登陆注册
37884800000186

第186章 six 1954-1965 Dane(18)

"Except in your generation there are not heaps of men. Only Dane." "Due to the fact Mum left my father, I expect. She never seemed to get interested in anyone else. Pity, I think. Mum's a real homebody; she would have liked a husband to fuss over."

"Is she like you?"

"I don't think so."

"More importantly, do you like each other?"

"Mum and I?" She smiled without rancor, much as her mother would have done had someone asked her whether she liked her daughter. "I'm not sure if we like each other, but there is something there. Maybe it's a ****** biological bond; I don't know." Her eyes kindled. "I've always wanted her to talk to me the way she does to Dane, and wanted to get along with her the way Dane does. But either there's something lacking in her, or something lacking in me. Me, I'd reckon. She's a much finer person than I am."

"I haven't met her, so I can't agree or disagree with your judgment. If it's of any conceivable comfort to you, Herzchen, I like you exactly the way you are. No, I wouldn't change a thing about you, even your ridiculous pugnacity."

"Isn't that nice of you? And after I insulted you, too. I'm not really like Dane, am I?"

"Dane isn't like anyone else in the world."

"You mean because he's so not of this world?" "I suppose so." He leaned forward, out of the shadows into the weak light of the little candle in its Chianti bottle. "I am a Catholic, and my religion has been the one thing in my life which has never failed me, though I have failed it many times. I dislike speaking of Dane, because my heart tells me some things are better left undiscussed. Certainly you aren't like him in your attitude to life, or God. Let's leave it, all right?" She looked at him curiously. "All right, Rainer, if you want. I'll make a pact with you-no matter what we discuss, it won't be the nature of Dane, or religion."

Much had happened to Rainer Moerling Hartheim since that meeting with Ralph de Bricassart in July 1943. A week afterward his regiment had been dispatched to the Eastern Front, where he spent the remainder of the war. Torn and rudderless, too young to have been indoctrinated into the Hitler Youth in its leisurely prewar days, he had faced the consequences of Hitler in feet of snow, without ammunition, the front line stretched so thin there was only one soldier for every hundred yards of it. And out of the war he carried two memories: that bitter campaign in bitter cold, and the face of Ralph de Bricassart. Horror and beauty, the Devil and God. Half crazed, half frozen, waiting defenseless for Khrushchev's guerrillas to drop from low-flying planes parachuteless into the snowdrifts, he beat his breast and muttered prayers. But he didn't know what he prayed for: bullets for his gun, escape from the Russians, his immortal soul, the man in the basilica, Germany, a lessening of grief. In the spring of 1945 he had retreated back across Poland before the Russians, like his fellow soldiers with only one objective-to make it into British- or American-occupied Germany. For if the Russians caught him, he would be shot. He tore his papers into shreds and burned them, buried his two Iron Crosses, stole some clothes and presented himself to the British authorities on the Danish border. They shipped him to a camp for displaced persons in Belgium. There for a year he lived on the bread and gruel, which was all the exhausted British could afford to feed the thousands upon thousands of people in their charge, waiting until the British realized their only course was release.

Twice officials of the camp had summoned him to present him with an ultimatum. There was a boat waiting in Ostend harbor loading immigrants for Australia. He would be given new papers and shipped to his new land free of charge, in return for which he would work for the Australian government for two years in whatever capacity they chose, after which his life would become entirely his own. Not slave labor; he would be paid the standard wage, of course. But on both occasions he managed to talk himself out of summary emigration. He had hated Hitler, not Germany, and he was not ashamed of being a German. Home meant Germany; it had occupied his dreams for over three years. The very thought of yet again being stranded in a country where no one spoke his language nor he theirs was anathema. So at the beginning of 1947 he found himself penniless on the streets of Aachen, ready to pick up the pieces of an existence he knew he wanted very badly. He and his soul had survived, but not to go back to poverty and obscurity. For Rainer was more than a very ambitious man; he was also something of a genius. He went to work for Grundig, and studied the field which had fascinated him since he first got acquainted with radar: electronics. Ideas teemed in his brain, but he refused to sell them to Grundig for a millionth part of their value. Instead he gauged the market carefully, then married the widow of a man who had managed to keep a couple of small radio factories, and went into business for himself. That he was barely into his twenties didn't matter. His mind was characteristic of a far older man, and the chaos of postwar Germany created opportunities for young men. Since his wedding had been a civil one, the Church permitted him to divorce his wife; in 1951 he paid Annelise Hartheim exactly twice the current value of her first husband's two factories, and did just that, divorced her. However, he didn't remarry.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 战略撤退

