Writing for Fun
March 2018
Mystery - Bob Wendelkin
When I was a young boy I was living with my Mother and Father in Germany where my father was in the army. We had lived in Essen in a private house that belonged to the Army. I was always curious about the mysterious house that was a few doors away from where we lived. Everyone I asked including my German friends didn’t seem to know or were not prepared to talk about it. On my way to school I used to look at the shuttered windows, the garden had become over grown. On one occasion my friends and I climbed over the wall into the garden and looked through the windows. What we saw was rooms that seemed to be newly deserted. Plates of unfinished food were left on the tables almost as if someone had just left the room. Being less respectful then, we found a way into the house through one of the windows where the dry rot had weakened the wooden window frame and it was quite easy just to lift the window and climb into the room.
We found our away down into the basement where we discovered a room trapped in time. Whoever had lived there it was clear that they had been a dedicated Nazi. On the wall there was still a Nazi Swastika flag, albeit dirty and decayed and eaten by moths. There were pictures of Hitler and his cronies. Also there was picture of a man in a senior SS uniform, who we thought might have been the owner of the house.
Over the next few weeks my friends and I used to climb into the house were we used the pictures of Hitler as target practice for our catapults and other bits of Nazi paraphernalia were used as firewood or target practice.
In one of the drawers I found a gold ring with the Swastika symbol engraved on its surface. Very soon after this my father was posted back to the UK and the house and all that we had found faded into history.
Some years later my wife and I were walking down the street when we saw a notice board outside a Pub saying that they were having a Clairvoyant Evening that night. Not having a lot to do that evening and as there was nothing worthwhile on TV we decided to go to the pub that evening, perhaps we should have stayed in and watched some of the TV repeats.
When we got there a lady sitting on a platform in the bar. Already by the time we got there the bar was quite full.
A lady in the audience asked my wife if we had been to one of her séances before. We told her this was the first time we had ever been to any séance. The lady told us she had been to a number of her séances and thought she had quite a gift and it wasn’t just a joke to fill the pub and make a bit of money for the publican. I also told her I didn’t believe in this sort of nonsense, well not then – now, I’m not so certain.
The clairvoyant was delivering some discord on an item that someone from the audience had given to her. She then asked if anyone had anything to give her, she was looking directly at me.
‘You sir, have you anything you would like me to consider?’ She asked.
I had, just for a laugh, brought the Nazi ring that I had picked up in Germany when I was a boy. For years it had been stuck in a drawer.
‘I have this ring I picked up when I was a boy. It might be of some interest,’ I said as one of her helpers came over to collect it.
She took hold of the ring and twisted it round and round in her hand.
‘Are you sure you want me to work with this ring?’ she asked as she held the ring this time at arm’s length. On her face was a look of disgust as if she was handling something from a Dog’s Poo bag.
I asked her if there was anything I should know about the ring.
‘There is some evil associated with this ring. Do you want me to find out more for you? asked the Clairvoyant.
‘Well we have come this far, we might as well know the rest of its history,’ I replied.
‘Very Well, on your head be it,’ was her reply.
She then started to take deep breaths and closed her eyes as if going into a trance.
‘This is all a bit like Madame Arcati in that play, Blithe Spirit,’ I said to my wife.
Very soon the Clairvoyant started to speak. ‘This ring was given to an SS officer by Hitler himself. This officer had helped Hitler escape from his Berlin bunker as the Russians were fighting their way to the centre of the city,’ said the Clairvoyant.
‘Do you want me to continue?’ asked the Clairvoyant.
‘You have come this far, why stop now,’ I replied.
‘Very well. He managed to get Hitler and his then wife to a small plane that had landed in one of Berlin’s boulevards. They took off and headed for the Danish Boarder. In the plane Hitler shaved off his moustache and stuffed his cheeks with cotton and had a scar drawn across his cheek, he and his wife changed their clothes for something less obvious and more normal. They caught another bigger plane that took them to a seaport in Denmark where three submarines were waiting to take them away from Europe,’ continued the Clairvoyant.
‘The submarines sailed just as the war was coming to an end, they sailed to Argentina but only one submarine with Hitler on board made it, the other two were sunk by our navy. When they got to Argentina the remaining submarine was sunk by a concealed time bomb that sunk the submarine killing all of its crew, to reduce the number of people who knew that Hitler had escaped.’
‘How was the ring involved?’ I asked.
‘The recipient of the ring had arranged for a man and woman’s body to be acquired and burnt in the garden of the Reich’s Chancellery. To make believe that Hitler had died in his bunker. The recipient had sometime before searched the Concentration camps for a prisoner who looked like Hitler. He was brought to the Bunker and kept in isolation so that only a very few of the occupants knew he was there. At the appropriate time the man was brought into Hitler’s room and he was shot through the head. His body and that of a young woman who had been killed in the fighting were then burnt. Even those in the bunker thought that Hitler had committed suicide.’
‘Why didn’t the recipient of the ring go with Hitler?’ I asked.
‘He felt he might be safer in Germany than going with Hitler, also he had a family to consider,’ was her reply.
‘Eventually he got back to the house in Essen where he lived for a number of years until a Jewish group of Nazi hunters started to track him down so he left the house in a rush. With the help of a Catholic Bishop he got papers so that he could go into hiding in Brazil.’
’What about the ring?’ I asked again.
‘When Hitler and his cronies settled in Argentina Hitler sent the ring to him by post. Do you want me to go on?’ she asked.
‘Well you have come this far,’ I replied
‘What I have to tell you is even more unpleasant about this ring. The Nazi’s collected a lot of gold from the victims of the concentration camps after they were gassed,’ she continued.
‘I think you can stop now,’ I said in a loud voice.
‘This ring was made with of some of that gold by a goldsmith that was a prisoner. Hitler had quite a few rings made so that he could give one to his favoured people.’
‘I think you can stop now!’ I said in an even louder voice.
‘Now have this ring back,’ said the clairvoyant.
‘I think that ends this evening work. Good night everyone, may your God go with you,’ she said as she left the stage.
‘Well what are you going to do with that ring now?’ asked the wife ‘I don’t want it in the house anymore.’
‘I quite agree, the thought that Hitler may have handled it puts it in another category. I know what I shall do with it. I’m going to send it to the Israeli Embassy with a letter telling them the story of the ring as I know it and asking them to dispose of it in a proper manner.’
‘That seem a good idea, that’s one mystery solved. Now tell me what I want to drink,’ said the wife.