Stupid Luck and Happenstance, Thread III
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Part 153, Chapter 2793
Chapter Two Thousand Seven Hundred and Ninety-Three
8th September 1979
Jassel, Galicia-Ruthenia
Many would have been surprised to find that Olli had an office in the barn. That was the sort of thing that didn’t conform with the ideas that they had about the nature of farming. Mostly it was the Farmer, in this case Olli, seated on his tractor with hayseeds in his teeth. The truth was that a Farmer had to be a mechanic, arborist, chemist, accountant, or whatever else he needed to be to keep the farm running.
It was always a profound relief when Olli did the accounts after the wheat harvest went to market and he saw the numbers go from red to black. He still had tons of bailed lucerne and straw in storage. There were a couple of dairies on the outskirts of Krakow that Olli had controlling interest in that he was planning on selling the lucerne and straw to at cost. This was because he knew that he would make twice as much on the back end when the dairies didn’t have to pay to ship lucerne from Italy or Spain this winter and the straw was just a byproduct of growing wheat that he needed to dispose of anyway.
Normally, when Olli did the accounts he had his youngest daughter Nele across the desk from him. But Ollie’s wife, also named Nele, had insisted that Nele go into town with her today to get some of the things that couldn’t be fabricated on the farm. Olli’s wife also had a lot of important reasons to want to spend every possible moment with Nele. Olli’s daughter was always interested in the numbers. That was much better than some of the other aspects of farming that Nele had been fascinated by. When she had been younger she had played around with the three key nutrients that were most important in agriculture: nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. Nele had managed to cause a whole lot of trouble playing around with those and then had entertained the Emperor by telling him all about it. The fact that she had done this at the age of five suggested a few things that made both Olli and his wife uncomfortable. That had been especially true when Queen Marie Cecilie, or Rea as she insisted she be called by those closest to her, had shown a great deal of interest in what was happening with her goddaughter. It had been Rea who had gotten Nele preselected to go to a school that stressed academic rigor when she was old enough, which was only a couple years away. Suddenly, Olli and his wife were faced with the prospect of having an empty house far sooner than they ever imagined.
Looking at the photographs on his desk, Olli had a new one of his son Hugo sitting in the commander’s cupola of a Leopard II Panzer. As much as Olli’s wife had hated their son joining the Heer with the intention of joining the Panzer Corps, Olli had managed to convince him to opt for the Heer’s Imperial War Academy in Berlin and later the Armored Troops School in Wunsdorf-Zossen. That way he was entering the Panzer Corps as a Fähnrich as opposed to how Olli had spent years, nearly a decade, as an Enlisted Loader before he was finally able to move on to other things. That joined the other photographs like the one of his oldest son and daughter, Conrad, and Louisa, had taken of themselves in the Main Market Square in Krakow. There was another of his middle daughter Janine, with her husband and her three children, age five to newborn. Finally, there were school picture of Jonas, who they had barely managed to get into University this year and Nele. Olli’s wife would go ballistic if he so much as suggested it, but considering the complete lack direction that Jonas was showing perhaps a couple years in the Dragoons getting to be the rock that gets rattled around in the can would be good for him. He had absolutely no doubt that Jonas would probably get there on his own without any prompting from him.
Putting the ledger into the filing cabinet, which Olli also used to keep the receipts and other documentation that would be needed when he compiled the two copies of the annual report that went to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture in Berlin and its State Level counterpart in Krakow. He understood that the reports were used to determine the effectiveness of certain practices. Olli used a variation of the one taught to him by his father when he had been a boy that was a variation on the practices used in farming that went back centuries, one that cared for the soil long before science caught up with what farmers had discovered by trial and error. The use of the tracked Hanomag tractor had enabled him to cultivate a far wider expanse than he would have been able to if he used a team of oxen to plow the fields the way his grandfather had. Last year at the Harvest Fair in the town of Jassel, Nele had just loved the prize-winning ox that had been on exhibit. That was the last thing that Olli needed. The animals on the farm needed to serve a purpose. The barn cats were good at keeping rodents from infesting the farm. The dogs, well admittedly those might be sort of useless unless anyone got too close to the house, then everyone for kilometers knew, but Olli liked the three dogs he had.
