More from the Narnia dark AU of doom
Apr. 17th, 2009 12:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tree_and_leafI've had this kicking about on my hard-drive for a while, not sure why I haven't posted them. Two more vignettes in my Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe AU set in Nazi Germany.
PG, 2610 words. References to anti-Semitism; contains naiveté about abhominable organisations.
Part one is here
"Beastly old man," said Ewald in an undertone, as soon as the unsmiling housekeeper, who seemed to regard them with suspicion, had shown them a shabby little sitting room where, she said, they could play during the day and "keep out of the professor's way and out from under my feet."
"I think he's a dear," said Lucie.
"You would," said Ewald. "You like anyone, as long as they're nice to you."
"Well, don't you?"
"That looks like a super wireless," said Suse, hastily changing the subject. "Not one of those rotten little People's Sets; I think it's even better than father's."
Peter whistled. "Yes – you could get all sorts of foreign stations on here. Look – Paris, Luxemburg – though I suppose that's not very far from here – Amsterdam, Moscow, London…" The needle, he noted, was at London; of course, he thought, Father had said that the Professor had worked in Oxford for many years. Father had said, rather sadly, that the old fellow could have stayed after he retired, but "Poor old fellow; he loved the Black Forest too much. Got homesick. Said it would break his heart to grow old anywhere else, even – even though he had good friends in Oxford." And he had exchanged a cryptic look with Mother; it was funny, but Peter could have sworn Father had been going to say something else.
"Really?" said Ewald, forgetting his temper. "Brilliant!" He threw the switch, the set crackled into life, and a voice said something quite incomprehensible in what was, nevertheless, definitely English. Ewald twiddled the dial, and they heard in quick succession snatches of French, Italian and a very strange sort of German they couldn't really understand and Peter said was probably Swiss, and then a burst of classical music.
"I suppose we'd better go and unpack," said Suse. "You might as well turn it off, Ewald, no point in wasting time over it now. We might end up spending a lot of time listening to the wireless if the weather turns bad."
"This is the sunniest part of the Reich," said Ewald stubbornly. "Much more so than Berlin. We learned that in class last week."
"That's Freiburg and the Kaiserstühl," said Peter. "This may still be Breisgau, but we're a long way up and in a valley."
Ewald sniffed, but said nothing for a moment; then he burst out "Yes, stuck here all summer, in the middle of nowhere, and I don't see why mother didn't let us go to camp with the others, it would have been fun, and the leaders were cross. They said it looked bad, and disloyal. And you two might not care about that, but I do! And I bet Daddy would have let us go. I'm not going to tell Mother next time, I'll just write and ask him."
"Daddy would agree with Mummy, you know he always backs her up," put in Lucie. "Anyway, I don't think Daddy likes the H.J. Last time he was home on leave his face got all twisted up when he looked at you in your uniforms."
"Hush, Lucie, you mustn't say such things," said Suse, aghast. "You're imagining it, I expect."
"Of course she's imagining it." Ewald's voice was scornful. "Daddy's a soldier, and when I grow up I shall be one too, so of course we have to train and serve our country now. Daddy understands… Maybe they'll let me join the S.S. They only take the best, of course… not going to camp won't help..."
"I don't like their uniforms, much," said Lucie, doubtfully. "They look nicer than the S.A., of course, because brown is such a horrid colour for uniforms, but Daddy's is a lot smarter. And they have those funny lightening bolts on their collars and those beastly cap badges with the skull and cross-bones. I'm glad Daddy doesn't have to wear anything like that."
"They're not lightning bolts, stupid, they're S-runes. And I think the caps look brilliant. You're such a, such a, little girl."
Lucie turned pale, and said "I'm not a little girl, unless you're a little boy. And I really don't see why they have to wear them. It'd be all right for pirates, but pirates ought to be wicked, it’s why they’re pirates. Soldiers're supposed to be good."
"Of course they're good," said Suse. "They're on our side."
Peter wondered why he suddenly felt uncomfortable. "All the same, Ewald, I bet Daddy would rather you joined the regular army. Or the Navy, like him. Like grandfather, come to that. I mean, the S.S. and the S.A. and all that's only been going five minutes, and the army and the navy have been there, doing their duty, for years and years, under the old Kaiser even. I just think it – well, means a bit more. They're for Germany, not just the Party."
"Oh, you're all so stupid and – old fashioned," burst out Ewald. "There isn't any difference… Don't you see, there's something new beginning? A new world, a new adventure, and all you want to do is sit about and complain about how it isn't like it used to be. You're as bad as that beastly old man. You're all scared."
