The Search for Someone in Particular: A Novel

Disclaimer.

All names, places and stories are a product of the Writers imagination and do not in any way implicate anyone living or dead.

The story was written in first person to make it more entertaining and make it appear real. If any of the persons, incidents, nations and others, think that the story resembles them, it is purely coincidental. No person or nation or anything is true. All is pure imagination.

Author Frank Kolondra

Contents

Disclaimer.

Names of Characters

Chapter 1.

Preamble: The Old Homestead.

Chapter 2.

The robbery.

Chapter 3

Scranton the Mining Town

Chapter 4

The Peaceful Town of Vermillion Creek.

Chapter 5

The Wild Man from Mackinaw

Chapter 6

The Affair of the Heart

Chapter 7

Eagle Torn Feather’s Land

Chapter 8

Back to the wilds of Mackinaw

Chapter 9

The phooey phoney phone Company.

Chapter 10

The execution of Edmund Juraski.

Chapter 11

Daniel’s Wedding.

Chapter 12

The Sobering of the Preacher

Chapter 13

A wedding of the particulars.

Epilogue

Names of Characters

Chapter 1.

Preamble: The Old Homestead.

Until the mid thirties, the Bamberg family had a noncontroversial life. The son of a rich man, with some blue blood of a Silesian Aristocracy, under the Queen Maria Theresa several centuries ago, the future was as predictable as the rise and setting of the sun.

But it was not to be this time. The clouds of war of newly expanding Germany, threatened Frederick von Bamberg’s future and his wealth.

At this time, he noticed that several families of Jewish descent, were unobtrusively selling their properties, and businesses. Not being a man who ignored the handwriting on the wall, he was on high alert. Those families, (he knew so well,) all of a sudden packed up and left, after living in Poland for centuries. Their action signified unknown danger, and he was not altogether ignorant of the political situation.

The Jews had two thousand years of experience to abscond their domiciles at the slightest hint of racial or religious strife. They did this, since the Roman Empire started shrinking and political conditions changed rapidly, endangering one’s life limb and wealth. So it was this time. The way this happened, was as if someone controlled the exodus by a well formulated plan, which would cost the minimum panic and a corresponding financial loss. There were far too many businesses offered for sale, almost at a predicted interval of time.

The Bamberg’s family was not Jewish, but they might have been as well. They and those of the Jewish business class were as one, although no one noticed that the Bamberg’s were not present at the Saturday services at the local Synagogue.

At this time, his far flung enterprises from coal mines, steel works and agricultural lands, still offered a handsome profit, which the New York Stock Exchange dutifully noticed, paying attention to the Warsaw bulletin of profits and forecasts.

As a result of some recommendations which Baron Frederick Stanislaus von Bamberg carefully injected into an investment portfolio in New York and Toronto, he received an offer of a buy out. It consisted of lands in Saskatchewan and Alberta, both provinces in Canada. Thousands of agricultural acres were growing wheat, rye and sugar beets. Some were forested and in a primitive lumber production. Those properties in Canada were too far for the likes of the New York and Toronto’s business types, who thought that as an investment the properties had as much of a chance to generate a fast profit as a turtle winning a race with a rabbit, never mind the popular fairy tale.

The buy out and exchange included coal deposits and mines in Pennsylvania, as well as others industrial enterprises consisting of chemical plants which were somewhat antiquated and needed modernization.

When the Conglomerate offered cash to supplement their offer, Baron von Bamberg cautiously expressed interest.

The investment types in New York, knew how to bait a prospective client, and intentionally offered only land and the industries which for anyone would take a long time to research. They also knew why they wanted to sell, and if the Baron did only a little research he would find some inadequacy which could tell him that some of the businesses are in dire straights. But cash didn’t need any further analysis, and they were sure that the Baron will be interested now, although he wasn’t before. They of course had no inkling that it was the old man’s doing, which attracted them to him in the first place.

So the cat and the mouse game came to fruition, the deal was made.

The Baron made a huge gamble, but the propensity to increase his wealth tenfold in twenty years of careful restructuring and reconstruction, was possible. He also realized that those provinces were not that far, since he came from Poland. He also assumed that all of the coal lands could have an uncertain amount of oil underneath, as the oil drillers found in the state of Pennsylvania.

That the world was shrinking fast, was a preordained conclusion. In the old days it would take at least a week to reach the Canadian provinces. At present it took only hours and the communication explosion further diminished the delay of control of the day to day management of those far away places.

It was March 1935, and that year proved that the experience the Jewish families acquired over the thousands years of living, was valuable.

America was like a beam from a lighthouse in a stormy sea, a beacon of stability, freedom of enterprise and development.

One of the ingredient of their wealth, which they could not take with them, was the ancestral home. A rambling structure in a gully, surrounded by ancient oaks, and so well camouflaged that even the hordes of Genghis Khan, and the Moslem plague, plowing through Poland, burning everything in their path, missed it.

The Conglomerate wasn’t interested in the old building, especially after the Baron put an exorbitant price on the structure which needed modern plumbing and all the comforts of a New York home.

