We would go to the Great Hall of the People and pay homage to our forebearers. It was an auditorium of immense size and splender and one felt like a tiny speck of sand in the universe shuddering beneath that large canvas of concrete, steel and glass.
It was also where our father introduced us to all the delights and privileges for those reserved to senior party elite and included the inner core of those who were of the 47 signatories. It was where we met representatives of each of the famed signatories from 1 to 47 and took our rightful place in mock rehearsals of that fateful day of July 16th.
As a youth surrounded by such luxury and freedom it was very easy to become jaded like so many of our peers, but somehow it grounded me and while any youth granted such access reveled for their time, I quickly tired of it and only begrudgingly accompanied father when it was of benefit to my education or career.
It was with this memory, I visited the Capital near the end of my three year sentence to meet before the inner council, which included my brother who would decide my fate. Wolf Gustafson came in my support and in a surprise move Sophie joined him.
We stayed in the central promenade hotel. The General had his own suite and I given a simple room. Sophie stayed in another suite adjoining the General's, but met me in my room and we dined together in the skylight kitchen that stood nearly a mile above the city.
She had not been to the Capital since Stephan's last birthday party and they celebrated in that same famed restaurant with only starlight. It was how she remembered everything and she laughed that she wasted so much time being cooped up in her stuffy old home when she had this to see and experience again.
She was in cheerful mood and said this would be my last meal and tomorrow my execution in the Great Square. I added to her jest that it had not been used for public executions in centuries and the closest one would be the willing suicides of failed commissars and bureau chiefs. And she caught me mid sentence who were all reassigned.
In all seriousness, she would not have come if this would be such a macabre spectacle as my own public execution, but she very must expected a serious outcome if Wolf had to come as I was summoned alone.
I clenched my fist reminding myself of my brother and what he said of our great uncle. Sophie gently clasped her hand and peeled back the fingers to hold my hand. She reassured me that whatever happens, she would share my fate.
And as quickly as the moment it faded and she went to her bubbly self admiring the city from the large windows and the fabulous meal that came in courses.
We adjourned late in the evening and I stayed up awake all night thinking not of tomorrow but strangely of Oliver and of Ingrid. We had spoken before I left for the Capital and Ingrid had greatly improved and the Glikmann's were made aware of their daughter's existence and they begun to see her secretly with Oliver's help.
While we all were concerned, he was tired of hiding and honestly if this angered Wolf or anyone, then he would accept their fate. He said Martha spoke positively of me, even though we barely spoke and met only that once at Sophie's garden party.
Oliver laughed and said he had an uncle who went to the Capital one. He too was reassigned.
No comments:
Post a Comment