born, somewhere far away in another country, a high school boy tried out for a famous rugby team but was not accepted. So he joined the army. A sports injury meant he couldn’t be an infantryman, so he joined the Air Force.
5. Meanwhile, the chocolate merchant’s son fell in love with flying so much that, at the age of twenty-two he enrolled at an aviation school, was accepted, and graduated with a first-class degree. He was a God-given talent. At this time the little girl was about two years old.
6. The gifted pilot carried many important people on board his plane and flew safely through the most active anti-aircraft control zones. By the age of twenty-seven, he had participated in many successful missions. He sometimes wondered how many civilians had been killed by his bombs, but he reminded himself that it was not his job to moralise. If you think too much, you become useless. His job was to follow orders.
7. It was then that he met the boy who did not make the rugby team but became an excellent rifleman in the Air Force. They served on the same bomber. They became close friends. At this time the little girl was in fourth grade.
8. In the same year, the famous physicist became involved in a top-secret scientific research project.
9. Very few people knew what the research was about; that its aim was to end the war as quickly as possible and with as few casualties as possible.
10. Sometime later the little girl, along with many other city children, was moved to the countryside to a monastery. The adults thought they would be safer there. Promises were made that the children would continue to learn and that they would be well looked after. But food was scarce and awful and they only went to school when it rained. Otherwise, they worked in the fields.
Despite censorship and the suspicious eyes of the monks, the then ten-year-old girl managed to send her mother a letter and ask her to come and take her back to the city.
11. The research was over and the superpower was ready to use the secret weapon. The former Governor, then Secretary of War, protested in despair when he saw the name of the fabled city so close to his heart on the list of targets. He struck the name from the list. Instead, the little girl’s town was chosen.
12. The little girl walked with her mother for a day until they got home. The next morning she woke up to the sound of the roof collapsing. She battled serious illnesses for a long time, but eventually survived. Later, she became a citizen of the great power that made the deadly weapon that destroyed her city. She travelled tirelessly around the world, speaking of peace, responsibility, and forgiveness.
Her mother lost her life in the bombing.
13. The circle is complete: the little boy who scattered chocolate bars to the people from that old plane all those years ago, threw the bomb called Little Boy at the town of the little girl.
The bomber aircraft carrying Little Boy was named after the pilot’s mother.
14. The pilot, the gunner, and the whole crew insisted until they died that they didn’t regret what happened. They were just following orders. They were just doing their duty.
- A Web of Destinies - April 8, 2025
- Smaug - August 10, 2024