The structure even escaped the National Socialist Stuka bombers, when Hitler attacked Poland, although it did hide the entire regiment of Polish horse cavalry.

It was with a heavy heart that the old Baron von Bamberg and his son Hector Jacob Bamberg left the old homestead for the United States. They told the family of the young gardener, who took care of the grounds and lived in the cottage at the gate, to bring all their relatives and occupy the mansion leaving the ownership legally unchanged. This practically allowed the man who maintained the grounds, and the building, to rule and to proliferate as he pleased.

In the gully, there was enough bottom land to provide the daily necessities, like wheat, rye for rye bread, potatoes, and cabbage. A small orchard grew on the gully slopes, and was intermixed with the outcropping of rocks, whereas the land above the gully was a sanctuary for ancient beeches and oaks.

With the combination of wheat and rye, which was locally milled, the potatoes which grew abundantly on the loam like soil of the gully’s bottom land, the cabbage, which had to be stamped into wooden barrels and fermented in the absence of air to produce sauerkraut, a major local staple, the gardener’s extended family had enough food to be self sufficient.

The nearest town dominating the region for a long time, was Krakov, (Cracau in the language of the west) the seat of the ancient Polish culture.

The Polish regiment, although escaping the onslaught of the Stuka bombers, didn’t escape the devastation of another kind. As they retreated further east to Lvov to make a last stand to the modern mechanized army of the Germans, they ran point blank into another army from the east, which didn’t declare war on Poland but claimed half of Polish territory. The officers and men were summarily executed at the Russian village of Katyn and buried in mass graves.

The ancient residence, not being damaged in the least, became the headquarters of the National Socialist, SS generals, and the first thing they did was to install all the modern conveniences of the previously mentioned New York home.

Only the gatekeepers house was left for the gardeners family to live in, but all those who lived in the rambling building had to evacuate to make room for the SS division hierarchy.

The parting from their home was not really tearful for the Bambergs, because from the time of purchase, it was still five years before the war prevented all visits, and for those years they still had several rooms available to them. The only problems those days were the common toilets, or outhouses located a little distance away from the main building.

As the saying goes, the only place the king had to walk was to the toilet and that applied to all, nobility or plebeians.

One should mention, although it might be inappropriate, that the going to the toilet in winter entailed some build in risks. The first one was the obvious continental temperature which dropped during the night to numbers which resulted in a frostbite of the exposed member. In this case it was the entire human posterior. The second risk was that if one didn’t watch when one sat down, the stacking of feces in the freezing weather created a tower, which frequently reached the level of the seat and therefore the inherent danger of sitting down carelessly.

The gardener was duty bound to check on the tower. The action of collapsing it down into the depth, was called toppling the man down.

So the occasional homesickness was eliminated by a visit to the ancestral lands, and the elementary condition helped to cure Jacob von Bamberg of the painful syndrome known to prevail in all of us, when away from home. He still loved to wander the Carpathian Mountains in search for the marauding boars, which after years of uninterrupted multiplication spread out into the lowlands, threatening not only the crops but the body and limb of the isolated villagers living in the hamlets north of the Mountains.

If the boars were reduced to manageable levels, they hunted the elusive bear, who scrambled away as fast as he could, out of range of the powerful guns.

To those excursions he invited the new owners of his land and their friends. Those who were worth their salt, became Jacob’s friends, and his entry pass to the New York society.

Fredericks wife, suffered from the transplant to the upper echelon of New York society, and never got used to the double faced behavior. The word Polack had a derogatory meaning and many ethnic jokes made life for the sensitive woman difficult. After they lived in New York for many years she died and the two men, the old Baron and his thirty five year old son Jacob, were left to fend for themselves.

All those years before the war from the early thirties to 1938, the old Baron Frederick Stanislaus and his son Hector Jacob, kept the ritual of the All Saints Day, which fell on the first of November.

On that day they trampled to the New York cemetery to light candles and decorate the grave of Frederick’s wife.

Many years after the war Jacob’s father Frederick, Baron von Bamberg died in New York and Jacob transferred both their remains to a cemetery in Poland where they had their family plots.

After the old Baron died, Jacob von Bamberg divided his days between Poland in the late fall and early winters, to the spring and summers in the United States and Canada.

It was then that Jacob met a young girl and fell in love. He was a fully matured man who thought that the bliss of married life was not his cup of tea. But the unexpected happened.

On that remarkable day Jacob and his friend a student in the Medical College of the Jagellonian University of Krakov, strayed from the known area following an injured boar for several hours, and were lost. They did find the boar and since they had to overnight in the unknown they butchered the beast and cooked the meat on a camp fire. They were not hungry and tried to find their way back for a whole day following a path they thought they took after the boar.

When the second night in the wilderness was upon them, they realized they were irretrievably lost and decided to fire several of the flares they had for just such an emergency.

They shot the flares until their supply ran out. The flares were seen by a young girl who was wondering what the sudden flashes of red light in the mountains, meant.

She was a daughter of a forester on the grounds of the Baron’s hunting lodge.

