Chapter Five
OuroborosChapter Five
“Salzburg, here we come!”
“Hey don’t be so noisy, we are in public.”
“But I’m just excited…”
“So are we… hey Chaeyoung, you doing alright?”
Staring at the recently built and wonderfully cantilevered main building of the Vienna Westbahnhof Station was a short Korean woman who had stopped to observe the building ahead and lose herself in thought and the world in her head. Standing on the sidewalk having just crossed the road, she admired the modern addition to the older station, something akin to Rem Koolhaas’ CCTV headquarters in Beijing but on a much smaller scale.
Her friend walked over to give her a little shake snapping her out of it.
“Huh? Oh, Nayeon what is it?”
“You okay? You seem a bit lost, a bit like you were a couple days ago.”
Chaeyoung, the woman who had been staring at the building gave her friend Nayeon a bright smile and like a switch was already in a different mood.
“Totally fine, come come let’s go Salzburg!” She screamed out as she raised one arm in the air for celebration dragging her luggage in the other.
“Yes girl, let’s go!” her second friend Yeri who was further up the sidewalk turned around pointing back at Chaeyoung and joined in the chorus.
“Hey you two, not so loud!” Nayeon reprimanded them both following after Yeri and Chaeyoung.
The trio soon entered the Westbahnhof station and once again Chaeyoung stopped to look at the interior of the open station. Gone were the cobblestone platforms and the vintage signs, the old steam engines or old diesel motors and the rough granite pillars of old. It was now a post-war rectangle block, and although the open aired station with its massive windows on both sides and long I-beams that supported the roof had its appeal, it wasn’t exactly her favourite design style. The station had changed massively from its old look. It made the lady reminisce.
“It looks so different. Such a shame.”
“What does? The station? You’ve been here before?” Yeri asked as both her and Nayeon stopped along with Chaeyoung to look at their surroundings.
“Oh, no. Just sad the old station from 1850s was bombed during the Second World War so they completely rebuilt it to this. War is such a waste, so many deaths and ruined historical buildings,” Chaeyoung replied almost letting her mind wander off again before she refocused on her two friends.
“Let’s go, the train awaits!” She said rushing on forward to the waiting train, finding their reserved cabin and prepared for the three hour trip to Salzburg.
Three young Korean women still university students were on a Eurorail adventure through Europe. Having saved enough money and with some support from their parents they had planned a month long trip through many cities, mainly around central Europe. Yeri, Nayeon, and Chaeyoung were best friends since elementary school, and although they had different majors they had all managed to get into the same university continuing their journey through education together.
So far they had spent about a week on their Eurotrip and had most of it left. They had cruised through Berlin, Prague and most recently Vienna, and now were going to cut through Austria to Italy and then attempt to loop back up through France to finish up in Amsterdam. There they would fly over to London to finish the trip and fly home. It was going to be a tight schedule but everything was well planned ahead by Nayeon and so far they had managed to stick to it.
The day was bright, skies clear with only a few clouds and the weather couldn’t have been better for a ride through the hills and mountains of Austria. In their cabin the three ate snacks, played card games and admired the view that spread before them; the valleys that opened up had them all in awe, with an intermingling sensation of both joy and melancholy.
Three hours flew by and as the train cleared the hills approaching Salzach river and the train chugged along the line down south they could see peaking between the buildings further ahead of them glimpses of the hill atop which Hohensalzburg Fortress stood, high above the city of Salzburg itself. The densely green mountainside topped with a cherry of stone, leading to a quaint medieval and renaissance European city with its stone buildings and colourfully painted metal roofs, some terracotta tiles intermingled there colouring the city in the noon sunlight.
The closer they drew to the city the more the excitement built up and soon they were unable to stay still, already having packed all their things and almost jumping out the train while it was still moving once it arrived at the station. They had a few days in this city to enjoy the beauty of the Austrian mountains and country before their Eurotrip would take them south past the Alps towards Italy and Venice.
Their hotel was close to the centre of town in a 18th century townhouse that had an elaborately decorated facade, the interiors of which had been repurposed for a hotel and the furnishing sporting both new design and some a couple centuries old; a delightful mix of the two time periods. With new sleek stone concrete bathroom sinks and table tops, furnished with old repurposed brass taps and fittings and worn antique dressers, enhancing the rustic feel of the place.