8th September 1979
Jassel, Galicia-Ruthenia
Many would have been surprised to find that Olli had an office in the barn. That was the sort of thing that didn’t conform with the ideas that they had about the nature of farming. Mostly it was the Farmer, in this case Olli, seated on his tractor with hayseeds in his teeth. The truth was that a Farmer had to be a mechanic, arborist, chemist, accountant, or whatever else he needed to be to keep the farm running.
It was always a profound relief when Olli did the accounts after the wheat harvest went to market and he saw the numbers go from red to black. He still had tons of bailed lucerne and straw in storage. There were a couple of dairies on the outskirts of Krakow that Olli had controlling interest in that he was planning on selling the lucerne and straw to at cost. This was because he knew that he would make twice as much on the back end when the dairies didn’t have to pay to ship lucerne from Italy or Spain this winter and the straw was just a byproduct of growing wheat that he needed to dispose of anyway.
Normally, when Olli did the accounts he had his youngest daughter Nele across the desk from him. But Ollie’s wife, also named Nele, had insisted that Nele go into town with her today to get some of the things that couldn’t be fabricated on the farm. Olli’s wife also had a lot of important reasons to want to spend every possible moment with Nele. Olli’s daughter was always interested in the numbers. That was much better than some of the other aspects of farming that Nele had been fascinated by. When she had been younger she had played around with the three key nutrients that were most important in agriculture: nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. Nele had managed to cause a whole lot of trouble playing around with those and then had entertained the Emperor by telling him all about it. The fact that she had done this at the age of five suggested a few things that made both Olli and his wife uncomfortable. That had been especially true when Queen Marie Cecilie, or Rea as she insisted she be called by those closest to her, had shown a great deal of interest in what was happening with her goddaughter. It had been Rea who had gotten Nele preselected to go to a school that stressed academic rigor when she was old enough, which was only a couple years away. Suddenly, Olli and his wife were faced with the prospect of having an empty house far sooner than they ever imagined.
Looking at the photographs on his desk, Olli had a new one of his son Hugo sitting in the commander’s cupola of a Leopard II Panzer. As much as Olli’s wife had hated their son joining the Heer with the intention of joining the Panzer Corps, Olli had managed to convince him to opt for the Heer’s Imperial War Academy in Berlin and later the Armored Troops School in Wunsdorf-Zossen. That way he was entering the Panzer Corps as a Fähnrich as opposed to how Olli had spent years, nearly a decade, as an Enlisted Loader before he was finally able to move on to other things. That joined the other photographs like the one of his oldest son and daughter, Conrad, and Louisa, had taken of themselves in the Main Market Square in Krakow. There was another of his middle daughter Janine, with her husband and her three children, age five to newborn. Finally, there were school picture of Jonas, who they had barely managed to get into University this year and Nele. Olli’s wife would go ballistic if he so much as suggested it, but considering the complete lack direction that Jonas was showing perhaps a couple years in the Dragoons getting to be the rock that gets rattled around in the can would be good for him. He had absolutely no doubt that Jonas would probably get there on his own without any prompting from him.
Putting the ledger into the filing cabinet, which Olli also used to keep the receipts and other documentation that would be needed when he compiled the two copies of the annual report that went to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture in Berlin and its State Level counterpart in Krakow. He understood that the reports were used to determine the effectiveness of certain practices. Olli used a variation of the one taught to him by his father when he had been a boy that was a variation on the practices used in farming that went back centuries, one that cared for the soil long before science caught up with what farmers had discovered by trial and error. The use of the tracked Hanomag tractor had enabled him to cultivate a far wider expanse than he would have been able to if he used a team of oxen to plow the fields the way his grandfather had. Last year at the Harvest Fair in the town of Jassel, Nele had just loved the prize-winning ox that had been on exhibit. That was the last thing that Olli needed. The animals on the farm needed to serve a purpose. The barn cats were good at keeping rodents from infesting the farm. The dogs, well admittedly those might be sort of useless unless anyone got too close to the house, then everyone for kilometers knew, but Olli liked the three dogs he had.
