part 2
Garrison put up a hand, "It's alright. We didn't expect to be here. The storm last night changed our plans. Can you help us?" As the man carefully laid his tools on the counter and continued to study him he thought he was going to refuse them. The guy was old for this kind of work, he thought, and was probably afraid, but suddenly the man mastered that fear and smiled.
"Of course. How may I be of service to you?" he asked offering his hand, "I am Dieter Gehrlig."
Taking the hand in a firm grip, "Lieutenant Garrison, Herr Gehrlig. I have injured men up in the mountains. We need a way out of here."
Gehrlig had directed them to the local bakery. The baker, he said, shorted his loaves, adding saw dust and charging an exorbitant fee. He was not well liked in the town and the local youth routinely made off with his delivery van, driving out his gas ration and leaving it by the side of the road. The local police rarely bothered with his complaints any longer. They were back in twenty minutes; bringing the vehicle around behind the shop they picked up the old man and loaded one of his stout hand carts in the back. Staying out of sight in the dark interior of the van he directed them out of the neighborhood, using the back roads he knew so well. Once they were well away from the town he slid behind the wheel, explaining that it would be easier and faster for him to drive, than to try and explain where they must go. After nearly an hour on winding back roads and rough farm tracks they sat parked by the stream at the head of the meadow, near the path that led back into the mountains.
"I am afraid I can go no further with you. These old legs of mine will not make it up the mountain." He watched as the two young men lifted his cart from the truck and sat it on the ground. He smiled at the dark haired youngster as he cast a furtive glance around the meadow and then turned suspicious eyes on him. "You find it difficult to trust, my friend?" Gesturing back towards the old van behind him, "You may disable the vehicle if you wish. It would take me several hours to make my way back on foot."
Garrison placed a hand on Chief's shoulder and when the young Indian looked at him and nodded, turned to Gehrlig, "That won't be necessary, Herr Gehrlig," casting his own look back across the field, "It may take us a couple of hours. Will you be alright here on your own, sir?"
"Certainly!" Turning the old man walked back to the open doors of the van and reached in to remove a long canvas bag and a pouch he had placed inside while they had been loading the cart. "These meadows won't be used for a few weeks more." Smiling and nodding back towards the mountain, he untied the cord that held the long package closed. "There will still be storms that will cover this area with snow, but" and he winked at them, eyes sparkling with delight as he drew his rod from its canvas covering, "the fishing should be excellent!"
Garrison and Chief had traveled some distance along the path before Chief gave a quick laugh and looked back over his shoulder. "D'you believe that guy? He looked like a kid on some kinda school holiday."
Garrison smiled, "Well, I hope he catches enough for all of us, or we're stuck with the ration packs."
"If Goniff left any!" Chief shot a look at his commander. "There's always the bread."
Garrison laughed at that, "Made with sawdust?! Doesn't sound like that'd be any improvement!" and turning "You said you could find food up here."
"Well, yeah." The young man looked uncertainly at the other, "but, now?"
With a shrug of his shoulder, "Might as well. It doesn't take two people to push this thing up hill."
"But what if you meet up with somebody?" He was already reaching into the cart to pick up a large cloth that lay there, planning to use it to carry back the things he might find.
"If somebody comes along I can always tell them I'm up here gathering firewood" and stopping he looked up and down the path. "But I doubt there's anyone within five miles of this place." Seeing the light flash in the young man's eyes, "Go on. See what you can find." He stood watching Chief fade off into the trees. That old man wasn't the only one who looked like a kid on holiday!
"What's this stuff?" Casino looked up when the parcel landed near his hip as he rested against the rocks.
"Food." Chief stepped into the small area where the other three had spent the morning in hiding and stooped to untie the cord that held the bundle closed.
Goniff kept his head still to ward off the dizziness but his empty stomach drove him to ask, "Where'd you get it?"
"It's all over out there."
Casino teased the package open, peering inside for a moment and then looked up in disgust. "This ain't 'food'. It's weeds and grass!"
