On the morning of August 6 of 1945, Manfritz was wandering around downtown Hiroshima and found a little boy walking alone. The little boy, Takeshi, looked at him and said he was lost. Manfritz really did not have time to help anyone at that moment because he was busy trying to find a place to eat breakfast. He was starving. The night before he had spent almost the entire darkness trying to hear news about the end of the war.
Well, my friend, said Manfritz, I can take you to the police station. Takeshi answered that he would rather walk with him for a while because maybe together they could find his mother.
OK, answered Manfritz, come with me. They hung around together until Manfritz found a cozy place to have a cup of tea with the boy. The kid seemed pretty nervous, and Manfritz, who had filled his belly, by then, was more relaxed and at ease with him.
You don't have to worry, little boy, Manfritz said, we will find your mother pretty soon, it is a promise. But the boy seemed to be paying little attention to him. What is wrong? asked Manfritz. Well, said the little boy, I had a nightmare last night, I dreamt that my mother abandoned me forever. Why?, asked Manfritz. I don't know, answered the little boy. It was kind of a huge light (and he opened his little arms wanting to show the magnitude of the light he had seen), and my mother disappeared in it, like swallowed up by it, rephrased the little boy. Don't worry about that, said Manfritz. Everything gonna be all right. The war is over by now, you don't have to think like that anymore.
When they went out, back to the streets, Manfritz grabbed Takeshi's hand and both went walking and talking. Suddenly the boy stopped and said to Manfritz...
Listen! Listen!
What? asked Manfritz... and the boy looked at the sky.
There is a plane there, can you hear its engines? Sure, answered Manfritz, without hearing anything.
There, there...the little boy pointed up, it is almost over us (nobody seemed to care except for Takeshi, Manfritz and a dog who started barking).
I see, said Manfritz. It is flying very high.
I know, said the little boy.
OK, let's go, interrupted Manfritz, pulling Takeshi's hand.
They kept walking for a while down the streets and meanwhile, an acute noise, like the sound of the wind when it hits the narrow gap of desert mountains, was heard coming down from the sky.
Oh, no...! said Takeshi, it is like in my dream...
What do you mean? asked Manfritz.
After the whistle the light will come, said the boy, and embraced Manfritz’s legs very, very hard.
After a few seconds, two or three blocks away from them, the bomb hit the ground, and in no time a huge ball of light and fire covered Hiroshima's downtown. Manfritz was mute and blind with the strike of luminescence and terror. He had got on his knees and had hugged the boy, protecting him with his entire body. The tsunami of light rumbled over them as if the entire universe (blacks holes, big bangs, red giants, galaxies, etc.) had fallen down over the chosen city.

After the blast, the calm.

When Manfritz opened his eyes he found around him just mountains of bricks. Broken windows were spread all over. Don't worry, he mumbled to the little boy, we are safe.
But when he looked into his embraced arms, he found a tridimensional silhouette of ashes crumbling down to the ground.
He stood up and looked around, toward the crowded streets where few seconds ago people were walking and chatting, and where now, only shadows, dust and shade remained.
He looked at his hands and legs with disbelief; they still were there. Nobody else seemed to be alive. Not even a single corpse. Only the dog's bark remained.
Only then Manfritz understood who he really was, beyond life and death. For a second he thought he was like God, but he soon realized that cartoons also couldn’t die.