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When you look at the Hanomag K60 you instantly understand why someone like Olli would like it. Then you read the company literature and understand what uses it could be put to as well as how the low ground pressure means it wont sink into soft ground under its own weight.
So, in OTL, 1979 in motorsport had Ferrari winning the F1 Constructor's championship with their drivers Jody Scheckter and Gilles Villeneuve finishing 1-2 for the Driver's Championship, right in the middle of the ground-effect era. Porsche meanwhile, is running roughshod in the world of Group 5 Sportscars winning both the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the World Sportscar Championship with the Porsche 935.
So, I gotta wonder how the world of motorsport looks right in ITTL, Is Mercedes-Benz locked in a three-way battle for the F1 Championship with Ferrari and Williams?
So, I gotta wonder how the world of motorsport looks right in ITTL, Is Mercedes-Benz locked in a three-way battle for the F1 Championship with Ferrari and Williams?
Part 153, Chapter 2794
Chapter Two Thousand Seven Hundred and Ninety-Four
23rd September 1979
Mitte, Berlin
With it being a cool autumn Sunday, Wulfstan Auer could think of about a million other things he would rather be doing today, but everyone in the First Foot Guard was on the rotation for burial detail. It was a duty that had grown in frequency over the last few years. Generalfeldmarschall Hans-Valentin von Hube, who had commanded Field Armies during the Soviet War and later in the invasion of Korea, had died at the age of eighty-nine. Like many others before him, Hube had opted to be interred under the paving stones of the courtyard at the Imperial War Museum. It was the offices of Helmut Lent, the third and current Director of the Museum that carefully vetted every applicant to ensure that the courtyard remained a place of honor. All military honors were observed, even so the nature of the location kept proceedings to a minimum.
Seeing the actual size of the urn, a cylinder a bit larger than a two-liter bottle, that held the ashes of the late Field Marshal, Wulfstan concluded that even with those high standards there could potentially be thousands of soldiers from every Service Branch underneath the surface of the courtyard.
The statue of Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, the first Director of the Museum at one end of the courtyard that was bracketed by two of the famous stained-glass windows of the Medical Service Hall. It was opposite to the flagpole which had the National flag, the State flag of Anhalt, and the battle standard of the Heer flying on it today as a courtesy to the deceased. The Pioneer’s Hall was at a right angle to that making up the south and west boundaries of the courtyard, the Navy and Heer’s Halls came together at an odd angle making up the north. The eastern boundary was made up by the space where the passage to the museum’s entry hall ended and Luftwaffe’s Hall began. The museum complex itself was a chaotic jumble with construction never really having stopped over the last few decades. Its vast collections comprised of everything from letters, trinkets, and keepsakes all the way up to the SMS Brandenburg, a Preussen Class Battleship permanently moored in Wilhelmshaven. Wulfstan had spent a lot of time exploring the museum with his little sister Mathilda when she had been in Berlin. Despite that, he was forced to conclude that it would be incredibly easy for him to get lost.
The funeral service that had been held in the Medical Service Hall and with the men of the First Foot escorting the family of the deceased as they had proceeded out to the courtyard. The Field Marshal’s son walked beside one of Wulf’s men who had been tasked with carrying the urn, the widow and a daughter walked just a few paces behind. A pillow that held all of von Hube’s Medals and Orders was carried behind them. Those awards and their citations along with anything that the Hube family wanted entered into the official record would go to the museum. It was part of vast project that the Imperial War Museum had been working on for decades and an enticing offer for the survivors. Lately, computer technology had caught up with the scope of the project.
They reached a point in the courtyard where one of the paving stones had been pried up and a cavity that had been dug out. Like always, there were tourists watching them with curious expressions on their faces. Wulfstan could hear their guide, a young Officer Aspirant explaining what was happening and asking them to be respectful.
Neuquén, Argentina
“I just want to practice medicine without the politics” Kiki said for probably the millionth time as the elevator doors closed, cutting off the latest Journalist who had decided to bug her. Few made the journey to Argentina, fewer still took the long trip from Buenos Aires to Neuquén. So that meant that the ones Kiki dealt with were among the most stubborn and persistent, who were not deterred by the presence of men from the First Foot Guard who went everywhere with her. They just couldn’t figure out why the Princess Royal of Germany would choose to work in the General Hospital in a city located in a rustic corner of Patagonia. It never seemed to occur to them that this was where she knew her skills were most needed.