After spending a few nights huddled by a campfire, they were found by the forester. Exhausted, they recovered in the house of the forester and the Baron was introduced to the blond, blue eyed Polish girl, who had seen the flares. One thing led to another, until Baron Hector Jacob von Bamberg convinced the forester he meant what he said and the affair was not a fleeting one.

The forester was weary of the nobility, who came to hunt not only for boar but for the enjoyment of the human flesh.

He didn’t believe in love at first sight, and the Baron had to convince him he was serious, because Hector Jacob never left the forester’s vicinity until the girl named Pamela, said yes.

She was not an only child. Her parents still had three other girls of ages above and below her’s, and this was another reason why the girl risked the marriage to an unusually persistent man, who certainly didn’t suffer the lack of admiration of the society’s diva’s trying their best to snare him.

When the man who was already middle aged, offered a large diamond ring and the marriage contract, even the forester’s opposition had to crumble.

So Pamela, who was born in a small village in the shadows of the Carpathian mountains, was lifted as a Cinderella from relative obscurity to the pinnacles of wealth and abundance. She was exposed in not too small amount to the jealousy of those who thought she usurped their rightful place, by marrying someone out of her class.

The first child of Hector Baron von Bamberg was born in the ancestral home when the Baron came there to spend a summer. Pamela his wife, wanted her son Gregory to be born in her country for which she always yearned.

So it was, that Greg’s mother was elevated to her new responsibility, and she managed well while keeping her opinions to herself, but influencing her son in more than one way in the habits of the Polish people although she lived thousands of miles away.

Gregory was her only child too. Those days the children were delivered without an ultrasound to determine the baby’s condition, and without an amniocentesis test for chromosomal abnormality. Only the skillful fingers of the hebama or midwife, a woman knowledgeable in the art of birth, probed and felt the position of the child. She was in total control and urged the pregnant woman to push and breathe to facilitate the coming parturition.

This time the afterbirth didn’t follow the child’s birth, and Greg’s mother had to be taken to a hospital in Krakov before an infection set in.

The operation did more than just remove the suction cups attached to the uterus walls, but other glands which were necessary for a woman to have another child.

Pamela Bamberg lived to take care of Gregory, but just barely, and when he was twelve years old, she developed a condition as yet unknown to treatment.

So the boy grew up in two worlds, one of the old and still revered nobility in New York, the other of his Grandfather living in the cottage by the forest, with the straw thatched roofs of the Polish village nearby. The ancestral building now with full plumbing wasn’t needed that much any more, but they spend some of the vacation days there, when Greg was growing up. His father wasn’t a U.S. citizen yet, and since the child was born in Poland, Greg was not a U.S. citizen by birth.

When his father eventually took the citizenship his wife Pamela was dead and buried in Poland.

Greg during his vacation in Poland, could be seen wandering the deep crevasses of the mountains as well as watching the village smith, shoeing horses. At times he would pump the bellows of the smithy which blew air into the white hot coke, helping the muscular man to heat and shape the white hot iron into any tools needed.

There were many. From the plow to horseshoes, and sledge hammers, wedges, wheels and axes, which had to be especially hardened to keep their sharp edges.

Because of his father’s plans for the future, he had to attend a rabbinical school in New York, the best one in the city, which not only taught him the special language akin to German with which the Jewish people communicated, and was called Yiddish, but also Hebrew which prepared him to enter the best university available to anyone. The private school had a dorm for the students, and one had to learn the languages. All the conversations and all the day’s meals had to be ordered in Hebrew. Besides going hungry for a long time, all the students had to be able to talk fluently Hebrew to graduate. The graduation was almost secondary to the growling of the empty stomach, the Rabbi standing like God on Olympus supervising the cook’s dishing out the food, and taking pity on the hungry kids serving them something they were only half able to ask for.

The course was taught by an American Rabbi, and Greg being still a child was not exposed to the American public school system. He had to learn to talk English later, but still as a child and did not have a foreign accent. Always a giveaway for anyone who was born anywhere else but in the United States, and coming into the country as an adult.

In the circles Greg’s father belonged to, the German language was the commercial language in the region, as much as English was the business language of the west. French was the language of the Polish educated elite in Warsaw and Krakov, but the spoken language of the people throughout the land was Polish.

Greg’s father wanted him to study at the University of Krakov, an ancient institution of learning, where Copernicus wrote his treaties on the behavior of heavenly bodies, proving the fallacy of the egocentric theory of Earth. As it turned out Greg had to attend a university in the United States but always had a hankering for the Jagellonian University of Krakov.

It was many years after the two armies one modern, the other still from the middle ages invaded Poland, but the scars and memories persisted. The anger at the German’s and the Russians who crushed whatever there was of the Polish army in two weeks was imbedded forever in the hearts of the Polish people. That was not to say that the Poles didn’t show courage and fighting spirit but they were not prepared to fight a war with modern weapons and in which they were outnumbered ten to one. They depended entirely that England and France will scare the Germans off, for at least a few month’s giving the Poles time to muster their armies. This did not materialize, although England and France declared war on Germany. Poland was conquered in two weeks, because Russia invaded Poland from the east, where the Polish army would have had time to form their front lines.

