This week Pegman takes us to the Arlington National Cemetery in Washington DC, USA.

Your mission is to write up to 150 words inspired by the prompt. Feel free to use the location supplied above, our take your own tour of Washington D.C. via Google maps and find a view that inspires you.

You may write poetry, prose, essay, limerick, sonnet, or fiction of any flavor. Once your piece is polished, share it with others at the linkup below. Reading and commenting is part of the fun.

Thanks to Karen and Josh for facilitating this unique challenge. To join click the frog.

This week I revisited and fleshed out a story I posted in Friday Fictioneers four years ago. 

Genre: Realistic Fiction

Word Count: 150

INSTINCT

            Six years my senior, my gentle brother was my hero. He was the valedictorian of his graduating class. Awarded a scholarship to Harvard, he owned the future.

            I had just turned twelve when his draft notice came. Vietnam consumed every newscast. Mom was inconsolable.

            The day he left to go overseas I clung to him and sobbed. “I’ll never see you again.”

            “Duty calls, Sis.” He pinched my cheek and kissed my nose. “I’ll be back. You’ll see.”

            “Promise?”

            “Promise.”

***

            Tonight we celebrate his sixty-fifth birthday. His hands tremble as he cuts the cake. The knife falls from his fingers and tears stream down his stubbled cheeks.

            “I cut off their ears and hung them from a chain on my belt loop.” He swallows a pill with a swig of beer. “Thirty-six kills. God, I miss it.”

            My brother did come back from Vietnam but he never returned.