A VICTORIAN COMEBACK
By Tonguello
A lonely and forgotten road 222km from Buenos Aires cuts the green immensity of the fields of La Pampa.
A car surfs the somehow well-kept way at an elegant speed. It’s April and winter is finding its way sooner to these secluded parts of the province.
-Ma’am?
The passenger at the back sit moved her sight away from the field to look at the driver.
-Ma’am I wanted to tell you… we are all very happy you have come back.
-Thank you Mathew, Thank you. She whispered the last words.
To come back. She had never thought she could. Not after so long, and after such pain. It was a miracle. She didn’t choose to leave though… she was forced to go, she had to. When the Government at the time felt she was a threat, they decided to let her know she was their enemy and they took her husband away to show her what they could do. To teach her a lesson… she was not untouchable.
People say that “to leave” is “to die a little”. So then, to protect her baby daughter she left everything else behind. And so she died.
She took refuge in Europe where things were not better but at least she was not alone, and she was free. Family and friends gave her all she needed and she built her new life there. She knocked on every politician’s and royalty’s door making use of her title, asking for help and advice. She was Countess von Hess after all. She survived, she blossomed.
And now 37 years later, she was immersed in the middle of a green, grassy dream. She was going home.
-Ma’am, we are there.
They have come to a rotten kissing gate, the former entrance to a magnificent Estancia. Today, a dead, decadent pile of wood and wire that presented no resistance to strangers, nor a hopeful welcome sight.
From the distance she could see the main house, still there but quite different. The trees were long cut and used for fire. The park was un-kept and the flowers all dead, the sculptures long gone and the birds lost.
The closer they got, the better she could see the devastating results of neglect and vandalism. Close enough she saw someone in the attic, watching the car in the distance.
-Surely one of the men waiting for me - she thought. –I told them not to get in without me. I wanted to be the first one.
Two men she didn’t know were there, and also a friendly and familiar face. Finally one. The car parked near the main entrance, or what was left of it. Mathew got out and helped her to descend.
-Ma’am it is a pleasure to have you back here. Welcome.
-Thank you Mr Mayor, it is a pleasure to see you again.
-Let me introduce you. This is General Charles Mellen.
-Nice to meet you Ma’am.
-Enchanté
-And this is Chief of Police Arthur Perz.
-A pleasure, Your Highness.
-A pleasure for me too. Please, call me Ma’am, or Mrs von Hess. Tell me gentlemen. What happened here all these years?
-Well, at first the State was taken as a summer house for the members of the Government, a sort of recreational spa, if you will. Later on, it became the clandestine Head Quarters and torture site of the parallel government…
-Please, avoid that sort of information Mayor.
-Forgive me Ma’am. Eventually Democracy was restored and the house was abandoned. Times were very tuff and people needed a roof… and you know… vandalism, thieves, and homeless people took over all the states like this one.
-Yes, I can imagine.
-Mrs von Hess if you allow me. What are your plans for this house? - Asked General Mellen.
-Well, the Estate is mine and I’m here to claim it and restore it to its prime. I already talked to the architect and works will start next week and will go on until I come back from England. I am going to spend the summer at St. Regent Street and visiting friends. -She said going to the main door.
-But Ma’am you can’t… he started but was shut by her look.
-General, are you going to deny me what is rightfully mine? Again?
And with that he spoke no more. When she was approaching the door she turned and asked them.
-Is everything alright inside? Which one of you did I see in the attic from the road?
-Ma’am we haven’t been inside yet, as you requested. If you saw someone, it must have been one of the people that have been taking shelter here. Let me go in with you.
-No, thank you Chief Perz. I must be mistaken. - She lied. –I want to go in alone.
She went in and her heart sunk. Everything at the main hall was destroyed, the furniture gone, the antiques missing, the wall paper ripped off, the beautiful parquet and the staircase banister burnt. Her memories seemed the only untouched thing in there.
She walked slowly trying to breathe everything in. Room by room she went, studying with shocked delight the floor with missing tiles, the burnt carved frames, the soiled ceilings, the ruined tapestries and the shelves which must have been full of books, now stolen or destroyed on the floor. Years of history lost.
She went up to the first floor afraid of the stairs might fall under her feet. Again, a view that froze her blood. She needed some air; the stench of years of decay was starting to get her.
She went out into the terrace and watched the sunset for a while. The first sunset of her new life. What a spectacle compared with what was inside!
With courage she went up another floor to the attic, an empty huge storey fill with dirt. Something caught her eye the instant she was there. - Someone had been here after all, - she thought.
There, in the middle of the dusty ruined floor, there was a fresh yellow Lily, her favourite flower.
Gaston