Chief stared back at him, "What'd ya expect, Pappy? Steak?"
Actor looked over his shoulder as the young man pulled the things out and laid them around him on the ground "Wild onions, field greens, mushrooms. These are Morelles!"
Chief carefully unwrapped several small eggs from a bundle of moss. He'd hated taking them from the nest he'd found by the stream, but they needed the food. He raised his eyebrows and jerked a thumb over his shoulder. "It's all out there. If you know what to look for."
"And I suppose you do?" Casino shook his head.
He continued to sort through the bounty. "Uh huh."
"How d'you know this stuff's not gonna poison us?" Goniff reached out and picked up a long oval leaf, giving it an experimental nibble.
"Lady back at the estate's been showin' me," he said quietly
Garrison glanced up and frowned at him "What lady? There aren't any women on the estate! I can't trust you guys!"
"Well...." Chief concentrated on the food, trying to buy time.
"What lady?" The voice was quiet, the tone insistent.
"She just comes in the back and gets this kinda stuff. She's not hurtin' nothin', Warden."
"How long?" All he got for an answer was a shrug. He looked over the array of wild food stuffs. "I only recognize some of this stuff from the grounds around the manor. How do you know the rest is safe?"
Chief looked away and chewed at his lower lip for a few seconds and then raised innocent eyes up at the Warden. "She's got a book at her place. She's been teachin' me."
Garrison ran an exasperated hand through his hair. "Between you guys sneaking off the place, and the locals sneaking on, I don't know why we bother with a guard detail at all!"
Actor laughed before asking "Did you determine where we are?"
"Yeah. And we've made contact. He's waiting for us, down at the base of this path."
They settled Casino on the cart with his leg resting on the firewood Garrison had gathered along the way as a cover. Goniff tried to walk at first but tiring quickly his vertigo returned and they had to stop to load him on as well. He pushed himself into the corner of the cart and gripped the sides as they made their way back down where the van lay. Stopping in the trees above the meadow Garrison motioned Chief away along the stream and he moved carefully along the trees. They'd spend sometime checking the area, and make sure Gehrlig was alone before he'd moved his injured into the open. After satisfying himself that the clearing was safe Garrison made his way silently along the stream to Chief as he sat watching their contact happily fishing from a large log that lay along the bank.
Chief looked up, as he settled in next to him on the rocks, and said quietly, "Just him, Warden," then smiling he added, "And a pretty good string a fish."
Garrison laughed and stood, startling the shoemaker who had been intent on his line, "I see you've had a successful morning." As Chief headed back towards the path to help Actor bring the others in, he'd walked down to stand next to the stream as Gehrlig gathered his things.
"Yes! Yes! I have not been able to come up this far, this early for a very long time." Stooping he pulled a line from the water, proudly displaying his large catch. "It has been a very profitable morning, indeed. At the place I will take you, we will cook these. I'm sure you won't mind some hot food after your night in the mountains." Dieter had been moving back up to the van as he'd been speaking and arrived there just as Actor and Chief pulled the cart up.
Goniff brighten immediately. "Somebody say 'hot food'?"
"Better not get too excited," Casino advised as he was being shifted into the back of the van, "S'probably just more of the same stuff as's in that sack."
"Herr Gehrlig, these are the rest of my men. And Casino the stuff in that sack is going to set these off pretty nice." Reaching into the van he laid the line of fish he'd carried on one of the baker's trays next to his cynical safecracker.
"Oh, hey, nice. Where'd ya find a fishmonger up here?"
"Man, Pappy, ain't you ever gone out and got your own food before?"
"Sure. I got it from the greengrocer on the corner, and the butcher over on the next street."
Dieter searched their faces for an explanation and found Chief looking back at him with a slight smile, he jerked his thumb at the other man, "City boy."
"How'd you get into all this, Pops?"
"Casino!"
