The Bell of Time

Chapter 6: Der Buchstabe

We were helping Marie peel the potatoes and shell the peas when Germain came running into the kitchen, an unsealed letter in his hand. He said in the same breath that it was Captain Armand who was writing to him and that he wanted to talk to him about something special by asking him to come to Paris as soon as possible, because something serious was going to happen according to him. in the coming days of September. Marie then said, "Okay, my Germain, but wouldn't you like to use your energy peeling vegetables rather than shouting that an old war comrade wrote to you? ". This made everyone laugh and relaxed the atmosphere a little, except Germain. But he eventually relaxed and joined us in this not-so-easy task, and we were quickly approaching lunchtime. Once everything was ready we sat down and planned our trip to Paris, and it was agreed that Kerven Matt and I would go with Germain to see if this special thing could help us in our mission. Germain in fact had the intuition that this was linked to what he had accomplished during the Great War. The quickest way was to take the train to Paris from Amiens station, which would take us straight to Gare du Nord. To present well, we would have to go and pick up new suits from the tailor because all 5 of us were thinking (Paul joining us because he didn't have the opportunity to go to Paris often). The costumes and shoes were collected in the afternoon and we went to bed promising ourselves to leave after breakfast the next day by having us taken there (I'm talking about the station) thanks to the mayor's Citroën Traction . The night passed without incident and once awake, fed and dressed, we waited for the mayor who came in his car. After about twenty minutes of travel we arrived safely, bought our tickets and boarded the train since it was already of the effectiveness of this very young "S.N.C.F" created barely a year at the earliest. They hoped that this service would continue over time by sending us their best wishes of hope which made my friends and I smile in view of the real situation which they were totally unaware of, of course. We waited a few minutes and it set off in a great cloud of vapor and a thunderous cho-choo. We were in a train car which had few people except a group of men, a single man and a lady with a child. We could see that the latter were very well dressed, in a rather chic manner for the inhabitants of this side of the Somme. Germain discreetly told us that they were probably heading back towards the neighborhoods of the 16th arrondissement in Boulogne because that is where most of the well-off people he had met came from. We then tried to change the subject to be more discreet because Matt felt that they might have heard us. While the train was moving, we continued on various subjects such as the hardness of the wooden benches or the fact that it was a first for the steam train while the towns and villages (such as Ailly-sur-Noye , Bacouel or even Clermont, not to be confused with Clermont-Ferrand) passed through the window. As guessed earlier, these people got off at the Gare du Nord. Once we arrived at our destination, we got off the train and preferred to go to the station square because it was teeming with activity on September 2, 1939. Once in the open air we all took a deep breath and Germain took out the letter that the captain had sent him on which there was the address on the back with the following indications: "Meet me at my office at the Hôtel de Brienne, you will only have to ask for me at the lookout and then we let's go see someone very special. Not knowing where this place was, we lured an agent from the constabulary who told us: "Gentlemen, you are not very far from it, you see, you just have to take rue de Denain to continue to a crossroads . From this crossroads you go through the street opposite, rue La Fayette, and follow it until you reach rue Lafitte. From there you continue to the Opéra Garnier from where you can reach Place Vendôme via Rue de la Paix. Then you pass through the Tuileries garden, walk along the quay of the same name to be able to cross the Pont de la Concorde, pass to the left of the National Assembly while trying to go to the back of Place Bourbon to take Rue de Bourgogne . All you have to do is turn left and the hotel is on the street. Questions ? » he said in a breath while his mustache twitched with satisfaction. We were all thinking about his words, trying to make a mental diagram of them, like a broken arm playing poker with his two friends in Las Vegas, when someone took the trouble to respond that it was enough and that 'we were going to find it. The gendarme left and we set off in the direction indicated. The journey, which took us an hour to complete, was full of surprises for us moderns. Indeed, the Paris of the end of 1939 was very different from that of the second decade of the twenty-first century. Although the streets were filled with "autos" (the name here for cars) of various brands such as Renault or Peugeot, people were here seated at cafe tables reading the latest newspapers or taking a train to stroll in a group at the Tuileries. At least they weren't with their heads in the air on their smartphone or undermining the principle of civility by not respecting the law on their electric scooter. This Paris perhaps had a certain less modernity, but the streets were cleaner. So we arrived in front of the Brienne hotel at the end of our journey, where we saw gendarmes who acted as sentinels guarding the entrance. We approached one of the latter and Germain said to him: "Hello Mr. Agent, I come to you because I was summoned here by Captain Armand and here is his letter." After a quick check by the agent who recognized the captain's handwriting but especially the paper used at the Ministry, he ordered us to follow him. He advised his colleague to stay at the entrance and keep a close eye on it, then led us through the huge green doors to reach the entrance, which was at the end of a paved courtyard. In this courtyard there were not only Republican Guards, but there were also, and this is rather unusual, regular infantry soldiers doing exercises. A senior officer was there to supervise them. We finally reached the entrance, which was tiled in white and black, and immediately took a marble staircase on the left. The gendarme brought us to a door that seemed to be that of an office, knocked, entered and then announced visitors to the occupant. A cheerful voice coming from behind the door called out: "Ha, let this donkey come in!" ". It was that of Captain Armand, but when he saw that the person concerned was not alone he asked who were the young people who accompanied him. "Here is Paul, my son," said Germain. But the other three are a little more complicated... "What do you mean by that Germain? said the captain, taken aback. » "Firstly they are not my children, but distant cousins, then they are not distant cousins ​​but...". Sensing that Germain was getting caught up in his lie, I nodded to Kerven, who had taken his smartphone with him, to drop it on the ground. The plan, planned in advance, was in fact to drop this cell phone on the ground in front of the captain in order to invariably provoke a reaction/question from him on the origin of the object which would serve to explain the goal of our presence at the Ministry. What was decided was done, and it did not fail. "Young Man, you just dropped something on the ground, but what is it? ". He picked it up by mistake and accidentally pressed the button that turned the phone on, revealing a bizarre image that would be described as "waifu wallpaper." "Sweet Jesus, what is this artifice?