She carefully folded the last shirt before putting it into the suitcase. There, she was done. She shut the suitcase close and lifted it onto the floor. The room was spotless now, the bed stripped of its sheets, the wardrobe emptied of its contents, and the dressing table cleared of its clutter.
The door opened and Mar—he came in. He glanced around the room with a neutral expression but even he was surprised at how quickly she cleared the room.
"You've finished clearing your place very quickly I see," he chuckled, "I've still got at least half of my room to clean up.
"Well I'm not surprised in the least. How will you ever take care of yourself once we've parted for good?" she said, crossing her arms across her chest. If it weren't for her around always helping to clean up after him, he would've still been stuck in the early 1900s.
"Don't—don't say that. I get that I'm not the most organized but I've still made progress without your help," he replied. A smile, albeit a sad one, had taken over his expression.
She almost decided to respond, in fact the words were on her tongue and were already on the way out of her mouth. But this time, she held them back, her usual sharp, witty retorts that she always used when he responded to her like that. She gazed into his brown eyes and took in his expression. Now was not the time for those words.
75 years and it all came down to this. She sighed and took hold of her suitcase.
"Let's go, we need to prepare for tonight." She brushed past him and out of the room. He continued taking in the empty room, trying to remember how it looked like before it was empty.
Československo
He couldn't help frown at the name that was on the paper. He looked up to see that she was staring at him with a puzzled look on her face.
"Is there something wrong?" she demanded.
He paused, wondering if it was worth asking. "Well… aren't we equal to each other?
"What are you talking about? O-Of course we're equal to each other," she stuttered out.
But he saw the brief uncertainty in her eyes and heard the slight hesitation in her voice. Even she was unsure if he could ever catch up to her, if he could ever be truly in an equal union with her.
"I want a hyphen in the name. Like Austria-Hungary," he heard himself say.
And for another brief moment he swore that she was about to slap him before he heard her say
"Let's figure this out together."
She watched him plow the fields from far up upon the hill. She hadn't visited his place as often as he did hers (after all their capital was at her place) so she was always surprised to see all the farms and people working in the fields; a drastic change from her industrial towns.
He noticed her and left his plow in the field. He walked up to her with a bewildered look on his face.
"Why are you here?" he asked, wiping the sweat from his brow. He was dressed in dusty old shirt and pants- farmer's clothes. It was a complete contrast with her clean blouse and straight skirt.
"Am I not supposed to be here?" she said as she put her hands at her hips. "Anyway, I've got news."
"And that is…?" he braced himself, fearing for the worst.
She beamed. "Here look at this!" she said while handing over a newspaper page.
"'Czechoslovakia Ranks 10th in World Industrial Production'," he read out loud. "We're doing well?" he asked, slightly confused at this outcome. He glanced back at the farmers working the fields.
"Of course!" She was twirling around with delight. "We're on the world stage now, can't you see? All that production has really paid off!" There were stars in her eyes. "All those cars and ships and all else; we're doing so well."
He smiled halfheartedly. "That's great. How are you going to celebrate?"
She stopped twirling around and thought for a moment. "We could go out drinking later. I don't know your place as well so you should show me where to find the best places to drink at. How about I come back in the evening?"
"Sounds good," he said, "I'll see you then."
"Goodbye for now." She waved and skipped away.
As he watched her retreat in the distance he couldn't help thinking, no, we're not doing well, only you are.
He looked down at his dusty apparel and sighed. He needed to get back to work.
When evening came and he took her out for a drink or two or three, he drank not because they're in the top 10 means of production. He drank to drown out the thoughts that plagued his mind, those thoughts that make him wonder from time to time whether it was ever worth staying together with her.
"I hate them, I hate them, I hate them!" she yelled as she crouched in the corner of the room, covering her eyes as tears spilled out.
"It'll be okay, we can't do anything now but it will work out somehow," he said patting her on the back.
She looked up at him sharply. "What do you mean it'll be okay? This is not okay at all! See this is why you're still lagging behind. You always have such overly optimistic beliefs that get you nowhere in the end! Now look at us. We're at the mercy of the west—damn you Britain and France—and they've sold us off just like that!" She continued sobbing into her sleeve.
He shut his eyes. He could feel his own resentment building up—Britain, France, Germany, her—but all he could do was let out a sigh of defeat. He ran his hair through his messy, light brown hair. Both of them probably looked awful. She had dark circles under her eyes from staying up a few nights too late and her usually neat shoulder-length brown hair was sticking out all over.
