“Where am I?” Had she made it to the church after all?
“You are at the Kloster St. Josef,” the woman said. “We are the Order of the Visitation of Mary.” She was smiling but Ella felt her eyes examining her intently.
“How did I…?”
“You were found collapsed at the foot of the north gate of the convent garden. The storm was very bad. Because of your strange clothes, you were mistaken for a lad. Upon closer inspection, it was deduced that you were a foreign novice of some kind and so were brought to me.”
“My clothes?” She had been wearing jeans and a leather jacket. She looked around the room but saw no signs of them.
“They are drying but you will have no need of them while you are with us.”
Ella couldn’t tell if the nun was trustworthy or not. Her head hurt and the cloud of confusion still hung in her mind.
“Can you tell me what is the date?” Ella asked.
“So you are taking little steps to the truth. It was the same with me. My name is Greta Schaefer and I am the Mother Superior of this convent.”
The young woman returned with a pitcher of water which she placed on the nightstand and left the room. The nun poured water into Ella’s cup.
“It is the sixth day of October,” Greta said, as she handed the cup to Ella. “In the year of our gracious Lord, 1620.”
Ella’s hand froze as she reached for the cup and she stared blankly at Greta. The expression on Ella’s face spoke louder than any words could: How is that possible?
“It is a lot to understand,” Greta said. “I know from your clothes and from where you were found, that you are not from this time.”
Ella put a hand to her head and looked around the room as if trying to see if there was anything in the room or about the nun that might conceivably disprove the idea. Zippers? Bifocals? A bedside clock? Sounds of traffic? Anything? “But, how…is that possible?” she said.
“I know you have many questions,” Greta said. “I recognized immediately that you and I are alike. You understand what I am telling you?” Greta reached over and touched Ella’s hand but Ella withdrew it immediately.
“Forgive me,” Greta said. “You have slept for many hours and it is so hard to be patient. I have many questions, too,” she said. “I, myself, came here from the year 1946. Are you from anywhere near that time?”
Ella watched her for any sign of guile, but the nun merely smiled patiently, her eyes bright and eager.
“2012,” Ella said finally.
“Oh!” Greta put her hand to her mouth as if she’d been goosed. “Such a long way into the future. So much must have happened.”
“I’m sorry, Sister,” Ella said, forming her words carefully in order to be understood. “Can you tell me how it is possible that you…that you came to be here from…you said 1946? Are we in some kind of time bubble?”
Greta smiled and shook her head. “I am sure I must have sounded as confused and mad to everyone as you do to me now,” she said. “When you have slept again and eaten, I will tell you my story and then, perhaps, you will tell me yours. Meanwhile, it is sufficient that God has sent you to help us and for that I am grateful but not surprised. That is well for now. Rest. We will talk later.”
Ella could not keep her eyes open. It occurred to her that it didn’t really matter to her where she was or even when she was. She was safe and dry from the storm. And for now that was enough. As she drifted off to sleep, she felt a cool hand gently smooth her brow.
Rowan sat in his apartment, his cellphone on his knee, staring at the wall. In the noisy bar earlier that evening, he hadn’t heard his cellphone go off and had missed the call from Ella. He lifted the bottle of beer to his lips and glanced at the cellphone screen. He had listened to her voicemail ten times already. It wasn’t likely to get any less cryptic. He hit the play button again anyway.
“Hey, Rowan. Surprise. It’s me. Look, I was just wondering what you were up to. I mean, we haven’t talked in awhile. When you get this message...please call me back…And if you’re screening this call because you’ve got some Alabama hottie on tap there, that’s cool. Except I thought US Marshals have to be available at all times. What if I were a Federal witness needing a ride somewhere? Not to get all dramatic here but I kind of need you, Rowan. Anyway. Okay, you know this is me, Ella, right?”
Rowan stared at the cell time. Five p.m. Dothan time. Ten p.m. in Heidelberg. What the hell was she doing calling him at ten at night? He had called her cellphone and her landline with no answer. One just rang and the other went straight to voicemail. Tomorrow he planned to call her father to see if he knew anything. And maybe he’d call her supervisor to see what was going on there. None of this felt right. Not being able to reach her felt worst of all. Rowan drained his beer and tossed the bottle toward the kitchen garbage can. He missed.
“I kind of need you, Rowan.”
When Ella woke up, Greta was again at her bedside. Without preamble, the nun handed her a steaming cup of tea and began speaking.
“My name is Greta Schaefer,” she said. “I taught English before the war and worked in a munitions factory in Manheim during the war until it was bombed.”
“Your English is really good,” Ella said. As she sipped from the strange dark tea. She realized she was wearing a rough cotton shift she didn’t remember putting on. She felt safe with this nun and in this place. She trusted Greta. She wasn’t sure if that was wise but it felt inevitable.
“The war had just ended,” Greta said. “I was living with my mother in Heidelberg until things could be resolved after the war.”
“’Resolved’?”
“I had a husband in the war,” she said. “I had not heard from him for a year. We all believed he had been killed, but I was waiting with my family to see if he would come home.”