Dropping their bags off at the hotel they went out for some late lunch before dashing up the hillside on to the funicular tram that ran up the slope all the way to the top where the Hohensalzburg Fortress awaited. As the tram cleared the lowest rungs of the building and climbed further up the hill they received a magnificent view of the valley that the city was in and the houses and landscape spread open to them all around, the clear sky and afternoon sun covering everything in its warmth. It was a beautiful day.
Arriving at the top in the outer bailey of the castle, Nayeon was the first to jump out and run up to the side to watch the view. Chaeyoung quickly followed suite and crept up behind her giving a little shove causing Nayeon to double over in fright.
“Yah!” Chaeyoung ran off while laughing as Yeri jumped off the funicular and followed her up to the entrance while Nayeon chased the two. She wasn’t completely terrified of heights but it did make her a little uncomfortable.
Having bought an all-inclusive ticket pass ahead of time, Yeri had to only purchase a book about the castle and with the free pamphlet maps of the fortress form the stall up top. This way they could walk around at their own pace without having to follow a guided tour. Taking the lead Yeri opened the book on the first page explaining the gatehouse and entrance to the castle.
“Okay little children gather around,” she waved at Nayeon and Chaeyoung, the former pulling out her brightly coloured handkerchief for Yeri to wave as a tour guide flag. A couple people around her also paid attention at first thinking she was a real guide before noticing that she spoke a language they did not understand one bit. “This is a castle, and this is the castle’s entrance called the gate.”
“We aren’t five!” Chaeyoung shouted in protest.
“Please don’t shout over the tour guide I can’t hear her explanation,” Nayeon countered with a fake smug face of disapproval at Chaeyoung before focusing back on Yeri with a eager bright smile, “Please continue.”
Moving along through the castle and getting detailed explanations from Yeri about the history of the place and each room’s purpose, they also received reasoning behind many of the architectural features from Chaeyoung. She had an extensive knowledge both on building techniques of a castle as well as the defensive structures; giving clear descriptions of the idea behind machicolations, the arrow slits shape, gun ports, and the portcullis, the shape of the towers and the angling of the moats slope.
The interior of the castle was decorated in various styles, harkening back to all the different fashion and ages that this castle had survived and existed through. Expensive arts and textiles, intricate furniture and lighting, armour and weaponry showcased in the dungeon; the route through the castle took them on a trip through time.
Finding themselves outside again, they entered the biggest interior courtyard of the fortress.
“This is the guardhouse,” Yeri explained waving her hand in a tourist guide fashion to her friends.
“Although it seems it has received some rework I don’t think it originally looked like this,” Chaeyoung added to her explanation.
“You really know a lot about this castle, considering I’m the one with the book,” Yeri said waving her book around while she wondered at the tiny door leading into the guardhouse. “People must have been so much shorter then.”
“Ah well… I really love this city and its history,” Chaeyoung smiled before turning her attention to what Yeri was observing, “The door is small more so due to doors and windows being structural weak points so they tried to keep them small within load bearing elements like the outer walls, if a big one wasn’t necessary. Also easier to defend a small opening if they ever got into the courtyard.”
“I didn’t know you were so into castles and Salzburg. When did that happen? Then again you are an architecture student so, go figure,” Nayeon asked as they continued down the courtyard further in. The St. George’s chapel had an intricately carved wall and they all stopped to wonder at the technique and work that must have gone into making it.
“Ah, I guess I’ve always been a little into castles,” Chaeyoung smiled slyly, “a small personal secret of mine.”
They explored the rest of the courtyard having done most of the inside of the castle already and made their way out the exit of the castle towards the funicular. The late afternoon sun began to curve the colours over the horizon painting the city in its warm hue as the funicular sped down the hill and the trio enjoyed the scenery and fresh air in silence. Down in the city they found a cute little restaurant by the corner of their hotel where they had dinner before retiring in for the evening.
Just as they had entered the room and both Nayeon and Yeri had completely spread on their bed like a starfish, Chaeyoung got back up and walked to the door.
“Hey, I’m going to go grab some drinks from the store. I forgot to do it as we came back here. You guys want anything?”
