Our Mantra
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Genre: Historical Fiction
Word Count: 100
TOUR GUIDE AT ROOSEVELT ISLAND
Edith studied the yellowed photograph of a young mother cradling a toddler with dark curls on her lap. She had arrived at Castle Garden from Poland only to be diagnosed with the dreaded disease.
Surveying the overgrown, supposedly haunted ruins, Edith imagined her 19-year-old great-grandmother, stricken with smallpox and imprisoned behind the granite hospital walls.
“Left to die without her child. It must’ve been terrifying,” Edith whispered to the sobbing girl beside her. “But haunted? Nonsense.”
“Iz es itst, grandoter?”
Edith whipped around in time to see Great-Grandma Edith, pockmarked cheeks wet with tears, vanish like smoke through a keyhole.
Note – The translation for the Yiddish is “Is it now, Granddaughter?”