On November 11,1914, The German guns on the western front fell silent as an armistice was achieved. Peace and prosperity or at least their illusions were restored to der Deutsches Reich. In the trenches along the Maginot line, thousands of corpses lay rotting and abandoned by the country for which they had died, among them many died not of bullets and bombs but of starvation and disease.
Sergeant Karl Muller was among the lucky soldiers who was not killed during the war. Upon hearing the news of this armistice, he decided to travel back to Ruhr to his children. Life had not been easy on them, seeing as how their mother died at an early age and their father got drafted but upon receiving a letter from their father informing them of his return they quickly forgot their sorrows
But it would truly not last, when Karl returned to Ruhr in the middle of winter, the older child Thomas was working 16 hour days in a small factory as a labourer just to be able to make ends meet. The extreme unemployment meant that people were willing to accept negligible wages for extreme amounts of labour and Thomas was one of them. His brother Eric on the other hand was only 7 and had not been able to pursue an education due to poverty. Ruhr's train station at midnight seemed like a haunted house more than an actual railway station with the entire structure looking like it could crumble if someone coughed too hard. The pillars were cracked and now even the floors were getting covered with snow as the roof gave way. The last train of the night arrived just as the clock struck twelve. It was a windy night and Karl covered his face with a scarf as he got off. He had no luggage except a small bag which contained some money and his revolver. He saw his children standing at the entrance to greet
They walked out and filled the cold air with light-hearted chatter, they discussed everything they thought necessary except Thomas, he was physically with them but his voice was absent, whenever Karl looked at him he saw a flicker of hesitation in his oceanic blue eyes. His eyebrows were furrowed and his shoulders were tense. Like he wanted to say something but he knew it wouldn't change anything. He had grown to take on responsibility when Karl was away, for he had in reality little to no choice.
As I walked out of the Railway station, a wave of nostalgia slammed into me. Although the station was a mere shadow of its former self, it still held onto the essence of its former glory. The rusted iron and cracked lanterns brought me back to the time when the station was Ruhr's pride, beautifully polished wooden benches, nightlamps and lanterns with freshly painted interiors. The night sky was filled with dim stars. As we walked through the city, I noticed a lot of empty houses along the way. Many people had shifted to Central Germany to escape the war but they could not escape the economic misery it brought along. Eric kept talking about the people he had met in the markets and quite a lot of other interesting encounters, but they failed to capture my attention. The stars grabbed a hold of my attention as we spoke and I slowly zoned out, drowning in my own thoughts and doubts.
Suddenly I was jerked was into wakefulness by Thomas, Suddenly he started coughing.
He was coughing up blood Unknown to both his brother and father, He had encountered metal lung disease due to the hard metals involved in factory work. Was it avoidable? Ofcourse it was but safety precautions are expensive but you know what isn't? Human life
Still, they started to panic because coughing up blood has in the entirety of human history never been a good sign especially to Karl whose father had died mere hours after he had started vomiting blood. Pneumonia which was quite common at the time had this same symptom and it could only be treated in the German heart of Berlin.
"ARE YOU OKAY THOMAS?", screamed Eric.
"Yes I'm fine it's probably just because of the viral"
"We have to get this checked out by Herr Adler just to be sure", I told him
"Arzt Adler knows absolutely nothing, in fact I think his license should be revoked "
"He is one of the most accomplished military doctors I know and the only decent doctor in Ruhr so that's where you're going to get your checkup, no further arguments".
He sighed and rolled his eyes. His eyes were a soft shade of blue just like her. A slight uneasy feeling came over me as we walked on. Things too similar, too similar to what I had left behind. As we reached the house Eric announced "and here we are"
It looked nothing like it did when she was around. Paints had peeled off revealing the layers of bricks and cement underneath. The yard was overgrown and was its own ecosystem with the number of bugs there. It hurt to see the things I'd worked so hard to acquire under such questionable management, I pushed the door open and it creaked way too loudly. The house had 3 rooms and a living room where we used to have dinner. The entire place was covered in dust with cobwebs adorning the corners. Eric and Thomas had kept all of the seemingly important things on the space between the sofa which had more holes than a piece of fancy French cheese, and the dining table which was a termite colony. There was one thing that was really well maintained, and it was enough to make me proud. Our only family photo, we had gotten it clicked a few weeks after Eric was born because she wanted to. I was wearing a military uniform while holding onto Thomas who was wearing a suit, and she was wearing a coat with Eric in her arms while wearing Christmas pyjamas. It was the last Christmas we spent together.
