Premonition at the Prom

In September, this family hosted another relative of theirs, a nice boy named Nick. We studied together in the same class and he soon became a good friend of mine. We chatted during recess and very much enjoyed each other's company.

The school held an impressive party each year to mark the end of the school year, with parents and guests attending. While we were happy that this was the last day of school, the pressure of the final examinations - covering all that we learned during the course of the year - aggravated us. We were very excited, with this year extra special for me. As I stood near the entrance with Katy, our teacher's daughter, Nick approached me with a bunch of roses. "Irene", he called, with eyes shining brightly and his face beaming kindly, "I brought these roses for you". Standing speechless as he reached to give me the roses, I noticed how Katy's face turned pale and heard her beg for the roses, her voice sounding like it was coming from the grave. Nick looked into my eyes, waiting to hear what to do with the roses he so kindly intended for me. I was so stunned by Katy's request and by her other worldly voice, and instructed Nick to give Katy the roses.

Looking back over the years I never regretted this. While I received plenty of roses from many friends since then, Katy never received another chance. Within four short years, she was taken to Auschwitz, heaped upon a pile of dead bodies in a horse cart, and taken to the crematorium. Katy's mother stood by helplessly as she heard the blood-curdling screams of her only daughter, taken to be burned alive at the age of fifteen. I've realized many times since then that we subconsciously feel some of the events that will take place in the future, even if we do not fully understand these premonitions.

Katy was a good friend of mine. We spent many happy hours together with some of my other close friends, like Vera and Alice, also of blessed memory. Their lives cut short mercilessly by the satanic hands of the Hungarian and German Nazi.

© David Muskal, 2001