Chapter 666

At the Castle

Six weeks earlier continued.

... There were, indeed, the ingredients for sandwiches. Freshly baked turkey sliced onto the side of the platter in addition to a profusion of cheeses and other items with which to make sandwiches.

Glenda cut a slice off the still-warm loaf, slathered butter on it and took a bite. “Oh, this is truly superb. I could make a meal out of this bread with nothing to go on it except butter.”

Laughing, they began.

Dessie, after a few minutes to build her husband’s sandwich and then her own, took a bite and said, “Oh, my. This is truly delicious.”

“I will tell my sister and brother-in-law,” Mia said as she walked into the room in time to overhear the comment. “Fischer does just about everything else around here, including assisting Sophia as well. I’m almost certain the freshly-baked bread is his.”

When Mia said there would only be sandwiches, Dessie and Phillip had expected just that — the bare minimum, but like everything else so far, their expectations fell far short of the reality.

“If there are any leftovers from this great turkey and fantastic bread, do you suppose we could take enough to make us a couple of sandwiches for lunch on the trail tomorrow?”

Mia chuckled. “Sophia would have her feelings hurt if you left to backpack and did not take some of her food with you.”

“I am definitely going to like it around here,” Phillip said to the accompanying chuckles from the others.

Before their lunch was over, Sophia came in to introduce herself to the two new guests.

Having heard their comments about taking sandwiches, she thanked them and asked Phillip and Dessie when they planned to leave on their first hike.

“Well,” Phillip began, “we’ll probably leave after breakfast in the morning. The first trip will just be a ‘getting used to the area’ hike, and should we find a suitable camping spot, we will be out overnight. We haven’t backpacked in years. All of our equipment — what’s left of it — is back in the States, so this will be a test run to see if our new equipment works as advertised. Also, it will be a shakedown hike to determine what we need for longer trips and the true backpacking we came here for.”

“Should I be able to do anything for you, please let me know,” Sophia said in accented but easily understood English. Smiling, she turned and left them.

After the meal, the women helpfully stacked the few dishes the group had used on the counter.

“You mentioned backpacking. Where do you intend going, if I might ask?” Dr. Müller, the male version, questioned as they were all leaving the table.

Phillip and Dessie glanced at each other, and she said, “We aren’t sure at this point. We planned to head toward the mountains. We don’t have any intention of climbing high into them, but hope to find a secluded place that speaks to us. Once we find that ‘perfect’ place, we hope to set up a more permanent camp and remain there until we have to return for food. Maybe something with a waterfall where we could bathe under it and maybe relax at a pool where we could watch the fish and enjoy nature. We don’t know at this point, but we will when we get there. I know that sounds ridiculous...”

The doctors smiled at each other, a smile that spoke of a still intense love, before Glenda spoke, “Not at all. When we were younger, we often backpacked in these mountains and others around the world.”

“Oh, my. I’ll bet you two have some stories to tell.”

Both Glenda and Karl chuckled. “That was long before GPS, and we have been truly lost more than once,” Glenda said as she grinned at her husband.

“Us, too,” Dessie replied as memories — great memories, although they didn’t feel like it at the time — flooded back. “We hope to re-experience some of the great times we had while camping, minus some of the insect bites and wandering around lost,” she finished with a grin.

Much to Dessie’s pleasure, Phillip commented, “We hope to get away from it all and recapture the closeness we had before the kids came along, and we had to stop true backpacking. Oh, we hiked some — short hikes — but some of the closeness went away as our lives became more complicated.”

By then, both couples had walked outdoors and seated themselves at a big table overshadowed by a tree with thick foliage. Glenda smiled as she said, “You Americans have an expression: ‘Been there. Done that.’ There was a time in our lives when we drew apart — work, family tragedy, other things — but we finally sat down and had a talk. We decided that we were not going to be quitters. After that, I put my husband first, and he put me first — truly. Oh, there were complications, but overall, our lives began to turn around. When he noticed that I was getting too involved in work to make time for him, he told me about it. I did the same for him. We made time for us — sometimes to the disgruntlement of our associates. Us time as we called it. Us time went a long way toward saving our marriage, and guess what, work went on anyway. We were not as indispensable as we thought we were.”

“It wasn’t work that caused our problems,” Dessie quietly said, “It was me. I became the center of my world, and I left my husband out of it. It’s a wonder he bothered to stay with me,” she said as she fully realized just how close she had come to destroying her marriage.

“I had my share of the blame, too,” Phillip said as he took his wife’s hand even as Glenda brought out a tissue to give Dessie.

Karl came to his feet. “Phillip, why don’t we take a walk while the women become acquainted? There’s something not far away that you might find interesting.”

“Are you going to be okay?” Phillip whispered to his wife.

“Go,” Glenda said as she smiled at Phillip. “Let Karl show you the castle’s little secret. Dessie and I will have a nice chat while you two are gone.”

There were several “main” paths exploding outward from the castle, generally running the gauntlet of the cardinal directions. Near the castle, the paths were comprised of crushed, white gravel bordered by a type of oddly designed brick. Karl chose a northerly running path whose border ceased as they passed over the nearby rise, but the crushed gravel continued farther.