Now only France and England faced the most modern army of the twentieth century Europe.

The hundred of thousands Polish prisoners of war, were used in forced labor camps, and work for the National Socialist Germans. The other hundred thousand were interned in Russia where most of the officer’s met their fate in mass graves. Those who escaped through Rumania and arrived in England, did form a nucleus of the Polish army and air force.

While England and France fought, it took the German’s forty days to defeat France, and the English had to retreat after enormous losses at Dunkirk. It appeared that England was defeated.

Then something unusual happened. Rudolf Hess, Hitler’s right hand man landed in England.

Hitler was convinced that England was defeated and will sue for peace. When the proposal came from London, to send Rudolf Hess there, he did jubilantly agree to negotiate the terms of the peace agreement.

After Rudolf Hess landed in England and send back a message that the British were serious. He outlined the British proposal. It consisted of all the conditions Hitler demanded. Their proposal only included one addition. The German army had to attack Russia and push the Russians out of eastern Poland, before the peace agreement was signed.

Hitler’s plan was just about the same what the British proposed. His Drang Nach Osten (expansion to the east) policy was well known. It would enable the German to reach a superpower status and reduce the population density in Germany.

It was uncanny, that the British were proposing what he visualized as his next step anyway. He attacked Russia and the rest is history. Rudolf Hess was arrested in England and the British denied they ever knew or proposed anything.

Germany was outflanked by diplomacy and what remained was a hopeless fight against superior forces of the United States, England and Russia.

The only hope Hitler had, was that his scientists told him they will give him a weapon which will destroy all of his enemies, but even for this development, there was not enough time. The Allies crossed the Rhine and the Russians entered Berlin.

That was long ago but the scars of war persisted in Poland which now had new lands to the west and lost all the lands to the east which were now Russian.

The academic situation at the Jagellonian University in Krakov did not reach the prewar status. The Soviet Union’s socialism overshadowed academic principles so that not only the public but also the educational institutions suffered.

For that reason Greg entered a University in New Jersey, where his father made a huge donation.

When all of this was happening Greg graduated Summa Cum Laude in Mechanical engineering, and received a Masters in Business Administration. After he got his Doctor Juris from New York University, he entered his father’s work force, being employed in lesser capacities to learn what his father’s extensive interests were. During the short stints at locations from Pennsylvania to the Canadian provinces, he learned and was not a part of the almost decadent New York society until he was well set in his ways and not influenced by the lightheaded scions of the nouveau rich hierarchy.

He enjoyed the far vistas of Saskatchewan, where the wheat grew for miles, and half a dozen combines lined up in a column to harvest the enormous abundance of the Earth’s treasures.

When he saw the grain stacked on the streets because there was no storage space available, he designed grain elevators and silos and convinced his father to buy all the surplus grains which had to be sold before winter set in. The price was almost below production cost and the new silos held the grain until the price rose.

Many countries and that included Europe besides Russia, and China needed the grain and the land in the Canadian provinces generated a profit not visualized by the investment gurus in New York years ago.

Greg’s father had more time to reflect on his son’s future. Greg was entering into the marriageable age, although there was no panic, but plans had to be made and the son had to be talked to.

There was no better time than to make a visit to the wilds of Poland, where not everything was as it should be. The Communists discovered a new economic theory where everything was controlled by the central government. The Poles always distrustful of the Russians took it easy and they didn’t nationalize everything, only those properties owned by the Germans and left the small property of the Baron, in the gully, intact.

Greg’s father who was wise to the ways of the bureaucratic establishment, invested a million Polish Zloty here and half a million there. It wasn’t much considering that one thousands Zlotys were one Dollar at that time. So for the sum of 1500 dollars he recovered not only the ancestral residence back, but some of his lands north of the Tatra mountains.

The residence was almost in better shape then when they left it, and the gardeners family didn’t have as yet the time or inclination to occupy the main residence after the war ended. Since Poland suffered enormous population losses during the war, and they also received part of the old German lands closer to Berlin, bordering on the Oder-Nice rivers, all those who didn’t have any properties could apply for the land the Germans vacated. So there was no push to occupy the Baron’s residence.

Because of the Communist nationalization of land, the efficiency of food production dropped, and food had to be rationed. The Communists didn’t like it, and they had to release some of the land into private ownership. The shortages of food eased. However all the lands the Baron sold to the conglomerate stayed nationalized causing a howl of protest from America.

Some of the U.S. and Canadian machinery imported into Poland, by the Baron for the Gardener’s extended family, enabled them to make a huge profit. In a few years after the war, they were able to buy their own machinery to work the appropriated German lands and they became independent. Only the old man with his wife still lived in the little stone house by the gate. His children were all grown up now, had their own farms and business.

The man was so grateful to the Baron he would gladly give his life for him.

