Fire and Steel, Volume 1

by Gerald N. Lund

She nodded, barely hearing. Sister? He had called Paula sister. Had he meant to say “your sister”? But his German was flawless, as she remembered from before.

  She didn’t have time to think about it. Elder Jackson had stepped back and was holding the door for her. Reissner was already entering the house with her bag. And then a thought struck her, and her heart jumped with joy. “Is Hans Otto with you?” That would explain how two missionaries she had met at the academy were now at Paula’s home.

  “No,” Elder Reissner said regretfully, “but we were just on our way to see him. Schwester Groll has asked if we will go to the academy and tell him that you are here. She’s hoping he can join us for supper.”

  Her head was swirling. Us? Would they be eating here too? And he had called Paula Schwester Groll again. She had heard correctly the first time. He was calling her his sister. How strange was that?

  And then all was forgotten as she heard cries from inside the house and the pounding of steps on the stairs. “Auntie Inga, Auntie Inga!” Inga dropped to one knee and opened her arms as Paula’s daughter Gretl came barreling through the door at her.

  • • •

  When Hans returned in company with the elders, it was as if none of their last time together had ever happened. Nor did he seem the least bit surprised that his mother was there. If there was any coolness in his manner, she could not detect it.

  “Hello, Mama. How good to see you again.” He gave her a quick hug and kissed her on the cheek and then immediately turned to Gretl, Paula’s daughter, who was seven and absolutely worshiped her handsome, older cousin.

  Young Hans had always liked his Aunt Paula and Uncle Wolfgang. Their first two children were both married now with children of their own. They lived in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, and Hans rarely saw them now. But he loved his cousin, who adored him, and took surprising joy in Bruno, the new baby who was two months old. With Magdalena out of his life now, he came over to stay with them every two or three weeks. They were, in many ways, his family now.

  • • •

  When Wolfie called just before supper time to say that he would probably not get home until after ten, Hans and the missionaries volunteered to help his mother and aunt with supper. Working together, they prepared a delicious dinner of Wiener schnitzel, sauerkraut, and a decadently rich chocolate raspberry Bavarian torte cake. Inga, surprised how easily the missionaries fit in, was dying of curiosity about how they had come to know her sister’s family. But Paula was so eager to tell Inga everything about Wolfie’s new job and all about her married children that she didn’t interrupt her.

  As they cleaned up the dishes, Inga’s curiosity only deepened. The elders continued to call Paula Schwester Groll, and when they spoke of Wolfie, they always called him Bruder Groll. Brother and Sister Groll? And yet they unfailingly addressed her son as Hans or Hans Otto and her as Frau Eckhardt. And there was the fact that Gretl played with the missionaries almost as much as she did with Hans. That indicated to Inga that this was not the first time the missionaries had been there.

  She finally pushed it all aside, determined to concentrate on what she was going to say to Hans when they were finally alone. But as they finished the dishes, Hans announced that he had to return to the academy tonight. Inga reacted immediately to that. “Do you have class tomorrow?”

  “No. Classes are finished for the summer.”

  “Do you have a test tomorrow?”

  Warily, sensing where this was going, he replied, “No. I finished my last final this morning.”

  “Then you are not going back tonight.”

  He raised a fork in protest and opened his mouth to say something, but one look from her cut him off. Finally, he nodded. “Yes, Mama,” he grumped.

  No one dared smile except Paula. She caught Hans’s eye and pulled a face. “Now you know what I grew up with,” she said.

  Elders Reissner and Jackson left right after supper, saying they had another appointment. Paula bade them good night and went off to nurse the baby, telling Gretl to go up and take a bath. Once they left, Inga got up from the table and crossed the hall into the sitting room. She never said a word to Hans, nor looked at him. After a moment, he got up and reluctantly followed. She stood at the door until he entered and then shut it behind her and sat down across from him.

  As she fixed her gaze on him, he half groaned. “Does this have to happen tonight, Mama? I am very tired.”

