A quote: “This is not peace. It is an armistice for 20 years.” – French Marshall Ferdinand Foch, Supreme Allied Commander during World War I, upon seeing the final draft of the Treaty of Versailles.
I’ll start with a story …
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Spring. We had been doing the laundry when the officers showed. Ma’s reddened hand had squeezed my shoulder, but she would not cry in front of them.
“We’re sorry, M’am. Pvt. Aseltine, your son …”
“Thank you, boys. I have some lemonade cooling on the back porch …”
“No, thank you, M’am.”
Ma even refused to take comfort that my brother, Ray, was only “MIA.”
“Millie, if the Huns have him, he’s not comin’ home.”
So I am surprised, hurrying home from school chased by an early Michigan winter, to see Ma bawling. I pull the letter from her hand.
Ray’s alive.
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With Veteran’s Day on Monday, I wrote this little bit of fiction based on my own family’s history with WWI. I hope you read that as well and take a moment or two on Monday in gratitude and remembrance of All Who Have Served.
Now, it’s your turn.
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. featured image, cropped, by Tony Phelps, Pixabay CC license
Cameron says: My ears were still ringing from the explosion. Off in the distance, I could hear debris raining down on some far off location. Private Salinas was looking at me with a sheepish grin.
“Well, Sergeant; you did say that we needed to bring this bunker down.”
PFC Hermann also chimed in “And now we don’t have to turn in the explosives!”
I sent them away from me so they would not see the grin on my face. Corporal Dawson moved in close. “I remember when we did that.”
“It’s why I’m letting it go. And it was a good blast.”
“We shall replace armed conflict with political competition!” the ambassador shouted, waving the proposal from the Department of Diplomacy.
“We outline a comprehensive, just and lasting peace, based on ‘land for peace’ and compliance with international legitimacy and resolutions,” interrupted the Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs, stabbing her hand at her proposal.
“I have it here!” cried the Assistant Prime Minister, his proposal held on high. “Peace for our time!”
Suddenly, a smoke smudged colonel barged into the chamber. The blood spatters on his tattered camouflage did not seem to be his. “The war is over. Permanently…”
“They are all dead.”
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