We Are Giants

September 2, 1942

For everyone with a story to tell.

We Are Giants.

It's what we are, even if some people cannot see it. We have giant souls and hearts as mighty as a thousand beasts. Some people don't act like giants, but I swear we all are.

Being a giant is loving the ones who are impossible to love, and showing compassion to the ones who don't deserve it. Being a giant is and will always be so much more. And there was no one who understood that quite as well as Mina Klebs.

                                                                                              _

September 2, 1942.

"Mama, no!" Ehrin held his mother's wrists tightly as she pushed him away from the crowd.

"Ehrin, listen to your mama right now." She spoke hushed, quietly as possible. People from all sorts of life styles moved around them. He could go without being noticed if she could distract the officer. "Ehrin, go and find your papa. Run away from here and do not come back."

Ehrin had never seen his mother in such distress. The way her words trembled and her eyes widened. Her face was smeared with ash and who knows what else. Everyone looked like that. In pajamas or business suits, it didn't matter. They were all caught off guard.

The mother shook her son's arms. "Ehrin, look at me." Ehrin looked into his mother's eyes and he knew that he wouldn't see her again. Her eyes felt hallow and cold and they spilled with tears. He wished he could have seen the way her eyes looked when she saw her husband. They were the most beautiful then. "Ehrin, you have to take that little girl with you. She will only slow us down, and they will kill her."

Ehrin furrowed his brow and tried to understand. "Momma, I can't leave you."

"Hush. You have to. Do as you are told. Go now, before her mother gets back." Ehrin's mother kissed him firmly on the forehead. "Ich lieb dich." She turned around; her grimy dress now a faded, dirty form of yellow, swayed in the slight breeze.

"Excuse me," She coughed to the officer, waiting for his attention. She waved her hand behind her back, signaling her son to run. The officer spat at her feet.
Ehrin ran, weaving in between the ocean of people who had flooded off their train car after seven weeks. He spotted the littler girl, the only other child who had been in the car with them. He took her hand and she jumped.

"Shh, no, it's okay, it's just me."

She breathed slower and waited for him to speak.

"We have to go now, okay? You have to come with me." Ehrin talked as rapidly and low as he could. He wanted to be calm. But he was leaving his mother.

The girl looked at him hesitantly, and looked around for her mother. She sensed the urgency in Ehrin's touch. "But my mama."

"Your mama has to stay here. Come on, we have to go right now!" Ehrin looked back to his mother. She stood, her arms crossed across her chest, shielding herself or being firm, he couldn't tell; but the officer was running out of patience.

The little girl looked around quickly one more time before taking Ehrin's hand. "Okay."

Ehrin held tight to the girl's hand and darted through more people, behind buildings, and into the trees behind them.