As it was, the whole extended family always gave priority to the planting and harvesting of the Bamberg’s land. It was akin to the old Austrian System where the peasants had to work on the nobility’s land first and when that was done, could work on their own properties. However this time the gardener’s family work on the Baron’s property was voluntary, and they got paid by receiving a part of the harvest.

So life in Poland was more normal than in other Eastern European countries, where tumult, fed by jealousy kept the economy of the respective country in dire straights.

There was one thing Greg’s father noticed the first time when he came back to Poland. The old Gardener, his brothers and sisters, sons and daughters had literally hundreds of children. As he sat on the stone balcony, watching the children frolicking on the grounds of the estate, and swimming in the small lake, something pinged in his chest.

He thought, I have all this money, but no grandchildren. The knowledge bothered him something awful, and he decided to return to New York and talk to his son.

At that time the Polish government build the passenger liner Gdynia, and it was fashionable those days to sail to America.

On board he met a middle aged princess of Polish extraction who was still able to have children.

One thing came to another, he wanted children and she wanted money, and may the twain’s finally meet, pardon the archaic word. Without exaggeration, the princess Veronica Stahrenborg, was attractive enough to wage a war for.

Old feelings woke up in the man who was not that old himself to start another family. Men had to eat an awful lot of oysters and swallow tons of Vitamin E, to achieve the necessary proves in that activity.

The willingness of the princess was so obvious, that all kinds of warning lights lit in the lonely man’s head, but whose genes rebelled against the proverbial warning.

The princess made a royal mistake. A very unusual mistake for a princess, who was well brought up. Maybe the man’s riches blinded her, and she provoked the interaction which normally a man claims the right to initiate. She gave the man what she should have only indicated to posses, and in fourteen days, the time needed for the ship to arrive in New York, the man came to his senses, the hormones were now fully satisfied.

The startling difference between his shy and wonderful wife Pamela and the princess, a woman of opposite endeavor, her reckless attempt at ruling the man’s emotions, so shocked the Baron, that he seriously decided to pay his way out of trouble. The poor princess was not thinking, and gave all she had, at a moments notice, for what surely was everything but love.

In order to smooth the extrication, he telegraphed a New York jeweler and ordered a forty thousand dollar diamond necklace with instruction to the jeweler not to insist that the princess has to accept the necklace. He telegraphed that if the princess expresses any hesitation he should instantly give her a check for forty thousand dollars and the Baron promised to add additional five thousand to the jewelers account in the Chase Manhattan Bank.

The princess got over the disappointment fast, anyone would for this kind of enumeration, and she was even cheerful enough to offer more of the same, any time the gentleman so desired. The insinuated offer, never mind how gently presented, made the man sad.

A reaction one would not expect, but he was such a man of deep feelings, realizing the desperate condition of the subject to resort to such an invitation.

It was then, that upon arrival in New York, he called his son to him.

The boy was now some years after graduation with degrees in mechanical engineering and masters in business administration. He passed the bar examinations, willing and able to do most what his father asked him to do.

Jacob didn’t beat around the bush. Looking straight into his son’s eyes, he said, "Son, I want some Grandchildren. I have not the strength or inclination to handle a woman of the caliber of the princess Veronica von Stahrenborg, I met on the liner Gdynia. The children from such a marriage would definitely interfere with your ideas and the future.

Even if her age, and questionable finances would not be a problem for me, the health of the children definitely could come into question. If I started something, and children were born to the older woman, who knows what game the genetics would play on the offsprings. Bringing a defective child into the world would be more than I or you could bear."

"So the pressure is on you, son. Look for a suitable woman of your intelligence and ability you could love and respect, to form a union and provide for me what I now desperately need to complete my function in life.

Take some time off from your duties, go anywhere you like, any playground of the world where young people conglomerate and find someone.

Go to Poland and see the beautiful children of the gardener’s family, and if you will not enjoy them, there will be something wrong with you and I will not insist you get married and provide some Grandchildren for your father."

Jake. The son replied with a mournful face. I have not been thinking much about children, but I have met many an equivalent princess, and in the end achieved what you did. Sex to them is a cheap replacement of what I would not call love although they might. I have tried and found the best in the circles available to me, but I can not find anyone I could love and bind myself for a lifetime.

You rascal, I didn’t have an inkling of your efforts in that direction, but truly you are a fully grown man, and do not need my tutoring of why and how. But I still feel you should be exposed to the gardener’s family’s children to be introduced to feelings you had not experienced yet or have had a chance to live with. There is joy in children, and maybe you will even find someone to love in the environment your mother came from.

Greg looked his father straight in the eyes.

"It is true there was something, I couldn’t put my finger on, in all those encounters with the women. It was as if I talked to dolls who only moved when I held their hand, and answered my questions to start a conversation, because they took too long to respond.

The crowning experience I had the last time I went with the daughter of a banker, did me in for quite a while. The lady , lit a cigarette while I was still in the process of enjoying the lady’s personal proximity. I was asking myself ever since, was I so small that she didn’t feel me where I was?"

His son’s openness, caused Jake to laugh.

