Chapter 11. Keepsakes


    Kurt looked at the picture that Waldamir had given him.


    "Are these your parents?"


    Waldamir smiled. "I was named after my Father."


    "Wal senior." Kurt said.


    Kurt took a cigarette tin from his jacket and rattled it. "I don''t have


    any family pictures, but I''ve got a few bits and pieces."


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    "Can I see them." Waldamir said.


    Kurt carefully arranged the tin''s contents on the ground.


    It was mostly buttons and coins, and some small pieces of jewellery.


    Kurt held in his hand a braid of blonde hair and an earing.


    "Who gave you those? A shared intimacy perhaps?"


    "Of sorts." Kurt said. He turned the braid over in his hand.


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


    "What?" Waldamir said in surprise. "Why would you joke about a


    thing like that? You said those Gypsies fellows did it."


    "No I didn''t, I said the Gypsies got blamed for it."


    Kurt pulled a bayonet from his boot and stabbed Waldamir


    in the side. Open mouthed in agony Waldamir slumped over.


    Kurt picked up his keepsakes and looked again at the picture


    of Waldamir''s parents before putting it in his tin.


    "You''re a part of my journey now Wal, just like the others."


    Kurt knelt beside him, placed the tip of the bayonet on his chest


    and slowly pushed down until it broke through Waldamir''s rib cage.


    *