The Prize Rules Ch. 03

All that she had was the address that he'd given her.

She wondered about the possibility of Germany losing this war as well. To listen to just about anyone talk of the subject; that was what would happen. Eden had only the small horizon to look from – that of one individual whose vantage point was severely limited.

She didn't know about a lot of these world-shaking events; all that she had were nightly radio broadcasts to listen to and of course, a lot of the tone was very 'us or them' with little factuality to it out of the need to prevent 'the other side' from gleaning information which might be put to use in some way. That was war – or soon would be.

From her limited viewpoint, it was all terrible – but what if you loved somebody on that 'other side'? What then? And how long could a war last, and what would be left?

If Germany lost, what would become of whatever or whoever was at the destination end of the letters which she intended to write? Would anything even be there then? She didn't know, just as she didn't know about so many things. All that she had was a hope while she was lying against him.

She didn't think that he sounded very enthusiastic about any of it. Once it began, was it even possible that he could avoid being swept up in it?

She eased herself off Hans-Joachim's chest to lie on her back next to him for a while.

She never called him by anything other than his name, hyphenated as it was, because that was the way that it was meant to be said. If his mother and father had wanted something less than the double-barrelled version, she was sure that they'd have given him a name like that. Still, she thought ...

"I am a little in love with your name," she turned her head to smile at him, "But what am I to use when I'm ... when we're ..."

He chuckled, "You could try 'Hannsi' if you like," he smiled, "only please do not ever use it in another circumstance."

"I like that too," she laughed a little, holding his growing erection fondly, "Maybe I can try it out soon."

He nodded and turned toward her only a little and he asked her to raise her leg. To her surprise, she felt him at her gate once more almost as soon as she did it, and he pulled her to him tightly so that they could look at each other as he began gently once more.

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They found that, without meaning for it to happen at all, they'd become an item on board as each day, they steamed a little closer to New York and the end of their time together. The captain knew about them and though he made no sign of his knowledge, he was enough of an old romantic himself to prepare himself so as to be ready to defend the pair if it came to any complaints over their behaviour.

But in public, they never gave him cause to need it because in public, they never made much of a show of it.

But he could guess pretty well what they did in private. He'd smile to himself whenever the thought crossed his mind. He knew what they were doing, and it was how he'd gotten married and become a father in the same manner.

But there hadn't been the rumour of war in the air then.

It only bothered him a little when he thought of the upcoming end of the affair. As the captain of a capital passenger ship, he was aware of the purpose behind young Herr Ullmann's presence here. He could have chosen from a hundred navigators, but like many firms, his employers believed in the patriotic rhetoric which they were handed back home, and a lot of the older men had come there straight out of their careers as officers in the Reichsmarine- the 'Realm's Navy', it had been then before it became what it was called now – Kriegsmarine – 'War Navy'.

So he knew that they were doing their bit to help by having Ullmann here in the guise of a navigator while he learned of the busiest shipping routes through these waters as well as the waters themselves. As far as passenger ships were concerned, they were off the menu for the wolfpacks. But the same shipping lanes were used by most of the freighters as well and mistakes could be easily made.

He knew that Ullmann was to serve on a U-Boat, and perhaps more than one during his time – if he survived it. He just didn't know if the Oriental beauty who plainly loved him to death knew anything at all about that part of her lover's background.

The tempo and fever of their love rose ever higher and they sometimes spoke of the time when it had to end. Hans-Joachim tried to warn Eden about the eventualities of modern warfare at sea, but she only expressed her desire to get there and then back again before it happened. He did his best regardless as he explained what he knew of the way that warships of the modern day were bound in their actions regarding ships carrying passengers.

One evening, as their days together dwindled, Hans-Joachim had been at work late as he worked out some last-minute course changes and when he'd looked for Eden, he'd found her all alone at the rear of the ship, gazing at the moonlight on the water.

There was no one else about and he'd walked up and asked her how she was as he reached out to hold her from behind.

She'd come very close to bursting into tears and he felt awful and apologised if he' startled her – though he had spoken before he'd done it.

Eden got it in hand after a moment and she shook her head, "You didn't do anything wrong. I live for your touch quite often. You only caught me in a bad moment." She turned in his loose grasp then and kissed him for a long moment before she looked up to explain.

"I have a friend from childhood. Cora-leen and I have always been very close. I know a lot of people and I have what I'd guess is a fair number of friends, but none like her. Everyone keeps a bit of space between themselves and others, even friends.

But that does not exist between Cora-leen and me, just as it doesn't between you and I, Hans-Joachim. I don't think that there has ever been a time in my life when either of us couldn't walk up behind the other one and just hold on, exactly in the way that you did just now.

I've been missing her terribly since I left on this journey of mine, though with you I've had the blessing of what we've become to help me. But just now – what you did was to remind me of the evening before I left, when she walked up behind me as I looked out at the sea and she held me from behind. I knew it was you as you did it, because of your body and your wonderful smell, my love.

But it reminded me of Cora-leen anyway, and then I had the thought that now I'll miss two people so much. Whenever one of us broke up with a boyfriend somehow, it was always the other one of us who helped to make it better just by being there and understanding."