"No, it is alright!" Smiling at the way the Lieutenant bristled to the other man's lack of respect for him. "Not all of us believe in the great causes of Herr Hitler" He explained as he drove, "I was in the first war, the Great War. What a horrible time that was, and what followed here was worse. Some of us, we knew that the things these fanatics wanted would lead to this. I was older, the young ones thought it was to be a great and glorious adventure. It was not. The gas, the noise, the mud..., the dying. Men pleaded to be killed because they were caught on the wires, or hurt so badly, and there was not help for them. Some of them got what they begged for, from their friends. I lost so many friends.... But I made many, made in the trenches of the old war, some even from across the line, on the other side. You could do that, you know. We were close enough to call to each other across 'no man's land ', and we were there long enough to begin to know the other." Pausing, he collected his thoughts, "The Christmas of 1914 I was in the trenches of Belgium. It was a bitter night, so cold we had some relief from the mud because the ground froze. Some of the boys, lonely for home, had put candles in the trees and along the ground around the trenches. One young man started to sing, and as the other boys joined in it grew so silent. No more shooting, the shelling stopped. All that could be heard was the singing.... We thought surely the fighting would start again, but instead of that they sang from the other side. I don't know what it was, but it was a good rousing song, and when they cheered at the ending, we joined them. You don't believe me, I know, but we sang, sometime together, when the carol was known in both countries, only the language different. So many of the songs are the same. There was a sort of truce that night. Christmas brought the war to a halt and gave us some peace and rest. Finally one young man climbed out of his trench and walked across, holding a white cloth, he was met by boys from the other side. The officers where furious, shouting and ordering everyone back, but no one listened. Men were crossing, reaching out, all along the line. We spent the night together, sharing gifts of food from home, showing pictures, singing. There was even a soccer game." He smiled at the memory. "We were beaten, very badly. Even the officers finally joined in. What else could they do? But as the sun came up, the war tried to come back to us. The commanders sent men with guns to order us back to our trenches. It had been agreed, they said, that the fighting would start again at seven. Shots were fired from the other side then, but they all hit the tree tops. It makes it very hard to kill a man in the morning, after you have shared your memories with him through the night, they were firing into the air." There was a pause before he continued, "There was no killing on Christmas Day. There was no killing until they sent new men and officers into my section and transferred us out. It was never the same after that. I knew that the people with the power to cause that war, and now this war, would not be the ones who would pay the price for it. I knew that they only thing a sane man could do was try to put a stop to it, however he might."*
Casino spent the rest of the trip in thoughtful silence while the others asked and were told about the area, the people of the town, the conditions they were facing as the war worked its way towards them. The old man was a talker, and a story teller. They enjoyed listening to him and were relaxing under his influence, all of them but the Warden. The closer they got to the edge of town the tenser he became. Actor watched him study the surrounding terrain and stiffen as they pulled off the tree lined track they'd been traveling along, driving out onto a broad expanse of lawn, and approach the back of a large house. When the van stopped near the covered doorway at the corner of the building Goniff peered up at it from the window in the back of the van. "Look at that! First class digs for a change!" but before he could reach to open the door Garrison turned to their driver.
"Not the house. There will be buildings in the back, sheds or barns, we'll use those."
Gehrlig looked at him earnestly "I assure you there is no one here. No one comes here. It is quite safe."
"Aw, come on Warden! Wouldn't you like to spend some time in a grand house like that for a change, instead of some ruddy barn?"
"Herr Gehrlig, we'll use the out buildings, please." His tone gave no hint that he'd change his mind, so with a shrug the old man put the van in gear and drove them back towards the rough buildings that stood at the edge of the broad lawn, near the trees.
They opened the building closest to the cover of the trees and it was as Goniff had feared, a damp, cold barn. If it was true that no one came up here, it was only because they'd already pinched everything of use, there wasn't even a pile of straw to soften the ground. "A bloody great mansion standing not a hundred yards away and we're stuck in a flippin' barn!" His mood had improved significantly though, when the German gent had promised the fish would taste just as good if they cooked it over an open fire and Garrison had agreed to them scraping a spot in the floor in the center of the building to get the job done. They'd used the pans in the back of the bakery van and had eaten their fill while the Warden took the first watch. The fire had helped hold the cold at bay, but the ground was hard, and it had rained again during the night. The roof leaked and they were wet and miserable in the morning. Goniff wasted no time in whining his complaints about the accommodations with Casino, and even Actor joining in, until the Lieutenant had finally told them all to shut up and slammed out to take refuge up on the bluff again.