"Veronika, we have to sign this. We have no better choice. We're not strong enough to fight back and if we don't comply, who knows what will happen to our country and our people?" He held out a hand to her to pull her up.
She stopped sobbing and looked up at him again. "You're right we're not strong enough." But she looked accusingly at him as if it were only him who was not strong enough.
When the German tanks rolled into the mainland, both of them could only raise their arms to salute in defeat, both avoiding eye contact with each other.
Countries didn't have friends, they only have interests.
She knew that, of course she knew that especially after the Munich Agreement. But after being taken over for so long, liberation tasted so sweet, even if it was partially under the hands of the Soviet Union.
She looked over to Martin to see he was lost in thought. If countries only had interests was he only an interest? Surely he was more than that, they were one country after all! But they were too different to be called "one" were they? So what was he exactly to her? Was he a business partner? A friend? A brother? A lover?
Perhaps he was all of that to her. And perhaps she was all of that to him too.
Music started to play somewhere and she saw that people were going into a building to dance. Suddenly, she had the urge to dance.
"Martin! Shall we dance?" She ran up to him and took him by his hands.
A look of surprise had taken over his face. "Dance? Now?"
"Yes, when else?" she replied impatiently. "Fine. Join me over there whenever you're ready." She pointed to the building. She hesitated for a second before standing on her tiptoes, giving a peck to him on the cheek before giggling and running off.
Stunned, he touched the cheek where she kissed him, unsure if he had imagined it or not. But he decided that it was indeed real and he broke into a big grin before running off after her.
"The numbers do not look good," he said as he flipped through the documents.
She snatched the papers from his hand and scanned over the letters and numbers, her heart sinking with every negative number that was inked on the paper. The economy… it was not looking good.
She tossed the papers on the floor and paced back and forth across the room, her head spinning from what she had just seen. "They will ruin us," she muttered under her breath, "Communism will ruin us if this continues. They can't keep on restricting us like this. The people are angry, oh so very angry."
He picked up the papers from the floor. "But what can be done? We did briefly win some of our freedoms but we're just no match for the Soviets. We can't kick them out."
She stopped pacing and stood still at the lone window in the room. Without turning around she said, "We will wait until the time is right. And when the time is right, we will take back our country."
Česko-Slovensko
She gritted her teeth and tightened her grip on the piece of paper. Not this again. She thought that the name issue had been solved years ago but apparently he still wasn't satisfied.
"Why are you fighting so much just to have a stupid dash in the name?" she said.
He was filing away papers in the cabinet. "It's not a dash, it's a hyphen."
"Why must you be so petty?" she said, holding the paper up. "Don't we have bigger issues to solve especially now that we have left communism for democracy? Especially now that the Soviets have finally left us?"
He glanced up from his work and stared at her. "Veronika, I have my own pride as well. My people have their own pride for their identity. Don't you understand what I'm saying?"
She avoided his gaze. "Of course."
It was silent in the room again and she went back to looking through the documents on the table and he moved onto the next file to organize.
"We were never equal in the first place were we?" he said, not looking up from his files.
She stayed silent, unable to formulate a response.
"Even with all the progress I've made in the past years, even though I'm the one making the most progress between us, I'll never be able to meet your standards will I?" he finished.
She bit her lip and turned around facing the door.
"You're right. We were never equal in the first place and I'm not sure if we'll ever be," she said quietly before walking out of the room.
"I-what, how can this be?" she asked, startled by the news. "No, no, no… when did this happen? What? It's because they really can't do anything about it? How about the people? What do they think?"
She cupped the phone against her ear anxiously. Her hands were were sticky with sweat and she had to keep on wiping them on her skirt.
"Okay, are you sure though? Completely sure that it's the right decision?" She shut her eyes and let out a heavy sigh. "Okay let me write it down. You're saying it will happen on January 1st next year? Yes, I'll tell him as well. Goodbye." She set down the phone and leaned against the wall, shaking.
Our time together is over. Just like that.
At that moment he came in with a bag of groceries. "Veronika, I got us some pastries. There's kolache and strudl. I also got some milk—"
"Martin," she interjected.
But he seemed to not have noticed and continued speaking. "—but I'm not sure you'll like it because it—"
"Martin," she said louder, tears forming in her eyes.
"—brand I bought this time is different than what we usually have because they didn't have—"
"MARTIN!" she yelled just as the tears started spilling out. She started sobbing hard, trying to wipe away the tears as fast as she could.
