Paradox Part 21

Chapter 20
April 26, 2012 – Marktstrasse - Bad Tölz

The day was absolutely gorgeous. The temperature was a warm seventy degrees with a gentle breeze cascading over the Isar Bridge. White billowing clouds slowly floated over a crystal blue sky and the smell of hot spiced wine permeated the air. Shoppers went about their daily chores picking over fresh vegetables and haggling for particular cuts of meat with the local vendors. Children ran free after the long winter hibernation, sailing boats in small pools or playing fetch with family pets in an idealistic atmosphere of serenity and bliss.
Monday strolled along the banks of the small river hand in hand with Daria, captivated by the way she slowly devoured a thick buttery pastry, her pink tongue reaching into every crack and cranny of the quickly crumbling goodie. The bienenstich, or beehive delight was very popular with the locals, not too sweet with a touch of powdered sugar. Apfelstrudel, or apple strudel was also widely popular in the area, although it was considered an Austrian pastry not German.
They passed a sweating group of villagers erecting a maypole to celebrate May Day. The locals decorated it with long colored ribbons suspended from the top, festooned with flowers and draped with wreathes and other local symbols. There are many different meanings for the maypole: a phallic symbol, a gateway between the underworld, the living, and heaven, sacred trees, and others depending on which culture is involved, but in effect it was a good excuse for a Spring Festival, and Germans never needed an excuse to party.
He was still a bit shocked over the sudden turnaround. He was madly in love with Daria but eventually faced the reality that she was destined to marry another man. It took a long time for her to be relegated into the recesses of his mind, but even then she kept cropping up every time he saw a petite girl with honey blond hair. He even went so far as to call her on one occasion but hung up when her soft voice answered, knowing that he had no right to interfere in her life. Now that he had learned her marriage was never consummated, and that she needed him as much as he needed her, he was ecstatic with happiness and joy.
The hunt for the gold was important, and the insinuation in the second note was fascinating, but he would be just as satisfied to sweep her up in his arms and carry her safely away. No more bad guys, no more treasure hunt, nothing but Daria and him.
“Penny.” Daria looked at him with a frown. He smiled back at her with a quizzical look.
“A penny for your thoughts. Isn’t that what you Americans say?”
“I was watching the children play and thinking of children, and dogs, and hot strudel and warm winter cottages, and of you.”
“What were you thinking about me?” She gave him a coy look.
“Actually, I was thinking about us. I was thinking that all those other thoughts will be in our future together, and more.”
“Are you sure you still want me after discovering my ancestry, knowing that I am the granddaughter of the most hated man in history?”
“More than ever! You have no control over your ancestry, any more than I have control over mine. What or who our parents were or grandparents were does not determine what we are. We are not kings or queens who inherit our power and status by an accident of birth.”
“With talk like that, these villagers would have burned you for a heretic not long ago,” she said. “Are you my heretic?
“I’ll be anything you want me to be so long as I’m with you.”
“Don’t ever leave me,” Daria pleaded. “Suddenly, life seems frightful without you.”
“There’s nothing that can separate us now. Not all the gold in the world, not even an army of thugs or a million ghosts of past history.” He looked into her crystal blue almond shaped eyes, eyes with a pixie-like slant that fascinated him, and knew that nothing would stop him from keeping his promise.
“How about some lunch? That pastry you have on your nose made me hungry.” He bent down and licked a piece of frosting from her tiny nose. She quickly wiped it with a napkin she pulled from her purse and looked sheepishly around like a young child caught with her hand in the cookie jar. She punched him lightly in the shoulder. “Why didn’t you tell me?” she wiped her nose again.
They walked back across the river and found a small restaurant that specialized in the type of German food he loved. He ordered Schwein Hoxen, a roasted pork joint that he had come to relish. Daria ordered Jaeger Schnitzel with a creamy Jager sauce. They both ordered Spaetzle, a flour and egg base pasta similar to noodles to accompany their meal. He couldn’t resist a delicious stein of beer and Daria ordered the same. Bavaria was, after all, the beer capitol of the world.
“We’ve got a lot of catching up to do,” Daria took a hefty sip of the smooth blond beer. “I’ve been following your career for a while now. You’ve become quite an accomplished academic.”
