Inherit the Past

by Susan Finlay

  He jumped up. “I’ll go with you.”

  She shook her head. “Just us girls, Maxie.”

  He looked taken aback, but then looked at Sofie and grinned. “Okay. But don’t say anything too mean about me.”

  They laughed, which drew Karl’s attention. As they reached the door, Karl shot a panicked look at Monika.

  She shook her head ‘no’ and gave him a look that she hoped was reassuring. Though she didn’t approve of what her father and his friend had been up to all these years, she had no intention of telling Sofie anything about their shenanigans.

  When they got outside and began strolling in the warm morning air, Monika said, “We haven’t had much time to talk, you and I. Though we’re just getting to know one another, I want you to know that I’m thrilled to have you as a daughter-in-law.”

  “I’m happy to become part of your family. I’ve never been part of a large family. I guess you probably already know that I didn’t even have a mother or father.”

  “Well, I think we’ll have to remedy that. I’ll try to be like a real mother to you; if you end up staying in this century, that is.”

  Monika stopped suddenly and looked at Sofie. “I do worry about what century you, Max, Tobias, and Ryan will live in. I would love for all of you to stay here, but it would be selfish of me to wish for that. I know how much you would have to give up.”

  Sofie nodded. “I have faith that we’ll be all right whether or not we get back. I know it won’t be easy here, but if we must, we’ll adjust, as you have.”

  Monika clasped Sofie’s hand and smiled. “Max is a lucky man.” She tilted her head, studying Sofie. “It’s funny that of all people he should meet in Riesen, it was you. Papa thinks that it was fate, or perhaps my mother, watching over the family, that brought you together.”

  “Serendipity, perhaps,” Sofie said, smiling sweetly. “Or as Max thinks, maybe we’re soul mates.”

  “That’s a possibility, too. Either way, I’m really glad. I think that my mother and your grandfather would be pleased.”

  “I hope so. I really wish my grandfather could be here, too. It sounds as though he and Karl were good friends at one time. Did you ever meet him?”

  Monika’s father had warned her not to say anything. Sofie and Max would keeping asking, though. She had no doubt. “I’ve heard lots of stories about him. Vikktor would be proud of you, I’m sure.”

  “I wonder about him sometimes, especially now that I know he time traveled. He seems to have had many secrets.”

  Monika nodded. “True. Your grandfather and my father are two of a kind, I think. They are both a mystery to me, I must admit.”

  Sofie chuckled. “I think Max is also having trouble with that aspect of his grandfather. I don’t blame him.”

  Monika didn’t say anything.

  Sofie looked quizzically at Monika. “Are you happy here? Are you sorry about the things you’ve had to give up?”

  Monika was surprised. No one had ever asked her that. After a brief silence, she said, “I am happy. I missed much from my old life at first, but this is my life now. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”

  No, she wouldn’t go back. Not now. Before she met Gerhard, she would have given anything to get home. It was amazing how much she’d changed over the years and how much her life had changed.

  “Just know, I will do whatever I can to help you and Max figure out how to work the time portal. I hope you two will get the chance to choose for yourselves whether to stay here or go back.”

  She paused, and sniffed at the fresh air as they turned around and headed back toward the house, carefully choosing her next words.

  “I don’t have any regrets. Not really. I just hope that you and Max won’t have regrets, either.”

  “Thank you,” Sofie said. “That means a lot to me.”

  IN THE EARLY afternoon, Max watched Monika place a fresh batch of homemade biscuits on the kitchen table. “You can wait here,” she said, “while I look for Karl, Sofie, Lotte, Tobias, Anneliese, and Ryan, and gather them in here to eat a snack and discuss the time portal. You need to rest.”

  “What about Gerhard and the kids? Aren’t they going to join us?” Max asked.

  “He and the boys are busy working on the new wagon. He was quite upset about losing our wagon. We must have a wagon. Hanna and Sigrid are busy tending the farm animals.”

  Max nodded and watched her leave the room. Unable to resist, he gobbled down one biscuit, while waiting for everyone to arrive.