As the doors of the elevator opened, Kiki could see that Nurse Ainsworth was waiting for her. It bothered her that she had little choice but to depend upon someone she felt she couldn’t really trust. She had no way to find out how much of what happened from day to day was passed on to the US State Department and the CIA, or even if that was happening at all. At the same time Ellen Ainsworth was someone whose skills were also needed in a place like Neuquén, so Kiki swallowed her pride and worked with the American Nurse.
“The new schedule is on your desk waiting for your review, Doctor Allard wants to know if you are planning to go out into the field in the near future, and the Hospital Director wants to set up a meeting as soon as it can be arranged” Nurse Ainsworth said. The volunteers who had arrived a few months earlier were enthusiastic, but generally lacked experience. Unfortunately for them, Kiki lacked the patience to be a good teacher. They still persisted though despite that and the Hospital’s Clinic and Emergency Department were exactly where they needed to be to gain experience. Doctor Allard was one of them and for some reason the volunteers clamored to go with Kiki when she went out to the various sheep stations and settlements.
“Did the Director say what he wanted?” Kiki asked as Ainsworth fell into step with her.
“No he didn’t Ma’am” Nurse Ainsworth replied. That usually meant that the Hospital Director wanted something from her but knew better than to ask directly.
23rd September 1979
Mitte, Berlin
With it being a cool autumn Sunday, Wulfstan Auer could think of about a million other things he would rather be doing today, but everyone in the First Foot Guard was on the rotation for burial detail. It was a duty that had grown in frequency over the last few years. Generalfeldmarschall Hans-Valentin von Hube, who had commanded Field Armies during the Soviet War and later in the invasion of Korea, had died at the age of eighty-nine. Like many others before him, Hube had opted to be interred under the paving stones of the courtyard at the Imperial War Museum. It was the offices of Helmut Lent, the third and current Director of the Museum that carefully vetted every applicant to ensure that the courtyard remained a place of honor. All military honors were observed, even so the nature of the location kept proceedings to a minimum.
Seeing the actual size of the urn, a cylinder a bit larger than a two-liter bottle, that held the ashes of the late Field Marshal, Wulfstan concluded that even with those high standards there could potentially be thousands of soldiers from every Service Branch underneath the surface of the courtyard.
The statue of Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, the first Director of the Museum at one end of the courtyard that was bracketed by two of the famous stained-glass windows of the Medical Service Hall. It was opposite to the flagpole which had the National flag, the State flag of Anhalt, and the battle standard of the Heer flying on it today as a courtesy to the deceased. The Pioneer’s Hall was at a right angle to that making up the south and west boundaries of the courtyard, the Navy and Heer’s Halls came together at an odd angle making up the north. The eastern boundary was made up by the space where the passage to the museum’s entry hall ended and Luftwaffe’s Hall began. The museum complex itself was a chaotic jumble with construction never really having stopped over the last few decades. Its vast collections comprised of everything from letters, trinkets, and keepsakes all the way up to the SMS Brandenburg, a Preussen Class Battleship permanently moored in Wilhelmshaven. Wulfstan had spent a lot of time exploring the museum with his little sister Mathilda when she had been in Berlin. Despite that, he was forced to conclude that it would be incredibly easy for him to get lost.
The funeral service that had been held in the Medical Service Hall and with the men of the First Foot escorting the family of the deceased as they had proceeded out to the courtyard. The Field Marshal’s son walked beside one of Wulf’s men who had been tasked with carrying the urn, the widow and a daughter walked just a few paces behind. A pillow that held all of von Hube’s Medals and Orders was carried behind them. Those awards and their citations along with anything that the Hube family wanted entered into the official record would go to the museum. It was part of vast project that the Imperial War Museum had been working on for decades and an enticing offer for the survivors. Lately, computer technology had caught up with the scope of the project.