She sniffled and he offered his handkerchief. Eden nodded her thanks, but the flood was about to begin anyway as she whispered, "Not long from now, I'll have no one to make me feel a little better and I feel as though I'm going to the end of the world."

She held up the little slip of paper with the address where she might write to him, "I want to go on with you forever, Hans-Joachim, but I have a terrible fear in the pit of my stomach, and I know that I'll more than likely have to come to accept that we'll never see each other again.

I am still bound to my dreams and I think that I'm lucky to have only them as a slightly certain thing, but if I could only reach out my hand and change just one thing ..."

She almost broke down then and he felt the stinging at the corners of his own eyes for a long moment before they looked at each other a little wetly and smiled as they embraced.

"I think that we will ... lose sight of each other for a time at least," he said, "But it is my hope that one day ... "

She shook her head.

"Stop it," she said with a croak and then she did burst into tears.

He sighed. They'd both known from the beginning that it was a doomed thing. That didn't make it one bit easier for either of them.

"Will you join up when it starts?" she asked him later, "I don't think that I could fault you for it if you do. Only please take care of yourself if you do join."

"I might," he allowed, deciding to lie a little, though it killed him a bit to do it, "I am under some ... pressure ... I will be conscripted if I do not, and I would rather not end up as a footsoldier in the mud."

She wept a little more in his arms and then they went back to his cabin together needing to make love – as though the magic that they felt with each other was the only possible way ahead for them. The last day and night before they pulled into the bustling port of New York, they both cried and made love for as long as they could.

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The next day, they said their final goodbyes and Eden was off, her suitcases in hand, looking for the pier where her ride for the next part of her journey was to await her.

Hans-Joachim watched her walk away until long after she was out of his sight before he turned to get his things in order. He reached into his pocket to retrieve the slip of paper that the captain had given him three days before. The radiogram held the secret to his own next steps.

He was to sail on a different ship on the same line this time after the next cruise, and he was headed back home to begin his time in the Unterseeboot service. And at the bottom, there was a curt, two-line congratulation over his new rank of Oberleutnant zur See.

He needed it where he was going, he supposed, but then he realised that he didn't really care.

He'd lost his heart.

His one great shot at happiness for his lifetime had just walked away, down the long pier and out of his life.

Hans-Joachim Ullmann was no fool. He believed in possibilities and probabilities.

And he knew that one day, he might find a woman to settle down with - assuming that he survived the upcoming struggle, of course. She might be lovely and he might come to love her very much as well.

But he also knew that the one woman that he'd never really be able to forget had just disappeared from his life forever.

She had her own dream to follow and he knew it. He wished her the best for her life – and also, he wished her the best of luck, hoping that she'd never need it.

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Eden cleared Customs and walked until at long last, she found her next ship ride. She boarded and was shown to her even smaller cabin, where she unpacked and found her way to get a bite to eat.

She did her best, trying not to mope too much or push her food around on her plate with her fork in a listless way, and then she walked back to her cabin.

As far as the distance of this leg of her journey was concerned, Eden cried for more than half of it.

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As he prepared to leave the liner the next day, he had a shave before his shower. He looked at himself in the mirror and he saw the little marks that Eden had left on him there on his shoulder. She liked to bite him there gently during her climax sometimes, and though she never hurt him, she did leave the marks.

He stared for a moment and then he hung his head, feeling a little like he'd been shot in the chest. He looked up after a moment as a thought came to him in the middle of cursing his fate.

He knew Eden well now. He thought that he could even say that he knew her extremely well.

So if the end of this hurt him as an almost physical pain, what must is be doing to her? He felt even worse then.

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Hans-Joachim received another assignment not long afterwards to navigate for the same line and that took him to Port of Spain on Trinidad perhaps a month later. The harbour and the approach was interesting to him and he was able to spend some time navigating it as well as observing it, since it was a busy and colourful place to lose oneself in, which he sorely wanted to do by that point.

As he went to see if he could procure charts for the harbour and the surrounding area, he bumped into a fellow 'navigator', also assigned there by the Kriegsmarine; a cheerful jokester named Helmut Weisenkopf and through their joint adventures and misadventures together over a few days, Ullmann was almost able to distance himself from the sad thought that Eden's birthplace and home lay not far outside the town.

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1945 The Caribbean Sea

The little girl was lying on her front on the bed as she often did whenever her mother added to 'the story', as it had come to be known between them as they sailed.

The woman had fallen silent again, though this time, the girl watched as a silent tear ran down her mother's cheek.

At first, she'd wanted to scowl and say that she didn't understand the reason or the point to this part of it at all.

But she didn't.

She didn't say a word as she watched the slow progress of that tear until it fell.

As young as she was, the girl thought that she now had a clue.

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1937 – 1938

When Eden arrived in London, it was only to find that she had a train ride ahead of her before she finally reached her destination. There wasn't all that much in the way of facilities, since as it had been explained to her, this whole thing was just beginning again.

