A story....

Once upon a time....

There were two people, a young man and a woman, who fell in love in Europe. At the turn of the last century, in a part of Austria that is now Slovenia. They spent their honeymoon in Dubrovnik, and even traveled to Egypt, which was pretty ostentious for the beginning of the last century... Alexandria, and Cairo, and it was romantic.

And they proceeded to have four daughters. Hildegard, Charlotte, Ilse, and Doris. And then finally, a little boy, which was the dearest wish of the man's heart. Because he would carry on the family name, you see, and that is what people thought back then. And sometimes even now.

The little boy died of pneumonia, and it crushed the man, and he wasn't so nice to his daughters.

And disaster struck in their realm, and WAR came. The father was resolutely against everything... he would listen to the radio ilegally,because it was forbidden. It was sorta like being ordered to listen to Faux news, and forbidden to listen to MSNBC. Only you could be punished by death if you did the latter... sorta like, only much worse.

The woman, she enjoyed entertainment, and her greatest gratification was watching MGM musicals in movie houses. The man was more interested in books and ideology by that time, so it wasn't a priority for him, and he looked down on it in principle, and wasn't forgiving her for having 'lost' their son.

And the WAR changed the family. Hildegard got caught up in the enemy ideology and became evil. Charlotte got inducted and had to serve in a place way north of where she'd ever been, but her heart remained in her native town. Ilse met a German concert pianist.

She was stricken, and fell helplessly in love. And Hildegard plotted an evil plan to send her baby sister Doris to a camp for indoctrination, where she caught a bad disease, and succumbed to it much later without ever having spoken with her sister again.

The WAR changed everything. Ilse became pregnant, and had a boy.... except his father died in a traffic accident being underway to where the aggressors were heading. And never married him, there hadn't been time. The man was thrilled, he had a male heir.

And the woman was frightened to death, not only WAR... but, if anything should happen to the boy, it would mean the end of everything in her world.

But the woman wouldn't give up her beliefs, and what pleased her. She was feisty. And risked things.... like getting into a physical fight at a market place over who was better, Ginger Rogers, or Marika Rökk. Which was something very dangerous at that time and place.

Well.... in that fictive realm, that country began to lose. And the boy caught pneumonia, and they were being bombarded from the other side. And the woman would take him down in the cellar, lugging a grammaphone, and play music for him. (They didn't have penicillan back then...). And she'd play Fred Astaire. 'Cheek To Cheek'.... and it would begin 'Heaven, I'm in Heaven...' And the bombs would begin falling.... The boy miraculously recovered.

The WAR ended at Easter one year. And the family was up on a hillside having a picnic. And the other side came in and tried to bomb the city, and the man was up yelling at them, 'The industry stuff is over THERE!' How do they excpect to win the war by dropping bombs on the university!!???'

Shortly thereafter, the OTHERS came in to finish the war. The first were from a vicious country, and they raped women, and weren't otherwise exactly nice, but they weren't that way to children. And the boy watched his grandfather, the man, pull down 'the Leader's' portrait, and stomped on it and yell, and curse, and the soldiers brought out some vodka, and they toasted one another.

Decades passed. The woman never got over the censure of having missed the golden age of MGM musicals, and would drag the boy to the movies. To catch up. The man wasn't good with it, and there were fights.

The girls were dispersed, Doris and Charlotte ended up in Frankfurt, and Doris died way too early, as a result of what Hildegard did. Ilse died way too early. The boy had been living a life that was rich, and interesting, but came back to take care of her, and it broke his heart.

And Hildegard? She remained a terrorist till the end of her days. She toasted her husband when he got shipped off to the vile country, with champagne, and looked forward to becoming a widow. He survived, and when he came back, she never forgave him. She wanted to be a WAR widow. They had a daughter, and she is gone now too, and HER daughter married a sneakret service person from yet another land... divorced him and is now never to be found.

But Hildegard went out in a blaze of glory... trying to recruit African American rebels in Harlem and Florida. She ran out of steam at last... and passed on. Much to the relief of the rest of the family.

And the boy? Was stellar, and fell in love, and became very ill. It's how families can rise and fall....

All that is left is Charlotte, who married a man from the North, and is of advanced age... and me.

It's a parable....