They reached a point in the courtyard where one of the paving stones had been pried up and a cavity that had been dug out. Like always, there were tourists watching them with curious expressions on their faces. Wulfstan could hear their guide, a young Officer Aspirant explaining what was happening and asking them to be respectful.
Neuquén, Argentina
“I just want to practice medicine without the politics” Kiki said for probably the millionth time as the elevator doors closed, cutting off the latest Journalist who had decided to bug her. Few made the journey to Argentina, fewer still took the long trip from Buenos Aires to Neuquén. So that meant that the ones Kiki dealt with were among the most stubborn and persistent, who were not deterred by the presence of men from the First Foot Guard who went everywhere with her. They just couldn’t figure out why the Princess Royal of Germany would choose to work in the General Hospital in a city located in a rustic corner of Patagonia. It never seemed to occur to them that this was where she knew her skills were most needed.
As the doors of the elevator opened, Kiki could see that Nurse Ainsworth was waiting for her. It bothered her that she had little choice but to depend upon someone she felt she couldn’t really trust. She had no way to find out how much of what happened from day to day was passed on to the US State Department and the CIA, or even if that was happening at all. At the same time Ellen Ainsworth was someone whose skills were also needed in a place like Neuquén, so Kiki swallowed her pride and worked with the American Nurse.
“The new schedule is on your desk waiting for your review, Doctor Allard wants to know if you are planning to go out into the field in the near future, and the Hospital Director wants to set up a meeting as soon as it can be arranged” Nurse Ainsworth said. The volunteers who had arrived a few months earlier were enthusiastic, but generally lacked experience. Unfortunately for them, Kiki lacked the patience to be a good teacher. They still persisted though despite that and the Hospital’s Clinic and Emergency Department were exactly where they needed to be to gain experience. Doctor Allard was one of them and for some reason the volunteers clamored to go with Kiki when she went out to the various sheep stations and settlements.
“Did the Director say what he wanted?” Kiki asked as Ainsworth fell into step with her.
“No he didn’t Ma’am” Nurse Ainsworth replied. That usually meant that the Hospital Director wanted something from her but knew better than to ask directly.
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The CIA shouldn't have any interest in Kiki after Nurse Ainsworth's report showing that what Kiki and Ben are doing is exactly what was announced publicly.
For Kiki, this is what she has always wanted to do when she first showed an interest in being a doctor.
She is seeing a vast array of different needs in places that need the most help, and now that is paying off in dividends as she is inspiring more medical personnel to volunteer their services and more importantly, she is giving the new doctors and nurses the training that they otherwise couldn't have gotten back home.
The only thing stopping her in competing her mission is if the "Sailor Disease" explodes into an epidemic stage and she is tasked by the League of Nations health organization to coordinate the worldwide response.
With that in mind, Kiki should be a potential Noble Peace Prize award winner in the next ten to fifteen years from now.
IOTL, it was Emergency Medicine doctors that first encountered AIDS and started to figure out that it was a single disease with multiple symptoms that shouldn't have been in the same patient at the same time.
For Kiki, this is what she has always wanted to do when she first showed an interest in being a doctor.
She is seeing a vast array of different needs in places that need the most help, and now that is paying off in dividends as she is inspiring more medical personnel to volunteer their services and more importantly, she is giving the new doctors and nurses the training that they otherwise couldn't have gotten back home.
The only thing stopping her in competing her mission is if the "Sailor Disease" explodes into an epidemic stage and she is tasked by the League of Nations health organization to coordinate the worldwide response.
With that in mind, Kiki should be a potential Noble Peace Prize award winner in the next ten to fifteen years from now.
IOTL, it was Emergency Medicine doctors that first encountered AIDS and started to figure out that it was a single disease with multiple symptoms that shouldn't have been in the same patient at the same time.
Ah, but that's exactly what the Germans and Argentinians WANT them to believe. Why else would they go through so much trouble to create such obvious covers? 🙄🙄🙄
They also could be thinking that Kiki and Ben are there to distract them and wonder what is really going on around there. Remember this is not the first time the Germans had did this back to when Schultz was running his people in the US. They remember also how Admiral Schmidt ran rings around them and had them chasing their own tails at times and would be wondering if this was one of those ops also.