No wonder you are turned off. It’s time for you to go back to basics and a Head-shrink cannot substitute for the plain life which is the only way to cure a hurt soul. I have as you know put your name on every bank account I have, and you are free to use as much of it as you wish. I myself just used forty five thousand to support my failed effort in that field.

That’s not what I need right now Jake. I am going to work for my living even if it will not be in our enterprises but for some far simpler tasks.

Aha, you are going to bum around for a while. Is that it?

Yes. Was Greg’s simple answer.

I have to tell you that one of our ancestors did the same thing. My Great Great Grandfather Solomon always talked about it to my Grandfather, and he talked to me in the few years that I remember him, and how the few month’s straightened his son’s behavior. He was a smart man and it was he who acquired the favors of the Queen Maria Theresa, and established our fortunes.

Will you tell me about him Jake?

With pleasure. The two men filled their glasses with

Sherry and then Jake talked.

In those days the Austro-Hungarian Empire stretched from the Greek Islands, Balkans, Italy, Switzerland in the south, to Russia in the east, and Sweden to the north. The Turks under the Sultans and their religious banner of Mohamed in those days were quite aggressive and their army was composed of the fierce tribes of the Arabian desert of the South. They began their conquest in the Balkans and ruled half of Europe. At that time they conquered the lands all the way to Krakov in Poland, and half of the present Hungary. They were besieging towns along the Danube river.

There was just not stopping them and the Habsburgs mustered whatever armies they could to defend the other half of Europe. Among our first ancestors in written records was a very large man and as you see we both are not shrimps. We still carry some of the genetic characteristics of the first Bamberg. When the Austrian recruiters came to the village, he didn’t evade them but rode on his horse which was in horse size equivalent to his stature. He rode to meet them to volunteer and join the forming Austrian Army. The commander noticing the enthusiasm of the man who brought his own horse, made him an officer a title which in those days was given only to the nobility. Horses in those day were ridden only by officers and because of this they all assumed he was one of the Austrian blue bloods. In no time he was leading a detachment of cavalry the size of present regiment. He was able to promote and train men into the cavalry unit, equivalent to his physical size, and obviously horses which were at least sixteen hands size. A powerful force to be reckoned with.

The towns in Hungary and eastern Austria were besieged, their fortifications crumbling from the assault of the curved swords led by the hordes of religious fanatics. The Austrians were able to assemble this regiment which would equal in size and strength to the fierce Assassins, or hashshashins a drug crazed cavalry using hashish not to feel any pain and disregard the fear of death.

As the Moslems pushed along the Danube river northwest towards Vienna and against the lands of the Czechs, Poles and Austrians they thought there was no one who could oppose them and they ate until they were obese and drank themselves into stupidity with the wines which were more than abundant from the Vineyards along the Danube river in Hungary. Intoxicated by the Tokay wines which mixed with the Opium, they besieged the fortifications of the town of Glognitz. The Austrians let them for a few days until they were exhausted. Then they fell on them with their cavalry scattering the Arab horses. The obese Turks were no match for the fierce Polish cavalry in the ranks of the Austrians. The initial success gave courage to the Austrians and they met sword on sword, pike upon pike until the Sultan armies were scattered and forced to sue for peace. In the battle of Vienna 1683 he phalanx of the Polish detachment was led by our Polish ancestor who now became a right hand to the Polish King John Sobieski. They broke through the Sultans lines in an unprecedented attack so surprising the Hashashin commanders that they were able to surround the Sultan and his staff. In order to stay alive the Sultan sued for peace and accepted the terms of the Austrians.

"For his bravery in the decisive action which saved de facto Europe at that time, he was offered a title of Baron von Baumberg

with lands north of the Tatra Mountains and south of Krakov the seat of King Sobieski. The name Baumberg eventually metamorphosed to the present Bamberg."

Your Grandfather Frederick brought us to the present stage of history, settling down in the USA and Canada. We keep an eye on our ancestral fief in Knoblouch hoping that when the Soviet Empire collapses we will regain more of our forests north of the Carpathian mountains.

I was lucky and I met your mother, the sweetest and most beautiful in the whole world. I think I was like you, just searching until the light shone on the miracle of my life. It happened when Doctor Hanke and I almost lost our life in the Ausable Chasm. We didn’t fall in but we were trapped there not knowing a way out. The wounded hog found a way in but we didn’t pay attention and could not find the way out. The hog died and we almost did too. Your mother Pamela took care of us and if the student who is now a doctor didn’t have to finish his studies, I’d probably still be searching. But he left and I stayed. Then Pamela said yes. I think we both were in love with Pamela. He was a real friend and I think he is still unmarried. For us one love per life is enough. Someday you have to visit him. Here and there we both mourn at her grave.

You my son, carry her likeness not only in her facial features but in your heart and your quest will not end until you find someone like what I searched for.

I can only tell you what my father said to me, Son, when you are ready give me a grandson. You would have then done what is a crowning glory of life. A child from your flesh and blood who will call me Grandfather."

Jake’s voice turned into a whisper and in that moment he opened his heart to his only son.