  Finally, when Monika returned, they all sat down. Karl grabbed two biscuits and buttered them. Max rubbed his temples as he waited for them to start, hoping to get some answers, but worried that none would be forthcoming.

  “Are we ready?” Karl asked after finishing his biscuits.

  Max immediately nodded. “Yeah. I have many questions. I don’t know where to begin.”

  “You aren’t alone,” Sofie said.

  “First, I really need to say something to Gramps,” Max said, turning to face his grandfather. “I’m sorry for your loss. Then having to send Ryan and me into hiding—well, I’m sure that must have been really difficult, especially when we’re both suspects. And I also wanted to thank you for gathering a search party to look for us, even when you didn’t who had murdered Birgitta. Thank you.”

  Karl nodded, folded his hands together on the table, but didn’t speak. Max couldn’t blame him.

  Max cleared his throat and continued. “Sofie and I have talked about having this meeting. Although we do want to discuss our time travel problem, we thought we should concentrate first on figuring out who killed Birgitta and what we should do about it.”

  “Nein,” Karl said. “It is too painful. We talk about portal and try to figure out how to get you back home.”

  “No, I’m sorry. We’re going to address the murder, first. Ryan and I are suspects. I don’t want to cause you more pain, Gramps, but this is serious for us as well. Don’t you want your wife’s killer brought to justice?”

  Karl’s shoulders slumped.

  Monika said, “I certainly hope the killer is a stranger, but from what I’ve heard from each of you, the killer may well be one of you. Also, the Feld gendarmes may be hunting for Max and Ryan. We’re hiding them in our home, which puts all of us at risk. At the very least, we need to know what we’re up against and how to provide a consistent story.”

  Tobias said, “Why are they looking for Max and Ryan?”

  Sofie said, “Tobias, honey, lots of people at the gasthof were talking about the murder. Several people claim to have seen Max and Birgitta together outside. Others said they saw Ryan and Birgitta arguing in the stable.”

  “But they didn’t kill her, did they?” He turned and looked at Max and then Ryan. “You wouldn’t do that.”

  “We didn’t kill her,” Max said. “I didn’t even see Birgitta after I left the tavern in the gasthof. Ryan and I argued in the stable and then we both left. Ryan got lost in the woods and I walked along the road for a while. When I started walking back to the gasthof, someone hit me on the head and I lost consciousness. When I woke up, the sun was coming up.”

  Sofie translated for Lotte and Anneliese.

  Max waited for Tobias to ask the obvious—what he and Ryan had argued about. He wasn’t sure how he should handle that question.

  Tobias turned and looked at Lotte. "Wo warst du damals? Ich sah dich verlassen. Wir waren in der Taverne."

  Sofie opened her mouth to speak, but Max put his hand on her knee and she stopped. He wasn’t sure what the boy was asking, but he had a darn good idea.

  “Ich folgte Ihrer Mutter,” she said. "Ich war besorgt um sie. Sie sollte nicht nachts alleine draußen gegangen. Sie ging zum Stall, und dann kam wieder in Max zu bekommen. Ich kam zurück in danach. Ich war wieder nicht aus."

  Max looked to Sofie, “What did she say?”

  “She said she followed me because she was worried. She didn’t think it was safe for me to go outside al
one at night. She watched me go into the stables, and then back to the tavern to get you. She said she went back inside then, too.” Sofie paused. After a moment she continued. “You know, I thought someone was watching me. I couldn’t be sure, though.”

  “Then why did she tell people she saw me with Birgitta?”

  Monika said, “What makes you think she was the one who said that?”

  “Gramps told me when we were in that shack that he suspected Lotte had started the rumors about me and Ryan. He said he wasn’t positive, but he’d seen her whispering in the ears of other guests.”

  Monika translated for Lotte and Anneliese.

  “Nein, nein. Wir redeten über den Mord, aber ich nicht vorzuwerfen, Max oder Ryan."

  Monika said, “She talked about the murder, but she didn’t accuse either of you.”

  “Okay,” Max said, “Gramps also said that he and Lotte used to date and she was trying to get him back. And we all know that Lotte and Birgitta didn’t like each other.”