Anhalt ist a state... That's interesting. Germany's still a Flickenteppich here
A patchwork indeed. The House of Hohenzollern has been parceling off the land that Prussia had conquered in the Nineteenth Century for decades at this point. Anhalt is one of several State/Pricipalities, Silesia and Galicia-Ruthenia being two other examples.
Nah, that's exactly the reason why they would keep a tap on her. Even if all Ben and Kiki are doing is exactly what they said they would be doing, that's still field information being collected. Information that will be reported, analyzed, and presented to whoever needs to know. Turnabout would be fair play, if the child and spouse of the US President went on an extended trip to Ukraine to work in a rural hospital and help teach agricultural science, the Germans would have someone on them, even if all that was done was exactly what was said.
People like to think that Intelligence Agency work is all Jason Bourne and James Bond stuff, in reality it's just a Civil Service job with a stricter enforcement of the official secrets act. The best examples of the reality is if you take any early Tom Clancy book, and just focus on the mundane office aspects of Jack Ryan's career and not whatever the greater plot is.
I understand that this isn't 1871 anymore and Prussia having 60% of the landmass and population of the empire can't fly, but I don't understand why she had to be seperated into different kingdoms like Silesia, Anhalt, etc etc. Why not just use the already existing provinces of Prussia(Silesia, Pomerania, Brandenburg, Rhineland...) as federal states while having them nominally under the Kingdom of Prussia?
This is very simple when you think about, it serves the interests of everyone who wants to maintain the status quo.
There was an event that has haunted every European Government in TTL and OTL, the Russian Revolution, though the reaction was different with surviving monarchies. In TTL the Kingdom of Prussia and the House of Hohenzollern with it has taken considerable effort to shore up their own position, that has included granting lands and titles that are often white elephants to ambitious members of the "New Junkers" families while technically not giving up anything because they control the Imperial throne.
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"Because they control the imperial throne" I would agree with you if they didn't institute an elective monarchy for the imperial position. And with the next in line for the Prussian throne being a girl, that position is not stable or secure at all. If they lose it when Freddy dies/abdicates, all that the main line of the house of Hohenzollern will control will apparently a rump kingdom of Prussia, without even the capital city of their own kingdom.
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From what I gathered in previous posts, Neuquin is basically a frontier city that is experiencing a boom period right now, and that means that law enforcement is a bit overwhelmed with things like bar fights and domestic disturbances.
With The Patagonia war in the recent past and with firearms from that war still laying around, the Emergency Room at the hospital where Kiki is should resemble an American hospital "Gun & Knife Club" starting every Friday night through Sunday afternoon.
This where Kiki can make her biggest impact as she is probably one best trained trauma surgeons out there because of her experience in the FSR during The Sino-Korean War.
Some of the knowledge she can impart with are the need to stabilize the patient at the scene first (clear the breathing, stop the bleeding, and getting vital signs) before transporting the victim to the hospital and how to triage them at the emergency room.
With The Patagonia war in the recent past and with firearms from that war still laying around, the Emergency Room at the hospital where Kiki is should resemble an American hospital "Gun & Knife Club" starting every Friday night through Sunday afternoon.
This where Kiki can make her biggest impact as she is probably one best trained trauma surgeons out there because of her experience in the FSR during The Sino-Korean War.
Some of the knowledge she can impart with are the need to stabilize the patient at the scene first (clear the breathing, stop the bleeding, and getting vital signs) before transporting the victim to the hospital and how to triage them at the emergency room.
Part 153, Chapter 2795
Chapter Two Thousand Seven Hundred and Ninety-Five
6th October 1979
Mittle, Berlin
Being Italian in Germany didn’t mean as much as Angelica had thought when her father, Cosimo de Medici, had brought her to live with Katherine and Douglas. She had thought that she would be living in some alien land where people had three eyes, green skin, or something. What she had discovered was that there were people from all over in Berlin and that she wasn’t so different. Before then she had spent a lot of time in Rome and Milan as a child, so she should have known what cities were like. Six years later and it was hard to imagine living anywhere else. Perhaps she would give Milan another try someday, that was in the future though.
