The Morning She Stayed Home

By J. R. Roth

Shereen had no idea when she stayed home from school with a headache that her midmorning mathematics class would be interrupted by a precise triple tap of Tomahawk missiles—a direct hit; mission accomplished; just what DC wanted.

In the large hole where her sister’s and her classroom once sat, crumpled burned bodies lay, strewn about like rag dolls on a trash heap. They smoldered from the explosion of munitions launched from the warship far out at sea.

Later that night, alone in the bed she had shared with her sister, Shereen cried and asked God who could hate so much.