He jumped and it was only then he realized her distress. "Veronika, what's wrong?" He set down the bag on a table and walked over to the wall where she was leaning against.
"Mar-Martin," she started, "I-we, I mean, I-I, the phone-we—"
He couldn't make out what she was saying and her incoherent babbling was troubling him. "Hey, sit down and calm down first. You can tell me slowly." He walked her over to the nearest chair and helped her ease into it. He started rubbing her back, trying to calm her down.
Her breathing slowed and she took deep breaths before speaking. "Martin, I received a call from our bosses."
"And?"
"And, they told me there were too many problems that could not be solved between us," she continued. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply as she knew the next part was going to change their history forever.
"And they told us we are going to be separated on January 1st next year," she finished.
He waited in the cold, night air for her to come out so they could walk together to the parliament building. They had spent the day at the parliament listening to their bosses speak and were finally given some time pack up their belongings and get ready for the events that would happen tonight.
He looked at his watch to see that there was only an hour left until the clock struck midnight.
"I'm here now."
He turned to see that she had finally come out of the house. She was wearing one of her nicest coats and her hair was combed back neatly. He himself had combed his usually messy, brown hair just for tonight.
"Let's go then. We don't want to be late now." He took her hand.
They walked together in silence, past the shops and the pubs, past the street signs and churches.
"You know," he began, "I think if a referendum were held, most people in both our places would've wanted to stay together."
She looked up to him. "You're probably right. I think most people would've wanted to try to work things out but you know politicians, " she shrugged her shoulders, "sometimes drastic measures are taken when there seems to be no other way."
They stopped in front of the parliament doors and faced each other.
"Before we go in, I want to say something," she said.
He waited for her to reply. What needs to be said has been said, no?
"Martin, I just wanted to say, even though sometimes I know I was a bit harsh to you and you got the short end of the stick a lot and your head is always up in the clouds all the time and you act so stupid sometimes," she paused in order to catch her breath, "I wouldn't have wanted to be with any other country these past 74, 75 years other than you." She was blushing now, her face turning as red as a tomato.
He smirked. Oh she was too cute. But he felt his heart warm up at her words and he could feel his own face heat up.
"Veronika, I feel the same way and I hope-I hope we can still can keep close relations together even after this," he stuttered out.
She was looking up at him now, with the faintest trace of a smile on her own face, her eyes glittering with tears. In one fluid motion, she stepped towards him and wrapped her arms around him. Surprised, he wrapped his arms around her and buried his face into her shoulder, his own tears starting to form. They embraced for what felt like forever when in reality it was only for a few seconds before they broke away from each other.
A few minutes before midnight, the Czechoslovak anthem played for one last time. And just when the anthem ended, the clock struck midnight, Czechoslovakia ceased to exist, and Slovakia shared one last glance with Czech Republic, both at peace with the death of their union.
The new year had ended the existence of one country and began the beginnings of two new countries.
A bit about Czechoslovakia:
Czechoslovakia was created in 1918 after WW1 and the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
The Czech side was more industrialized and wealthier than the Slovak side where many people lived in rural areas and depended on agriculture. The Czech side held much of the power and influence.
In 1938, Britain and France signed the Munich Agreement(even though these two countries were allied with Czechoslovakia) and allowed Germany to invade the Sudetenland. Later on, Germany took over Czechoslovakia and forced the government into exile.
With the help of the Soviet Union, the exiled government of Czechoslovakia returned after the war. The communist party came to power and over the years, they started restricting freedoms. The economy also wasn't doing very well and so people were unhappy. This led to the Prague Spring in 1968 when the communist party enacted some reforms which guaranteed civil rights and power would not only be in the hands of the communist party. However, Soviet troops invaded later that year and made the country yield to their demands.
In 1989, the peaceful protest against communism happened (Velvet Revolution). The communist president stepped down and for the first time in a long time, a non-communist leader became the president of Czechoslovakia, which led to the transition from a communist country to a democratic one.
There were, however, many problems between the Czech side and Slovak side. The Slovak politicians wanted a hyphen in the name Czechoslovakia. It took a long time before a name was settled upon (Czech and Slovak Federative Republic).
The Slovak politicians also wanted greater autonomy for the Slovak side of Czechoslovakia but politicians on both sides could not come to an agreement. The politicians decided that it was best to separate the countries and so on January 1 1993, the Velvet Divorce happened. Czechoslovakia split peacefully and became Czech Republic and Slovakia.