Nayeon looked up from the bed before waving her goodbye. “Get me anything you buy. Don’t wander off too far and get lost.”
“Don’t worry, I won’t get lost.”
Closing the door behind her Chaeyoung stepped out into the cooler night air. The rustic cast iron street lamps no longer gas lit but still as romantic as ever, illuminated the path down the road and Chaeyoung walked off towards the riverside. No boats were on the river at this time of the night, but the bank was also illuminated and there were plenty of people, couples and single individuals all walking along the bank enjoying their evening walk.
Walking for a good half an hour Chaeyoung eventually found herself towards the edges of the city, still strolling along the river bank. Soon she dipped into a street away from the river, but only for a short distance as just a stone's throw away from the river there was an old medieval building, three stories high with the usual cantilevered upper floors poking out from the side.
It had a wall at the front courtyard about a metre high with even higher metal fence surrounding it. The front gate made of wrought iron had seen some better days but wasn’t rusty, and over it a stone archway welcomed the guests. The front yard of the house was some five metres wide and a good ten metres long, the length of the building itself. The flowers and weeds were a little overgrown but it was clear that the garden was still being looked after.
The house had suffered some damage over the years from the regular deterioration of time but to the best of abilities had been kept in relative good condition. Being a protected historical building built in the 1400’s it received funding for its upkeep from the city itself. Most windows were dark except in the living room from what Chaeyoung could see. It looked like the roof on the right end of the building had received proper repairs, having suffered from a lightning strike years ago.
“Entschuldigung, kann ich dir helfen?”
Chaeyoung was snapped out of her trip to memory lane as an elderly white lady with a wide brimmed summer hat and a wonderful pink scarf around her neck grabbed her attention. It took a moment for her brain to register what she had said before it clicked. It was German.
“Ja bitte, yes please, could you help me with a few questions,” Chaeyoung replied in a perfect Austrian German accent.
“Are you from around here?” The old lady asked as Chaeyoung’s accent grabbed her attention.
“Yes, I used to live here actually.”
“In Salzburg? Well you do sound local,” she looked at Chaeyoung carefully, “although you sound like my grandmother, such an old way of talking that is,” eliciting a chuckle and smile.
Chaeyoung laughed along with the delightful old lady. It must have caught her off guard a little to meet a young Asian woman with a perfect local accent. “Can you tell me about this house? Do the Lindenfels family still live here?”
The lady looked at her once again curiously, rather surprised having heard the name.
“Yes they do. In fact I’m Agnes Lindenfels, though now my surname is Muller after my husband’s family. My brother still held the name as do his children, but he is no longer with us bless his soul.” Agnes looked on mournfully.
“I’m sorry Agnes this is going to sound insane but,” Chaeyoung began, eyeing around the street before focusing on Agnes again, “Did your grandmother Marianne ever talk about Christine? Did she ever talk about the Eternal Ladies?”
Agnes looked visibly shocked and seemed to for a moment lose her sense of balance. Those were names that she hadn’t heard in over fifty years, not since her grandmother Marianne had passed away. Chaeyoung quickly moved in to support her grabbing by her arm and helping her to balance herself.
“How do you know those names? Who are you?” There was a clear tremble and sense of dread in her voice. Who could know such things and specifically that name?
“Can we talk about it inside? I have many questions and answers.”
Agnes looked at Chaeyoung’s pleading eyes, eventually softening and then motioning for them to go inside. There were questions in return that she wanted to ask Chaeyoung. She held onto Agnes’ arms as if her own grandmother assisting her inside.
Walking in she could see the narrow stair corridor leading up to the higher floors and the two doors leading left and right respectively; dining room and kitchens to the right, sitting room and the study to the left. While the atrium was narrow there was a good amount of height to it, and the smell of the old home hit her nostrils immediately conjuring up hundreds of memories. She quickly glanced at the door frame on the right and could see the slightly splintered wood and notch still in it, only painted over. That’s where the axe had hit having at first barely missed. A reminder of all the regret from that day.
Agnes led her to the sitting room to the left. The decor had changed for a more modern vibe, however much of the furniture could now have been considered antique. She motioned for Chaeyoung to sit in one of the old armchairs with intricately worked wood armrests and walked out of the room into the kitchen. Soon after she appeared with a tray and a few cups, offering tea to drink. Having poured tea for both into cups and offering one to Chaeyoung who graciously accepted, Agnes sat down opposite to the young woman. All of this had happened in total silence.
