Page 62 - To Family with Love

of my lifetime. The first war was being bravely fought by my old man for the sake of our homeland, and the second was to be fought by myself with all my heart and zeal for the sake of our family.
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My situation at school got a little worse, but that had noth- ing to do with what was going on at home, it only had to do with the results I got on the latest tests and exams.
But despite all those grand feats, we wholeheartedly con- tinued to organize and play football matches that would last until the first alert. We were still losing, Dado was still playing against us, and I was defending the goal against his shots like crazy, be- cause he was still dating my Marina. However, it would often be a squeaker, and the games were becoming more and more uncertain, because by then, our team had significantly increased in numbers. So, we also had unimaginable amounts of human energy packs on the bench, and we could switch players and run across the field just like the other team. We only had a little prob- lem with the lack of coordination since our team was almost com- pletely made up of newbies. In the meantime, our competition turned into a real tournament, because a third team also joined in, a team we all dreaded to enter, regardless of the fact that they were the best and were constantly defeating us, because it was composed of students whose folks were killed or disappeared in the war. They were the hardest to beat, and we never gained edge over them, as they would always beat and trip us as if we were the ones to blame for their parents’ deaths, but throughout that tournament, the judge never gave them a single red card. Only three throw-ins and one corner kick. Even Dado couldn’t help us there. And so, that organization of football matches, all for the purpose of lifting our spirits and morale, turned out to be a com- plete and utter failure, because we, losing game after game, only
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