Eva's rubies E-Book

Ewald Kropfitsch

• Herausgeber: novum publishing
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 205

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

Sitting at his desk in Vienna, "mental turbulence" sweeps the author into both the past and the future. Based on his research into historical events, he develops stories worth knowing and takes the reader from "Eve in Paradise" to prehistoric man and Neanderthals to ancient Egypt, Israeli prophets and the ancient Greeks. He visits Jews, Romans and Germanic tribes until he reaches contemporary history and takes a look at how humanity will probably deal with the consequences of current crises such as climate change in a few decades and centuries. The book concludes with the "Last Judgement" and a vision of Gustav Mahler from the Resurrection Symphony.

Leseprobe

Introduction

I don't believe it!

I'm sitting at my desk in my apartment high above Vienna's Stadtpark and looking out towards St. Stephen's Tower. A mental turbulence seizes me with great intensity. In a dizzying ride, I return in time to my parents, grandparents and other ancestors; the turbulence continues to increase. Soon I am in the Austrian imperial era, then in the European Renaissance and find myself back with the Germanic tribes. I lose sight of ancient Rome and suddenly find myself in ancient Athens. The next moment: Alexander the Great, King David, the Babylonians, the Assyrians and finally ancient Egypt. Then the names of the peoples and my knowledge of them disappear. I see ice ages, droughts, floods and fewer and fewer people, until I end up in a meadow:

I seethousands of colorful flowers, never-before-seen varieties of plants and vegetables entwine together and the air smells so purethat I think to myselfthat it has probably never come into contact with dust. A tall, bearded man leans naked and bored in the moss next to a crystal-clear spring, a beautiful woman with a necklace of shiny red rubies around her slender neck plays with little nymphs and holds a tiger cub in her bare arms. Her bright hair falls down to her slender knees. In the middle of the garden: a wonderful tree, the trunk of gold, the branches of silver, the twigs like jewels strung together, the leaves shining like precious stones. And fruit ... beautiful and juicy in every conceivable shape.I realize immediately: I have landed in paradise. But why, it's ages away from my desk with a view of St. Stephen's Tower! But curiosity wins out:

On the tree, a magnificent snake wriggles from branch to branch, trying to attract the woman's attention. However, the woman just shakes her head and costs her tiger cub. Having crawled tothe ground, the reptile now wriggles close to the woman and presents her with a wonderful-looking apple. She refuses and looks at the man. He shrugs his shoulders and continues to act bored. The snake understands the rejection as "not enough good fruit" and climbs back up the tree. He now shows the woman one fruit after another, who remains uninterested until the man steps up and catches a large apple - shining like a red gemstone cut into a thousand facets - which the snake throws to him. Smiling, he hands it to the woman: "No! We must not! Then the snake begins to eat the apple itself, showing with charming twists and turns how good it tastes. She then gives it to the woman ...But I have realized what a terrible situation the two wonderful-looking people are in and beg for a redeeming backward turbulence: just get away from here, from the first great catastrophe of mankind! And indeed ... with a huge jolt I land - probablyalsothrown out of paradise - somewhere - I assume in Africa - and find myself in a tree.

A female creature crouches in the shadow of my branch, human-looking, probably only a little over a meter tall, dark brown with black hair that falls curly over her shoulders. Her feet are covered in calluses: what a difference from the woman I have just left in paradise.I call out to the woman, but she doesn't hear me. I remember that I am only mentally sitting on the tree and am neither visible nor audible.But then three other human animals come along, walking upright and stronger than the woman. She tells them to go with her to the nearby cave. There they eat plants, fruit and nuts. Even smaller creatures are here too, probably their boys and girls, making noise as they romp around.

I'm trapped in the situation and can't make myself heard, but I can do what I like and go wherever I want. But I want to go back to Vienna, I don't want to stay here, they're almost not people, more like animals ...

