Carlos discovered the large brittle envelope under a pile of shoes in the back of his grandmother's closet.

At first he wasn't sure if he should open it. What if he damaged it and his grandmother found out? He stared at it and the fact that it was so old and buried away in the bottom of the closet stirred his curiosity beyond caution. He lifted it carefully and turning around to sit on the floor, he opened the envelope on his lap. Crumbs of paper settled on his trousers as he slipped his fingers inside and withdrew the folded, stiff piece of card.

Setting the envelope aside he unfolded the card and turned it right side up and stared in bewildered awe. The faces were a little blurred but the image was quite clear. It was a picture of a  small group of  women standing in front of a topless jeep, all staring, presumably at the photographer. The women were dressed in military clothes and an armband of one indicated they were a medical group, likely nurses. Carlos peered at the various parts of the picture, noting in one corner a handwritten date – May 14/43.

Was his grandmother a nurse in the war? How come the family never mentioned anything like that? He tried to read the caption at the bottom of the picture but time had all but obliterated the words. All that remained was a series of numbers and what looked like the name, Germany.

Back in his room Carlos flattened the picture on the scanner next to his computer and turned the machine on, watching the image appear in the program on his screen. With practiced moves he manipulated the picture until the tones were balanced, the images a bit sharper and more of the faint type in the caption exposed. He enlarged it and read the words ... 'heroic nurses . . . take deserved break after . . . . rescue  . . . . .'. It was a sentence in itself but he could tell it was not as it seemed. He stared at the photo.

Photography was very common during the war so it was likely something he might learn more about on line . . . or he could just ask his grandmother.