  Monika translated.

  Lotte said, "Das ist lächerlich. Ich will nicht, dass alte Griesgram. Birgitta und ich hatten unsere Streitereien manchmal, aber wir hassen sich nicht."

  Max shrugged, then raised his hand. “I didn’t follow that.”

  Sofie said, “Lotte thinks that’s ridiculous. She doesn’t want the old curmudgeon. Also, she and Birgitta quarreled sometimes, but they didn’t hate each other.”

  Max gave Karl a sideways look. His grandfather scowled but didn’t comment.

  “All right,” Max said, “I guess the next question is: when and why did Birgitta go outside? Sofie told me her body was found in the stable early in the morning by someone who worked there.”

  “Birgitta must have left room after we went asleep,” Karl said. “Sofie told me she woke up in night when she heard a noise. She figured it was Max or Ryan coming in. She went back to sleep. But it must have been Lotte and Birgitta leaving together. Anneliese told them about what happened in the stable. Lotte convinced Birgitta to go after the boy, Ryan. But it was a trick. When they got out there, Lotte killed her.”

  Sofie translated. Anneliese put her hand over her mouth and her eyes filled with tears. Lotte spat at Karl’s face and stormed out of the house.

  Max looked at everyone. They looked as stunned as he felt. “What do we do now? Sounds like Gramps maybe hit the nail on the head. Do we turn her over to the Feld gendarmes or do we cover for her?”

  “I say turn her over,” Gramps said. “They will hunt you if they do not get the murderer.”

  “Isn’t there another way?” Max said. “I’m really sorry, Gramps. I feel your pain. But after being a suspect and being scared out of my mind, it’s hard for me to turn someone in, especially when you don’t know for a fact that Lotte is guilty.”

  Max noticed Ryan glancing at Anneliese, then reaching out and taking her hand in his. Would Ryan let Lotte take the rap for Anneliese? He’d told Max earlier he hadn’t witness the murder, but being in love, Ryan could be covering for her.

  No one spoke for several minutes. Finally, Max sighed and shook his head. “Okay, setting that topic aside for a moment, I’ve got many questions about time travel, the portal, and our family’s history.”

  Monika looked at Karl.

  Karl grimaced, clenched his jaw a moment, then said, “Your mother already mentioned some of this the other night. I expect you will hear more from Lotte since she is angry with me.” He paused and looked down at his hands, which were face down on the table in front of him. “Vikktor and me, we time traveled when we were young men. I got back home, but Vikktor got stuck here for many years.”

  Max said, “I think you need to start from the beginning, Gramps. When and how did you and Vikktor first time travel?”

  “It is very long story.”

  “We aren’t going anywhere,” Max said.

  Karl took a deep breath, then sighed. “Ja. It was January, 1949. Vikktor and I were both twenty. My mother died, and I inherited her house, the same one you inherited, Max. I asked Vikktor to help me clear out things from the cellar. Behind crates, we found boards nailed up in a strange way on the wall. Crisscrossing, messy. We yanked off boards and found door. You saw it. We opened door and went inside and we end up in past. Somehow, we got separated soon after. I looked for him without luck. I found a farm and people there were kind to me. They had big family. One of the daughters was pretty girl, Margrit. We became friends. Months later, I went back to the cave to look around, thinking I might figure it out, we got sent to my time.”

  “Both of you?” Sofie said.

  “Ja. I still do not know how it happened.”

  Max said, “What about Vikktor?”

  Karl glanced at Monika. Max had a sneaking suspicious Karl would try to lie. Finally, Karl sighed.

  “He did not come back until thirty years passed.”

  Sofie said, “He was gone for thirty years and no one went looking for him?”

  “Nein, Lotte told people he was living abroad. No one questioned that. She would check on his house sometimes.”

  “Did you do anything?” Max asked. “What about the portal? Did you board it up?”

  “We could not board up the tunnel because we hoped Vikktor would come through. When he finally made it back, he told us he had learned how to make the portal work. He had also said he found another one similar to it.”

