A Holiday Gathering

Long silent, the grandfather clock awakes to strike a full twelve bells at midnight. On a glass topped table, five candles light without the need for human hands, chairs of flawless red and green await the guests.

Dr. Mengele passes through the door with a box of spectral chocolates, the same he gave to Jewish twins when their train arrived in Auschwitz, prized subjects for his surgeries.

Ilse Koch, Red Witch of Buchenwald, appears in fashion, with fancy gifts, made from Jewish prisoners’ tattooed skins. Himmler brings his book on the occult and racist jokes to share, but is ignored.

Adolph and Eva are fashionably late, she with her two terriers, he with his German Shepherd, Blondi, all wagging tails and licking hands, just like things used to be,

before the last few days, when Blondi took the cyanide to assure her master that it worked, and Eva’s terriers were shot, along with Blondi’s newborn pups.

On Christmas eve they celebrate with fictive wine and phantom tea, a toast of Yuletide spirits, and reminisce the joys of bygone times, until at dawn, the clock ticks cease.

∼ Marge Simon

© Copyright Marge Simon. All Rights Reserved.