"Ewald, don't be so touchy, Peter was just saying –" began Suse.
"And you both" – glaring at Peter and Suse – "talk to me as if I was a baby and you were the grown-ups. Well, I'm sick of it. I'm sick of all of you, and I wish I was on Rügen with the rest of the troop. And I'm going out."
He slammed out of the room.
"Let him go," said Peter. "It's been a long journey and we're all tired. He's in a foul mood half the time anyway. I don't like that group of friends he's started hanging about with since he came up from the Pimpfen. Maybe he'll be better if he has some time away from them."
"Maybe," said Suse, "but I don't know why you should get on at him for wanting to join the S.S. Ten to one he wouldn't get in, and anyway, why wouldn't it be good if he did?"
Peter shook his head. "I don't know. I just like the idea of the army better. They're – well, it's more our sort of thing, somehow."
"Daddy doesn't like the S.S., either," said Lucie. "You can tell. Remember that last dinner party? I heard Mummy say they should have invited Major – someone or other, I forget the name. And Daddy said that having to work with them was bad enough, but he hoped he'd never see one of those black caps in his house…"
"Lucie, you shouldn't listen to grown-ups' conversations, it's wrong," said Suse automatically.
Peter added "And Lucie, listen, it's all right to tell us that sort of thing, because we know Daddy, but you must promise me you'll never, ever, repeat anything like that to anyone else, all right? They might get the wrong idea."
"But Peter, why?"
"Promise me!"
"Well, if you want," said Lucie, dazedly. "I promise, then. But you surely don't mean it’s wrong? Or that it could get Daddy into trouble? Bad trouble?"
Peter was silent for a moment. "Come on," he said, finally, "Let's get that unpacking done, and then we can go for a walk before dinner. I must say, this is a splendid part of the world for a holiday!"
His tone was bright and happy, and seemed to convince Lucie. Suse, however, looked at him doubtfully before following him up towards the bedrooms.
*
Peter took his H.J. tunic out of the bottom of the case, shook the folds out, looked at it, then dumped it in a brown crumpled ball on the bed. Then he sighed, and smoothed it out. There was no point giving the housekeeper more work; she looked as if she disapproved of them anyway.
"I say, watch it, Peter," came a shocked voice from behind him; it was Ewald's. "You ought to be more careful with that. It's important."
"It doesn't really matter, does it?" said Peter, irritably. "We're not going to need them for ages. The Professor said there's no group near enough here. Actually, it's quite nice to have a break."
Ewald looked at him narrowly. "What's wrong with you? And Suse's as bad. I remember when you used to tell me how fantastic it was, and I couldn't wait to be old enough to join too. And now you hardly bother. You missed half the meetings last month. They weren't pleased, you know."
"I had too much homework."
"No you didn't," said Ewald crossly. "And anyway, even if you had, no-one would have minded if you hadn't done it. You wouldn't have got into trouble for not doing it if you were doing something for the H.J. instead. You know the teachers wouldn't dare say anything."
"Do you really think that's – well, right?"
"Herr Schmidt wouldn't mind, anyway." Herr Schmidt was Ewald's form teacher, and Ewald admired him. He taught in his S.A. uniform. Peter, who had him for Maths, disliked him, but didn't bother pointing this out.
"I suppose Dr. Grünewald would be mad, but that just makes it funnier; he can't do anything," mused Ewald.
"Mother would mind."
"Like that matters!" Ewald hesitated, as if he was astonished at his own daring. "She doesn't understand – she doesn't have to understand; it's men's business."
"Of course it matters! And Daddy would mind, if anyone was rotten enough to bother him with it."
"The H.J.'s more important than silly old school."
"Don't talk rubbish. I want to be a doctor some day; I need good marks."
"Being committed to the H.J. will do you more good than school, that's what they told us."
Peter rolled his eyes. "Yes, and I'm sure my future patients would be very glad I spent all my time square-bashing instead of doing my chemistry homework. Specially if I accidentally poisoned them."
"Now you're talking rubbish – it's not like you learn anything that matters in school, you can make it up later…Anyway, it wasn't just drill. We had games, and lit fires, and we did some target shooting, and there was a really smashing chap came from the Luftwaffe, and told us about these fantastic new planes they've been using in Spain… You missed all the fun."
"I'm sure I'll live… Look, Ewald, are you actually going to do any unpacking, or are you just going to stand about gassing?"
"You're not my mother" said Ewald, sullenly. "And I don't see why Suse or Lucie can't do it. It's a girl's job."
