The Agony of Injustice

By Mike Braunsroth

The Agony of Injustice is a work of fiction set in the late 1930s to late 1950s. The story is based on an immigrant family who came from Germany after the Second World War and settled in the Midwest, which was best as he was a blacksmith. The two children, both in high school, were well-liked. The boy had a very close girlfriend, and the girl was well-liked by all. The local banker's son especially liked the girl, but she always rejected his request for a date. This infuriated him as he had no trouble dating any other girl he chose due to his father's wealth. This brought about an enormous tragedy to the immigrant family that caused the agony of injustice.

Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance, similarity, or identification to actual persons, living or dead, events, products, or locales is entirely coincidental and unintentional.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Nov 14, 2022
• ISBN: 9781662482526

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The Agony of Injustice

Mike Braunsroth

Copyright © 2022 Mike Braunsroth

All rights reserved

First Edition

PAGE PUBLISHING

Conneaut Lake, PA

First originally published by Page Publishing 2022

ISBN 978-1-6624-8248-9 (pbk)

ISBN 978-1-6624-8252-6 (digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

About the Author

Acknowledgments

I wish to thank Mary C. Mix and Dona Minton (a fellow author) for their review, suggestions, editing, and proofreading.

Chapter 1

Melody

Melody, a first-year high school student, sat at an old wooden kitchen table, doing her homework, while her mother prepared their evening meal. The small room was filled with tantalizing aromas as Melody agonized over an algebra problem. She ran her fingers over her unruly, pale blond hair thrown back into a messy ponytail. With an overly exaggerated, drawn-out sigh, she turned to her mom.

Mom! she whined. Algebra sucks! Can you help me with this problem?

Sorry, honey, I don't know anything about algebra, Karen replied, and without thinking, she added, Your father could have helped you. He was good at math.

Melody quietly gasped at her mother's response. It was the first time she'd ever mentioned anything regarding her father. Whenever she'd asked about him, her mother became distraught, refused to speak of him, and would drift into melancholy. Melody bit her lower lip, and her soulful blue eyes glistened as she hesitantly queried her mom, You've never told me anything about my dad. Can I ask why?

Karen Hill's mousy brown hair was piled on her head in ringlets, with a few soft spirals framing her tired face. Although just in her mid-thirties, the years of raising a child on her own had taken their toll. She worked five days a week for an insurance firm and did part-time bookkeeping for two local businesses to make ends meet. Her orchid eyes brimmed with tears as she became noticeably upset.

Someday, perhaps, I will be able to tell you about him. But for now, you are too young, and recalling the heartache is more than I can bear. Your father, a good person…his family was treated unjustly…and the agony of the injustice is just too… She stopped abruptly and hurried out of the room as tears