  “You said you have to leave first thing tomorrow.” She cocked her head. “If that’s not true, then we can talk in the morning. If so . . .” She shrugged.

  “I do,” Hans grumbled. “I just learned that a boy in math and physics is slightly ahead of me in the race for valedictorian. So I’m going to use this break time to push forward. I am determined to have it.”

  “That’s wonderful, Hans. I’m very pleased.”

  “What? No comment on how self-centered I am?”

  That surprised her, but only the timing, not his bitterness. “I’m not here to talk about your pride, Hans.”

  “Oh, really? Then what are you here for?”

  That helped her make up her mind. “All right then. Maybe it’s time we stopped dancing around the maypole. I’m going to come right out with what I want to say.”

  “I think it’s time.”

  She plunged right in. “Have you and that girl spoken with her parents about your relationship yet?”

  His mouth dropped open for a second, and then he burst out laughing. “First of all, Mama, she’s not ‘that girl.’ Her name is Magdalena.”

  “Or Maggie, as I remember.”

  “No,” he snapped. “She doesn’t like that.”

  One eyebrow came up, but she said nothing.

  “In the second place, she didn’t enroll in summer school. She hasn’t been on campus all summer.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes, really. And in the third place, ‘that girl’ and I broke up a long time ago. It’s over. There’s nothing to talk to her parents about.”

  Jerking forward, she almost blurted, “I don’t believe you,” but the pain in his eyes was too real. He was neither lying nor joking about this.

  “What happened?” she asked softly.

  “What happened?” he shot back sarcastically. “I’ll tell you what happened. I thought a lot about what you and Papa said that day, and, though I didn’t like it, I decided you might be right. Maybe the von Krugers were not as progressive and forward-thinking as I thought. Maybe they would be furious if they thought their daughter and I were talking about marriage. And I decided that my schooling is everything right now. I couldn’t risk losing it.”

  She sat back, her mind whirling. It was not that she didn’t believe him. His emotions were too raw to be an act. But something didn’t feel quite right.

  “Well, say something,” he pleaded.

  “I . . . I am very pleased to hear that, Hans, and your father will be too. He has been very worried about you being expelled. So, while I know how hard that must have been for you, it’s for the best.” Then, still bothered a little, she added, “How did Magdalena take it?”

  He shrugged diffidently. “She cried a lot. Like girls do. Begged me not to do it. Vowed that her parents wouldn’t object. But I could tell she knew better.” He shrugged again. “So it’s over. I haven’t seen her since that night. And I heard just today that her parents are sending her to a private school in Italy this fall. So I won’t be seeing her in the future either, which is good. It just makes it harder for her to be here.”

  The relief was almost dizzying, and Inga tried hard not to show it.

  He looked up, glancing at the clock, and then turned to her, though his eyes were having a hard time holding hers. “So is that really all you came up for, Mama?” His tone was a little accusatory.

  “Yes, and to help Paula with the baby.” Then she decided to be completely honest. “I came because your last letter to us was so abrupt. You knew that we were worried about you and Magdalena, so when yo
u said you weren’t coming, we naturally assumed . . .”

  He nodded, and she saw that he was softening a little. “Of course you did. I should have seen that. I was simply on my way to a special tutoring session with one of the teachers here. It was stupid of me not to see how that would come across.”

  He looked at the clock again. She glanced up too. It was 9:20. “Are you thinking of going back tonight?”

  “I would like to, but I don’t want you to be angry with me.”

  “Will you give me your word that this whole thing with Magdalena is over?”

  “Unreservedly. We both know it’s over.”

  “Then go. Go study. Go get that valedictorian honor.”

  “Maybe I can come over on a weekend. Not this weekend. I’ve got to really hit the books. But next weekend. Will you still be here?”

  “I will be if you promise to come see me.”

  For the first time he smiled, and it was warm and genuine. “No more talk about Magdalena?”

  “Are there any other girls I should know about?” she teased.