A Student Pass to all the State Museums was a highly coveted item. Angelica had one because her foster mother sort of was the State and Katherine wanted to consider herself a patroness of the arts despite not really understanding much of it. Angelica used it often. Most frequently it was to get into the Neues Museum with its vast collections of artifacts from ancient times, particularly Egypt which had fascinated her since she was little. Her father had known about this when he had arranged for her to do something that she had only dreamed about over the prior Easter Holiday when she had gone to Cairo and rode a camel around the Great Pyramids.
“I met a traveler from an antique land” Angelica said to herself like she always did when she entered the extensive Egyptian exhibit, the opening line of the poem Ozymandias that she had memorized when she had been learning English in school. “Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand, half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, and wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, tell that its sculptor well whose passions read. Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed: And the pedestal these words appear: ‘My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’ Nothing beside remains. Round the decay, Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare the lone and level sands stretch away.”
“Don’t you ever get tired of that Fraulein de’ Medici?” The Attendant asked. They had gotten to know her rather well over the last few years.
“My father took me on a trip to Egypt last spring” Angelica replied, “Reality dwarfs the imaginings of that British poet.”
The Attendant just gave Angelica a smile as she entered the exhibit. It wasn’t as simple as she made it sound. Her father had taken her on the tour the ruins in Egypt over Easter Holiday because his wife didn’t want either of them in Florence. Apparently she took the whole “Until death do us part” extremely seriously and didn’t believe in divorce, but that didn’t stop her from hating Angelica’s father, and Angelica herself, in the meantime for painfully obvious reasons.
Angelica had also been introduced to her two older brothers on the trip to Egypt. Cosimo Junior, straightlaced and conservative, Angelica had heard that he was a rising star in the Italian People’s Party. While Cosimo made it clear that while he didn’t approve of their father’s reckless life he didn’t blame her for that and had been happy that they had finally had the opportunity to meet. Cesare was the exact polar opposite, an Officer in the Italian Army he had inherited their father’s love of squeezing the best of things from life. It was very different from her relationship with Sophie and Gabrielle but that was to be expected, Angelica’s brothers were so much older than she was.
Egypt though, Angelica had realized that it was one of those places where spending a couple weeks was not enough. She could spend a lifetime exploring and not see everything. There was a reason why the vast collections within museums existed. She was hardly the only one who wanted to explore. Peering at the papyrus scroll that was spooled out in the glass case, that was filled with gas to prevent further decay, Angelica was again reminded of that poem, with its themes of hubris and impermanence. At the time it had been written Eqyptian Hieroglyphs not yet been deciphered. Ozymandias was the Greek name for Ramesses II and Percy Bysshe Shelly based it on an article he had read in a newspaper about the British Museum taking possession of a large statue that was broken in the manner described in the poem. As far as Angelica could tell Percy Shelly had never traveled to Egypt and that he was definitely the sort of man who Katherine had advised Angelica to avoid, five years older and being married being the least of it as Angelica had found when she had learned more about Percy Shelly. Perhaps there was some justice that his literary career was completely overshadowed by that of his second wife Mary Shelly, who was inspired to write Frankenstein during what could only be described as the Summer Holiday from Hell. Angelica was aware that her father fell into exactly the same category. When she had asked Katherine about that and the appeal of certain men who women were attracted to despite their better judgement. Katherine just shrugged and asked if Angelica had ever heard the one about the Princess who kissed a Prince and then he turned into a frog?
6th October 1979
Mittle, Berlin
Being Italian in Germany didn’t mean as much as Angelica had thought when her father, Cosimo de Medici, had brought her to live with Katherine and Douglas. She had thought that she would be living in some alien land where people had three eyes, green skin, or something. What she had discovered was that there were people from all over in Berlin and that she wasn’t so different. Before then she had spent a lot of time in Rome and Milan as a child, so she should have known what cities were like. Six years later and it was hard to imagine living anywhere else. Perhaps she would give Milan another try someday, that was in the future though.