"They've got their own things to unpack. Anyway, I thought you wanted to join the S.S? You can't take your sister to look after you."
This was unanswerable. Ewald wrenched open his case, muttering "It's not like I asked to come here, anyway."
Peter sighed. "Look, I know you didn't want to leave Berlin; none of us were mad about it, if you remember. But now we're here, we might as well make the most of it, eh?"
"Oh, stop trying to talk like a grown up."
Peter ignored this. "And as far as the H.J. goes; if you must know, I don't like our new leader. It was great when Christof was there, but… well, I just don't like the new man. He's obsessed with fighting, and I mean, it's all very exciting in its way, but I liked it better when we talked about nature and chivalry and things like that as well. And he goes on about loyalty, but he keeps asking Emil things about his parents."
"Emil's father lost his job with the police for disloyalty. Of course they have to check up on him."
Peter stared at him. "He – what – how do you know that? What are they going to do?"
Ewald shrugged. "Herr Schmidt told us. Couple of weeks ago. They were talking about chucking Emil out – wouldn't have been much loss, he's a cry baby – but Herr Schmidt said it was better that he stayed and learned better than he'd get at home, so he'd be of use to the Reich."
"How horrible, poor Emil!"
"What are you talking about? It was really nice of them to let him stay. Anyway, a group of us were talking about it, and we're going to make sure Emil doesn't put a foot wrong."
I don't like the sound of that, thought Peter, but what could you say?
Instead he said, " I wish Herr Schmidt'd shut up about the Jews and the Bolsheviks. It makes me uncomfortable to talk about hating people all the time. I saw him hit a poor old Jew once – just hit him, just like that, he drew blood. Must have been eighty if he was a day. I mean, maybe he'd done something wrong or something, but it isn't right to hit people who can't hit back, it can't be. Daddy always told us we ought to protect the weak…"
Ewald looked uncomfortable, but shifted his ground. "Christof was rubbish . The only things he was really interested in was walking and campfires and singing those soppy songs you couldn't march to. He wasn't serious. Herr Schmidt said we weren't to pay any attention to him. Herr Schmidt takes his responsibilities to the Führer very seriously, and so do I."
"I'm sick of hearing about my responsibilities to the Führer" muttered Peter, but under his breath. He was not quite sure how Ewald would react to that.
*
PG, 2610 words. References to anti-Semitism; contains naiveté about abhominable organisations.
Part one is here
"Beastly old man," said Ewald in an undertone, as soon as the unsmiling housekeeper, who seemed to regard them with suspicion, had shown them a shabby little sitting room where, she said, they could play during the day and "keep out of the professor's way and out from under my feet."
"I think he's a dear," said Lucie.
"You would," said Ewald. "You like anyone, as long as they're nice to you."
"Well, don't you?"
"That looks like a super wireless," said Suse, hastily changing the subject. "Not one of those rotten little People's Sets; I think it's even better than father's."
Peter whistled. "Yes – you could get all sorts of foreign stations on here. Look – Paris, Luxemburg – though I suppose that's not very far from here – Amsterdam, Moscow, London…" The needle, he noted, was at London; of course, he thought, Father had said that the Professor had worked in Oxford for many years. Father had said, rather sadly, that the old fellow could have stayed after he retired, but "Poor old fellow; he loved the Black Forest too much. Got homesick. Said it would break his heart to grow old anywhere else, even – even though he had good friends in Oxford." And he had exchanged a cryptic look with Mother; it was funny, but Peter could have sworn Father had been going to say something else.
"Really?" said Ewald, forgetting his temper. "Brilliant!" He threw the switch, the set crackled into life, and a voice said something quite incomprehensible in what was, nevertheless, definitely English. Ewald twiddled the dial, and they heard in quick succession snatches of French, Italian and a very strange sort of German they couldn't really understand and Peter said was probably Swiss, and then a burst of classical music.
"I suppose we'd better go and unpack," said Suse. "You might as well turn it off, Ewald, no point in wasting time over it now. We might end up spending a lot of time listening to the wireless if the weather turns bad."
"This is the sunniest part of the Reich," said Ewald stubbornly. "Much more so than Berlin. We learned that in class last week."
"That's Freiburg and the Kaiserstühl," said Peter. "This may still be Breisgau, but we're a long way up and in a valley."
Ewald sniffed, but said nothing for a moment; then he burst out "Yes, stuck here all summer, in the middle of nowhere, and I don't see why mother didn't let us go to camp with the others, it would have been fun, and the leaders were cross. They said it looked bad, and disloyal. And you two might not care about that, but I do! And I bet Daddy would have let us go. I'm not going to tell Mother next time, I'll just write and ask him."
