The Underground Man - Part 33

"We have to take action!"

"What do you mean?"

"I can see that something is going on in the universe!"

"What is going on?"

"I can see...wait", took Madam Elena her cards, mixed them, laid them out on the table before her. The table cloths covering the round big table was designed with red roses like a picture framed by a big strip of red shades at the sides. Green leaves around the roses in full blossom. The atmosphere was tense, the heavy red velvet curtains were closed. Heavy traffic noise was coming from the main road outside her apartment. Heavy moshes perfume filled the air. Candle lights lit on the side board of the living room stuffed with books and toys. The red carpet was from Tabriz she had bought in Speicherstadt at Mohammed Nazim`s shop, a man that had passed on few weeks before due to cancer leaving two children and a wife behind that was struggling to keep their apartment at Klosterstern for the family. The Porsche her husband had loved so much she had to sell.

"What do you see?"

"The cards are telling me...they take me far from here", mentioned Madam Elena while closing her eyes. She was feeling strange vibrations. The table was shaking, the lights went down for seconds before coming back on again. The world around her was on the move. "Something serious is going on."

"Please, Madam Elena, explain yourself...you are talking in riddles."

Madam Elena took a perfume bottle, inhaled the bouquet of the smell again and again, looked down on her cards, took each into her hands, mumbled over them and said: "Your worst enemy is about to emerge from mental darkness."

"What do you mean by mental darkness?"

"Your enemy, so close to you, so need in you, so much part of you. Your enemy sharing the same blood like you...this enemy is about to come out!"

"You are confusing me!"

"It is confusing now...but we do something about it...do not worry." Madam Elena went to her kitchen, came back with a cup of coffee. At the bottom of the cup coffee powder was to be seen. It was down the cup in mysterious way, showing strange figures not to be known to eyes that cannot see darkness and its revelations. "I will make sure, you will stay on top of her; you will be the winner."

"On top of...who?"

"Anna...your sister...the evil one."

"What is going on with Anna?" asked Irena anxiously biting her black finger nails, artificial once made in a nail studio around her place in Neue Große Bergstraße, the area she had moved to with her new husband. After she had dumped her ex-husband a second time she had finally come to the decision to look for a simple minded man that was willing to be a father figure for her children staying away from friends playing cards too often. She was not concerned the new husband would not have a job often as his work attitude would not attract many employers. "What is she doing?"

"I can see...“ was Madam Elena holding three cards in her hands all showing light and happiness, fulfillment of destiny, "that...there is a strong force working against you...a strong light fighting your destiny. A force in favor of your sister Anna to take your place in the family and be its head."

"Someone other than me being the head of my family?"

"Yes, someone that is of your own blood."

Irena shouted out loud:" That is never supposed to happen...never. Never ever in my whole life!"

"Keep relaxed...keep calm!"

"It is not permitted...I do not allow this to happen", said Irena categorically with anger in her face. She got up, walked around the table, looked over the shoulders of Madam Elena, put her both feet down on the ground several times. Her face turned red, her lips vibrated. Fire came out of her eyes.

"Keep yourself composed...relax," tried Madam Elena her best to make her good client sit down again. "We will do something about it."

"I have dedicated my whole life to be the head of the family...no one besides me...no one...do you hear me!"

"I hear you and the forces of darkness will hear you also and be by your side."

"I will do everything it takes to destroy anyone that tries to stand in my way...especially from my family. Whatever it takes to ensure I will stay the head of the family...even if it would mean that I have to kill my own mother...so be it!"

"The time has not yet come to go that far!" put Madam Elena the cards down on the table, pored the perfume into the cup to mix with the coffee powder.

"I swear by the devil...I will do anything that makes me shine and stay on top of the rest, all these idiots in my family, this stupid bunch of people...and especially my sister Anna... ."

Madam Elena touched Irena`s right hand and forced her to sit next to her around the table. She needed concentration to do her work. With words not heard was Madam Elena performing rituals as she had done so many times before for other clients. She was well known in the area for successful results. Irena watched over every gesture of the servant of many demons.

Madam Elena looked up and straight into Irena`s eyes holding both of her hands: "Believe me...it is done. You are the best girl in town...only you!"

"That is what I deserve in life!" was Irena leaving Madam Elena and walked into the night.

