Chapter 11. Keepsake

Kurt looked at the picture that Wal had given him..

"Are these your parents?"

"I was named after my Father." Wal said.

"Waldamir senior." Kurt said.

Wal smiled. "My Mother's name is Judit."

Kurt took a cigarette tin from his coat and rattled it.

"I don't have any family pictures but I do have some keep

sakes. Would you like to see them?"

"Of course." Wal said.

"I've never shown them to anyone."

Kurt opened the the tin and arranged what it held on the floor.

Wal saw buttons and coins and some military insignia.

In his hand Kurt held a braid of red hair and a single earing.

"Who gave you those?" Wal asked.

Kurt look away before he answered.

"I don't ever remember being cruel or unkind when I young."

He turned the braid of hair over in his hand.

"I took them from the women I killed in the Vogt forest."

"What?" Wal wondered why Kurt would joke about of such a thing.

"I thought you said the Gypsies did it."

"No, I said was the Gypsies got blamed for it."

Kurt pulled a bayonet from his boot and stabbed Wal in the

side. Wal slumped to the ground gasping, open mouthed in

agony.

"Don't take it personally." Kurt started to put his keepsakes

away. He took a moment to hold each piece individually.

"It doesn't matter where I go, or what I do - circumstance

always taunts me with opportunity."

The picture of Waldamir's parents was last thing Kurt put

in his tin. He knelt beside Wal and put the bayonet point on

his chest, then slowly drove it through him.

"In the middle of a War, what's one more sorrow."

*

Authors Note

Thank you for reading what I have written so far.

I will add to this chapter in the next few weeks or so.

Any feedback or ideas you may have would be welcome.