Eine Grausam aber Schone Welt (Teil Eins)
Her name was Liesel Eichenlicht. Her memories of before the war were brief and faint. She remembers her father playing on the piano, a blissful smile on his face as he played Beethoven and Mozart. She remembered her mother, sleeping in the sun as the beams of light soaked through their solar energetic house, a book lying in her lap. She remembered of running through the park, her small and pudgy legs running as she played as a child. And lastly she remembered him. A child with a face much like her own, with blue eyes and dark hair, laughing and smiling, holding hands with hers. The laughter had been her favorite part of him. His eyes squinting in the sunlight, his arms sprawled over his head as he laughed, never knowing that his most precious person would be the one to take his life from him.
He was her brother.
Her twin.
His name was Friedrich Eichenlicht.
She and her brother were ten years old when the war began. Late at night when the bombs rained down upon their land, Liesel and Friedrich would always whisper and long for the days before the war. The soft hands of their mother as she stroked through their hair as she prepared a bath with a gentle loving smile, now replaced by a grieving and malnourished woman prone to prolonged silences and bouts of weeping. The lush grass and mounds of flowers along the countryside as children played, now replaced by a barren wasteland colored with black and blood. The ice cream that had touched their lips as the sun streaked down on their cheeks only caused raw longing in their palates as the children listlessly waited for the memories of the late grandparents to indulge them again.
"How long has it been since they died?" Liesel asked her brother as they whispered in the dark. She could only see a faint outline of him, but she was certain that a sad look came on his face. It was their grandparents that had taught them shortly after it became too dangerous for schoolchildren to be taught in school; too many were bombed that year. "Three years." Friedrich rolled over on his side and closed his eyes for a brief moment. "I miss them," he croaked. Liesel nodded, her sadness too deep for tears.
Their grandparents, Ulrich and Anna Eichenlicht, had died in a bombing raid three years after the war began. Their house, which had held so many memories including their father, had been destroyed. There was nothing but dust. Liesel turned towards her twin, watching his shaking form as he attempted to hide his tears. Although both of them were thirteen years old, Friedrich looked no more like a child in her eyes as he tried to break away from the pain that had plagued him for so long. Friedrich gasped as he felt Liesel's arms around his shaking form. He sobbed into her shoulder as he cried. Why, he kept hoarsely whispering into her worn sleepwear. Why, why?
How long had it been since a touch of butter touched their lips? Or sweet fruits, tasting the everlasting sugar and tenderness inside? Meat, with its flavor and spices, especially their father's wurst with a hint of käse? "They'll make good Germans yet! " Their father used to laugh as their greedy childish hands grabbed and gobbled down the pieces of meat. "All they need now is a package of beer! " Two sets of blue eyes stared at the adoring gaze of their father as their mouths were painted with pieces of their snack. Smiling with their bellies full, they nodded. "Alfwin, "their mother suddenly entered the kitchen with her blond hair swinging as she planted their feet in front of their father. Her slim finger starting poking at his chest. "They are too young to be drinking your precious beer! "
"But how can they become good Germans without not drinking beer, Ebb? " Their father's loving and teasing look paused the children from yet grabbing another piece of wurst. "Someday we'll teach them the art of drinking beer, with precautions of course, when their old enough, like we were when we met. " A hint of nostalgia echoed across his face. "Remember, Ebba? " Their mother's gaze softened at their father's soft caress across her cheek.
"I wouldn't be your wife if I didn't. " Her breath echoed against his cheek." I still remember that dank old bar filled with college students...and yet you choice me out of all the girls, "she whispered tenderly.
"You made me the happiest young man alive on that cold winter day of in the last days of the twenty-first century. " A cocky smile appeared on his face as a mocked expression of reverence echoed. The children giggled. "You made the ice coated and locked within the prison that is my heart. "
The children giggled again at their mother's slightly annoyed expression. "Will you ever stop being so romantic? " Their father's arms wrapped around their mother's waist.
"No, he stated. "That is why I am a musician Ebba." He gently poked her nose. "And that is also why you...are a mathematician. " A solemn look, so quickly that the children observing their parents thought it hadn't been there, echoed on his face. "I will always love you, my dear Ebba. "
"I know you will, "their mother stated sincerely. "You will love me forever, as will I, my dear Alfwin. "
How long had it been since their mother had smiled? She had ceased to flinch whenever someone called her Frau Eichenlicht in the dark barren streets, but the toll of their father's death had been hard on her. It had been hard on all of them. In third year of the war, Liesel's and Friedrich's father had died on the battlefield. Their mother had been playing with their little sister Isabel, who was not yet three years old. The third year of the war had been the hardest on the civilian population of the nations that fought in the war. It was also the deadliest year yet for the soldiers. Liesel remembered reading the letters that her father had given her beneath the lamp, the glow illuminating her face. How I miss you, he had written to her.