When Jake finished, the shadows of the trees melted into the dark of the early evening and only the flickering of the gas fireplace illuminated the enclosed veranda of the villa in the suburbs.

He didn’t only talk about his father and all those before him but about his wife and the years which were so short that he thought they were like a flash of brightness in the eye.

When finally he became silent, even asking one question would cause an unbecoming interruption of the achieved understanding.

Their glasses empty they didn’t try to refill them. It would also hurt this rare moment when father and son souls touched for a moment in time.

When the housekeeper came in to turn the fireplace gas off, she was surprised at the silence and darkness in the room and broke it by turning the gas knob. Only after she did, she noticed the shadows of the two men in their deep recliners, and asked for permission to do so.

The moment broken, they rose and went into the dinning room where a cold snack was prepared for the evening.

The conversation then turned into the practical, and Greg described his projects he started or ended.

I think Jake, that at this time my absence will not be causing any perturbations. I will contact you by mail or phone, to tell you where I am. Do not be surprised if you don’t hear from me for some time.

Jake smiled and nodded his agreement.

I am happy you have decided to take a break. You worked steady even before you went to college, and deserve the time off to cure yourself.

With the discussion reaching redundancy they both fell silent.

It was then that the housekeeper lady named Angelica, announced a visitor.

A young lady named Aster came for you Mr. Greg. She said she has time to have supper at the twenty one, whatever that is.

Greg excused himself and walked down the stairs where a shapely young lady with too much makeup was examining herself in a mirror.

The young man thought, well, if it wasn’t for the blood red lips, which remind me of an open and bleeding wound, Aster is a desirable young lady. Why do they insists on this tasteless decoration of their own faces?

Aster let her hand be kissed, and Greg noticed the preponderance of the strong smell of the nail lacquer, and he only kissed her large aquamarine stone set in a ring of pure red gold.

Let’s go to Twenty One Greg. The gang is there and I didn’t see much of you lately.

Greg thought they saw too much of each other already, but didn’t say so. It would be cruel to point it out. She didn’t deserve it even if she would probably not register the implication.

She came with her own BMW Cabriolet, and these two young people in the flashy little car made a picture to be jealous off.

The crowd of the well to do overgrown teenagers, was rambunctious, but not enough for the manager to risk the loss of the well paying customers.

Aster was immediately kidnaped by a lout of a man, but Greg didn’t mind. In the few weeks of learning to know Aster, (more than was decent) he determined her depth, which was not as impressive as her looks.

But she didn’t deserve to be tortured by the lout.

When Greg thought she had enough of the man he looked for a way to rescue her.

On the sidelines Greg noticed a silent boy who was at this minute looking longingly at Aster, but didn’t dare to get involved with the boring and frustrating individual, who hovered over the girl.

Now was the time to find out what the boy was made of. He picked up a packet of Lucky Strikes, which were lying in abundance on every table, and offered the boy a smoke.

The boy politely refused.

Cigarette smoke makes me sick. He said as an explanation.

Greg knew it was not the truth, but a camouflage for not wanting to smoke at any cost. Even at the cost of being called a wimp.

Aster likes you. He said to the boy, in a matter of fact way, and the boy’s face lit up.

Thank you. He stuttered.

What do you do in your spare time? Inquired Greg and this was when he found out that the boys father works for Aster’s Dad in some lesser but undefined capacity.

Why not. Thought Greg. If he’s decent and a hard worker, she could do much worse. Like being totally appropriated by the lout who was rich and had means to chase all competition away.

On the way to get Aster, Greg met a waiter and gave him Aster’s car phone number with instructions accompanied by a twenty dollar bill.

At the moment Greg came to Aster the lout was invading Asters personal space, and Greg noticed she didn’t push him away. Her face expressed surprise at the inappropriate interruption but she did accept Greg’s statement that it was time for them to go for another appointment.

Excuse us Broderick, we will see you tomorrow. Said Greg and Aster smartly wiggled out of the confinement. She added a smile, and the lout just had to accept Greg’s superiority of the moment.

As they passed by the boy, Greg grabbed him by his right arm, while leading Aster with her left arm.

Let’s go Daniel, we have to rescue a lady from the lions den. The boy smiled not missing the implication.

Aster did not wholeheartedly agree but let herself be led outside. From Daniel came a deep sigh of unrequited love, and he was ahead of them in a flash opening the doors.

Give him the key Aster, he will bring the car.

She did, being used to accept Greg’s suggestions, which almost always turned into an entertaining evening.

No one had to describe to Daniel which car belonged to Aster. He knew since he watched the girl now for months.

That’s nice of you. Said Aster. What’s your name again?

Daniel, Miss Aster.

Did we meet before, Daniel?

No, miss Aster you were always eagerly entertained by others. You were never alone.

Aster drove and Greg relinquished the passenger seat to Daniel. He himself squeezed into the small back seat folding his legs sideways.

Glory be. Aster didn’t mind.

What do we do now, Greg? She asked and that was the sixty four thousand dollar question.