Chief frowned and looked past Actor, up at the back of the house that set on the hill as they got ready to change guard. "I don't know somethins' botherin' him about this place. I don't think he wanted to use it when the old guy brought us up here."
"He may just be upset at not being able to complete the mission and worried about the others." Actor looked at the younger man, his instincts were good, especially when it came to reading the Warden and he'd certainly picked up on the mood the man was in, as Actor had.
"S'more than that. We've had a job or two blow up on us, and been hurt before. He can't sit still, and he sure don't wanna spend any time close to that house." When they'd searched the property, after the shoemaker had left to ditch the van, Garrison had given the house a wide berth, leaving Chief to check the perimeter of the building, to search for open windows or unlocked doors, or any sign that the place was in use, while he searched the grounds and the area along the long drive that led to the road for indications that vehicles had been using it. Finding the place abandoned hadn't eased the tension in the man, and he'd continued to roam the grounds through the night as the guard changed from Chief to Actor and then came back to him. "He's sittin' up on the bluff now 'n he should be down here sleepin'."
"I'll go up and talk to him." Gazing up at the rise along the side of the property, Actor had just started to walk away when Chief stopped him.
"Don't bother. I tried it. He'll hear you comin' and he won't be there when you get to the top. Better just leave him alone for a while." He shrugged a shoulder up and let it drop, "I 'spect he'll tell us what's goin' on when he's ready."
Garrison had spent the night up on the bluff, sheltering in the trees through the rain, studying the town when it wasn't his turn to share the responsibility of patrolling the property with Chief and Actor. He watched the movement of the ships along the river waterway and docks, and heard the trains as they moved through the switching yards below. In the morning, after they'd made a cold breakfast of the fish they'd cooked the night before he brought them all out onto the bluff, helping Actor carry Casino, while Chief steadied Goniff. They lay there now, at the edge of the property, overlooking the town. He had an idea and needed to let them see the town, to get used to the fact that they were going to hit it.
"Is this anywhere close to our target." Actor waved an elegant hand in the direction of the town.
"No. It's better"
"What do you mean?" Alarms went off in Casino's head
"That town down there in the valley is one of the biggest distribution centers in this area. Rail yards, shipping, refineries, mining, manufacturing. You name it, it's down there. The stream we came down joins the river that goes right through town. Goods move out of here by train and ship and go all over Germany and the occupied territories"
Goniff fingered the bandage over his eye. "How come it ain't bein' bombed then?"
"They just haven't gotten here yet."
"How'd you know so much about this place?"
"My mother was born here." It was tossed away quickly and Actor and Chief shared a look over it.
"What do you want to do?" Actor asked, knowing the answer before the words had left his lips.
Garrison shrugged his shoulders and looked at them.
"What are you thinking?" Goniff dropped his head over to the side and squinted up at Garrison.... "Aw, Warden, you're not thinking what I think you're thinking...?"
"Of course he is!" Casino pointed at him staring around at the others. "Look at the way his eyes are glazing' over."
"We should at least go down there and look the situation over and see what's possible."
"Jeeze! Here we go! Warden, you're nuts!" Jabbing a finger at him as he made each of his points, "We're not where we're s'pose t'be! We don't have any help, 'cept for that Gehrlig guy, and we don't even have half the supplies we were s'posed to come in with."
"Casino, it's a big industrial area, we should be able to pick up what we need," he said reasonably.
"You're crazy!" was the surly reply. "You can't just waltz into a place and ask for primer cord, or blasting caps!"
"Come on, Pappy, it seems a shame to come all this way and not blow something up."
"Cripes! Kid, you're getting as bad has him!" Chief just smiled as Casino turned back on their commander with a look of disbelief. "Is there anyway at all I'm gonna be able to talk you outta this?"
