“Miss Wonderly murmured, “Thank you,”
softly as before and sat down on the edge of the chair’s wooden seat.”
– The Maltese Falcon – Dashiell Hammett.
Miss Wonderly learned that the refugee couple, Elvira and Javier Miro, now attending their church, were stopped at the border six months ago. They were separated from their children by ICE and for the last month had lost contact and their location. She and the others found out at Bible Study when Mrs. Miro told the group about how much she missed her children.
Miss Wonderly had never married nor had children. The idea of the government separating parents from their children and not letting them communicate just because they came to the USA for asylum, abandoning their own country to escape rape, persecution, or worse, filled Miss Wonderly with determination. She wouldn’t rest until the Muro family was reunited.
She began by making a call to her elected representative’s office and setting up an appointment to meet. She brought Mr. & Mrs. Muro to the appointment with her and pleaded for help in finding the missing children. As elections were approaching the representative was induced to help and assigned one staff person. Within a week, the children had been located and the representative called in a favor to get them released to their parents.
It was the Sunday after the reunification. Pastor Booth called Miss Wonderly to the podium and presented her with a bouquet of flowers and a plaque that said, “Miss Genevieve Wonderly, Everyday American Hero.” Miss Wonderly accepted the plaque, then murmured, “Thank you,” softly … and sat down on the edge of her chair’s wooden seat.
Kristian is the host of 50 Word Thursday. Kristian says:
The Rules:
- Find the muse within the photo or line provided and follow where it leads. It can be a story, anecdote, poem. Anything!
- The Story must be between 50 and 250 words, in 50 word increments. (so 50, 100, 150, 200 or 250 words)
- Link back to this post with the tag 50WordThurs so that everyone can find it, or post your response in the comments below.
- HAVE FUN!
Loved your story. We do need heroes like her.
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Thanks Sadje yes we do.
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You’re welcome Li.
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If only there were more people in the world like Miss Wonderly.
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Everyone needs someone. Glad they had Miss Wonderly.
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Thank you, Michele, yes they were blessed.
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