“Oh. Sorry,” Ella said.
“Heidelberg was not damaged in the war. Did you know that?”
Ella shook her head.
“Although we didn’t think the Americans cared for such things, it was widely believed that they were so enthralled with Heidelberg’s beauty that they could not bear to destroy it. One day, I was coming home from late mass from the Catholic Church of the Jesuits. It began to rain, much like the storm we had last night. The heavens opened wide, the night sky was illuminated with terrible bolts of lightning. I tried to hurry. Stupidly, I had left my umbrella at home. My mother warned me to take it.”
Ella held the hot tea and blew gently across the surface. And waited.
“I fell.” Greta said. “It was a shortcut and the stones were slippery. Very near where you were found.”
“How did it happen?”
“I do not know. One minute I was rubbing a skinned knee in the dark in 1946 Heidelberg, thinking of my dinner waiting for me at my mother’s and the next minute I was here.”
A wave of urgency suddenly came over Ella as she found herself blurting out what she soon realized was, up to this moment in her life, the most important question of her life: “Is it possible to go back?” she asked.
“Back to your own time? I believe so. Once, when I was bringing the lambs in during a bad rain, I found myself very near that same spot at the base of the garden lane. I felt a terrible pulling in my soul. It was an almost irresistible urge that convinced me that if I were to just let it happen, I would return to my own time after the war.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“I found a better life here.”
“Were you a nun in 1946?”
“I was not. I am not proud of that part of the story,” Greta said. “But I believe I have made amends to God in the way that matters.” She looked at Ella and smiled. “In all the ways that matter. And so that part of the story will wait for another time. You are tired. Rest now and we will talk more later.”
Several hours later, after a long hot bath in an ancient wooden tub, a convent novice showed Ella to a different cell and gave her a simple habit of crudely dyed linen and a pair of
slippers. There was a missile and a single candle on the nightstand, a small window looking out over the garden below, and a thin wool rug on the slate floor.
The bed linen—a far cry from the three hundred thread count sheets she had at home—was clean, soft and comfortable. Seconds after her head hit the pillow that night and just before she fell asleep, it occurred to Ella that for the first time in a very long time, she felt content and safe.
The next day, Ella spent the first full day of her life in 1620 Heidelberg following Greta around the convent. She was reminded that this mysterious woman who had rescued her from the storm was the Mother Superior. It was not clear how that happened, since Greta readily admitted she had no formal religious training to be even a religious novice, let alone a nun, she still had not revealed to Ella and didn’t appear in any hurry to do so.
For great parts of that first day—despite much evidence to the contrary—and into the second, Ella didn’t completely believe that she was living in a different time. She found it difficult to grasp the possibility, much less the reality, of it all. But by the end of her second day of life in 1620, she would never again have the security of that doubt.
6
“You are English, yes?”
“American.”
“Ah, yes. The Allies.”
Ella and Greta were setting out dishes for a simple meal of soup and fresh bread in Greta’s private chamber. Ella was impressed with the fact that, here, everybody worked, even the Mother Superior, who seemed to work harder than everyone else. The other nuns moved silently about the small convent performing their chores of cleaning, scrubbing, cooking, and tending the little garden. Ella often saw their lips moving in silent prayer. She had made eye contact only once with a fourteen year old girl, who smiled shyly at Ella and then looked away.
“Mother Superior?” Ella said. “I understand that history stopped for you right after the war but I need you not to see me that way.”
“As the victor, you mean?”
“Yes, that’s right. Germany and America are friends now. Good friends.”
“I cannot believe that is possible.”
“Well, it’s true. Heck, we’re pals with Japan, too. I did part of my sophomore year at the University of Freiburg and half my friends have travelled the length and breadth of Germany.”
“There…there were no reprisals?”
“There was a trial…”
“The Nuremberg Trials. I know.”
“Then you know a lot of the head honcho SS guys were executed.”
“But Germany was not punished?”
“In a way they were, I guess, but not by us. My Dad used to say that history is its own punishment.”
The woman frowned at Ella as if unsatisfied with that answer.
“Well,” Ella said, seating herself at the rough wooden table in Greta’s room. “As part of the surrender agreement, the Allies forbade your country from having an army of any size. Which meant that during the next fifty years,” Ella continued, “without the expense of an army draining all their resources, Germany became an economic powerhouse. With the help of the Allies—Britain included—they rebuilt their country in a decade of the war while France was still planting daylilies in their bunkers. They lead the world in technology and engineering and their cities and infrastructure reflect that.”
Greta shook her head, tears welling up in her eyes. “England helped?”
“I believe so.”
“And we are not hated for what happened?”
“Not hated,” Ella said. “But…”
“But?”
“But not forgotten, either. Not feared, like Hitler wanted, but respected.” Ella said with emphasis. “Germany, today, is considered the only stable financial base in the European Union.”
“The European Union?”
“You know? That part’s kind of complicated. Can we leave it until after lunch? Suffice to say, there have been a lot of changes in the past sixty odd years.”
“Forgive me, Ella.” Greta reached over and placed her hand over Ella’s. “You have been very patient. It is good to hear how the story ended.”