The carefree crowd is suddenly alarmed. They obviously sense an approaching danger. The woman pushes the children into the cave, the men search for stones, for blows. Before they can react, a lioness leaps out of the bush: she tears one down, tears his neck apart and drags him away. The other two throw stones at it, scream, hit the animal a few times, but when it turns around roaring, they run into the cave and then lock themselves in there with the woman and the children as best they can with the few tree trunks. I hear them howling and wailing until they finally fall asleep.

An eerie night descends on the small, unhappy "family". It starts to rain, and even more, to lightning and thunder. Lightning strikes nearby and a tree catches fire. Startled, they wake up and watch this event from the cave. The woman ventures out, snatches a piece of wood from the flames and brings it into the cave. Dry wood lying around catches fire. There are only a few barks, but they can be picked up from a far corner and thrown into the "fire animal". Young and old spend the whole night around the "first campfire", which provides both warmth and light.

I sit with them and want so much to help them, but neither the woman nor the two men nor the couple of children take any notice of me. So I shout hopelessly to the group: "Come up with something, the predator will come back and get the next one, you have to do something about it in future. But all they do is pile up a few logs in front of the cave entrance and go back to sleep "in the warmth".

It seems to me that sleep has given them new, perhaps highly virulent thoughts,because early in the morning the woman, supported by a few throaty sounds, tells the men to fetch more good stones and pile them up next to the cave. Obviously knowing that the predator has enough to eat for now, the two venture into the nearer and further surroundings and bring fist-sized stones. Then- I feel a sense of happiness as I watch- the woman (she is probably older and therefore wiser than her male companions) demonstrates that you shouldn't only hurl such stoneswhen in danger, but can also practise with them beforehand. Everyone - young and old - enthusiastically embraces the idea and hurls the stones at tree trunks and rocks. It turns out that one of the older boys is particularly adept at this, as he always hits the exact target. The others follow his example and when they are not chewing herbs, plants and fruit, they turn this and the next few days into a real "sports festival"(so these - I don't know what to call them - exciting little owls can celebrate after all).

The woman always makes sure that everyone gets the stones back into the two piles next to the cave entrance. Only the particularly skillful boy feels too good for that. He sticks pointed bamboo sticks, which are plentiful next to the cave, next to the entrance. The others shake their heads, but the woman suddenly seems to understand his idea:

"Hold against the animal when it attacks!" "Yes," the boy points, "and throw!" He points and hurls.Oh my God, I'm witnessing the invention of the first spear, no one will believe me, why should they, I'm not comingbackto Vienna, to my desk, the beautiful one with a view of St. Stephen's Tower!The boy hurls the spear and hits a hollow tree.Of course, it drills into the trunk and gets stuck inside, and I think to myself that evolution, which has been acting progressively since time immemorial, must have played a creative role here.In fact, the spear is triumphantly stuck deep in the trunk.

The children cheer, they all want to do the same and run around the bamboo canes. It is not so easy to pull them out or even sharpen them with the primitive tools. The brave boy succeeds in tying a red stone with a natural point to the spear. But when he tries to make it even sharper, all his efforts fail.He has found a ruby and tries to sharpen it. I could tell him right away that this would only work with a diamond, but of course he doesn't hear me and, after all, gemstones (it's a miracle he found a ruby) weren't just lying around in ancient times either.Anyway, you practise and practise and imagine that the tree trunk you hit is the evil beast ...and what do I say, everyone expects another attack with the absolute will to defend themselves. Me too,although I still have great reservations about how the whole thing will succeed in the face of the expected real danger, they are only - please forgive me after my current experiences with these creatures - humans!

The days go by, the children play "spear throwing" and the adults sometimes aim at small animals. What do you do with them when they stop moving? You feed them to the hot animal that is still glowing in the cave. It smells good and so you take a fragrant piece away from the fire. What it can eat, we can eat too, think female and male (after all, there are a large number of smaller human animals in addition to the woman and the two men). As it tastes good, they try to kill more animals with their spears. They soon realize that something significant has changed in their previously happy relationship with the previously peaceful creatures and they flee as quickly as possible.

