Fiction // The Kiss
This story is the third-place winner of the 2008 Moment Magazine-Karma Foundation Short Fiction Contest. Founded in 2000, the contest was created to recognize authors...
Nelly Freiburg left Germany in 1938. At her son’s insistence, she returns to visit in 1972—just as the Munich Olympics are taking place.
“Why does he always go to other countries?” she asks while chewing a pistachio. I stroke her head and say, “Don’t eat and talk at the same time, pumpkin, you can choke.” She swallows silently, then immediately asks, “Daddy, if you build buildings, what do you need a gun for?”