  “None.”

  “Not even one you flirt with a little?”

  He bent down and kissed her cheek. “Maybe when I graduate. Not before, though.”

  August 9, 1913

  The morning sunlight was coming through the kitchen window and bathing Inga with its warmth and light.

  The house was quiet this Saturday morning. Wolfie and Gretl were still asleep. Paula had fed Bruno and was now burping him while Inga peppered her with questions about the missionaries. “So,” she said in conclusion, “in answer to your questions, yes. Since you were here last, we’ve seen a lot of the missionaries. They’ve been teaching me about their Church.”

  “Yes, they evidently talked a lot about their Church with Hans too.”

  “No, Inga, I’m not talking about casual conversations about their Church. They’ve been teaching formal lessons to me and Gretl.”

  “What? Really?”

  Bruno let out a belch that echoed off the walls, causing them both to laugh. Then Paula got up and laid him down in the bassinet in one corner of the sitting room.

  “And what are they teaching you?”

  Paula pulled a blanket over the baby and then stood up and went to the bookshelf. After taking down a book with a light brown cover, she came back and held it out in front of Inga. “About this.”

  Inga looked up. “Das Buch Mormon? What is that?”

  “It’s their book.”

  “Whose book?”

  “The missionaries’. Well, they brought it to me, but it actually is their Church’s book. Haven’t you ever heard of the Mormons?”

  Inga shook her head. “Not until we met the elders that day at Hans’s dorm.”

  “It’s because they only work in the large cities.” She leaned closer. “And they prefer being called Latter-day Saints.”

  “They think they’re saints? I thought you had to be dead for at least a hundred years to be a saint.”

  Paula laughed merrily. “That was exactly what I said the first time they said that. But they say it means someone who is trying to live a good life. In the New Testament, followers of Christ were called Christians, but they also called themselves saints. The official name of their church is Kirche Jesu Christi der Heiligen der Letzten Tage. But because of this book, the Book of Mormon, many people call them Mormons.”

  “I see,” Inga said slowly, which was not true in any way. She didn’t see why a church would have one name and be called something else. She didn’t see why Paula was giving her a copy of this book. And she didn’t understand the fervor and earnestness her sister was showing as she spoke. Her tone was almost reverential, and it made Inga uncomfortable.

  “All right, start at the beginning. How is it that the two missionaries from America, who were teaching my son English, ended up here, obviously teaching you? Does Wolfie know about this?”

  “Of course,” she said. “Wolfie and I don’t keep secrets from each other.”

  “And he’s all right with it?”

  “He doesn’t like it much, but he says if it makes me happy, then he has no objection. As long as I don’t ask him to get baptized too.”

  Inga rocked back. “Too?”

  Tears came to Paula’s eyes. “Yes. I am going to be baptized two weeks from today by Elder Reissner in a small lake just outside the city. Gretl wants to be too, when she turns eight.”

  “Baptized! But you have already been baptized. You were baptized as an infant in the Catholic church in Unterammergau. You can’t remember that, but I can. I was almost four at the time.”

  “I know. But this is different. You have to be baptized, and not just sprinkled on, to become a member of the Church.”

  “And will you attend this church?”

  “Not yet. The nearest branch is closer to the center of the city, and that’s too far from here. But the elders are in the process of organizing a branch that will be just half an hour away from here.”

  Her mind whirling, Inga absently closed the book and handed it back.

  “No,” Paula said. “That’s your copy. Elder Reissner left it for you.”

  “I’m not looking for a church.”

  “Do you still go to church in Graswang?”

  “Um . . . usually.”

  “That’s what I thought.”

  “So that’s why you’re giving me this book. You want me to become a Mormon?”

  “No, Inga. I just want you to read it. Then it’s up to you what you do.”

  “Read what?”

  They turned as Wolfie came into the kitchen, still stuffing his shirt into his pants. Paula quickly slid the book back across to Inga. Inga leaned forward, folding her arms so the book was hidden beneath them.