    战略撤退

    这是糖糖的第一部文文,望大家多多支持~蟹蟹~“老柴你是不是打架了?”“怎么可能,我才没有!”“真的?”“真的真的!”“……”
  • 双面性萌公主

    双面性萌公主

    人血大战上,他救了她,他和她是异族,她不明白问原因,他说:“墨云叫的”“……”墨云是他妹,也是她的好姐妹…………救了她也解开了她像迷一样的身世,他爱上她,为她结束了战争,想和她平凡的生活,而她在战争结束之后却像人间蒸发一样消失不见…………
  • 修仙天才的都市之旅

    修仙天才的都市之旅

    试看,一代修仙天才的都市之旅!…………………………………
  • 小学生必背好词好句好段:彩绘注音版

    小学生必背好词好句好段:彩绘注音版

    作文常常令小学低年级的学生感觉无从下手。其实,只要小学生背熟好词好句好段,就可以积累一定的词汇量,顺利地完成小学作文,甚至写出漂亮的作文。本书精选小学生平时写人、记事、写景、状物等作文中常用的好词好句好段,介绍了各类精彩的开头和结尾,并附录和点评了范文。编排上由浅入深,从词到句,由段到篇。书中穿插了知识拓展栏目,信息丰富,既培养了小学生写作的兴趣,又教会他们写作的方法和技巧。
  • 天行

    天行

    号称“北辰骑神”的天才玩家以自创的“牧马冲锋流”战术击败了国服第一弓手北冥雪,被誉为天纵战榜第一骑士的他,却受到小人排挤,最终离开了效力已久的银狐俱乐部。是沉沦,还是再次崛起?恰逢其时,月恒集团第四款游戏“天行”正式上线,虚拟世界再起风云!
  • 将军吟

    将军吟

    一部正面描写“文化大革命”全过程的小说,它以空军某兵团司令彭其受迫害的经历为主线,通过三位将军的不同命运,歌颂了老一代革命家的原则性和斗争性,控诉了林彪“四人帮”的罪行。
  • 天行

    天行

    号称“北辰骑神”的天才玩家以自创的“牧马冲锋流”战术击败了国服第一弓手北冥雪,被誉为天纵战榜第一骑士的他,却受到小人排挤,最终离开了效力已久的银狐俱乐部。是沉沦,还是再次崛起?恰逢其时,月恒集团第四款游戏“天行”正式上线,虚拟世界再起风云!
  • 大佬重生之全能千金

    大佬重生之全能千金

    作为异时空的元帅,一场爆炸后韶五在一个废物千金身上重生了。醒来后惊闻噩耗。不能杀人?世界和平?还得好好学习助人为乐?成吧,暴躁元帅在线从良,力做一个全能千金,全面碾压白莲花。白莲花是年级第一?那她就做市第一!白莲花是商业天才?那她就是天才她祖宗!白莲花最后无计可施,往渣男怀里一倒,泪眼汪汪:我心脏不好。韶五冷笑一声,同样往渣男他叔怀里一倒。渣男他叔:你也心脏不好?韶五立马站得笔直,心想着攀比不好不好,这都习惯成自然了。把反过来抱大腿的渣男一脚踹飞后,为实现全能目标,提高情商,系统发布了恋爱任务,而对象正是渣男他叔。【请与对方十指相扣。】【深情告白三分钟。】【给对方一个热情的么么哒。】【请与对方……】滚!系统死了!
  • 我的大神师夫

    我的大神师夫

    女主角穿越到异世大陆,展开的一段神奇之旅,呆萌搞笑轻松
  • 重生后她终于开挂了

    重生后她终于开挂了

    上辈子,她在万灰俱灭之时被车撞死,与他的相识定格在最后的画面。重生归来后,她意外和他相遇,却无意擦出火花,被他霸道圈养入怀。这辈子她不再软弱,手撕白莲,脚踩渣男!在他的守护之下人生宛若开挂。她成功夺回家产,开始自主创业,赚得满盆钞票,逐步走上人生巅峰!他作为幕后投资人,看着她日渐沉迷事业无法自拔,心里开始酸唧唧——“夫人,你还在想谈合作?不如我们晚上再好好谈谈?”哎哎哎?谁能告诉她,那个性格冷漠、洁癖严重的男人去哪里了!她的婚后生活:酸甜苦辣,甜甜甜甜甜甜甜甜……他的婚后生活:油盐酱醋,醋醋醋醋醋醋醋醋……