How long it must seem to not see your father for three years. You must be taller now, and brave like your mother. Liesel and smiled, her long dark hair shielding the happiness that she felt when she received her father's letters. She felt as if her father was actually with her when she read his words, the language rolling off from the pages. I can't wait to get back to you. I promise I will. Friedrich would always write a reply to their father's letter right away as their mother and grandparents became silent and would talk quietly in the living room as Isabel played under the watchful gaze of her siblings. It had been true that soldiers hadn't come back from the Russian front.
How many times had Liesel and Friedrich had turned away from a child that had lost his or her father or mother? How many times had their mother paled with her breath held tight as an image of a wounded soldier or a funeral was on the tablet the family shared? Liesel and Friedrich had seen the out focused gaze their mother had at times, and of how their grandparents had suddenly begun looking at their ancestor's diaries from World War I. The signs were there, but no one had stopped to admit it until it was too late.
It was her grandmother that had gotten the call. Their mother was working at the office, and their grandfather was shopping for produce. Liesel and Friedrich were attempting to start the homework that their grandparents had assigned them last night as Isabel played on the floor when there was suddenly a hoarse shout. The shout maximized in volume, breaking their ears almost in half. Liesel and Friedrich found their grandmother on her knees, the formerly strong old woman weeping. Her eyes were closes shut as tears continued to streak down her face.
"Oma?" Liesel hesitantly approached her. Friedrich was beside her, too frozen to move. His eyes were wide as he stared at his venerable grandmother. "Oma…was ist passiert?" The child licked her lips, trying to hold the apprehensive feeling inside her caged. Please...say something. "What happened...Oma?"
"They're dead. " Their grandmother's voice was hollow and noticeably numb. "They're dead. " Weeping escaped from her, and her gnarled hands pounded against the wooden floor. "My sons...meine söhne...no...Please..." An inhuman scream rose from her throat, and Liesel backed away frightened as her grandmother continued to sob and whisper as tears streamed down from her swollen eyes. "Why did he have to...take them from me...? " Sadness and anger mirrored one another. "Damn you Pavlov. "
A forbidden feeling rose within Liesel as her grandmother said the Russian president's – no czar – of the infamous Russian Republic. Color drained from her face, and her voice trembled as she tried calling for her grandmother's name again. This time her grandmother stood and led them to the furniture.
"It's about your father and uncle," she replied slowly. Liesel and Friedrich tried not to stare at the redness in their grandmother's eyes. "They've...lost their lives on the battlefield. " A heavy sentence coming so quickly Liesel didn't have time to process the information. "There was an ambush near the border where he was stationed. " Their grandmother's hand touched theirs in attempt to dull the pain. "You father and uncle...didn't make it. " Tears streaked down her face as she stared at Liesel and Friedrich in the eyes. "I'm sorry. "
"Is Papa coming back? " The tense silence was broken by Isabel looking up at her grandmother with the brown eyes that she inherited from her father pooling into hers. "Or...Uncle Erik? " Their grandmother shook her head, tears pelting onto her hands.
"No...I'm sorry, my dear child. They cannot. "
That was when Liesel and Friedrich started to cry.
The mourning was a difficult period. During the period of mourning, Liesel only remembered bits and pieces until her grief had mellowed enough for her to remember. Her mother was beside her, but they didn't touch. If they did, Liesel was afraid that both of them would collapse. Friedrich was sobbing into the arm of their grandmother. Strangely, Liesel's tears had dried away. Her bloodshot eyes were red, and they hut in the rain. She always used to love the rain. Of how it pelted down from the sky and how it felt against her skin. It was beautiful too, something that her father shared. Her throat constricted at the thought, and her heart physically hurt at the sight of the double coffins dropping into the ground. He should be here. He should be here, assuring that it was okay, or teasing her that she was going to be "a good German" one day like when she was a child. Tears stung her eyes. It's not real, Liesel repeatedly told herself. It's not real, it's not real. It's not real. The words repeated feverishly in her head until that song was sung.
Then the reality took everything away.
It was that year that the Russian Republic started to bomb not only military bases, but in the civilian population. On the night that the first bomb fell, Liesel and Friedrich were not surprised when they heard that their grandparents had perished among many in the bombardment. They had been too old and too weak to flee from the fire that engulfed their house. Liesel knew that there were no bodies to be buried. Everything had become dust. Everything. And...Their grandparents had lost something when they lost their two sons the year prior. Liesel and Friedrich remembered of what their grandfather had told them the night after their father's funeral. "The Eichenlicht family is a very old family. We chose our name. It wasn't given to us nor were we born with it. "Their grandfather took a deep breath.
