[Original Novella] My Son. My Son. (Part 1)

Prelude

Ernst Sohn Baeyer looked at the captured soldiers being marched in front of him. He idly talked to the gefreiter beside him. The lance corporal - although below medium height looked tall because he was so thin. His moustache covering the ugly slit of his mouth - had been trimmed so he could properly wear his gas mask.

"I don't like poison gas attacks", the corporal said, "During the Kindermord bei Ypern the wind turned against us and my own company of 250 became 42."

Baeyer said dryly "Today we are going to change that."

Baeyer was a bitter man. His father and half brother had been famous scientists. His brother whom was much older had received all the accolades Baeyer desired but had been denied because of the accident of his birth. He was not even entitled to his last name. His mother had come to work for his father as a house keeper in 1874. She was a simple Bavarian girl, but with ambition. She had given birth to Baeyer a year later without benefit of marriage. His father was an old man and had only tolerated his existence - an embarrassment to his family. His older brother was Jewish on his mother's side - which gave him a clue on how to selectively poison his enemies. Scientists knew that characteristic of both the mother and father passed to children. What if he could create a poison which target the characteristics passed on from the mother. It gave Baeyer a certain satisfaction that he could create a poison gas which could kill his hated brother yet leave himself safe.

"We are from a special race of people", he told the corporal. "I have created a gas which targets the offspring of all the mothers who are not from our special race".

"Are you sure?"

"In front of us is a cross section of soldiers who are our enemies." He looked at the assembled prisoners. "We have French, English, and even black Americans, Do you think we can execute them without affecting us?" The two German guards listening to their discussion looked nervously at each other. At a sign Baeyer and the corporal pulled on their masks. He unsealed the canister and rolled it into the group... a oily fog billowed out. Some of the prisoners reacted quickly ... dropping to the floor convulsing. Others stood a while longer their legs stuttering to stay up. Finally they fell to lie in the vapour, twitching for about 15 minutes until they expired. Only the two German guards stood unaffected... although they held their hands over their mouths trying not to breath in the gas.

"I think we have a nice surprise" said Baeyer ... his words like knives.

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Aside from posting on STEEM these past few month I haven't written for years. In university I had a professor who required a 500 word essay written for every class. She was a sweet bouncy thing and I miss the time our class spent together. This is slightly below the word count but ... oh well.