"I always knew that you are a Christian even you came here to pretend being an Atheist...that was funny to me from the start", mentioned Fred to Anna sitting in his study with a glass of Champagne. The cake she had bought got finished, so they took to crackers, mildly salted. "It is so wonderful, so heartwarming that today is your new birthday and that God revealed himself to you in the special way that he used...simply phantastic."

"Yes, I am humbled," smiled Anna emptying her glass of Champagne, the last drop of the bottle that she had bought for the special occasion. "I am very, very humbled."

"God has so many ways to prove himself for who he is...I am telling you. In all my life I have come across miracles and people he uses that were far from him...so far. Mostly the people that are sinners, these are the people he selects for his plans mostly. So, it is to me no wonder that he has chosen you for his plans. Now you must learn to walk in the big shoes people have used before you and walk in them."

"I surely will do my very best."

"I know you will", looked Fred out of the window into the darkness of the night. "Now you are a shining light in the dark...shinning bright, so bright. As long as you walk with God, no evil force in this world can stop you...maybe delay you...possibly...but ever stop your glory...the glory of the blessing that you have received today." Fred laid his hands on Anna, prayed over her, smiled, laughed and trembled with his feet like a child. "No one can take away the blessings that are on you."

Lucille Champagne entered the study, laid her hands on Anna and blessed her. She took her into her arms tidily. They sat together for hours chatting along sharing short stories from their past. Fred Blum mentioned a friend of his in London, a young lady with a big problem. Her dog one day died and she had wanted to bury the dog decently in a grave outside London. Digging a hole in the ground to lay the dog to rest had been her idea. Without a car, she had put the dog in a suitcase. The train had left Waterloo Station with the suitcase over over in the language compartment. After she had come back from the washroom, the suitcase had gone.

"What a wonderful story!" was Lucille Champagne laughing her head off.

On a more serious note Fred lectured that in this world Democracy in its true sense did not exist. Democracy as the voice be heard and done of the majority is overruled by the fact that Members of Parliament are only mandated to listen to their own political conviction, not by the mandate given. Even they try to do as asked by the electorate, legally no voter can hold them accountable for what they do during four years in Parliament. Even the fact that after four years they can stop voting for them, pressure that might change their mind to follow the demands of the electorate, party rules and the need to franchise into other areas of voters than the first batch of people and complexity of bills and laws does even not heal the deficit of so called Democracies and the need for real system representing the voice of the people. Switzerland would be more advanced on this matter, but as well on a limited scale.

"Oh, Fred", complained Lucille Champagne standing in the door frame ready to retire to her bedroom, "this is not a night for political ideas, but a night to celebrate the home coming of a lost child of God. So...enjoy the night to the fullest...but I am tired and need my rest."

Container ships passed, dogs followed the smells all around them, children were laughing, love birds kissing, old people looking towards the power station of Wedel, single ladies were watching men playing beach ball, HADAG ferries were off loading their passengers and gave new passengers a ride back to Landungsbrücken, Hanöversand was to be seen in the background with the Youth Correction Facility hidden behind trees and bushes, Airbus to the other side was closed for the weekend, Altenwerder Container Terminal busy as usual only stopping for Christmas.

"I hate these plastics in our water here", complained Joachim while strolling in River Elbe at Wittenbergen beach, "...there is too much of it. When I see the kids swimming in the water I do not understand their stupid parents. They are not responsible people to allow their kids to do that. There are so many bacteria’s in the water, how easily they can catch a serious sickness. No way would I ever allow my own children to do such stupid things."

"Few months ago I was at Sanct Peter Ording at the North Sea and guess what happened to me?" asked Heinz directing their way back to their friends sitting in the shadow of a mighty tree close to the camp site of Wittenbergen.

"You tell me!"

"Oil...a big junk of oil, black, dark and slimy was all of a sudden around my legs. I did not know where it was coming from...I only was walking along the shores and right out of the blue. There the patch of oil hit my legs. I was so furious, I can tell you. This stupid bastard oil around my feet," pointed Heinz down to his feet showing his friends the problem that still shocked him in his bones. "To get the oil of, to rub it off, my good friend, was such a headache. I was rubbing and rubbing, used soap and whatever I could get a hold of, to get it of my body. It took me hours after hours to do so. Still when I think of it, I still can feel it at my feet. I guess that will say with me forever."

Joachim started a joke already laughing: "Than you always have a nice story to tell!"