At that moment Greg saw a city bus with a large billboard.

Tutan Khamen exhibit in the Museum of Natural History.

Why don’t we kill some time to go the Museum of Natural History? He suggested hoping for the best.

Aster turned around almost ramming the bus with the sign, but Daniel was on the ball grabbing the steering wheel and avoiding a calamity while artfully turning the attention away from the averted accident.

There is an exhibit of the boy king in the Museum today.

That’s an excellent idea Dan, when I was in college I wrote a paper on the discovery of the tomb in 1923. Those days I was fascinated with the Egyptian history going five thousand years before Christ.

Aster was not quite enthused but girls always have to endure the whims of the boys not to be left behind. So she reluctantly agreed and turned north.

At that moment Aster’s phone rang. Daniel answered it, and gave the phone to Greg.

Is it that important? Greg asked and the voice in the phone increased in amplitude.

All right then. Dad is going to spoil a very interesting evening for me. He gave the phone back to Daniel.

Aster please, pull up by the taxi stand. I am forced to let you go to the Museum with Dan, but I will call you as soon as I am free. Keep your phone turned on, please.

Daniel’s face was pink and Aster’s was just one question mark. Was she being legally transferred?

She was suspicious but it was so nicely done the dark intend was hard to prove.

She looked sideways at Daniel and the boy was really very nice with that fresh pink complexion of his.

Aster never came back to see Greg again and there were rumors of an early engagement to Daniel Fenster.

That was when her father found out who Daniel was, and ordered a full scale investigation. The report his sub-managers filled was positive. Daniel’s father was a smart man and had a lot credit for revolutionary improvements in the field assigned to him.

The son, Daniel just graduated Summa Cum Laude and was going to be a stockbroker, a profession Aster’s father admired. There was a lot of money to be made and hardly any risk. One only managed other people money and skimmed from the top.

He knew Aster was going with the rich Polish boy but he was not really quite enthusiastic about foreigners either.

When Aster asked Daniel to come to the villa in Westchester, he made sure he was present, and the only unpleasantness he found in the boy was that he didn’t accept his offer of a Cuban cigar. He asked him why, and the boy was obviously embarrassed that he didn’t smoke.

Gain some lose some he theorized and told his wife to accept Daniel. She was intelligent enough not to betray herself and ask how much money Daniel’s father makes, although it always was on the tip of her tongue. After all she thought, they had enough money for both of them.

Before the evening ended, Aster surprised him by announcing, Dad, you will be soon a Grandfather. He was tickled pink not so his wife. She fainted, being a Grandmother was too much for her.

Aster found an acceptable engagement ring, in a Manhattan jewelry where she and her family always shopped. As a matter of fact, the last time she was there, she was with Greg and he bought her a ruby pendant.

Daniel was surprised at the price of the four carat Marquis diamond. Looking at the good size rock, he imagined at least ten times as much what the jeweler asked. Since he expressed his opinion about the price, he was informed that there was a flaw in the structure of the diamond. He couldn’t see a flaw, but since Aster was happy, he left well enough alone and paid.

Daniel didn’t notice that a man followed them into the store. That man, whom he knew, and who did introduce him to Aster, sat in the office talking on the telephone to the jeweler.

First, this incident proved that a man in love is blind, and second that the action reduced a guilty feeling of that man to whom Aster gave all she had.

He did not come to the wedding, although he was invited by Daniel and Aster, but not by her parents.

The diamond pacified Aster’s mother. If Daniel could afford such a rock for her daughter, he was not all bad.

They had only one child, and named her Aster. She didn’t want any more, until many years later, when she thought she wanted another child and was unable to have one. Things happen to a human body and who knows wherefrom the wind blows and the snow comes.

Greg was not seen in New York for quite a spell and it was rumored that he discovered oil in Pennsylvania’s coal region.

It was not the truth.

Greg looked for something he couldn’t find and time flew.

Chapter 2.

The robbery.

His trek to find his life’s companion started off on the wrong foot. He was robbed.

He hardly left New York where robbery is a common occurrence and crossed the Hudson river on the way to Scranton where he planned to busy himself finding a job as a miner in one of his father’s mines.

Why? You could ask.

Did he have a bad conscience or maybe some other substantial reason?

Maybe. He took care of Aster as best as he could. Subsequently, leaving the girl did not heavily bother him, although the way a human heart works, it doesn’t miss something until it misses something. It would be explained by saying, that something is only missed after it is lost.

He stopped at a Travel Plaza on Interstate 80 in Paterson. Not being in any great hurry to get anywhere he stopped because nature called.

As he entered the men’s room, someone closed the door behind him and stood in front of it.

They let him do what he came for, they were kind that way.

While he washed hid hands, a young man of uncertain race or nationality, but whose pupils were mostly upward in his eyeball, and stood next to him, put his hand into Greg’s pocket.

No, not what you think!

Greg’s wallet was there.

How these people knew which pocket the wallet was located, puzzled Greg for a microsecond, before he took action. He turned around with a clenched fist and stared into a barrel of a gun. This changed