However, I am also shocked. The transition from herbivorous humans to hunting predators is taking place before my eyes at breakneck speed. The story from the Bible comes to mind, as all humans lived in harmony with the animals. The beautiful woman in paradise had a tiger cub in her arms and played with it. Ours, my little human animals, are losing their innocence! I look for a justification and try to turn it around so that my humans, who have become dear to me in the meantime, only came up with the idea of making spears - weapons - via the detour of defending their own lives and then, of course, using them not only for defense but also for attack.

Then comes the lion, not his wife, but "he" himself. The human animals freeze at the sight of him. The huge mane is new and terrifying for them. All intentions of resistance are forgotten. They run as fast as they can into the cave and barricade themselves in. Only the resourceful boy remains standing. The lion is sure of himself and has never had to make an effort to grab one of these harmless bipeds; the little one there is too little meat for him, so he strides past him like a king towards the cave entrance: one swipe with his paw and the stakes shatter. But he hadn't reckoned withthe boy. He lets out a shrill cry and hurls his spear right into the lion's soft tissue. There is only muscle here, no obstacle for the spearhead, which penetrates deep into the body up to the heart. The lion turns to the boy in astonishment. He seems to think: If you want it any other way, you'll be the first. But his eyes go black ...

A tremendous silence spreads. The world holds its breath. Not an animal stirs. Those in the cave stare wide-eyed at the scene. The lion can go no further, its paws are failing. Now the others rush into the open and hurl their spears. He no longer feels anything, he is the first great victim of mankind.

I want to go back to Vienna to my desk with a view of St. Stephen's Tower. Here at the "tree" on which I am still sitting, I am resisting the "realization" that people only became what they are out of the deepest need, and that the courage and genius of only one of them has benefited them all. After all, evolution is a general thing: didn't everyone else throw their spears too? Even before I canthinkabout the questions raised, I see the people (how else can I put it: the woman, the two men and the young "child warriors") frolicking, jumping and cheering and witness how ...

... the slightly larger of the two human animals pounces on the woman, embraces her, pulls her to the ground and mates her. The children don't think anything of it, but the other, smaller man also wants to "get his due". However, the woman refuses, turns away and the taller man knocks him to the ground with a punch right in the face ...Who can tell me what will happen now, who can predict the further reaction of the quarrelling men? I'm frozen with tension: will they go at each other now, will they fight or assert themselves in some other way? Will the smaller one give up? Will he give in to the bigger one? Of course, I have read in the numerous scientific works on prehistoric man that they were capable of murder, even inclined to it, especially when it came to the favor of the females. But my two have always gotten along well so far and now I see how the smaller one changes his mind in a split second ...

He leaves the place of his disgrace and takes only three of his spears with him. The little boy, the inventor of spear throwing, runs after him and they both take off. They fall into an easy run and "shake the dust off their feet". This takes them further and further out into the open country. They will probably need a cave, he, the older one, thinks, perhaps meet a better pack of human animals and they run and run until night falls and they crawl into a high, rather lonely tree.

I followed them; I feel terribly sorry for them, they may not survive on their own. But if there was such a thing as a merciful, evolutionary fate that so many people believe in, or a merciful divine power: with their help, the two of them would escape with their lives or even get a better start in life.

But I, I want to go back to my time! The experiences with the prehistoric humans were too exciting in their final tragedy. I recognized correctly, the emotion ignites my "mental centrifuge" in its intensity and back I go via the few human animals, through floods, droughts, ice ages and lost memories to ancient Egypt, to the Greeks, Romans and Germanic tribes, to the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the imperial era. Oh thank God, I leave two world wars behind, reach my parents and my wife and with a huge jolt I'm back at my desk with a view of St. Stephen's Tower. Never go back, I swear to myself, how grateful I am to evolution for bringing me to the present time. A glance at the clock: I've never been away ...

