As I Knew Him
Filename: mg01.html
© 1998 Meaghan Good
Length: 685 words
Genre: Historical Fiction
Description:
Two boys, Adi and Wilhelm, growing up in rural Austria in the 1890's, meet and
become best friends. At the end end you suddenly realize who Adi really is. Not a
true story, but historically accurate, all facts have been checked.
As I Knew Him
I was only six at the time, and just entering school. The year was 1895 and I had only that week moved to the tiny village of Hafeld, thirty miles from Linz, on the Austrian-German border. Hafeld was a dear little place, with perhaps two dozen houses and a hundred inhabitants. I was to attend the tiny primary school, or volksschule.
I was walking to school that first day--May 1, 1895--when I became aware of another boy walking nearby. He ran up to me on long legs, and he was about my age. "Heil!"
"Heil," I said hesitantly. I was a bit startled, because heil is a German greeting and this was Austria.
The boy had a shock of unruly dark brown hair and his eyes were very dark blue, almost black. Not exactly attractive, but stout and robust. He was big, a head tall than I was, not merely tall but also husky. Somewhere far behind him walked his older sister. "Heil," he said again, smiling. "I’m Adi."
"I’m Wilhelm."
"You going to the volksschule?"
I nodded. "You?"
"Uh-huh!" Adi said enthusiastically. "Walk with me?"
I nodded. "How old are you?"
"Just turned six."
"So did I."
He looked like just a typical Austrian schoolboy in his black school jacket, walking with a self-assured stride, almost strutting, with an intelligent, independent glint in his dark eyes. Adi quickly took up his place in the pecking order of the volksschule. He was a ringleader with a small circle of close friends, and he exercised an authoritarian rule over the other schoolboys.
I was one of Adi’s closer friends, and once I went to his house. Adi had an older brother named Alios Jr. who went to the realschule, or high school, and an older sister named Angela. There was also a younger brother, Edmund, who was a bothersome baby, but how Adi doted over that boy!
Adi was spoiled by his mother, but his father was another story. At school Adi ruled, but at home whenever Alios Sr. was about, he acted with unease. Adi’s father was very strict, but he didn’t hit his boys, unlike my father. Most of the time Alios’s very presence was all that was needed to make Adi behave.
At school Adi got good marks and all of the boys listened to him. Sometimes he got into violent disputes with boys as old as ten or eleven, which led to him limping home with bruises and black eyes, but he was never afraid to fight. Whereas I was quiet and probably would’ve been shunned by the other boys had I not been Adi’s friend.
I don’t know why he chose me. Adi picked the most headstrong, robust boys to be part of his inner circle. Boys like Heinrich and Adalric and Stefan. I was not naturally friendly--I was shy and tended to avoid confrontation. But Adi chose me, and we were friends.
One of his favorite games was War. We all loved War, but Adi most of all. The Boer War was waging when we were boys, and he would go up on the hills outside Hafeld, or up on the sides of the Salzkammergut Mountains, and he would be the general, and order us to attack the city. As Edmund grew older, Adi began to bring the baby--now a toddler--on his exploits.
It would not last. It was two years and two months later, in July of 1897, that Adi’s father dropped the bombshell.
Their farm was not doing well. The crops had failed to grow and Alios wanted to move to the town of Lambach, about fifteen miles away. Adi and I were both eight at the time, and he protested hotly against leaving. But Alios controlled things, and they did leave. I remember standing forlornly on the road and watching their wagon, with Adi bouncing little Edmund in his lap, leaving me behind forever.
I would see Adi again, frequently, though not for another thirty years. Little did I know that he who ruled the schoolyard would one day rule the country: as Adolf Hitler.