  Wolfie saw that and smiled. “Watch it, Inga, or my wife will turn you into a Mormon too.”

  Paula stood up and went over to kiss him. “Would that be so bad? You told me you think I’m a better person since listening to the missionaries.”

  “You are,” he teased, “but it’s only been a couple of months. I think we have to wait longer than that to see if it sticks.” He kissed her soundly and then looked around. “What’s for breakfast?”

  “There’s some bratwurst and biscuits in the pan. The mustard is in the icebox. Inga and I already ate.” As he moved away, she chided, “You were a sleepyhead this morning.”

  He rubbed his chin. “I didn’t get in until almost midnight.”

  “Did you get it finished?”

  “Yes, and my supervisor was very pleased. He’ll present it to the higher-ups this morning.” He opened the icebox and started rummaging around in it. Sighing, Paula went over. “It’s right here,” she said, retrieving the sharp German mustard from behind a milk bottle. She winked at Inga and then pushed her husband gently toward the table. “Sit down, Schatzi. I’ll get it for you.”

  She got a plate and cup from the cupboard, laid the table for him, and dished up his food.

  No wonder he lets her do what she wants, Inga thought. She treats him like a king.

  Just then there was a shrill ring. Paula started toward the phone, but Wolfie was faster. He took the receiver off the hook and put it up to his year. “Hallo!” Pause. “Ja, this is the Grolls’. Who? Ah, ja, ja. One moment.” He turned to Inga. “It’s Hans.”

  Taken aback, she got up quickly and took the phone from her brother-in-law. “Hans? This is Mama. Is something wrong?”

  Through the earpiece the voice sounded tinny and distorted, but she could tell it was him. “No, Mama. Everything is fine. But I wanted to give you some good news.”

  “I like good news,” she said.

  “When I got back last night, there was a letter waiting for me.”

  “A letter? From whom?”

  “Do you remember me telling you about my friend whose father is a member of the Junker family? The one who owns a big truck factory in Nuremberg?”

  “Ja, I remember.” Vaguel
y, she thought.

  “Well, his father wants to meet me. He’s asked me to come to his factory and work for him during the break. He hinted that if he likes me, he might have a job for me when I graduate next summer.”

  “Wunderbar, Hans. That’s wonderful.”

  “I know. I am very excited. But he wants me to catch a train to Nuremberg this morning. He’s paying for my ticket. I’m leaving in half an hour. If he likes me, maybe I can work there from now until school starts again.”

  “Das ist gut, Hans. Why do you make it sound like a problem?”

  “Because I won’t be able to come and see you next weekend.”

  “Ah, I see.” That was a disappointment. “But this is important, Hans. Very important. Your father will be so happy.”

  “I know. I wish we had a telephone at home so I could call him and tell him myself.”

  “I’ll tell him, Hans. But write us as soon as you can and tell us all about it.”

  “I will, Mama. I have to go. I love you, Mama. Tschüss!”

  When the call went dead, Wolfie took the phone from Inga and put it back on its hook.

  “Did you hear him?” she asked them.

  They both nodded. That was one of the things about their telephone—anyone in the room could hear both sides of every conversation.

  “Your boy is a wonder,” Wolfie said. “We’re going to see great things from him.”

  “I know,” she said. “Oh, Hans is going to be so proud. And when I tell him no more Magdalena, he’ll be deliriously happy.”

  “Have they brought phone lines to Graswang now?” Paula asked.

  “Yes, but only two or three people have telephones.”

  “Could you call one of them and have them fetch Hans?”

  She considered that for a moment, but shook her head. “No. I want to be there to see his face.”

  “But that will be another . . .” Paula stopped. “I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but what if you went home today, Inga?”

  “What!”

  “Think about it. Young Hans is not going to come and see you, and your Hans is going to want to hear this news as soon as possible.”

  “But what about you? I didn’t just come for Hans. I—”