- Why are you leaving?
- I can't stay here anymore.
- And why, my son?
- I can't stay here anymore. Your daughter loves me.
- And?
- And I love her too.
Charles was silent as he looked at me like an inquisitor. I talked:
- I told you that I would not break my word, I gained your trust and that I would not lose it. That's why I'm leaving. I leave here with a clear conscience.
- Are you sure you want to go?
- Yes.
- Have dinner with us, to say goodbye.
- I can't. I better leave now.
I left there. I had no idea where I was going, but I knew I couldn't stay there. I walked for about 4 hours and saw a farm. I figured this was Charles's brother's farm. I was going to pass by, but I heard screams coming from there and I saw a German Jeep. I went there, quietly, and saw that there were three officers. They were not armed, but they were terrorizing Arthur's daughters and wife, who was Charles's brother. I took the ax that was near the door and I already entered the house killing one officer and then the other, Arthur had enough time to pick up his gun and blow the third person's brains out.
- Thank you very much, boy. How can I thank you?
- Giving me a landing tonight.
I told him my whole story, I told him I was German, but I already considered myself English. He told me he was Charles's brother and I entrusted him with the love I had for his niece. I slept there and the next day, we had breakfast together. He asked me to stay for lunch, I told him I couldn't, I had to go my way. That's when I found out that he had one of his broken machines and I knew how to fix it:
- I'll fix it for you and leave. OK?
- What beauty, you can still have lunch with us, then.
I helped him and then we had lunch. When I was at the gate, finishing the last preparations to leave, a real entourage arrived, all on horseback: Charles, his wife and his two daughters.
- Karl?! - Charles looked surprised. - You around here?
- Yes, I had a little mission to accomplish here.
- What kind of mission? Don't tell me that you switched to the German side?
- No, and please, never repeat that again. I had to fulfill a mission, let's say, humanitarian.
- Good thing we found you here, we were coming here to ask Arthur to help us find you. We are really in need of you back at the farm.
- What happened? Did any brazen sauerkraut dare put that kind of dirty boot there?
- No, no kraut would be crazy enough to have that courage. You know that there is your home. And besides, you are a German in England, you have nowhere to go.
- But ...
- We can't stand here at the door knocking. Understand my ultimatum: from here you just leave to go back to the farm.
- Let's go in and see what your terms are.
Karl stopped telling the story, took a sip of the wine he still had in his glass, stroked his beard and looked at the clock on the mantel. He warned his wife and son:
- Many parts of this story are still missing and it is too late. Do you want to keep listening?
- Of course, Dad!
- This is a beautiful story.
- Then you will have to wait until tomorrow, the same time, after dinner!
- Ah! Come on dad!
- Only tomorrow. Come on, everyone to bed!
Otto spent a good quarter of an hour thinking about the stories his father told, also thinking about the ones he kept to himself, stories that Otto was not yet old enough to hear. Sometimes, his father would tell him one or another parlenda that, in the end, appeared a motto, moral or legacy. In one of his favorite books, one subject spoke to the other: "What is the legacy that your father left you?" "In truth?" "Yea." "None." Over and over, while doing his daily chores, Otto stopped to think about it: what would be, of the many and so many legacies that his father had passed on to him would be what he would take for the rest of his life. I didn't know and really, I couldn't tell.
The day passed with some rigor; Otto fulfilled his tasks for the day. After everything was ready, he took a pen and paper and there he wrote the whole story that his father had told him, remembering every detail. "I will never regret not having written, when I am old and cannot remember. I will not remember all the details, but I will read this!" Otto thought. When night fell, they had supper together and then repeated the act of last night religiously. After everyone was settled in their place, Karl continued:
- What part of the story was I in?
- When Mr. Charles asked him to return to mr. Arthur and I was going to introduce you to the terms.
- Oh yes, really. So, we went back to the farm and sat on the couch. Arthur was astonished to see his brother and the whole family there. He told the story of that night twice. Charles also told how the two had gotten rid of eight German officers.
- Charles, Arthur! I have already told this story; you have already told it again twice. - I called them to attention.
