Only the Beautiful

by Susan Meissner

“That’s all I want, Mrs. Clark,” I say. “I want to move forward. I’m never going back to where I was or who I was.”

But Vienna was not the city it had been before. It was as if the city were a man who’d always worn a beard, but he’d been suddenly and inexpertly shaved. He was not recognizable as the same man. I found Rainergasse and turned