“Just out playing in the dirt.” Monday shrugged. “Digging up bones, as the old phrase goes.”
“Several of your critics have been hitting you quite hard on some of your rather unorthodox theories about human history.”
“They can carp all they want, but they still cannot explain some of the things that have been found that seems to indicate that we have been around a lot longer than many realize.”
“What kind of things?”
“Unexplained fossil handprints and footprints for one thing. For example, a fossil of a human handprint was found in a limestone strata estimated to be 110 million years old. What appears to be a fossilized human finger found in the Canadian Arctic also dates back 100 to 110 million years. And the fossil of a human footprint, possibly wearing a sandal, was found near Delta, Utah in a shale deposit estimated to be 300 million to 600 million years old. In the 1880s, anthropologists found the remains of a modern-looking man, woman and two children in glacial strata that were dated at ten million years old. In 1971, while exploring a mine, an amateur geologist and archaeologist found a human tooth embedded in strata that was dated as 100 million years old. Humans were supposedly not around 65 million years ago, never mind people who could work metal, so then how does science explain semi-ovoid metallic tubes dug out of 65-million-year-old Cretaceous chalk in France? In 1885, a block of coal was broken and a metal cube was found, that had obviously been worked by intelligent hands. In 1912, employees at an electric plant broke apart a large chunk of coal out of which fell an iron pot! A nail was found embedded in a sandstone block from the Mesozoic Era. One or a few of these oddities could be explained due to fakery but there are so many that to simply refuse to study or acknowledge them is unscientific.”
“You can’t be serious about this?”
“No,” Monday laughed. “But I refuse to limit my curiosity to just those things that can be scientifically explained. Besides, it’s a lot of fun to get my colleagues bent out of shape over my unorthodox comments.”
“Amazing! You really think these prints made millions of years ago are real?”
“That’s just it, there’s no way to prove or disprove it either way, but when we find human footprints next to dinosaur footprints we can’t simply dismiss the possibility that our human history might be older than we thought.”
“What other explanation could there be?”
“There are theories being developed by theoretical physicist about time displacement and other strange phenomena that could possibly explain it. But we’re getting more into the science fiction area when we take that route. Besides, this is just scientific speculation into an area that I consider strange but curious.”
“Actually, on my latest dig, we found the tomb of Marcus Nonius Macrinus a favorite of the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, who helped him achieve major victories in Europe. He is believed to have inspired the character Maximus Decimus Meridius, played by Russell Crowe in that movie the Gladiator. But although the film character is also a favourite of Marcus Aurelius and goes into battles with him in the late second century AD, that is where the similarities end. The real Roman general is not believed to have been sold into slavery only to return to Rome as a vengeful gladiator. We discovered the tomb along the northbound Via Flaminia where construction work has been taking place.”
“Many marble columns, inscriptions and decorations have been beautifully preserved thanks to the mud caused by a centuries-old flood of the River Tiber. Some say it is the most important ancient Roman monument to come to light in twenty or thirty years. More than ten inscriptions on the tomb detail the life of Marcus Nonius Macrinus. They show he came from Brescia in northern Italy, was a Police Commissioner, Magistrate, Pro-Consul of Asia and close confidante of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, who wanted him to fight in the wars against Germanic tribes in northern Europe. The movie character played by Russell Crowe participates in these wars and is an intimate friend of Marcus Aurelius, so chronologically we are in the same period and the war is the same, but the movie character has a very sad story and comes to a terrible end while ours becomes a rich and famous man. Enough of me though, I’d rather know what you’ve been doing these past few years.”
“Not much. Work, study, work, study. I’ve been working on my masters thesis for a while but can’t decide if I want to continue it or not.”
“Masters?”
“Psychology. I’m a nurse and psychology helps when diagnosing patient care and responses.”
“So I have my own Florence Nightingale to take care of me,” Monday smiled. “I hurt here.” He pointed to his lips. “How’s about a big kiss to take away the pain.”
Daria rolled her eyes then spotted the waiter heading towards their table with their meal. “Good timing.” She laughed as he place their dishes in front of them. He gave her a curious look then quickly departed.
“Guter Appetit,” Monday said, digging into his sizzling Schwein Hoxen.