"Daddy would agree with Mummy, you know he always backs her up," put in Lucie. "Anyway, I don't think Daddy likes the H.J. Last time he was home on leave his face got all twisted up when he looked at you in your uniforms."
"Hush, Lucie, you mustn't say such things," said Suse, aghast. "You're imagining it, I expect."
"Of course she's imagining it." Ewald's voice was scornful. "Daddy's a soldier, and when I grow up I shall be one too, so of course we have to train and serve our country now. Daddy understands… Maybe they'll let me join the S.S. They only take the best, of course… not going to camp won't help..."
"I don't like their uniforms, much," said Lucie, doubtfully. "They look nicer than the S.A., of course, because brown is such a horrid colour for uniforms, but Daddy's is a lot smarter. And they have those funny lightening bolts on their collars and those beastly cap badges with the skull and cross-bones. I'm glad Daddy doesn't have to wear anything like that."
"They're not lightning bolts, stupid, they're S-runes. And I think the caps look brilliant. You're such a, such a, little girl."
Lucie turned pale, and said "I'm not a little girl, unless you're a little boy. And I really don't see why they have to wear them. It'd be all right for pirates, but pirates ought to be wicked, it’s why they’re pirates. Soldiers're supposed to be good."
"Of course they're good," said Suse. "They're on our side."
Peter wondered why he suddenly felt uncomfortable. "All the same, Ewald, I bet Daddy would rather you joined the regular army. Or the Navy, like him. Like grandfather, come to that. I mean, the S.S. and the S.A. and all that's only been going five minutes, and the army and the navy have been there, doing their duty, for years and years, under the old Kaiser even. I just think it – well, means a bit more. They're for Germany, not just the Party."
"Oh, you're all so stupid and – old fashioned," burst out Ewald. "There isn't any difference… Don't you see, there's something new beginning? A new world, a new adventure, and all you want to do is sit about and complain about how it isn't like it used to be. You're as bad as that beastly old man. You're all scared."
"Ewald, don't be so touchy, Peter was just saying –" began Suse.
"And you both" – glaring at Peter and Suse – "talk to me as if I was a baby and you were the grown-ups. Well, I'm sick of it. I'm sick of all of you, and I wish I was on Rügen with the rest of the troop. And I'm going out."
He slammed out of the room.
"Let him go," said Peter. "It's been a long journey and we're all tired. He's in a foul mood half the time anyway. I don't like that group of friends he's started hanging about with since he came up from the Pimpfen. Maybe he'll be better if he has some time away from them."
"Maybe," said Suse, "but I don't know why you should get on at him for wanting to join the S.S. Ten to one he wouldn't get in, and anyway, why wouldn't it be good if he did?"
Peter shook his head. "I don't know. I just like the idea of the army better. They're – well, it's more our sort of thing, somehow."
"Daddy doesn't like the S.S., either," said Lucie. "You can tell. Remember that last dinner party? I heard Mummy say they should have invited Major – someone or other, I forget the name. And Daddy said that having to work with them was bad enough, but he hoped he'd never see one of those black caps in his house…"
"Lucie, you shouldn't listen to grown-ups' conversations, it's wrong," said Suse automatically.
Peter added "And Lucie, listen, it's all right to tell us that sort of thing, because we know Daddy, but you must promise me you'll never, ever, repeat anything like that to anyone else, all right? They might get the wrong idea."
"But Peter, why?"
"Promise me!"
"Well, if you want," said Lucie, dazedly. "I promise, then. But you surely don't mean it’s wrong? Or that it could get Daddy into trouble? Bad trouble?"
Peter was silent for a moment. "Come on," he said, finally, "Let's get that unpacking done, and then we can go for a walk before dinner. I must say, this is a splendid part of the world for a holiday!"
His tone was bright and happy, and seemed to convince Lucie. Suse, however, looked at him doubtfully before following him up towards the bedrooms.
*
Peter took his H.J. tunic out of the bottom of the case, shook the folds out, looked at it, then dumped it in a brown crumpled ball on the bed. Then he sighed, and smoothed it out. There was no point giving the housekeeper more work; she looked as if she disapproved of them anyway.
"I say, watch it, Peter," came a shocked voice from behind him; it was Ewald's. "You ought to be more careful with that. It's important."
"It doesn't really matter, does it?" said Peter, irritably. "We're not going to need them for ages. The Professor said there's no group near enough here. Actually, it's quite nice to have a break."
