My German Lover, Part 26 chapter 3

"If we had won... can you imagine how it would have been like, with Hitler at the helm? Can you?", Will answered, looking at Lutz...

"(...) It's just that I feel sorry Germany had to be destroyed, in order to get rid of him..."

"I know how you feel Lutz... all the Führer left behind him are ruins...", Hans saddly said...

Finally, on May 8, 1945... they heard Germany had capitulated...

"Thank God! It's over!", Will shouted out when he heard the news...

"Yeah...", Paul answered, with a big smile on his face... "And we are still alive!"

"Now what?", Lutz asked his friends... "I mean... what are we going to do, now that the war is over?"

"Oh... I did a lot of thinking about that guys... and I think I have an idea...", Paul answered, grinning...

"Oh yeah?", Lutz answered, looking at Paul... "What is it?"

"Look guys...", Paul started to say... "You already know that three years ago, Will and I bought a sugarcane plantation in Martinique... so I suggest we all move over there and start a business... We could create a new company... we would all be shareholders, and would sell shares to our employees, so they have a stake in the business... That way, we would make sure they are as eager as we are the plantation does prosper. What do you think?"

"(..) You mean... We would leave Europe?", Lutz and Hans asked...

"...Do you really want to go back to Berlin... with the Soviets over there? Is that what you want?", Will asked his two friends...

"(...) Not really...", Lutz and Hans answered.

And so, they all started to discuss Paul's idea...

"But what about Franz? I'm not going if he's not coming with us...", Lutz later said...

"...I've already talked to him about my idea... and he's willing to give up his job, and come with us... don't worry Lutz...", Paul answered, grinning...

"And what about me?", François nervously asked... "I mean... Philippe is here, in Paris... I don't want to lose him..."

"No, you won't François. You're gonna stay in Paris, and you're gonna keep the flat on the rue Galilée... so you can continue going to college...", Paul said, smiling...

"...But I want to be with you guys..."

"Look François, you remember how you and I have invested the money I gave you last November?"

"Yes..."

"So, you will have no financial problem... and my dad has already agreed to look after you... and maybe, later... if you and Philippe want to come to Martinique... well... you'll be welcome to join us over there..."

Obviously, Paul had thought about everything. He answered every question... and in the end, he said:

"Look... it's up to you guys. We stay in Europe and we continue to rot in France, like we all did last winter... or we move on with our lives, and we start building a new future for ourselves. We're family, so we all go... or no one goes! And if we decide to go... I'm not saying life will be perfect over there. We'll have to work hard, and I don't know how long it's gonna take before we see the results of our hard work. I say we give ourselves a year and a half... and if by then we don't like it... if one of us is homesick... we'll all come back. After all, Europe will still be there. But I say let's give it a try..."

After a long... a very long moment of silence... they all agreed to go.

They had all come to realize there were not too many alternatives... Europe was in ruins. The future looked bleak... The Soviets were all over Eastern Europe... and already, there were tensions between them and the Allies... Would there be another war?

Communism was on the rise, not only in France... but also in Italy, in Greece and in many other countries...

No... They didn't want to go through another war! No thanks! And they were all fed up with ideologies...

"Yeah...", Will said... "Let's give it a try! I say we go... We are young... and there is nothing left here for us in Europe!"

"Yes", they all said...

"...And I'm going too...", Pierre said, looking at Paul...

"Yes Pierre. You're coming with us, if that's what you want. I've already spoken to dad about that... and he said it's okay. He understands..."

"Cool", Pierre answered, with a big smile on his face...

"So guys... We are all going then?", Paul asked his friends...

"Yes", they all answered.

"We should drink to that", Paul answered...

So Champagne was served... and they all drank to their new life...

Four weeks later, they all boarded an American liner bound for New-York City...

"New-York City? Why?", Will asked Paul...

"That's the only way... and as soon as we reach New-York City, we'll take a train down to Miami... There, we will take another ship to Martinique...", Paul explained to his friends...

"...Quite a long trip, huh?", Will answered...

"Hey... it's that... or we all stay here. And beside, we're in no hurry, are we?", Paul replied, grinning...

"I guess not...", Lutz answered...

Before leaving France, Paul gave orders so that everything at Bagatelle... all the furniture... his grandmother's grand piano... even the chandeliers and all sconces... be packed, put into containers and sent to Martinique on a merchant ship... along with two cars he had bought, knowing it would be hard to find cars in Martinique by the time they got there...

It took them five weeks to reach Martinique...

But when they reached Fort-de-France, Paul looked at his friends and said:

"Welcome to the New World my friends... a new life is waiting for us here..."

Although Paul was laughing, he was as scared as the others!