“Marianne my grandmother told both me and my brother Tobias about the Eternal Ladies. She told me that Christine was one of this group. And when my grandmother was gone my mother mentioned it…” Agnes paused before revealing any more information. She eyed Chaeyoung long and hard before relaxing a little.
“Why don’t you tell me something first. Why did you ask about Christine and the Eternal Ladies? How do you know about them?”
“This will sound insane I know, but given that you do know about the Eternal Ladies maybe you can believe me.”
Chaeyoung took a deep breath, focusing and gathering her thoughts and trying to think what was the best way to say it. She thought maybe skirting around the topic probing for more from Agnes could be best way to go. In the end however, she figured that it was easiest and most fair to be fully honest with her. This way at least Agnes had a higher chance of believing that whatever information Chaeyoung had was all her own and not a conclusion she had reached from her probes.
“I’m your great aunt Christine. Right now I’m Chaeyoung but back then I was Christine and your grandmother’s sister. I can tell everything until August 7th 1881, the day of the incident. The day when your great uncle Wenzel, my brother, was murdered and the day I your great aunt Christine disappeared.”
Agnes was quiet for a long time. The only sounds in the room were the ticking of the antique clock on the wall marching onwards and the clinking of Agnes’ tea spoon against her cup, slowly stirring her tea in a gentle rhythm. Eventually the stirring stopped and she took a long and shallow sip of her tea before placing it on the side table.
“How do you know all of this? Are you on drugs young lady?”
“If only it were the case m’am,” Chaeyoung said with a quirky smile, “If you truly know what the Eternal Ladies are, then… then you should already know the answer to that.”
Pulling back in her chair Agnes was hesitant to say that which she had been told by both her grandmother and mother, something she had been told to remember for the rest of her life. The older she had gotten the more she had believed that it was just a silly explanation and a coping mechanism for the disappearance and death of her great aunt and uncle. It was a family trauma that had lived on and passed down the generations.
“You,” she looked back up at Chaeyoung, “you really are the reincarnated soul of my great aunt Christine?”
“I am.”
The incredulity of her words and what she had said hit her and she once again pulled back in her chair, almost receding into it. Could this be true? She had read the writings, she had been told countless times what had happened and who her great aunt really was, but could it truly be the truth?
“Can you tell me what happened that day? Can you tell me my grandmother’s birthday? What can you tell me about my family because I want to believe, but I fear that this is some way to scam an old demented woman. Or worst case scenario, I’ve already lost it and this is a coma induced delusion.” Agnes looked around the house with a little worry of whether she really was alive and had all her faculties intact.
“Of course. On that day August 7th 1881...” Chaeyoung thought back to the incident. The memory immediately and violently poured in and it risked overwhelming her; as the floodgates and the emotions she had suppressed back then when the incident had happened were beginning to resurface. Holding back tears from her eyes she choked the next few words of her sentence.
Even though it had been 138 years since the incident, to her old soul memory it was something that had only happened a few months ago. Even if she had now lived a whole eighteen years of life in a new body, the old soul's memories only felt like they happened yesterday.
This confusing state of feelings and emotions happened every time they were reawoken. They all knew exactly which memories were from what time in history but it didn’t make it any less confusing now and then, and it didn’t help with any lingering feelings and emotions the old soul may have had hundreds of years earlier.
It caused a hugely disjointed collection of memories to form in their head, even if realistically it was one straight succession of events. In their minds two timelines of events existed; one that ran chronologically forward in a logical fashion like how regular memory worked for everyone. All their thoughts and memories ran one after another.
Then there was the second timeline which contained only the memories of the awoken old souls, the ones that only existed when the Cycle repeated. These old soul memories lived for a short while and then jumped centuries ahead for the next Cycle. They could remember all the way into the forgotten history and past mist of time, thousands upon thousands of years into the past before recorded history. They could remember the beginning of the Cycle as clear as day.
“17th of May 1875; that is when your grandmother was born. The very early hours of the morning Marianne Rosa Lindenfels was born as the youngest child of the household to Klaus Heinrich Lindenfels and Maria Tulpe Hofbauer with two elder siblings, Wenzel Maximilian and Christine Lilie Sofia.”