Garrison looked back down at the town and turned towards them, his eyebrow quirked up and his chin lifted, "Probably not."
After the first night they'd moved up into the large house where it was dry and warmer. There'd been no activity around the place and there was ready access out the back and into the trees and overgrown gardens. After a night spent seeing for himself that the patrols never came onto the property the Warden had finally agreed it'd be safe for them to use it, but he cautioned them to stay in the back out of sight as he left to see if Herr Gehrlig had made it back up from the town. Of course, Goniff, feeling better now that he'd had a chance to rest, decided that a little trip around the place, just to 'see what was on offer', really couldn't hurt, and he'd been wandering around up stairs, doing a little shopping. For a place that hadn't been lived in for awhile there was still a good amount of stuff to choose from and, here and there, he'd found a nice piece or two for his Mum, which he'd tucked away in his shirt. He was coming back along the main hall on the upper floor, admiring the paintings and portraits that still hung on the walls when he stopped, staring at one that hung over a long, low side table. He gazed up at it and then stood back for a better look. Carefully climbing up on the table and hoisting the painting down; he carried it back into the back of the house, to the kitchen where the others were.
"Hey fellas! Look at this. How about takin' this old guy back and hangin' him over the mantle." Turning the painting towards the light he took another long look at it before asking, "What'd ya think?" At first his only answer was silence but then came a quick sharp intake of breath before he heard Garrison's voice, coming quietly from the doorway.
"I think you couldn't stay put like I told you to."
Goniff's head whipped around at the sound, causing a new wave of nausea as the dizziness returned with a vengeance. He put his hand out and gripped the counter that ran along the wall and closed his eyes waiting for it to pass. When he looked up he saw the Warden standing in the doorway. He'd seen him look like that once before, right after he'd been shot. The effect was so powerful he looked past him, sure he'd see a Kraut patrol moving up on the house. But there was nothing, only the Warden standing in the doorway, staring at the portrait he still held in his hands. Then he watched as Garrison turned on his heel and stalked straight away from the house and into the trees. "Blimey! What's that all about?"
Casino turned a scowling face on Goniff. "What else did you stuff down into those pockets you sticky fingered little bastard?"
"Casino, I didn't... I wouldn't..." he stammered but then, with a quick duck of his head, "Well, I'll put it all back." Looking briefly at the painting, then waving towards the empty door, "What'd ya think all that means, then?"
"It means that's probably some kind a relative or somethin', ya jerk! Don't ya remember him sayin' his Mom was born here?" Casino asked.
"You mean Here, 'here'!. Blimey, I thought he meant here, like here in the town 'here'." He looked back at the portrait and then up at Casino and Actor. "Bloody Hell!"
Chief had completed his first circuit of the grounds and had just stepped in the door, "What's goin' on?" Turning to look when Casino waved towards the painting that Goniff still held, he frowned and then raised an eyebrow, looking at each one of them for some kind of an answer.
Actor let his arms drop to his sides and sighed. "Did you see which way he went?"
Stepping back outside Chief gestured up towards the trees at the top of the rise, "There's a wall up there. I think he's probably up there sittin' on it. You can keep a pretty good eye on the place from there."
Actor narrowed his eyes at the cockney thief, took in a deep breath and shook his head before heading out the door. Casino turned and fixed an irritated glare on Goniff. "Why couldn't you just stay put like he told ya?'
Goniff slowly reached into his shirt and took the pilfered items out, carefully setting them on the table.
Garrison sat staring out over the city from his perch on the low wall that ran along the base of the hill. Actor stood, watching him for a moment before he moved quietly towards him. He got within a few feet before the other man noticed his approach. Garrison turned and looked at him briefly before turning away again. "I guess it's a good thing Chief's got the watch."
Coming to stand next to the younger man Actor considered him. "Yes, you do seem rather distracted."
Garrison shifted his position a bit, crossing his arms over his chest he shot back, "I'm alright!"