“I can imagine,” Ella said. “But what about your situation here? You said something earlier about some warlord raiding all the convents in Heidelberg? Man, I’d give anything for just five minutes access to Wikkipedia to get a little overview.”
“Wikki—?” The Mother Superior uncovered a plate of cheese and set it on the table between them. She reached for a carafe of red wine.
“Never mind,” Ella said. “Can you tell me while we eat? Time travel is surprisingly strenuous work. If I didn’t think I’d end up in a psych ward somewhere I’d consider doing a blog on why that is.”
Greta crossed herself and took Ella’s hand. She bowed her head and thanked God for the food they were about to eat.
“Amen,” Ella said, watching hungrily as the Mother Superior ladled soup into a stoneware bowl and set it down in front of her. Ella picked up a large spoon and prompted her hostess: “Okay. So, what’s the story?”
Greta served herself in silence and then began.
“The family of Krüger has informally ruled this part of Germany for nearly a hundred years,” she said. “Before Krüger the Terrible, who rules now, there was the father, Krüger the Wicked. If possible, he was even more treacherous and cruel than the present Krüger. While it’s true the city has a government and working laws, it operates in tandem with Krüger, who has military and civil control over Heidelberg. Krüger’s army, although not large, is loyal to him and not to any central authority. Germany’s ruler, Prince Karl III Philip, accepts this because there is peace in this area. It is at the cost of hundreds of innocent lives and constant terror among the people but such things are rarely of interest to our politicians.
“Krüger has two sons. Axel, the eldest, is a murdering fiend. He and his men have raided all the nunneries and monasteries in this part of Germany. It is said that he sleeps on a bed of skulls from the Catholic holy men of Germany. From the nunneries—of which ours is the very last—he has murdered the old women and taken the novices and young nuns as concubines. The ones who do not remain at the castle, for whatever reason, are either murdered or sold to the traders as they make their way to the Middle East.”
Ella noticed that Greta’s voice shook as she spoke.
“The other son, Christof, is not like his brother. There is even a rumor that he is Catholic. Unfortunately, he is also weak and passive. It is said that the brothers hate each other.
“Just two days ago, one of my novices was taken by Axel’s men. He informed me then that he will return to destroy our convent and all in it before the new moon.”
“Informed you?” Ella could only whisper. It was unimaginable to Ella that such monsters were allowed to roam unchecked.
The Mother Superior pulled back the long draping sleeves of her habit to reveal the fresh wound carved into her pale flesh. It looked like a crescent moon. “He has a wit, no? This monster.”
“He…he did this to you?”
Greta stared at Ella, her eyes filled with tears. “I wish you could have known this precious girl,” she said. “I raised her since she was a child.”
“Oh, Greta, I’m so sorry.” Ella touched the nun’s sleeve. “Wow,” she said, shaking her head. “This is bad. You have officially scared the shit out of me.”
“Ella, we don’t speak like that here—”
“God, I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking—”
“Or use the name of the Lord—”
“—in vain, yes, sorry about that, too. It’s just that, wow. This is a seriously scary dude you are dealing with.”
“I know. I fear for us all.”
“Yeah, me, too, I fear for us all. Wow. He sounds relentless.”
“He is.”
“But that’s good in a way.”
“Good?”
“Yeah.” Ella pushed her wine cup aside and leaned back into her wooden chair. “You
see, when it comes to solving problems, I think it’s always good when you know ahead of time about any dead ends. Knowing that helps you avoid wasting time trying to fix them. So knowing that about him, that he doesn’t give up and that any kind of parlay or negotiation is useless, is actually helpful.”
“Do you…is there some way you think you can help us?”
“Trust me, Greta. I’m not sure what it is yet but we’re going to do something.”
“You are like every American I ever heard of.”
Ella laughed. “In the movies, right? But, seriously, this kind of injustice goes beyond nationality. Me, I call it problem solving 101: know thy enemy.”
“I don’t believe that’s in the Bible,” Greta said.
“It’s in my Bible,” Ella said, firmly.
Rowan stepped out on the balcony of his apartment and stared out over the little manmade lake. He watched a duck land on the lake and settle into a serene coast across the surface.
The conversation with Ella’s father had been vastly instructive, if mildly unpleasant. The man had obviously been teetering on the edge of panic before Rowan called him about not hearing back from his daughter. More than once, Rowan wondered whether retired spies were usually this neurotic. Being this excitable, how had the man ever kept a cover in the CIA?
“She told you she was in trouble?” her father almost shouted.
“Something to that effect,” Rowan said. “Thought you might know something about it.”
“She doesn’t really tell me much about her life,” her father said with clear agitation in his voice—as if Rowan were somehow responsible. “She never mentioned you, for instance. Have you talked to her office?”
“Thought I’d talk with you first,” he said.
“Well, I know she got some bad news recently,” Bill Stevens said.
“What kind of bad news?”
“The private kind.”
“I see. So you spoke to her?”
“Why are you looking for her?”
“She left me a voicemail last night saying she was in some kind of trouble and needed help.”
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