April, 1977
There was nothing very remarkable about the day that Erik Magnus Eisenhardt was brought into the world. Well, aside from the minor fact that he was technically supposed to have been born as a Lehnsherr instead, but his mother was feeling particularly petty and spiteful toward his father that April morning. It didn't help that her firstborn arrived in a shanty somewhere in Nowheresville, Poland instead of her home country of Germany or that her husband was held over at his late night shift at the steel mill, and barely arrived in time to see his son's head forcing itself from between her bloodstained legs. His immediate passing out at the horrific sight also may not have done much to bolster her already sour mood. So, in the end, he was born as an Eisenhardt instead of a Lehnsherr.
When Jakob was finally prodded awake from his impromptu collapse, he was handed his wailing, pink-splotched son. The little boy, wrapped in nothing more than a threadbare sheet, hiccuped as he slowly calmed himself down in the comfort of his father's strong arms. The newborn stared up at the tearful man, the pert nose that belonged to Jakob wrinkled in confusion underneath the wide and wondrous gray eyes of Edie, as the soothing baritone voice of his father wafted over his head in a single promise: "Ich werde immer lieben und schützen sie, mein Sohn. Immer."
I will always love and protect you, my son. Always.
Jakob then handed back his soothed newborn to his exhausted wife, placed an affectionate peck atop her sweat plastered hair, auburn wisps tickling his nostrils, and vowed the same in turn for her. With trembling fingers, Jakob reached into the right pocket of his rumpled trousers, and pulled out a sterling silver necklace that he presented to his languid child. The pendant at the end of the chain swayed, but Erik had no reaction aside from a sleepy blink. Jakob shared a smile full of warmth and love with his wife, before he carefully clasped the gift around the little one's neck.
"Nie vergessen, wer Ihre Leute sind, Erik."
Never forget who your people are, Erik.
Edie tiredly nuzzled her son's downy scalp with her red-tipped nose, reaching out with her free hand to clasp her husband's calloused one in her own. Pale gray met with light brown before they looked down together at the little boy that they had created. They smiled as a gaping yawn gripped their son, resulting in a tremor that jerked at his listlessly pawing hands. They watched as the handcrafted pendant shifted with the movement until it was nestled directly above Erik's steadily beating heart.
Outside a dog barked and whined, birds sang and tittered in the trees, and sheep bawled as the sun continued to rise above their heads. Stray beams of sunlight filtered between rain-rotted planks, and made the Star of David lovingly placed around Erik's neck glint in it's warm illumination – an equal match to the twinkle in his parents' proud and joyous eyes.
"Alles wird gut," was whispered amid swirling dust motes.
"Alles wird gut," was parroted back between slats of filtered sunlight.
All will be good.
TBC...
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