Bombing Nagasaki

You Are Here challenge: Prompt - Write a story entirely in second person that puts the reader somewhere they aren't supposed to be.

Second person puts the reader inside the story. You don't watch someone else cross a line. You do.

Write a story entirely in second person that puts "you" somewhere you aren't supposed to be. Maybe you've wandered into the wrong room, shown up where you weren't invited, crossed a boundary you didn't know was there, or found yourself in a situation you have no business being part of.

Wherever you end up, make the second-person perspective matter. Use "you" to close the distance between the reader and the story, and make that feeling of being somewhere you shouldn't be impossible to shake.

It is 1945 and all hell has just broken out! An atomic bomb was just dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and you have accidentally made your way into Nagasaki! You had no idea that you were there until you were stopped. It was illegal for anyone to go into Hiroshima or Nagasaki and there you are.

Of course you are detained, and sent to prison, until they know who all is involved with this mass destruction. The extent of the damage is unknown, and they are looking at you to blame.

As a tourist, you knew enough to stay away, however, there you are on September 25, 1945. You knew that world war two officially ended earlier in the month. Was it too soon to be a tourist here in this part of the world, you ask yourself?

Just curious, you think. But that isn't how the Japanese see this encroachment. What will you do if they don't let you out of there. One of the other people arrested was given a Japanese newspaper that contained information about the bombing and those people suspected of being involved.

Your name was not on the list. You are so grateful. However, how long they keep you is up to them. You crossed the line and now you have to worry about how long they will keep you. You know you have to have a hearing. Or do you?

For now, you eat, sleep and reflect on what you just did and how long you will be held in prison. You don't see anyone leaving. You do hear stories of visitors bringing in information. How many are sick and dying. Yes, dying.

So many people were killed by the bombings, and now many are affected by the bombings and will die. You think, about dying.

You lay down to go to sleep and all you can picture is the destruction and the children that will die tonight, while you are safe in prison.

When you awake you are in September of 2026. You are 103 years old and in an nursing home in Florida. You are doing pretty well, considering your age, and your memory is fading a bit. You have some difficulty now reading, and hearing.

Even though you can still walk, you are in a wheelchair as they don't want you to fall and break a hip. At least that is what they are always telling you.

The staff treat you well, and help with so many things. The main interest to many is your stories of Nagasaki as a tourist. You have told those stories so many times now that you couldn't forget them even if you want to. And some days you want to.

Knowing today how much destruction, and death that was caused by the atomic bomb, I hope no one will ever have to experience that again. It is important to you that you continue to remind people.

Now, you are grateful you spent those months in confinement. That may have saved your life and you are grateful that they found you before you got too close to the destruction and the after affects of the bombing.

You are so grateful that you have had such a full life and sometimes you have the thought that you are probably still alive to remind others of how tragic the atomic bomb really is.

This afternoon, you will be saying a few words at your birthday celebration on turning 104. You will see family, still here, and thank the staff for taking such good care of you.

For this birthday, they asked you to tell everyone the story of Nagasaki, as you remember it. You think of how you can do that and somewhere inside you hope that it will be the last time you tell the story.

There are so many you miss and hope to see again. Somewhere deep inside you hope that you have done enough to be forgiven for your small part in the bombings.