A Student Pass to all the State Museums was a highly coveted item. Angelica had one because her foster mother sort of was the State and Katherine wanted to consider herself a patroness of the arts despite not really understanding much of it. Angelica used it often. Most frequently it was to get into the Neues Museum with its vast collections of artifacts from ancient times, particularly Egypt which had fascinated her since she was little. Her father had known about this when he had arranged for her to do something that she had only dreamed about over the prior Easter Holiday when she had gone to Cairo and rode a camel around the Great Pyramids.
“I met a traveler from an antique land” Angelica said to herself like she always did when she entered the extensive Egyptian exhibit, the opening line of the poem Ozymandias that she had memorized when she had been learning English in school. “Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand, half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, and wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, tell that its sculptor well whose passions read. Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed: And the pedestal these words appear: ‘My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’ Nothing beside remains. Round the decay, Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare the lone and level sands stretch away.”
“Don’t you ever get tired of that Fraulein de’ Medici?” The Attendant asked. They had gotten to know her rather well over the last few years.
“My father took me on a trip to Egypt last spring” Angelica replied, “Reality dwarfs the imaginings of that British poet.”
The Attendant just gave Angelica a smile as she entered the exhibit. It wasn’t as simple as she made it sound. Her father had taken her on the tour the ruins in Egypt over Easter Holiday because his wife didn’t want either of them in Florence. Apparently she took the whole “Until death do us part” extremely seriously and didn’t believe in divorce, but that didn’t stop her from hating Angelica’s father, and Angelica herself, in the meantime for painfully obvious reasons.
Angelica had also been introduced to her two older brothers on the trip to Egypt. Cosimo Junior, straightlaced and conservative, Angelica had heard that he was a rising star in the Italian People’s Party. While Cosimo made it clear that while he didn’t approve of their father’s reckless life he didn’t blame her for that and had been happy that they had finally had the opportunity to meet. Cesare was the exact polar opposite, an Officer in the Italian Army he had inherited their father’s love of squeezing the best of things from life. It was very different from her relationship with Sophie and Gabrielle but that was to be expected, Angelica’s brothers were so much older than she was.
Egypt though, Angelica had realized that it was one of those places where spending a couple weeks was not enough. She could spend a lifetime exploring and not see everything. There was a reason why the vast collections within museums existed. She was hardly the only one who wanted to explore. Peering at the papyrus scroll that was spooled out in the glass case, that was filled with gas to prevent further decay, Angelica was again reminded of that poem, with its themes of hubris and impermanence. At the time it had been written Eqyptian Hieroglyphs not yet been deciphered. Ozymandias was the Greek name for Ramesses II and Percy Bysshe Shelly based it on an article he had read in a newspaper about the British Museum taking possession of a large statue that was broken in the manner described in the poem. As far as Angelica could tell Percy Shelly had never traveled to Egypt and that he was definitely the sort of man who Katherine had advised Angelica to avoid, five years older and being married being the least of it as Angelica had found when she had learned more about Percy Shelly. Perhaps there was some justice that his literary career was completely overshadowed by that of his second wife Mary Shelly, who was inspired to write Frankenstein during what could only be described as the Summer Holiday from Hell. Angelica was aware that her father fell into exactly the same category. When she had asked Katherine about that and the appeal of certain men who women were attracted to despite their better judgement. Katherine just shrugged and asked if Angelica had ever heard the one about the Princess who kissed a Prince and then he turned into a frog?
Holy shit. This IS AWESOME!!!! I think, I can not express my delight in this monumental endeavor enough. More then 3 Million Words to write this epic? Dude/ Dudette, you are rocking this thing! I am german and I really like the way you have spun this world. How different our lives would be, if some stuff had changed nearly 100 yrs ago. Really, wow!!!
By the way, I have this feeling, that your epic tale would be a great TV Series as well. Unfortunately, we will likely never have the chance to enjoy this epic on the screen, buti it would have been great!! Keep up the work, this is totally insanely good!!! ( As you can tell by the amount of !! lol )
By the way, I have this feeling, that your epic tale would be a great TV Series as well. Unfortunately, we will likely never have the chance to enjoy this epic on the screen, buti it would have been great!! Keep up the work, this is totally insanely good!!! ( As you can tell by the amount of !! lol )