A Valentine’s Day Gift: An Unpublished Story from My Memoir

Some stories stay with you, even if they don’t make it into the final draft.

Today, I’m sharing a behind-the-scenes look at an unpublished piece I originally considered for my memoir, Never Make A Sound. Though it didn’t fit the theme and time-frame of the book, I later reworked it as a standalone essay.

Let me know what you think—I love hearing how stories land with you.

Munich, February 14, 2000

Yesterday, at Dachau, an American tourist looked at the flat grey sky above her and remarked, This is the perfect day for this. We all felt it. The vastness, the torturous cold, the eerie stillness. The walls made us all the colder. At the museum, that same woman put her hand to her mouth when she saw the pictures.

But I was not a virgin.