But she fell into it, seeking something with which to keep herself busy and it wasn't long before she sat through classes on military discipline and courtesy, deportment and the like. She also had to get accustomed to wearing the uniform of the Women's Royal Naval Service, though officially, she was not a member.

Every day, it was up and out of bed by six to hit the ground running – which there seemed to be quite a bit of as well, but she did manage to keep her mind off her troubles to a large degree - since a lot of her time was taken up with other things.

Almost every week, it seemed, some other portion of this and the other facilities required were unveiled and Eden even had to spend time on the weapons ranges so that she could put to use what she'd learned regarding small arms, becoming familiar with the service pistol and the impossibly long and heavy (to her and most of her classmates) .303 Lee Enfield rifle.

Every night, most nights, Eden had her nose in her studies.

But every so often; usually once a week and sometimes twice - in a little cottage-style home not far from the beach in a quiet and out of the way part of Schleswig-Holstein in northern Germany ...

In a small, outlying and almost forgotten part of a place known as Schönberger Strand, a letter would arrive, to be looked at with curiosity by two women.

The letter was not addressed to them. It was only sent in care of one of them and they set it aside in a little box with the others which had already come. They wondered about the letters, certainly. But they did not open them.

In one respect, the letters were a little like the women themselves. They waited; the letters waiting to be opened and read by a man.

The women waited for a son and a brother to come home.

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As the courses progressed, the classes were divided and re-divided based on the women's eventual placements. And it was every week that she saw more and more young women arrive. The pace settled down a little as other training locations started up elsewhere all over the land which could take a part of the load.

Britannia was girding her loins for the fight.

A hefty percentage of them went to nursing and clerical jobs but overall, it was astounding, all of the places where women went to roll up their sleeves and take up a man's place. Radar operators, range assessors, aircraft maintenance; jobs which heretofore were never on the horizon for the fairer sex.

Some even went to searchlight and naval light anti-aircraft units.

Eden was being prepared for a role as part of a Harbour Defence Motor Launch crew, running and operating or caring for and maintaining an inboard motor launch. She could look after the machinery and a lot of the electrics – and if she had to, she could fill in on the weapons as well. It took her little time as she breezed through both the training and the practical aspects, and she'd even passed all of the obstacles, ready to take up her role in Britain if it came to that.

But she'd been pulled one day just at the end to sit in an office, wondering what was going on while her classmates celebrated the end of the long haul.

A woman and a man entered and sat down across from her.

"Miss Chang," the woman began, "We have been a little flummoxed while you have been in attendance with us. You see, it's rather easy to decide where any particular girl might be needed and once the role has been decided, it is a simple matter of routing that girl so that she receives the requisite training which applies to her place – or the one which has been decided for her.

But so much of that is in the initial selection and the subsequent routing – because we know where the women will be needed and just where they are to go so that the places are filled.

In your particular case, we've found so many things where you have demonstrated aptitude and such remarkable spirit. It was both a little inspiring as well as heartening to watch.

But you were sent here to be trained, and our difficulty lay in just what to train you for, Eden. We are not aware of just what sort of role that you could take back in your home."

The man nodded, "We knew that you indicated that you would be comfortable in an actual maritime role, and the best that we could come up with – given the little that we know of what might be required there is the course which you have just completed, with outstanding grades once again."

He looked down at a thin sheaf of papers in his hand for a moment and then he looked up with a smile, "It seems that we here have not been alone in trying to find a rewarding place for Miss Eden Chang.

The gentleman who recommended you to our notice – a Mister Robert Kirkwall – has found something, and it is a role where you will be sorely needed, as he has indicated to us in our correspondence with him.

We're sending you off to a different facility for another course of training. Think of it as another semester in your education here. We know that you stand ready to begin working with a motor launch. Now we and Mister Kirkwall have another assignment."

Eden sat in confusion, but she was game. "What am I to be now?" she asked with her characteristic smile.

Their reply almost floored her.

"You will be – among other things, we must guess ... a despatch rider."

When she'd recovered from the shock of it, Eden stammered, "But ... wouldn't that require a motorcycle? I've hardly ever seen one back home, other than the old wreck that my friend has. It's not like here, where one sees many of them. A lot of the roads are – "

The man nodded as he smiled, "Yes, far more suitable for travel by either motorcycle or oxcart. We thought that the motorcycle might suit you better, though the oxcart and the animals are likely far easier to maintain."

He looked down, "The fact that you haven't got one at the moment is not a detail with which to bother yourself over, Miss Chang. You'll be off to the best place we've got for you to learn at and from what I see here; there are arrangements underway to procure one of the latest additions to our own livery, a Birmingham Small Arms Model M20. The only difference is that the other girls in the class will be riding mounts of a type which they might be issued when they arrive at their postings.

You will be riding the steed which is to travel back with you to your posting – as well as a supply of spare parts and consumables. Have you ever ridden a motorcycle before?"

"Well, no," Eden said, "I – I've ridden on my friend Cora-leen's, but only as a passenger. I - "

"Perfect," he laughed a little, "the very best place to begin. We won't have to break you of any bad habits."