"Are you?" The question hung between them until the con artist continued with conviction "You haven't been yourself since we got here. We should find another location."
"No, we're safe up here, for now." He closed his eyes and leaned back against the wall. Actor watched the muscles work in the man's jaw as he sorted through whatever emotions being back in this place had stirred in him. He waited, quietly, experience and instinct had taught him that if you waited most people would reveal themselves to you. He didn't know if it would work with this man who was their leader, who was, almost against his will, becoming his friend. The seconds ticked by and turned into minutes. Finally Garrison took a deep breath and opened his eyes. "I never thought I'd see this place again." Looking out over the valley and then back, passed Actor to the house. "I never wanted to. My Mother was born in that house. She brought me here after my father died."
Actor had seen the Warden's file, his military record, but knew very little of his personal background other than the fact that he got few letters from home. "How long were you here?"
"It took us eight years to get away from him."
So, it was the grandfather's portrait the hapless thief had brought down from the upstairs gallery and his interest was piqued by the words the man had used and what they might mean. "He was strict, your grandfather?"
"Intolerant. And fond of using the cane and the strap. Intolerant of noise. Intolerant of any variation from his routine, any opinion that differed from his own. Intolerant of any failure. Intolerant of illness, weakness of any kind, disobedience. Hell, I didn't even have to disobey, I just had to be too slow about obeying. He wouldn't allow us to speak English or French. He wouldn't allow us to talk about my father. Every infraction was marked down; the punishment handed out every evening." Shaking his head, he continued, "And there was always something. Cry and the punishment was doubled. Object to it and there was confinement for a day with the whole session repeated every night until you submitted. It must've been written into the rule book for this place, because the tutors were just the same, and the schools and camps were worse. And Reiner was just like him."
"Reiner?"
"My older cousin. His parents died in the influenza epidemic and he was left for my grandfather to raise. You look at that portrait, you're looking at Reiner. The perfect Aryan specimen. He believed everything my grandfather believed. Did everything he asked, without question. Perfect in everyway. And then he died."
"What happened to him?"
"He was killed in a skiing accident."
Actor turned his head and looked back at the house and the grounds. Even laying abandoned there was opulence to be seen in the lines of the house and the remains of the gardens. There had been money here, money, and probably power, and he knew what that might mean. "And that only left you? You were the only grandson, after your cousin?"
Garrison let out a short mirthless laugh "I was the only grandchild. And I didn't fit the mold. My grandfather decided that I needed even more of his guidance, to have a suitable education and develop the 'proper' attitude.' He and my mother fought over it."
"How old were you?"
He shook his head "I don't know. Five, maybe, when we came here, seven or eight when Reiner was killed." He sat forward, crossing his arms and rested them on his knees, hunching his shoulders up, and studied the ground at his feet. "There were tutors at first, here at the house. He never seemed to notice me before, but after Reiner died.... He used to knock me around pretty good if I didn't meet his 'expectations'. Then he decided I should go away to school. My mother didn't agree, they fought about that too." He shot Actor a quick look and then turned away.
"She didn't want to give up her influence over you?" It would have been the early or mid twenties he thought. No, a woman who had lived in the freedom of the States would not have approved of what was happening in Germany, would not have wanted her son to become part of it. "Why didn't your mother take you back to the States?"
"She couldn't. He controlled everything, the money, access to the town, the people who were allowed to come to the house. Everything. She couldn't, we were too isolated."
Thinking back, he went on, "I could take it. He'd light into me if I didn't do what he wanted, didn't act the way he thought I should, think the way he wanted me to. I could take that, but then he started threatening her. He started telling me what he'd do to her if I upset him. That was the worst of it, knowing that if I made one wrong move she might be the one that paid for it."
He saw the disgust in Garrison's eyes and knew that part of that was directed inward, for once admiring or even loving the grandfather who had tried to shape him to follow in his footsteps, because oddly children loved their elders, even if they were abused by them, and then for his inability to protect his mother. "How did you get back to the States? How did you finally escape?"