A hundred yards along, the path turned into the woods which surrounded the primarily open space of the castle grounds. A little later, Karl motioned to a small post, perhaps a foot high, with a tiny circular protrusion that could be pulled outward or pushed back against the post. Karl said simply, “Take note.” A little later, the now much narrower path, without gravel, divided several times, but Karl always took the lesser traveled fork. Finally, he made a hard left to step through thick foliage that almost completely concealed the path.

In moments, they were standing by a stream perhaps six feet wide. At this point, it made its way over and around rocks to rush down a rather steep hill to spin a water wheel at the bottom of the slope. The water wheel, roughly three feet in diameter and a foot wide, was painted a bright white as it spun merrily away, doing nothing other than looking pretty while producing a gurgling sound. After the water wheel, the slope of the brook flattened out to become an oblong pool maybe fifteen feet in width and thirty feet long. Past the pool, the water made its way out of sight behind the trees.

Twenty feet away and overlooking the waterwheel and the gentle gurgling sound it produced, was a long bench that was almost surrounded by a copse of thick bushes. The bench, some seven feet in length, had a thickly padded seat and back as well as equally padded extra-wide arms.

“At night,” Karl said, “there is widely-spaced lighting that barely outlines the path. Should you want seclusion, position the flag arm so that it will show. It is evident to someone who knows what it means but barely noticeable to someone who doesn’t. There is very little chance that anyone who doesn’t know will accidentally find this place.”

Phillip stood looking around as a grin slowly morphed over his face when he thought of the padded bench, the seclusion and the positioning of the plants. Someone spent a lot of time and effort building this place while making it look natural. The obvious function of the bench made his grin intensify.

Karl and Phillip glanced at each other before they both chuckled, and Karl spoke. “Mia told me to show this place to you. You should feel honored, my friend. Most of her guests never know this exists. Her husband built this for her. After he died, she told us that she only showed it to select guests. Out of respect for her, my wife and I have told no one before today, and that only after Mia told me to show it to you. She has mentioned having a honeymooning couple stay at the castle occasionally, and I assume she would tell them, but I’m not even certain of that. She holds this place very dear to the memory of her husband and their marriage. I’m sure she would appreciate it if you would keep her secret.”

Phillip put out his hand, and the men shook. “I’m honored, just as I know my wife will be when she finds out. Of course, we will keep Mia’s secret. I’m certain Dessie will be thrilled when she sees this beautiful place.”

“Oh, I almost forgot. The pool at the bottom of the hill is deep enough to swim in and has a mostly sandy bottom, so you don’t have to stand in mud.”

“It does look inviting. I’m sure Dessie will want to try it during our stay.”

The men continued to get acquainted as they walked back to the castle to find their wives batting the birdie back and forth on a badminton court. Apparently, neither was trying to win, but rather, both seemed to be intent on keeping the birdie in the air.

Dessie was usually an aggressive player who pushed him hard to keep up with her. It only took a few moments to realize that Glenda, too, would have been a fitting opponent if they had been in an actual game.

The men passed a glance, both somewhat amazed at their wives.

“Would you two care to join us for a game?” Glenda asked as she caught the shuttlecock.

Phillip and Karl passed another glance before Karl said, “No. Not right now.”

Phillip was shaking his head. “Maybe some other time. But I, for one, would enjoy something to drink.”

“As long as it is something cold,” Dessie inserted as she collected the rackets and hung them in the small building where Mia kept the sporting equipment. Glenda, meanwhile, dropped the shuttlecock in the basket underneath the rackets.

There was an area next to the kitchen where guests could find snacks and drinks, both hot and cold. Glenda and Karl chose coffee while Phillip and Dessie, much to their surprise, found a pitcher of unsweetened tea in the refrigerator. There was an ice machine, so they soon had iced tea.

Having visited the castle many times over the years, Karl and Glenda knew a shortcut to a shaded patio where they sat around a small table with comfortable seats to drink their beverages, eat cookies that Glenda had found and chat.

Phillip had picked up a couple of the maps that Mia had told them about. When Karl noticed them, he asked, “Have you two decided on a backpacking route yet?”

“Not really,” Phillip responded.

Dessie took the second map, and she and Glenda sat to pore over it, while Phillip and Karl did the same with the other one.

Karl pointed to a place on the map and said, “We would advise staying away from this area. It’s marshy and has an odor. Also, there isn’t a suitable camping spot within several hour’s walk of the marsh.”

Karl got up and hurried away, returning shortly with a felt-tipped marker to mark Phillip’s map.

“Let’s do both maps so each of us can have one,” Dessie said as Karl marked the other map too.

“What distance are you considering for your backpacking?” Glenda asked.

Dessie and Phillip smiled at each other, each waiting for the other to answer. When Phillip didn’t, Dessie said, “Probably within two day’s hard walking from here,” I think. “Does that sound okay with you, Phil?”

“Yeah. Two days away from civilization, though. We don’t want to waste time walking the advertised backpacking trail, nor anywhere near any of the villages. Neither do we want something that’s practically impossible to do. We’re not trying to prove anything, just be by ourselves in beautiful country — maybe with streams and waterfalls, thus our comments about heading toward the mountains.”

“Something entirely secluded, though,” Dessie added. “We want to be completely on our own.”

Glenda and Karl stared at each other for a couple of seconds before Glenda reached for Dessie’s map. Karl got up to come around the table and look over her shoulder. “Here,” she said after glancing at her husband.