He didn't know what to expect, and didn't know much about their new "Homeland"...

But then, he looked up over the old Fort Saint-Louis and saw the French flag flying over it... and he smiled to himself. Yes... they were home!

He didn't know why, but he felt like crying.

He knew perfectly well all the others were counting on him... like if he was some kind of wizard.

But Paul knew perfectly well he was not a wizard, and he felt very much responsable for the five others he had convince to imbark in this new journey... and he felt all the pressure on his shoulders.

"Shit", he said to himself... "I'm only twenty-four years old! Why do I have to go through all this?".

Then, he looked at Will, his beatiful lover... and again, it's in his beatiful blue eyes that he found the courage to fight for his friends...

As they were going ashore, a tall man walked to them, smiling. The man looked at them and said:

"...Which one of you is monsieur de Brion?"

"I am monsieur de Brion...", Paul answered...

"Oh... nice to meet you monsieur... and welcome to Fort-de-France. I'm Gérard Langevin... I'm the real-estate agent you bought your plantation from..."

"Oh yes monsieur Langevin... I remember you now...", Paul answered, smiling at the man...

"Your father wrote to me, to tell me you were coming... and he asked me to greet you. You must all be tired from your long trip, and eager to reach your new home..." the man said...

"Yes", Paul answered.

"Well... meet Émile... He knows where your plantation is located, and he will drive you there..."

"It's a pleasure to meet you monsieur Émile...", Paul said to the tall, smilling Martinican...

"Yes...", monsieur Émile answered... "Welcome to Martinique... Now, we'll have to put your luggage in my truck over there...", the man said, pointing to his truck, that looked more like a very old bus than a truck...

Ludwig looked at it, then at Franz and... rolling his eyes he said, dubitatively:

"Yeah! Welcome to Martinique!"

Franz grinned... then answered:

"Well... I prefer to be here than in Berlin!"

"Shut up, you two...", Hans said... "When in Rome, we do like the Romans... and that truck is not so bad..."

"Shit!", Ludwig answered, a bit dispirited...

A few Martinicans help them to put their luggage onboard the big truck. Paul paid them, then he said to his friends:

"Let's go pals... Let's go home!"

So they left Fort-de-France and their driver drove them to their sugarcane plantation...

"Is it far from here?", Paul asked the driver...

"Not really... It's in the Southern part of the island... and the island is not so big you know. The only problem is that the roads to the South are not too good... But soon, they will be repaired, don't worry...", the driver answered, smiling...

After more than an hour driving on bad roads, the driver finally said:

"We're almost there..."

Ten minutes later the driver announced:

"That's the entrance to your plantation, Sir..."

Entering through the plantation's main wrought-iron gate, they all looked in the distance to an impressive whitewashed mansion on a grassy hilltop...

"That used to be the "Maison de maître" (Master's house) the driver said... "That's before the plantation was abandoned years ago..."

"Yes", Paul answered, giving the driver a friendly smile...

They slowly drove towards the mansion but at one point, the driver stopped the truck, since from that point the private road leading to the mansion was no longer practicable...

"I guess you'll all have to walk the rest of the distance...", the driver told them...

"No problem!", Paul answered... "We'll have that road repaired in no time..."

"...Not only the road, Sir...", the driver answered, looking at the mansion...

Paul looked up at the big mansion, with its impressive eight-columned two story portico and prominent pedimented gable stretching across the entire front of the building, trimmed by tooth-like dentil moulding along the base and the sloping sides...

Once near the mansion, he gave a look to the towering, fluted colums with ornate Corinthian colum capitals that proved the dignity of the original owner...

However, from such a short distance, it wasn't hard to see the mansion had been abandoned for may years, and needed much repairs. Paul turned to look at Will and all he saw into his lover's beatiful eyes was despair... He gave him a tender smile and said:

"Come on... let's go inside..."

They silently walked to the mansion's 60-foot-wide stone steps and once on the colonnaded front porch Paul turned to look at the Sea as the plantation was delimited on one side by the beatiful, turquoise Caribbean Sea. He stared at the Sea for a while... then said:

"Look at that view guys: It's fantastic, don't you think?"

They all turned to look at the Sea, and for the first time in a while, Paul saw them smile...

After a while, they walked inside the mansion and entered the sixteen-foot ceiling front hall, with its signature "floating" staircase -a fabulous stairway that winds up either side of the foyer with no visible means of support-

"It's beatiful...", Paul said...

"Yes Sir... It used to be...", the driver said... "Lots of work to be done though, to restore the place to its original grandeur... and I guess it's gonna take a lot of money to do that. Many people would just tear down the mansion and built something more modern..."

"Never!", Paul answered, shocked by that idea...

