Landmark
Germany, 2001
They gathered together on the hill and looked down. The patch of land was grown over with weeds, but no trees grew. A few broken down posts and the scraggly remains of barbed wire were the only signs that anyone had ever been here. And yet the small mementos of the prison camp could never say that this had once been one of the most important spots of the war.
Pierre was the first to move down the hill. He paused and took the hand of one of the American women beside him to help her down the slope. The others followed. They soon gathered in the middle of the field.
Ila May paused and kicked at the dirt. Then she knelt down and scooped something up. She adjusted her glasses. "U.S." she read. She held it out to Pierre who inspected the old, rusty button. Another sign of who had once lived here.
"Well, I think we have a more fitting landmark," Pierre said. "Let's get to work, everyone."
Together the men and women, children of the men who had once lived here– both prisoners and guards alike– set about clearing the land.
"Statue's here," Bernard announced as a truck pulled into the clearing many hours later. "Time to clear out."
The next day they all arrived to see the statue in its place. A bronze statue of a great bear wearing a crush cap stood proudly in the center of the field. A plaque on the bottom announced the statue was Papa Bear.
The children gathered round, looking up at it with reverence and awe.
"A fitting landmark, indeed," Pierre announced. As a final touch, he placed a book at the feet of the bear. Hogan's Heroes: The Prisoner's Underground. The book would eventually be destroyed by the elements, but the statue would stand for many years. And the people it represented would live on forever.
A sequel of sorts to the fifth chapter of The Christmas Song