“Five hundred Reich marks.” I push the bills across the desk.

“Ha.” He smirks. “Five thousand, minimum. The coat, the rings, and that diamond necklace, too.” He points, eyeing my yellow star. “If you’d rather be shot, fine.” He shrugs. “There’s plenty who’d give anything for a chance to live.”

Clara Ray Rusinek Klein is bilingual in Spanish and English. She holds a BA magna cum laude in Political Science with a minor in Religious Studies. Ms. Klein is an internationally published creative writer and author and the founder and Editor in Chief of A Quiet Courage, an online journal of microfiction and poetry in 100 words or less. Her one-hundred-word story “Defector” was chosen as the winner of the April 2015 Photo Story prompt on 100 Word Story, and her one-hundred-word story “Ostdeutschland” was chosen as an Editor’s Pick on Postcard Shorts. For more information and a full list of current publications, visit clararayrusinekklein.wordpress.com.