Almost breathless Agnes was completely shocked, enamoured and focused on Chaeyoung; this young beautiful Asian lady was giving perfect information about her family and past. Her Austrian German accent was without a foreign twinge and sounded exactly the way her grandmother had spoken. It was as if she had been transported back in time to her childhood when her grandmother was still alive.
“On the day of the murder my elder brother was twenty-four years old and Marianne was only six. She was into crocheting and playing the violin and was practicing her playing upstairs to the left from the stairs; in the hobby room. I believe it was Johann Strauss II piece Rosen Aus Dem Süden from his operetta Das Spitzentuch der Königin, as we had been to the unveiling of it in Vienna the year before and it had a profound impact on her. The sun was setting and it was getting dark but the gas street lamps had not been lit yet so we couldn’t see them coming. I couldn’t see them coming.
“Our parents were out when the men barged into the house looking for me, Wenzel attempted to stop them. I was at the landing of the stairs when I saw him struck in the head with an axe and I saw my brother die immediately falling back against the door frame. He was such a brave and upstanding person, so truthful…” Chaeyoung’s eyes were glazed over with tears right at the cusp of falling, her memory taking her far back to the past. She could see the murder of her brother in front of her eyes, the anguish still ate her soul. It was her fault he died; they were chasing her and not him. It was her fault, like before. Like so many times.
Chaeyoung wiped at the corners of her eyes before any tears could fall. “All I had time to do was grab your grandmother and run out the back and escape. We climbed through the back window onto the shed roof like we did to sneak out and then ran down the riverbank and past the bridge down south, only stopping once we were at the edge of the city. We looped back around the side and I left Marianne by the door of our Aunt Nina’s place. I told your grandmother where to find my diary I had hidden in my room; behind a false back on the side of the vanity, and explained to her everything I thought she could understand about the Eternal Ladies and the truth. About the people who had just murdered her brother and forced me to run away. After this I disappeared from the city and never saw or contacted any of my family again.”
Ending the explanation Chaeyoung’s eyes were focused unblinking, as if she was stuck in a thousand-yard stare like a soldier at the frontlines. The gentle ringing of the teaspoon against Agnes’ cup and the ticking of the huge clock rhythmically pulled Chaeyoung deeper into a trance, further into her memories. They were beginning to not only take her further back into her life as Christine in Salzburg, but out into the distant past, ancient past. So much bloodshed over the centuries and lifetimes. So much death.
For a moment a spear flashed before her eyes and an obsidian blade plunged deep into the chest in front of her, the body laying on the cold stone platform as the crowd of thousands in the background down below chanted in unison. The knife easily cut open the chest cavity, crimson pouring out spilling on the stone and drenching the plumed headdress, the hand reaching into the chest and around the ribcage. Her eyes locked with the one lying on the stone platform, both of them unwavering. Staring at each other until the final beat, as she felt the last breath and pulse in the palm of her hand. Brother...
Another flash, this time it was a hand. It flashed another time, and again, and again.
“Miss Chaeyoung? Miss Chaeyoung?”
Chaeyoung blinked a couple of times, the washed out unblinking glaze on her eyes disappeared and her pupils began to dilate and move. She looked up to see the worried face of Agnes as she waved her hand in front of Chaeyoung’s eyes to get her attention. Her mind found itself back from the grip of old memories in to the present and she realised where she really was. Who she was this time.
“Have some of your tea before it goes completely cold,” Agnes suggested, motioning at the still full cup by Chaeyoung on the table before she got up and walked towards the largest bookshelf to their right, one that spanned the full length of the wall floor to ceiling and was filled to brim with books. The weathered book covers and bindings filled the shelves painting it in a mosaic of leather, worn cloth and various matted shades of colour.
“What did the diary look like?” Agnes asked as Chaeyoung finally sipped on her tea. It hadn’t gone completely cold yet thankfully, the little bit of warmth left soothing her parched mouth. Chamomile.
“It was light blue cloth covered with a leather spine and with two leather straps around for closing. It had a faint outline of a lily carved to the book spines leather but it was already faded back then. There was also the tiniest of burn marks in the bottom from me writing too close to candle light.”