It's so nice to be at home. Everything is running as usual: my wife and daughter do the housework without question, my sons, their wives and my granddaughters, grandchildren and even great-grandchildren come to visit, the soccer match between Salzburg and Liverpool is on TV and during the break I pick up the transcript of Professor Dr. Lodes' last lecture on "Passgenau, Beethoven's piano compositions and their dedications". It's exciting that we still don't know who the "Immortal Beloved" was, to whom this greatest composer of all time wrote a heartfelt love letter that was never posted. I let the fantastic tenor Fritz Wunderlich sing Beethoven's wonderful song "An die ferne Geliebte" on YouTube and make the mistake of thinking how nice it would be if I could identify his "Immortal Beloved". Was it this or that of the many women who were around Beethoven, or was it just Josephine von Brunsvick, whose likeness I like so much? If I could solve the riddle, I would give a lot for it! How about if I took care of it with mental turbulence and watched Beethoven write his vows of love? "Leave it alone, you know how awful it can be to just watch and not be able to do anything!" I think. Too late, I feel rapid spirals around my head, I am lifted up and placed on an imaginary spinning top. It spins faster and faster, everything flies by, time suddenly has three-mile boots, it flies straight to Beethoven, but it doesn't stop: Oh God, the mental turbulence continues to pick up speed, it leaves behind the composer it wants to reach and lands in the Middle Ages, but only to then fly even faster: Germanic tribes, Romans, Greeks, Israelites, Assyrians, Egyptians and on, no end, ice ages, deserts, floods, catastrophes and then ...

I find myself thrown onto a small hill on a plateau and curse the imprudence of my thoughts. That's it for "immortal beloved", for Salzburg against Liverpool, for Fritz Wunderlich, but before I become more aware of the peculiar circumstances, I seea young man creeping up to a moose - it can only be a moose or a huge stag -some distance away. The animal doesn't notice him and grazes peacefully, but I recognize other men, despite their deep cover, as they approach the colossus meter by meter. The men, not big, but with magnificent muscles and huge strands of hair all over their bodies, right down to their fur: pure hunting lust sparkles from their eyes. A scream, a rush, a throwing of spears and before the animal realizes what is happening to it, several projectiles are lodged in its body and the hunters pounce on the defenceless animal with axes and knives ...

I am reluctant to report on this any further, so I just watchas they finally go "home" with the moose on their shoulders and are greeted by cheering women and children.Now I have time to reflect: Where am I, who are these people? On my desk in Vienna with a view of St. Stephen's Cathedral, I not only have musicology books; I also clearly remember an article I downloaded from the Internet about people who - but really - were described exactly as I see them now in real life: stocky, racy, dark, bearded, muscular, not at all unappealing, even if they take some getting used to - Neanderthals! But they don't see me, so I can watch in peaceas they skin the elk, light a huge fire and pierce the carcass lengthways with a sharpened tree trunk. Stones are piled up on either side of the fire pit, in the middle of which they fasten the two ends of the log with the large animal on it to the left and right. This pole is then twisted, turned and sung (actually more like roared, shouted and goofed around).To my great astonishment, I can understand their language, although it is not an art, because it only has nominal forms and combines the names of things and people with them.

"Already three times two hands no sun," says an old man loudly. "Lots of rain," says another. The others nod. They sit together in a group of twenty or more. While they eat - the women further out, the children everywhere - the old men shake their heads: "Not good," they say. Afterwards, some go to their dwellings, which are more caves than huts. The others stay: "Not good," repeats the eldest. A young man jumps up: "I'm going to look for the sun! Tomorrow I'll go!"