- Yes, he did. But he told it in his German way! Just the basics, without the emotion!
- Wow, you and your English emotions.
In another corner of the room, the ladies and girls were talking to each other, but at this moment, Charles called them to the center of the room:
" Come over here," he said. - I will present the term for Karl to return to the farm.
- And what are your terms? - I asked.
- May you and Ann get married.
- Daddy?! - Ann, who was the older girl's name, blushed and spoke.
- Are these your terms? - I asked, maybe a little whiter than I already was.
- Yes. What do you think?
- As I see it? Look great.
That beautiful young woman and I looked at each other. I loved her, unconditionally and I still love her today. He took his beloved's hand and looked her in the eye. Time has passed and here we are: me, the woman I love and our son.
Otto thanked his father for the beautiful story. He kissed them both goodnight and ran to his room. There he took ink and paper and finished writing his parents' story.
Life passed on the farm with the greatest calm and tranquility, everyone fulfilled their tasks, the water was good, the harvest was going well, everyone's health was dingy. The farm was thriving. It did not take long for them to start selling the products the farm produced and Ann no longer needed to work at the other farmers' houses. The success and fame of the farm soon spread around the area and soon people began to appear in search of jobs, and luckily there was much more work on the farm than workers. Karl wanted to be able to help these people by employing and feeding. The success of the farm only increased and Otto loved to see everything, see all those people stabilizing and may worthily live your life. Karl managed to increase his wealth considerably, and with the money he started to earn more he extended the limits of the farm, and in this way, he could also increase the number of people who could work there. Karl explained:
- This year will be special! We will harvest those special vines that I imported from Spain.
- We will make great wine! It will be our best.
The wine that would be prepared that year until it could become a special vintage, however that year would be nothing special for Karl and Otto. The weather was good and the weather forecasts for that year were good. Otto loved to wake up in the morning and when he finished his tasks, go and see how big the grapes were. From one day to the next, the changed winds started to bring a mass of polar air and it looked like the snow was going to fall a few weeks earlier than expected. Karl was already expecting a very cold winter, because in the autumn it had rained too much and when that happened, he could be sure that the winter would be very, very cold. The days passed and, what Karl was most afraid of happened: three weeks before winter started, the snow started to fall and that left Karl very sad.
- Come on! I do not believe! I did not count on this production to increase my personal profit; I do not work to accumulate wealth. I needed this production to pay for all the employees, to apply it to improve the quality of life for each one of the residents of our farm. - Karl was talking to the elder.
- Calm down boss. Everything will be fine. The Indians say that everything works out in the end.
- And why isn't everything going wrong?
- Maybe it's not the end yet.
Otto was very young, and yet he could see that something was wrong there, something was out of place. He took a paper and wrote a sentence, which he left on his father's desk:
"Worry is like a bird that lands under our head. The great wisdom of life is not to let it make its nest."
When Karl read that sentence, his heart was filled with peace. At its core, he knew that at some point he would find an answer to that question. But what made him happy was seeing that his son had gone out of his way to help him out of that difficult situation. After dinner when everyone was sitting on the sofa, Karl said to his wife:
- Ann, today our Otto proved to be a great successor!
- What happened?
- What did I do, dad? - Otto also pretended not to know, and in fact did not know, because he had not written his name on the note.
- This morning, when I arrived at my office, I found a note on my desk. I read it and the phrase left me very at peace with myself.
- And what did you read, love?
- Tell your mother, Otto, the phrase you wrote for me.
- Who told you that I wrote it?
- I could recognize your handwriting even in the dark Otto, I am your father.
Everyone in the room laughed heartily. Otto repeated the sentence he had written to his father. Her mother let a tear flow; she was touched. Otto was no more than 14 years old, but he was already thinking like a businessman. Otto took his father's hand and asked:
- Dad, why don't you take the green and frozen grapes to make your wine?
- I have been working producing wine for many, many years and in all these years I have never seen anything like it. Furthermore, during all these years that I live on this Earth, this is already the most severe winter that I have ever seen.