  Max leaned back in his chair. More portals. Wow! “Okay, this is good news. Where is this other portal? What do you know about it?”

  “Vikktor changed. He would not share. He said that was his secret and he had to protect it.”

  Max and Sofie exchanged glances. Her eyebrows were raised, as he imagined his were, too. “What was his secret?”

  Karl squirmed in his seat and wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. “He never tell me. I asked Lotte. She said she did not know, either.”

  “What happened then?”

  “He started time traveling a lot. He went back and forth over a twenty year period, sometimes stopping in Riesen to visit with me and Margrit. We would talk about our days in school together, and about the past—the eighteenth century. Margrit would ask him many questions. After one of his trips back in time, he told us he had visited Margrit’s family’s farm. He talked to her about her brothers and sisters. Margrit was happy.”

  “I remember him going on ‘business trips’,” Sofie said. “Tante Lotte would come and stay with me, or I would stay at her house in Gottingen while he was away.”

  “Ja. When he visited us, he would have stories to tell. If anyone had heard them, they would have thought he was crazy or was writer of fiction.” Karl grinned and shook his head, then became serious again. “That Vikktor was something else. I figured someday he would get himself into trouble and never return.”

  Sofie scrunched her eyes, then said, “Wait a minute. You said he was gone for thirty years, beginning in 1949. That means he returned in 1979. That’s the year I was born.”

  Karl glanced at Monika and slumped his shoulders.

  “Out with it, Gramps,” Max said. “Sounds like you left out a few details. Go back to the part where Vikktor made it back after thirty years.”

  Karl sighed. “One day, in 1979, Margrit and I were in our kitchen eating breakfast and we heard someone pounding on the door in cellar. We ran downstairs. We heard screaming coming from tunnel. We had put hook on door to warn us, not knowing if someone else would find it. We opened door and were stunned to see Vikktor standing there with a four-month-old baby in his arms. He claimed she was his granddaughter. Margrit did not believe him. She told him to take the baby back. He refused, they argued. After that, he never used our portal. He did not need to use it, anyway, because he had another portal.”

  Shaking, Sofie said, “My grandfather, if he is my grandfather, told me my parents had died when I was a baby. Either they died here in this century, or he lied to me.” She shook her head, anger in her voice. “I grew up believing my grandf
ather was a business-owner—an importer and that he was traveling on business. This means that he and Tante Lotte lied to me my whole life.” Apparently thinking a moment, Sofie continued “I guess Lotte is not my great-aunt, either.”

  Max reached over to comfort Sofie, but she was not done talking. “When I went away to college in England, he bought a small airplane which he said he used for traveling to big cities to sell his goods. I stayed in England to attend university. I called him one day in tears and told him I was pregnant. My boyfriend had dumped me when he found out. Vikktor said he would fly to England to get me after he completed his business trip. He didn’t make it. I was told that his plane had crashed while on that business trip. Why would he fake his death?”

  Karl shook his head. “I did not know about that until you told me that day in Riesen. I asked Lotte about it. She knew he was still alive and that he had faked his death. She claimed she did not know why he had done it. I do not believe her.”

  Tobias said, “Does this mean we really belong in this time period?”

  “No, sweetie,” Sofie said. Suddenly concerned for her son, she reached over and touched Tobias’s hand. “I think it means we are all connected to two different time periods. I don’t know where we truly belong. Perhaps we each have to decide that for ourselves.”

  Max’s head was spinning. His grandparents and Vikktor had woven a web that they were all trapped in, trapping them all in this time loop, for lack of a better term. Something was niggling at the back of his mind, though, and then he had it. He remembered how his grandfather had described the boarded up door. Holy crap!

  “Uh, you told us the door to the portal had been boarded up in crisscross fashion when you first discovered it. That tells me someone else already must have known about the time portal. How long has this been going on in our family? Good God, we could have other relatives here.”

  Monika opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out.

  Karl said, “Ja, we do not really know. I once searched the house for journals, letters, anything that might give a clue. I never found anything.”

  Ryan suddenly burst in. “Something that’s been bothering me is that Anneliese is related to me. That’s incest, isn’t it?”