Photo by Daniel von Appen on Unsplash
It was a simple lie. I didn’t even have to form the thought into words, Weber saw to that.
‘A yes is all we need. A yes and all of this can be over for you.’ His shirt was dark with sweat and even from the other side of the desk, I could smell last night’s schnapps on his breath, the sharp fug of raw onions.
One ‘yes’ and Professor Greenspan’s room became a store cupboard, his class taken by the oily Professor Marlin.
I walked past Greenspan’s apartment today. The windows were boarded up, misspelt obscenities scrawled across the warped wood. With a pen, I wrote in shaky text, I’m Sorry.
Written for Sonya at Only 100 Words’ Three Line Tales. See the pic and write a story. Go here to join in and to read the other tales.
Word Shamble 
I have the impression that you visualized that scene really clearly and intensely.
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I think I did really. I had in mind some kind of state where it’s easy to dispose of people you find inconvenient or awkward, just by dropping the right word in the right ear. Some kind of Stalinist set-up, though this still happens all across the world, sadly. Thank you so much , Penny 🙂
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ohh, that was quite a tale!
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Thank you so much Prakash 🙂
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Being pressured into false witness — makes me wonder what dirt they had on the narrator, or if this is one of those dystopian societies where everyone is scared, and it can always be your turn next if you don’t toe the line.
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Good point. Paranoia can so easily become a reflection of a new status quo in our supposedly free democracies if we’re not careful, the slide into some kind of totalitarianism insidious, even inevitable.
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The latter I think. In an oppressive society, there’s always someone willing to make waves against the injustice they see – and always someone else who wants to be rid of them.
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Hearing that Simone Veil died this morning, this story becomes horribly appropriate. The photo gave me the same sense of oppression. Good story.
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Thank you Jane. She sounds like such a courageous, wonderfully strong woman. To have survived all she did and still be fighting for women’s rights. Yes, something dark about that photo.
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Exactly. If only there were more like her.
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Few and far between.
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Unfortunately for mankind.
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Great story. Sad and depressing …some things can not be undone, and the simple statement of “sorry” has lttle affect in most cases.
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Very true. Thanks for reading 🙂
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