Ewald looked at him narrowly. "What's wrong with you? And Suse's as bad. I remember when you used to tell me how fantastic it was, and I couldn't wait to be old enough to join too. And now you hardly bother. You missed half the meetings last month. They weren't pleased, you know."
"I had too much homework."
"No you didn't," said Ewald crossly. "And anyway, even if you had, no-one would have minded if you hadn't done it. You wouldn't have got into trouble for not doing it if you were doing something for the H.J. instead. You know the teachers wouldn't dare say anything."
"Do you really think that's – well, right?"
"Herr Schmidt wouldn't mind, anyway." Herr Schmidt was Ewald's form teacher, and Ewald admired him. He taught in his S.A. uniform. Peter, who had him for Maths, disliked him, but didn't bother pointing this out.
"I suppose Dr. Grünewald would be mad, but that just makes it funnier; he can't do anything," mused Ewald.
"Mother would mind."
"Like that matters!" Ewald hesitated, as if he was astonished at his own daring. "She doesn't understand – she doesn't have to understand; it's men's business."
"Of course it matters! And Daddy would mind, if anyone was rotten enough to bother him with it."
"The H.J.'s more important than silly old school."
"Don't talk rubbish. I want to be a doctor some day; I need good marks."
"Being committed to the H.J. will do you more good than school, that's what they told us."
Peter rolled his eyes. "Yes, and I'm sure my future patients would be very glad I spent all my time square-bashing instead of doing my chemistry homework. Specially if I accidentally poisoned them."
"Now you're talking rubbish – it's not like you learn anything that matters in school, you can make it up later…Anyway, it wasn't just drill. We had games, and lit fires, and we did some target shooting, and there was a really smashing chap came from the Luftwaffe, and told us about these fantastic new planes they've been using in Spain… You missed all the fun."
"I'm sure I'll live… Look, Ewald, are you actually going to do any unpacking, or are you just going to stand about gassing?"
"You're not my mother" said Ewald, sullenly. "And I don't see why Suse or Lucie can't do it. It's a girl's job."
"They've got their own things to unpack. Anyway, I thought you wanted to join the S.S? You can't take your sister to look after you."
This was unanswerable. Ewald wrenched open his case, muttering "It's not like I asked to come here, anyway."
Peter sighed. "Look, I know you didn't want to leave Berlin; none of us were mad about it, if you remember. But now we're here, we might as well make the most of it, eh?"
"Oh, stop trying to talk like a grown up."
Peter ignored this. "And as far as the H.J. goes; if you must know, I don't like our new leader. It was great when Christof was there, but… well, I just don't like the new man. He's obsessed with fighting, and I mean, it's all very exciting in its way, but I liked it better when we talked about nature and chivalry and things like that as well. And he goes on about loyalty, but he keeps asking Emil things about his parents."
"Emil's father lost his job with the police for disloyalty. Of course they have to check up on him."
Peter stared at him. "He – what – how do you know that? What are they going to do?"
Ewald shrugged. "Herr Schmidt told us. Couple of weeks ago. They were talking about chucking Emil out – wouldn't have been much loss, he's a cry baby – but Herr Schmidt said it was better that he stayed and learned better than he'd get at home, so he'd be of use to the Reich."
"How horrible, poor Emil!"
"What are you talking about? It was really nice of them to let him stay. Anyway, a group of us were talking about it, and we're going to make sure Emil doesn't put a foot wrong."
I don't like the sound of that, thought Peter, but what could you say?
Instead he said, " I wish Herr Schmidt'd shut up about the Jews and the Bolsheviks. It makes me uncomfortable to talk about hating people all the time. I saw him hit a poor old Jew once – just hit him, just like that, he drew blood. Must have been eighty if he was a day. I mean, maybe he'd done something wrong or something, but it isn't right to hit people who can't hit back, it can't be. Daddy always told us we ought to protect the weak…"
Ewald looked uncomfortable, but shifted his ground. "Christof was rubbish . The only things he was really interested in was walking and campfires and singing those soppy songs you couldn't march to. He wasn't serious. Herr Schmidt said we weren't to pay any attention to him. Herr Schmidt takes his responsibilities to the Führer very seriously, and so do I."
"I'm sick of hearing about my responsibilities to the Führer" muttered Peter, but under his breath. He was not quite sure how Ewald would react to that.
*
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Date: 2009-04-17 01:30 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-04-17 01:49 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-03-18 01:42 pm (UTC)(It's really kind of awful how well Hitlerjugend!Edmund works.)