Chapter 3: First Contact

Jenny managed to book Business class flights from Sydney to Berlin (with the customary upgrade to First class!), and then to a small airport close to Elk. We managed to rent a medium-sized BMW at the airport (no Lada this time!), and Jenny was happy to drive it to Elk.

When we arrived in the city, she went directly to the hotel; the owner was already waiting for us. Jenny was surprised when she saw that I had booked two rooms. Still, I explained to her that Poland is a deeply catholic country. It would not be appropriate to rub their faces into our very special relationship. She ensured, however, that we had adjoining rooms and that there was a connecting door between the two rooms. She also said quite clearly that only one bed would be used, whatever the Poles might think!

I was told that there would be a meeting at the mayor´s office in the evening and that Mr. Bronislaw and his friends would participate. He smiled when he said: ¨Count de Winter, everything has changed since you left. Whatever will happen tonight, we are already thankful that you caused this change.”

Jenny arranged our luggage, checked the bed, found it satisfactory, and promised to evaluate its comfort more thoroughly at night. We had a brief lunch and left for the city. This time of the year the sun was still shining, and when we arrived at city hall, a crowd was waiting already, smiling and waving. It was strange, to say the least. Somebody took us to the big city hall auditorium, where a group of young men and women were waiting for us. Mr. Bronislaw was standing beside them, with five or six elderly gentlemen close to him. He stepped forward and shook my hand.

“Count de Winter, I’d like to welcome you back to Elk. Your previous visit was short, but brought big changes in the city. The corruption has stopped, and we see a future again for this city. For this alone, I’d like to thank you, and I hope that even bigger changes can be made once we sit down and discuss your dreams, which you had for you and us. May I introduce Mr. Anton Smirsky, the new mayor of Elk.”

A younger man, perhaps in his early forties, stepped forward and shook my hand.

“Welcome, Count de Winter. You had a bad experience the last time; I promise that this will not be repeated. We have a city new management: these are my principal advisors.” Smiling, he turned to Mr. Bronislaw. “I’ll make certain that we listen to our wiser citizens.”

His English was excellent, and when he looked at Jenny, there was a moment of admiration for a beautiful woman in his eyes.

I introduced Jenny. “Mr. Mayor, this is Mary Ann Parker, my Senior Executive Vice President for Operations of NT, our global holding company. If we came to an agreement, she would probably handle most of the business. Unfortunately, Maureen couldn’t come this time because she’s pregnant!”

There were congratulations from everyone, and the Mayor smiled politely. “Miss Parker, you just have to smile at us; we’ll give you whatever you want.”

Jenny´s eyes became cold. “Mr. Mayor, we’re talking about tens of millions of dollars for this project. I hope that it’ll take more than a smile to come to an agreement that’s profitable for all of us.”

Mr. Smirsky took a step back; he had looked at a beautiful young woman, not the experienced business executive she had become. He recovered rapidly, however.

¨Miss Parker, I expressed myself wrong. We know that our negotiations will not be easy; not because we want it, but because we’ll have to get the federal government involved. There are rules about selling land to foreigners and other limitations about local participation in big projects. We had our first contact with Warsaw, and I believe that we’ll be successful. What I heard from Mr. Bronislaw about your proposal makes me believe that you’ll get what you want, fulfilling your moral sense of obligation to this area where your family lived for a long time. We also know our history: there were never any foul deeds attached to that name, but I also believe that we could get much more out of it: a future for a dying city. We assume that you want to start early, as your time is valuable, and you cannot stay here forever. However, I’d like to invite you for dinner tonight, and I would appreciate it if you could give us a brief summary of your ideas. You may speak in German or English; we’ll have translators available.”

It was a pretty little speech; Jenny relaxed and nodded. ¨Mr. Mayor, we can stay for four days starting tomorrow, and we accept your invitation for dinner gratefully.”

Peace had been re-established. We mingled with the people present; I more with the Bronislaw crowd, Jenny with the younger people. For a moment, I thought it strange that I considered them the younger crowd (after all, they were all older than we were) but experience counts, and we had much more than they had at this moment.

Finally, we could leave to drive back to the hotel to relax for a moment and change. We called Maureen, and there was a duplication of last visit’s phone call from Jenny: complaints about being alone, that she was crying every night and woke up crying, and when would we come back? And she had already selected a hotel in Bali to be compensated for her sacrifices ... Jenny took the phone out of my hand.

“Maureen, we love you, but please shut up. At least we are not later gallivanting on holidays to German nobility – upper half! This is all business.”

We had a shower together, as I had been told that saving water was essential in Poland, too! There was a temptation to fool around a bit, but Jenny was adamant: we had to be at City Hall on time. She dressed in her usual business outfit: white blouse, dark blue skirt reaching her knees, dark blue sandals with high heels, and a little Channel bolero. Her diamond earrings contrasted with her jet-black hair, her pendant was between her breasts and her diamond ring, the confirmation of our union, on her finger. She was beautiful, as always.

I used my dark blue suit, the light blue shirt, and the Hermès tie. She looked at me. ¨James, you know that you are quite handsome, but remember that you are mine – and Maureen’s!”

She never forgot that we were three.

We arrived on time and were seated at the main table, Jenny on the mayor´s right, I on his left. There were the usual introductions and a welcome toast to the distinguished guests: us. The food was heavy and the wine almost bearable. Most preferred vodka, which was a habit we had to get away from. Then I was asked to make my speech, which I had decided to do in German.

¨Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. Mayor. Thank you for inviting us to tell you once more about the proposal I had offered on my last visit. I apologize for speaking in German, but I was born there, not here, and you know why. I’m a de Winter, and my family has lived here for centuries. I’m proud of my name and my family’s history; your mayor confirmed today that there was never any dishonor or shame connected to us. We respected your rights, and you honored us with your trust. We’ve been separated for decades, but for me, our responsibility and obligations never vanished.”

I took a sip of water, and continued.

“This is why I’m here: I want to see whether the association we had for such a long time could be found again. This needs not only my effort, but it also needs yours much more. I can give you ideas and money, but you have to work hard to make these dreams come true. It’ll be easy to derail this project: a German Count coming back to his family´s grounds, foreign ideas and supervision of the execution of those ideas, and foreign money. I’m not buying you: I will be giving the starting money for a long and complex project. You might remember the Marshall Plan, when the US gave the European countries, even Germany, the conquered country, money and ideas to restart their economy. It worked brilliantly, as you can see when you look at Europe today. I want to do the same for the city of Elk.”