He looked at the tall double-hung windows extending from near the ceiling to the floor, making it possible to walk from the house to the porch beyond.

He slowly walked towards one of the tall windows, opened it and walked out. Back on the colonnaded front porch, Paul again looked at the Sea. "We're going to restore this place!", he said to himself. "Yes sir!"

Will joined him on the porch. He was silent. Paul looked at him and said:

"What do you think?"

"Do you really want to know?"

"Yes..."

"... Have you seen "Gone With the Wind?"

"The film? Sure...", Paul answered...

"Well... the place looks a lot like "Tara" in the film... but after it had gone through the Civil War! All that is missing is the Spanish moss... And it wouldn't surprise me to suddenly see a starving Scarlet O'Hara walk through those broken French doors..."

Paul turned to Will and, with tears in his eyes, he answered:

"That's not exactly what I was expecting you to say..."

Will saw so much sadness into his lover's beatiful green eyes, he felt bad for what he had just said. He took Paul into his strong arms, gave him a tender kiss and said:

"I'm sorry Paul. Shit! I'm so sorry... Look: There's a lot of work to do to restore this place... but we'll do it! Look at me Paul... We'll do it, you hear? And we will succeed!"

"I can't do it alone..."

"Hey! I'm here. And so are the others. Now, put a smile on your face, will you?"

Paul smiled at Will. His courage was coming back to him. They all needed him. They all counted on him. And Paul knew that. 

"Yes...", he finally said... "We will succeed!"

When they heard some one else walk on the porch, they turned and saw their driver walking towards them...

"...Of course Sir, the Maison de maître doesn't look too good now... and as I said, it needs a lot of repairs... but I've worked here in the past, and I know it's strongly built. It's well adapted to the climatic conditions around here... I know it's been built more than a hundred years ago, and since then, it withstood all the natural disasters that occured on the island..."

"(...)"

"So..." the driver continued to say... "This is your Habitation Sir..."

Paul didn't know yet that in the French West Indies, the term "Habitation" meant the whole estate... including the sugarcane fields, the main house, the out buildings as well as what used to be the slave cabins, set up along a part of the property known as "rues cases-nègres". As such, the "Habitation"... or Plantation... consisted of all the planter's -or master's- possessions...

"So you've worked here before?", Paul asked the driver...

"Yes Sir..."

"What about the other buildings on the estate?"

"...Well I would say they also need repairs, Sir... The distillery hasn't actually been in operation since... 1936, I'd say..."

"So you know the place well...", Will asked.

"Oh yes, Sir", the driver answered, beaming...

"Do you have a job at the moment?", Paul asked the man...

"...Not really, Sir. Not much work around here, you know..."

"...And do you know some of the workers that used to work here?"

The driver smiled to Paul and answered:

"Of course, Sir... I know them well... they're my friends..."

"...Well... if you and your friends are looking for jobs... good jobs... well paid jobs... be here the day after tomorrow...", Paul said to the driver.

"We'll be here, Master..." the man answered, smiling...

"...Never call me "master" again, you hear? If you and your friends agree to work with us on this plantation, we'll be business partners... and from now on, you call me Paul, okay?"

"Yes Master... I mean... Yes, Sir.. Paul..."

Since Paul had already transfered all the money he had in France into a bank account at Fort-de-France... money was no object.

Of course, he had not transfered the money he had in Switzerland nor the money he had in the United-States... No. He knew better than that! And his father was taking care of his investments...

So two days later, true to his word, the driver came back to the plantation... along with many of his friends.

Paul explained to them what he had in mind... and that all employees would have a stake into their business, since they would be shareholders...

Of course, Paul had a lot of explaining to do, for this was a foreigh concept to the Martinicans....

"We'll share the profits with you?", one of the Martinicans asked...

"...Yes! If we make profits, that is!", Paul answered, laughing...

"Oh we will...", all the Martinicans answered, smiling...

And before long, he plantation was back into business... and the old "Master's house" was repaired...

"Magnificent", Will said to Paul, looking at the house once it had been repaired... "You did it!"

"Yeah!", Paul answered..."We all did it!", he added, rather proud of what they all had accomplished...

Eventually, the big containers from France were delivered, along with the two cars Paul had bought in France...

The furniture, the grand piano... the chandeliers... everything was fitting perfectly well in the big mansion, now restored to its original and formal grandeur. And of course, the road leading to the mansion was also repaired...

"...The place looks stunning", Hans said one morning, looking at the mansion... "Quite different from what we saw the first day we got here, huh?"

"Yes... We all did a great job guys", Paul answered looking at his friends.

Of course, servants were hired to take care of the mansion... and provide for their needs, including a good cook, to feed them well...

Yes, life was getting better and better with each passing day!