Today Pegman took us to Minsk. I’ve once again gone to the dark side because I’ve recently started a class about the Holocaust. Dark times. Dark story. On the other hand, Happy New Year, fellow Pegman Writers!
You send taunting postcards from AfricaChinaNorwayPortugal. Some signed MissYou, WishYouWereHere. Others WeWillVisitHereTogether-Someday. The worst say WeWillNeverSeeOneAnotherAgain. They arrive in a neverending mixed-up rotation I can’t process.
But this last postcard broke me. You are the one person who knows my parents were thrown into a ditch then shot by Schutzmannschaft in Minsk. You know, because, just as you shouldered your rifle you noticed me, legs shattered by a hail of bullets, clinging to my father’s chest.
For some godforsaken reason, you pulled me out of the mud. Hid me inside your coat. Gifted me to your wife who kept me as if I were a child of her own. You? You merely kept me.
Twenty years later I lie here, half a woman with a gun beside my bed while you travel the world with your mistress, and send postcards. Today, Herr Stein, I choose WeWillNeverSeeOneAnotherAgain.
Heartbreaking. I like the visceral imagery of the middle section.
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Thank you, Josh.
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This is truly dark. The fathomless pain of a survivor who has – it seems – been tortured by her rescuer for years. An emotionless rescue, to save a child but never to let them touch your heart.
That last line mixes both heartbreak and a determination to survive. Well done Lish
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Thanks so much, Lynn. One should never immerse themselves too deeply in the atrocities of WWII. It’s quite depressing. On the other hand, it should NEVER be forgotten. Happy New Year.
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Very true, Lish. We’ve just watched a series on the home movies of the Nazis and while there were stories of extreme heroism much of it was just horrifying. But much so very human. How people can be swept along, fool themselves they’re doing the right thing or that things aren’t as bad as they’re being told. It’s very well for us to judge with hindsight, but I can imagine people being caught up in such fervour again in the right circumstances. To only need to see the nonsense people believe that’s disseminate online and in the media
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You’ve created a strange and deeply disquieting character in Herr Stein. What on earth are his motivations? Apart from cruelty, of course. And your poor narrator, poised on the verge of a final act of defiance that will take her beyond his power for ever.
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Thanks for reading and commenting, Penny.
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Dark indeed, and a lot of complex plot and emotion hinted at. Great drama.
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Thanks, Iain.
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You did warn of the dark… that ending was the darkest bit
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Thanks. I hope my story didn’t delve too deeply into darkness. Next week I will try for humor.
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I do prefer humour 🙂
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