"We chose because we believed that the eagle of light would shine the darkness of the formerly unified Germany. We thought that our country would be a beacon of light for the world. "He softly laughed, a foreign sound to the house now. "How wrong we were. My ancestor, and your ancestor in consequence, lost his entire family during World War II as a child. He had died before I was born...but I remember hearing stories of how this young orphan boy, who grew up on the streets, became a teacher and a strong, honorable, just, and kind man." His eyes, brown with regret, misted. "My own father, your great-grandfather, named me after him when I was born...because we were born on the same day. " He took both of their hands in his. "Your father and uncle...have joined them now. Their family. I can tell the clouds of war are coming to engulf our country again, and I need you to be stronger than Ulrich Eichenlicht. Much stronger than you could ever hope to be. And no matter what happens, always remember to do anything to survive. Promise me."
How long had it been since both of them had heard laughter? Liesel and Friedrich couldn't remember the sound. To laugh, freely at anything and nothing seemed for from their reach now. How long had it been since either of them had heard the quietness of the night, or the stars and the sun and the moon? The lullaby of the flying planes in the sky and the bombs omnipotent bombs and shrapnel falling from the sky that had once held the sun and the clouds ceased to scare them anymore? How long has it been since they had not heard despair in their world? So many bodies they had seen, lying still and pale against the ground with wails desperate to reach their lost souls despite closing their eyes and the red pooling on the ground.
There was a moment when Liesel had seen a body without a head, a gaping dark hole where the head had been, the blood still soaking into the shirt that the person – a man with a blue jacket – had worn. Friedrich had raggedly gasped at the sight, and tried to make it so that she couldn't see by covering her eyes, but she had told him what she had saw. A dark cloud of hopelessness echoed across his face, and Liesel felt his eyes turn towards the ground. She didn't mention she could see his tears flowing onto the ground, making it look so much like the rain they had loved as children with their father. It was the third year of the war. They were thirteen years old.
"Sie kennen dengrund, bruder," .Liesel whispered to her brother's ear. He felt her nod against him, and felt his tears against her cheek.
The war's origins had ties to the early twenty-first century. In the early decades of the twenty-first century alone, there were multiple attempts by Russia to invade Ukraine. Although two decades had passed since the fall of the Soviet Union, the West was wary and Russia and did not trust its leader Vladimir Putin, who had been assassinated by a nationalist in 2031. "He was a dictator as Hitler was two hundred years ago," their history teacher had explained as a picture of the leader of the then-Russian Federation appeared on the screen. Liesel remembered of looking into the man's clear blue eyes and being able to see nothing in them. The tired eyes of her teacher came back to her at that moment, remembering how sunken her eyes had looked, and how her clothes hung from her emaciated body. "He died, but his shadow remains."
After Putin's death, the Western nations including America had attempted the wounds heal and the accusations disappear from memory. Russia became a rising power in Europe, rivaling China in its economic standpoint. Meetings with the Russian president and other world leaders were common at the time. It was supposed to be a peaceful century, their grandparents had stated mournfully.
"The New Year for the new century was full of fireworks and light. People of almost every nation gathered for this one moment to celebrate the future. …It was so beautiful. Even I, as old as I am now, can remember the time of when we truly thought we were beyond war, beyond conflict, beyond sadness. It was…a time when suffering was of the past." In the year 2135, a Russian man by the name of Andrei Pavlov rose to power, inheriting his predecessor's dream of another Soviet Union. As the twenty-second century dawn, the Baltic nations laxed and believed themselves to be safe from the Russian's grasp as the sons and daughters of their countries made a new path for their countries.
Ukraine and Lithuania with Romania and Hungry were under Russia's control by the year 2137. In the spring of 2139, the Russian Republic was established as Andrei Pavlov as the czar. Although desperate negation were undertaken as soon as Russia invaded Ukraine, Germany declared war on the Russia after attempting to invade Belgium. Other nations such as France, Italy, England, and Poland shortly declared war as well.
No one expected the war to be as deadly as it was. Although America joined the war in the winter of 2140, two years after the war, there were already mass casualties. Millions had died in the war by the third year including Alfwin and Erik Eichenlicht. No side kept its humanity during the war. As many civilians died as soldiers did, and the life that had once been so sweet and so right had faded into the most forgotten of memories as bombings and shrapnel and guns destroyed the lives of millions around the world. So much blood….so much agony and pain…so much death…so much emptiness… Half of the world's population had died, and the structure of civilization and humanity had almost collapsed by the time Liesel and Freidrich had reached the age of fifteen. As a result of the massive casualties of war, a universal law was passed known as the Traitor's Creed in 2149. It that stated that from ages fifteen to fifty-five years old, the citizens of each country would be obligated to be drafted into the military. Anyone hiding or lying from this law, including those in the military that attempts to escape from the military, would be put to death. The families of those punished would also receive similar punishment.
Therefore on their fifteenth birthday on February 12, 2149, Liesel and Friedrich Echenlicht were drafted into the military.