“Is this what you are talking about?”
Hovering a few metres away Agnes presented a book, one that fit the exact description that Chaeyoung had given.
“That...” Chaeyoung placed the teacup on the side table and got up from the armchair, completely enamoured by the sight of the book. She reached where Agnes was standing and looked up at her with bright eyes pleading, “May I?”
Agnes nodded with a smile and Chaeyoung reached out carefully taking it in her hands and immediately felt a wave of familiarity and warmth. The book was even more weathered and worn than she remembered and the leather straps had all but cut themselves off at the corners, but holding it again felt comfortable. This was the first time in the countless Cycles of her existence that she was reunited with her writing.
Instinctively she flipped the diary open to the location of her last entry; the day before the murder and her escape. To her surprise she found writing on the page after it with a date and a name; Marianne.
“Marianne? She wrote in my diary?” Chaeyoung looked up from the text at Agnes who nodded her expression soft and kind with a motherly smile.
“My grandmother wrote in it since the day you disappeared and when the pages of this diary ran out she continued writing in the next diary till the day she died. We even used to write diary entries together. She told me she wrote in the diary for you, so that when you returned you could read about all the things that had happened to her, all the things you had missed in your absence.”
Without her noticing tears were streaming down Chaeyoung’s cheeks and her vision was cloudy. Marianne had waited till the end for her return, she never forgot her. Even if she later realized that Chaeyoung would never return in this life, she believed that one day, even in another life and soul she would return. With a smile she closed the diary and hugged it tight, her body shivering as she sobbed with cathartic relief.
“I’m back.”
“Welcome back, great aunt Christine.”
Chaeyoung placed the diary on the armchair behind her before walking up and embracing Agnes in a long warm hug, it felt good to be back home. It was rare she got to revisit a past home and it was a first for her to visit her past life relatives. She was always left wondering and missing all her loved ones, finally she got to reconnect and find resolution on what happened to everyone. She had confirmation that she was missed and wasn’t forgotten.
Pulling away from her grand niece who was older than her in body Chaeyoung felt revitalized. After the Awakening; the adjustment to the memory recovery and the melancholy of knowing that they had failed to end the Cycle always weighed down on her. This meeting had quickly cast aside any such worry she may have had. She was invigorated and ready to fight once again.
“Can you tell me everything about you and your family? About Marianne, what she was like?”
“Of course,” Agnes smiled, “As long as you tell me all about you and the Eternal Ladies.”
Evening fast approached night as the two spent the next couple of hours recapping what they could about their life events. Chaeyoung further explained the Cycle, the Cult and about her and her first sisters, the Daughters. How the seven of them together with The Lock existed to stop The Door from succeeding. How every time the Cycle restarted the sisters would go on a search to find each other and how once awoken they never had long to spend time together.
At some point in the late evening she received a text from Yeri asking where she was and if everything was okay. She reassured her, telling she had bumped into a wonderful elderly lady who invited her for tea and told Yeri not to wait up for her.
Agnes mostly talked about her mother and their life and shared in all the wonders and people that existed, and also a few things about Marianne from her own perspective but left many details about her life out of her discussion.
“I’ll let you discover the rest from her diaries,” Agnes said having noticed that the time was well past midnight and for an eighty year old grandmother it was way past her bedtime.
“Oh no, there’s no way I could take them,” Chaeyoung said, “They are precious memories of your grandmother.”
“They were written specifically for you. Grandma Marianne would be disappointed in me if I didn’t give them to you, now that you’re back. They are yours.”
Chaeyoung hesitated. She really wanted to take them all and read through them. There were five diaries in total and it would keep her company and let her know how her family and sister got along after her brother’s death and her disappearance, about how Marianne had taken the whole ordeal. She wanted them, but at the same time was hesitant to take a memory so precious to her descendants and living family. She was just a footnote and a passing tumbleweed in the life and time of these people. Did she have the right to take them?
A canvas bag that hung low with weight was pressed against Chaeyoung’s hands as she was lost in her thought.
“Take it. After me there will be nobody to remember her except you, and you are a lot younger than I am, great aunt,” Agnes chuckled before once again pressing her hands against Chaeyoung’s. “Remember her, remember us. Keep the story alive.”
