My Life In Code

10. It's Like Jack And Rose...Unfortunately With The Dying, Too

Chapter 10

It's Like Jack and Rose...Unfortunately With The Dying, Too

The next morning, Dad called us to inform us that Heidi Koenig still lived in her little village just outside Klagenfurt. 

"She's almost in her nineties and she still lives in the same house she was born in," I told Max and the guys.  "She doesn't go by Koenig now, though.  She's Heidi Reiher now."

Max smiled slightly as he wrapped an arm around my shoulder.  "So I'm guessing they didn't get their happily ever after, huh?"

I rolled my eyes and pushed him away.  "Whatever," I said.  "So let's get going.  Dad told me that he'd already called and told her that we would be coming to visit.”

“I just hope she’s one of those nice, little old ladies and not the one that didn’t age very well,” Ben said.

I just rolled my eyes at him.

As we started into the tiny village just a few miles outside Klagenfurt, you could tell that it probably hadn’t changed much in a hundred years or so.  There were probably only two dozen houses and a half a dozen smaller buildings that served as shops, all different kinds of animals in the road, and people staring at our car like they hadn’t seen one pass through in a few years.  That was probably just the case. 

“She’s the farthest house on the left,” I said to Max, pointing to it down the road. 

Once Max parked on the side of the road, we all got out and started toward the front door of the little house.  But before we could even get there, it was already open and a small woman with gray hair was standing there with a smile on her face.  She certainly didn’t look close to ninety years old. 

“Hello, there,” she said with a slight Austrian accent.  It wasn’t as bad as most of the people’s that we’d come in contact with.

I smiled as I stuck out my hand to her.  “I’m Callie Landon.  You spoke with my father on the phone,” I said.

Her smile brightened.  “Of course,” she said, pulling me in for a hug.  Looks like Ben got his wish about her being a nice old lady.  When she pulled back, Max and the guys introduced themselves and with a wave of her hand, she ushered us in.  “Come in, come in.  It’s cooler in the house.”

I looked around as she shut the door.  It was small, yeah, but it felt like a home that had seen many wonderful years.

“Your home is beautiful, Mrs. Reiher,” I said, turning back toward her with a smile. 

“Thank you, but please call me Heidi,” she said, sitting down at the old, wooden table that sat adjacent to the tiny kitchen.  “So, your father mentioned that you’d found something that had belonged to me years ago and you wanted to give it back to me and get the story behind it.”

I nodded and reached toward my bag where I’d safely put the locket and the picture.  I pulled them out slowly and handed them to Heidi.  When she saw them, her eyes filled with old memories and tears.

“Oh,” she breathed as she clutched the locket in her hand and looked down at the picture. “Where did you find these?  I thought I’d given the picture to Alaric just before he was shipped off.”

Her fingers clutched onto the locket as she ran her other over Alaric’s face. 

“He was one of the first to fight in the war.  Before he was shipped out, he promised that when it was all over, he’d marry me.  We had everything planned.”