Under a stack of yellowing newspapers marked “trash”, the faded photo is unmistakable, grandpa’s face hollow, wretched, threadbare uniform hanging from his skeletal frame, yellow star prominent on his chest.
Grandpa tears the photo, hurls it into the fireplace.
“We are Catholic.”
Clara Ray Rusinek Klein is bilingual in Spanish and English. She holds a BA magna cum laude in Political Science with a minor in Religious Studies. Ms. Klein is an internationally published creative writer and author and the founder and Editor in Chief of A Quiet Courage, an online journal of microfiction and poetry in 100 words or less. Her one-hundred-word story Defector was chosen as the winner of the April 2015 Photo Story prompt on 100 Word Story, and her one-hundred-word story Ostdeutschland was chosen as an Editor’s Pick on Postcard Shorts. For more information and a full list of current publications: clararayrusinekklein.wordpress.com.
Image Source: “Buchenwald Prisoners Roll Call 10105“. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.
A Quiet Courage 