"We should probably clean this up shouldn't we?", said Thomas
"yes, yes we should", I replied.
The Night bled into sunrise as we kept working, The house seemed to cling onto old memories. Like it would rather collapse than get renovated, but it didn't matter. I was looking through old things to see what was worth keeping and what I needed to throw out. We needed new furniture, a fresh coat of paint and most of all, I need to gather money to send both Eric and Thomas back to school. But how? I was reading through the columns of The Economic Advisor which had a special section for jobs advertisements. Although it had gone empty for quite some time beforehand as Thomas told me, I saw 2 openings in the same factory where Thomas worked. The pay was practically negligible, however. 3 hours of intense labour for 1 piece of bread? The French had been better than this. Thinking of ways to make money, I dozed off on the sofa which was taking its last breaths.
As the clock struck noon, I was woken up by a nightmare. The same nightmare I had been having for more months now. A man with a friendly smile had approached me in the middle of the nowhere in the Sahara, His soft gaze fell upon my clothes. I was wearing torn and tattered clothes that were covered in sand and dirt. His toga was impeccable. Not a single strand of hair on his head but he emitted an elegance beyond what any European could, his dark skin seemed to glow in the face of an overhead noon.
"How are you, Karl? It's been quite a long time"
"I have no idea who you are."
"Who I am is truly irrelevant. You can call me whatever you want old friend. In this moment all that matters is how you have lived. All throughout your life you mattered, your decisions, choices, dilemmas, and regrets, I know it all. Tell me Karl, what life has a man lived if even his regrets aren't his own?"
"He has not lived at all if so. Could you please tell me when we have encountered each other?"
"Do you not remember her? I have the job of releasing such people from their misery. Some try to hold on, beg me for more time, but it isn't up to my discretion, and I have gotten used to it. Others Karl, show something called acceptance, she was one of them. That is where you really caught my eye"
"So I'm dead? Just like that? Not even a chance to say goodbye to my kids who I haven't seen in such a long time. Tell me 'old friend' who will take care of them if not me. Because men certainly die of hunger "
"It is not yet time for your death, just for some divine intervention, some judgement and introspect. Your children will live on without you. Now let me weigh your heart against the soul of justice"
"And then what?"
"If your heart outweighs the soul, then you need to reconsider your life because you and I both know that many transgressions fall upon your shoulders"
"Then so they stand",
Suddenly I felt a sharp pain in my chest and woke up. Covered in sweat, almost in tears and in desperate need of comfort. There's nothing to be done, I woke up Eric and Thomas and went to take a bath before they could question what had happened.
At Herr Adler's House, we waited for around an hour as he treated a patient with a broken arm. His house was way larger than mine, It looked like a palace with white marble angels carved onto the entrance , A large area followed this door which had 2 grandiose staircases meeting in the same place above the lobby.
""Herr Karl, please proceed to the doctor's office"
I entered with Thomas in tow,
"Karl how are you?. Its been such a long time, You won't believe how happy I am to see you"
After a short conversation and describing Thomas's symptoms to him, Herr Adler's smile turned into a twisted frown and his face filled with worry.
"I think that Thomas might have Metal lung Herr Karl, I can't treat it, I have neither the facilities nor the knowledge required for such an extensive and long procedure. I think you should travel to Berlin and talk to the mayor; he was your friend wasn't he? "
"Friend" huh, I wouldn't talk to him to save my life, but this wasn't about me, it was about Thomas and I would go to any extents.