In the early months of the First World War, a young Canadian soldier uses quick thinking and ingenuity to evade capture after being wounded fighting in Flanders. While escaping through Germany to the Swiss border, he becomes intimately entwined with...
Mid-morning on Tuesday, David sat in the centre of the lorry seat, flanked by Rachel and Maria as they approached the German border post. Maria braked to a stop in the bay following the directions of the guard. As he walked toward her door, she held out their three documents and the lorry's papers.
"Wohin gehst du?.. Where are you going?"
"Auf der Suche nach mehr Gemüse für den Markt zu bringen... To search for more vegetables to bring in for the market."
"Öffnen Sie die Ladebox für mich... Open the cargo box for me."
Rachel climbed from the cab, walked to the rear and opened the door. The guard looked in, nodded and motioned her to close it, then he walked back to Maria's door and stood staring at her for several seconds before he handed her the papers, smiled and signalled for the barrier to be lifted.
Maria drove through the opening and let out a loud breath. "That was a long pause. Wonder what that was about."
"He was stricken by your beauty. Drinking it in." David looked at her and shook his head. "I'm sure you distracted him. I could have been Kaiser Wilhelm or King George, and he wouldn't have noticed."
"Your flattery is far too kind. All that matters to me is that you're now out of Germany." She eased the lorry to a stop in the bay at the Swiss post. "Now we need to get you into Switzerland."
One of the guards who had processed them the previous day smiled as he approached her door to take the papers she held out. He gave then a cursory scan and handed them back, then he saluted and signalled for the gates to be opened.
Maria thanked him, then drove through the gateway and into Switzerland with a broad smile on her face. "He didn't even want to check the lorry this time."
David leaned his head back and closed his eyes as he tried to stem his tears. It didn't work, and his cheeks were soon wet. He put his hand on Maria's thigh and gently squeezed it. She saw his torment as she continued driving, looking for a place to pull over. There was none until the market square by the church in Trasadingen, where she stopped the lorry. "Why the pained look? Why the tears?"
He pulled her into his arms and held her tightly. "Relief... But much more. I'm now closer to leaving you. No excuses left anymore."
Rachel finally broke the long silence. "We could get out and take a walk around the village to allow our emotions to calm." She opened her door and climbed down, then turned to watch David and Maria.
Maria reached over and switched the spark toggle to shut down the engine, then went back to the hug. "Come. Let's take a small walk, relieve our tensions." She kissed his neck. "Come."
He nodded. "Such strange feelings. So unfamiliar with them — with their meaning." He lifted his head. "But we must carry on." He placed a hand on each side of her head and gently turned it up to lick her lips, then they merged in a deep kiss.
Half a minute later she squeezed him and broke the kiss. "Come, a walk will do us all some good. Feel Switzerland under our feet."
After exploring the village for half an hour, and sharing their enormous relief, they returned to the lorry. Maria bent to turn the crank. "Here, let me do that," David said. "Tell me how to start this, it looks very different from Dad's trucks and his motorcar."
Maria showed him the choke pull and explained the setting of the spark and adjusting its advance. "Turn the crank as tight as you can, and when everything's set, pull this to release the spring."
David cranked the spring tight as Maria climbed into the cab, checked the spark, switched on the fuel and nodded. He pulled the lever to release the spring, and the engine rattled to life. It quickly smoothed as she adjusted the spark and he pushed in the choke.
"That's certainly easier and safer than the cranks I've used before," he said as he climbed into the cab. "No risk of kickback."
"That's the thing Dada warned us about when starting the grape waggon's engine. The risk of a backfire. He always talked of broken bones to make the lesson stick in our minds."
They drove through the village and out its eastern side toward Unterhallau as Rachel talked about the history of the area. "They've found human remains here going back as far as the Bronze Age, and there's been steady habitation since the Romans. In the Dark Ages, much of this area was owned by the Benedictine Monastery in Schaffhausen. Vineyards were first recorded in the thirteenth century, so it's likely they were here long before that."
Maria slowed the lorry and pointed ahead and to the left. "That place. That's the beautiful estate we were talking about." She pulled to the edge of the roadway and stopped.
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"Oh, my!" David said. "What an idyllic setting. Nestled in the trees at the edge of the ridge. The vineyards make the slopes appear to be dressed in corduroy." He looked at Maria. "And this is for sale?"
"The sign is posted at the end of the lane." She pointed through the windscreen. "It's nailed up on one of those trees." She moved the lorry slowly along the road to give them a thorough look, then paused beside the tree-lined lane to read the sign.
Zu verkaufen. 11,7 Ha. Haus, Weingut, Nebengebäude inklusive 7 Ha. Weinberg.
"So it does include the vineyards. Seven hectares." He tilted his head and looked at Maria. "I understand house and winery, but what's Nebengebäude?"
"That's the outbuildings." She pointed. "Probably the machinery storage and the workshop, and that one looks like stables."
Maria began slowly motoring along the road again while David and Rachel craned their necks out the window to take in the property as it fell behind them. Several minutes later, she turned into a narrow track which wound up a gentle rise toward a grove on the horizon. "Oma and Opa's place is in those trees, just beyond the ridge." She nodded at the windscreen as she worked the steering wheel's kicks from the rutted road.
"Another idyllic setting," he said as they crested a small rise and the estate came into view. "What a beautiful area this is." God! Now even more difficult to leave. I must be a fool to think of leaving this. Of leaving Maria.