With the risk of tears beginning to fall once again Chaeyoung quickly wiped the corner of her eyes before taking hold of Agnes’ hand with the canvas bag. “I’ll read them, add to them, and before I need to disappear I’ll make sure they find their way back here again. These belong to the Lindenfels family. We can preserve the history and life and times of us. There are so few records left…” Chaeyoung’s head sank for a moment thinking about all the records and information that had been lost over the years to the Cult’s machinations.
“Thank you Agnes, for believing me.”
“Thank you for coming back to us.”
“I’ll come visit before I have to leave in two days, if that is alright with you?”
“I would love that. Bring your friends along too. We can just say that I’m a kind old lady who you bumped into and invited you over for tea.”
“I will.”
With their goodbyes said and an arrangement made to come for tea the day after, Chaeyoung slipped out of the house into the night making her way swiftly over to the hotel and slipping into the room. It looked like Yeri had been trying to stay awake even after she had told her not to, lying sideways on the bed with her phone in one hand. Nayeon looked like she had been knocked out minutes after Chaeyoung had left the room. She took Yeri’s phone plugging it in to charge, covered her properly with her blanket and then likewise succumbed to sleep soon after.
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The afternoon autumn sun attempted its best to bring warmth to the air, but the fall showers had already begun to creep in cooling the air and forcing everyone to wrap up into sweaters. Every day was no longer t-shirt day.
Gathering their things from a huge old lecture hall with massive three metre arched industrial windows flooding the room with sunlight, a slow moving slightly hunched figure with snow white hair shuffled slowly out of the lecture hall into the hallway. He continued along this way towards one end, greeting some of the young students in their twenties all spry and full of life. Gone were his days of jumping and bouncing.
At the end of the corridor which similarly had the same large arched windows to let in natural light, he turned left and opened the first door in that next corridor, stepping into what was his office and walked over to his desk and armchair to rest his weary old legs. Lecturing just once a week had become a physically tiring ordeal for him, but he loved it too much to ever give it up. He would do it till the very end. He needed it to keep his mind fresh.
Almost immediately after sitting down there was a knock on the door followed by a muffled call, “Professor?”
“Ja?”
The door opened and a man with glasses and frazzled brown hair dressed in an auburn woolly sweater peeked in from the door before stepping in as he saw the older man nod and gesture him to come in.
“I’m sorry to bother you Professor, especially at the end of your lecture day when you must be tired.”
“Nonsense Steffan, I’m here for my students and colleagues.”
“I’m here to ask if you had some time to meet someone. A young lady came in earlier today and has been waiting for your lectures to end to meet you.”
“What does she wish to talk about?”
“All she said it was about your family.”
“My family? Huh, well that is certainly interesting. Maybe it's a relative.”
“I… doubt you would be related,” Steffan, the young frazzled assistant professor twisted his face into a look of doubt before returning to a pencil thin smile, his trademark.
“Well please, send them in they have waited long enough.”
Steffan nodded and closed the door behind. Soon enough the professor could hear two sets of steps approach before there was a gentle knock on the door as it opened.
In stepped a tall and lithe East-Asian woman with dark brown hair perfectly flowing and puffed up from the front, giving it an unnaturally airy feel. Her expression was muted and hard to tell. Once Steffan closed the door behind them the lady checked that the door had closed before she turned back around to look at the Professor.
Before he could say anything a huge smile spread across the lady’s lips and she looked supremely delighted and spoke out with clear German.
“Hummeln Hummel, hurry me to Holmenkollen.”
Completely taken by surprise and the usual shakes of his frail hands stilled, the professor stared wide eyed at this beautiful young Asian lady who had just uttered something that he had been told since early childhood to remember. Something his father and grandfather had swore him to never forget, to in return pass the knowledge down to future generations, to never let this phrase and its response die.
“I’ll take you when it’s summer in Australia.”
The already bright smile somehow managed to spread even wider as the lady looked extremely pleased and happy with the response.
“Is it really you?”
She walked over to the now standing professor, cupping his wrinkled and dry hands into her long hold, “I’m back, Alexander.”
A huge smile spread on the professors lips as he gripped tighter on the hands cupping his. Everything he had been taught and had learned of his families past and time before he was born was true.
“It’s so wonderful to meet you, great-grandmother Trudi.”
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