When the boy finally lies down at nightfall and pulls his furs over him, a young woman rushes up to him: "Akar don't go, stay here!" She tells him that she is expecting a cub, and he warms her. The night is hot, but in the morning he throws on his furs and leaves.He estimates exactly where the sun should be and hurries in that direction, carrying two spears, one on the left, the other on the right and, of course, a large knife hewn from sharp stone. The next finger on his hand is also "without sun", only cloudy air accompanies Akar. "But it's good for hunting," he seems to think to himself and sneaks up on a deer in the evening, which he kills with his spear while jumping. Lesson learned: he drills a hard piece of wood into a soft bark and adds dry grass. It starts to smoke, he carefully blows air into it and ... half the deer is immediately devoured, the rest he roasts to "take away" and falls asleep under an ancient tree.

"The fingers of one hand and the other", there is no sun. Akar has consumed the supply and has to prey again. A small hare becomes his victim. There are many trees here and he falls asleep under one. The growling of a wolf wakes him up. It is only one - thanks be to "YOU, the MOTHER of the earth". The animal circles him, looking for his weakest point. Akar holds the spear towards him. His thoughts: "Why not throw the spear? Then still the other one and the knife!" The wolf has already come very close. It growls and bares its teeth. Akar is very calm ... now ... he hurls the spear and hits the animal. The wolf lunges at him anyway, but gets its mouth caught in the second spear and is pushed backwards. Akar doesn't let up, the wolf breaks free and tries to attack again. "Good knife, good one." Now he slams it into the animal's neck. Akar has not seen that two more wolves have appeared in the meantime. They pounce on the badly injured fellow wolf and tear it apart, but Akar manages to get away.

"Many fingers of the two hands," Akar counts until he sees the sun again for the first time: One morning, he watches it rise, warming and shining! He is emaciated, has only fur around him, looks hungry, but is deeply touched by its glow. In the sunlight, he recognizes other kinds of animals; they are far more alert than the ones he has hunted in the dark foggy landscape so far. Sneaking up is probably not an option. "Must throw like against wolves," thinks Akar, but misses thetarget. The spear breaks. "Must make a better one, good, that knife is very sharp."

He sits in the sun, is able to pull the fur off his body for the first time and sharpens the tip of the new spear. He looks proudly at his work when he hears a laugh. He creeps up to the unusual sounds: "OH MOTHER OF THE EARTH!": What is that, who is that? A young human being, neatly dressed in raffia, a delicate necklace with red stones around her neck (they are fine rubies in the most beautiful colors) isplaying with a small wolf and laughs again. He ponders: "Shall I kill, throw a spear? It's just ready, very sharp!" Akar straightens up, the human being is terrified. Wide-open brown eyes look at the terrible man, who swings wide to hurl the spear. "No!" it screams, "No!" he thinks. They face each other. He catches himself first, points to his bare chest and says: "Akar." She realizes: "He's also human, like me, only different!" She quickly covers her bare breasts with her arms and says, "Melea". Silence ... The little wolf (is actually a big dog) stands in front of the young woman and barks at Akar. He lunges again. "No," she shouts again, "the dog is good!" Akar doesn't understand, but he feels the situation calming down. She picks up a piece of wood to throw to the dog: "Look!" He thinks it's an attack and raises the spear again, but the wood flies somewhere else and Akar lowers his weapon again. The dog brings the spear to his mistress and places it at her feet. "You too!" she says and hands it to Akar. He is unsure, but she points to him: "Throw it!" What a "real man is" can throw far, much farther than a woman. Wow, the dog feels like he's in his element ... and then all three of them play "throw wood". When the dog also gets tired of running, they sit down on the grass and Melea asks: "Where did you come from?" He understands the gesture, points north and holds out the fingers of both hands to her: He points ten times and Melea understands, he has been traveling for a hundred days. She thinks, should she take him to her people? He looks so different, so broad and tall, his head is very round and his hair has probably never seen any care. But his eyes are big and shine at herwith admiration. Akar is enchanted by the delicate creature. It is so evenly brown, has miraculously well-groomed hair and tries to speak to him in sentences. But he only responds with "yes", "no", "big", "small" and so on.