8. ALOÏS SCHICKLGRUBER

I like magic! Early next morning I was dreaming. That is I believed I was dreaming. As on the previous days, some early morning birds were chirping so I am not sure. When I turned around in bed, the small box was there once again. Nothing rattled inside. I opened the box. There were some sheets of paper. I started reading chapter 8.

8. ALOÏS SCHICKLGRUBER

- Will the time traveller arrive today, John asked, looking at Jill.

- Just close your eyes and wait. He will come as he does every day.

The leaves of the aspen trees were rustling in a weak breeze, and there he was. The time traveller.

-        -   In Herrengasse in Vienna there is a coffeehouse named Café Central. That is where we will go today.  I hope you like coffee, the time traveller said.

-       -   What is interesting about that place, Jill wondered.

-      -    Not very much. However, we will visit the café in the summer of 1913. You just keep quiet. Then we mingle with the guests if we find a table to sit down. Café Central was a meeting place for a plethora of people at that time. You will see.

-        -  That man sitting smoking a cigar? Is it Sigmund Freud or not? Yes, it has to be him.

-      -    Yes, it is Sigismund Schlomo Freud. In later life he got cancer from excessive cigar smoking.

-       -   The young lady sitting at his table, who is she?

-      -    That is Sabina Nikolayevna Spielrein.

-        -  I think I have heard her name.  Was she not shot dead by an SS death squad near Rostov-on-Don together with 27,000 mostly Jewish victims?

-      -    That happened later. But have a look who is coming there!

-       -   It is Adolf Hitler, John and Jill exclaimed. – He looks young. It seems that he knows Freud?

-     -     Not too much, but he contacted Freud before he left home because of problems with his father. Aloïs Hitler.

-      -    I have heard that Adolf’s father was Aloïs Schicklgruber, John asked.

-      -    That was his mother’s surname. His father’s was Hiedler, but someone in the family changed it to Hitler.

-     -     I think you have arranged this meeting!

John look the time traveller straight in his eyes.

-      -    Here are other customers who I think I know. That man sitting playing chess there. He looks like Leon Bronstein. And whom is Adolf Hitler contacting? The one with the pockmarked face.

-      -    It is Stavros Papadopoulos, a Greek national. At least that is what his passport says.

-    -      No, it is not. Why is he carrying that dagger? Is it not Stalin’s dagger? And the small man sipping coffee alone? It has to be Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov! Take care! Do not let Hitler touch that dagger! This is about the future of Europe!

-     -     It is too late. I am sorry. The two of them have met before.

-     -     I want you to stop this, Jill exclaimed.

-      -    I cannot, the time traveller almost whispered.

-    -      What about the other guests in Café Central?

-      -    They do not know. Adolf Hitler has no idea about his role in the years to come. As for now his hope is to be an artist. You see that man in the corner, reading a newspaper? His name is Josip Broz. Later he will be the leader of Yugoslavia under the name of Tito.

-     -     So close to changing history, and we can do nothing.

-     -     Yes, the time traveller said.

Jill and John heard a rustling in the aspen leaves, and Café Central faded away.

End of chapter 8. To be continued in chapter 9.