Greetings From Berlin

By
Brock Felt

2021
 January 1917
The year is 1917. A man walks on
the sidewalk kicking stones to pass the
time as he saunters back to his home.
This man’s name is Wallace Ricky, he
has only one son, and his wife Madelyn
had passed away 8 years prior. As
Wallace is about to walk in the door, the
mailman stopped him and struck a
conversation, “Wallace, hey how’s that
boy of yours at Cornell?” he asked.
“Tom? He’s come home for the
holidays, but he’s as bright as ever. That
kid amazes me, he’s the first person from
my bloodline to go to school beyond the
eleventh grade ‘cause my family ain’t too
bright but he doesn’t have my brain,
that’s all from my poor Madelyn.”
“See ya round Wallace!” The
mailman said disregarding the feelings
and words of Mr. Ricky completely.
“Bye Andy.” Said Wallace in a saddened
voice.
He took his mail from Andy and
walked inside his home. The Rickys live
in Orem, Utah in an 1800’s Tudor style
home, on 3 acres of land. Wallace and his
deceased wife Madelyn bought the house
in 1894 for the large sum of twelve
thousand dollars. Wallace grabbed a beer
from his icebox and sits down in the
kitchen. He goes through the mail, not
reading what’s written on the envelopes.
Suddenly Wallace drops all the mail
except one letter. On the envelope was
written a return address from Washington
D.C. The look on Wallace’s face was
indescribable. The next moment Tom
walked in through the cedar door. “Hey
Father, any mail for me?” Tom said
setting down his hat and coat.
Tom turned the corner to see his
father in the kitchen clutching the single
letter, with all the mail lying on the
floorboards. Wallace handed Tom the
letter with a concerned look on his white
and pale face. Tom opened it and read
the contents of the message aloud.
“Thomas Hyde Ricky,” he started reading
in a shaky voice, “You are to report to
your local draft office for a physical
examination. After you will report to the
division you’re assigned to, for the
United States Army.”
May 1944
As Tom sat in his chair
overlooking the balcony strumming a few
chords on his mandolin and thinking
about being drafted to the Army for the
first time, after receiving another draft
notice in the mail for the second world
war. He finished WWI as a Lieutenant-
General, being the youngest ever to
receive that rank in military history. He
was twenty-one years of age at the time.
He remembers moments of his Army
days, but some of his memories are grey
in colour being that they are faded and
forgotten from being so long ago. He
went inside and got his old army uniform
out, tried it on to remind himself what
war was, and it still fit. He thought to
himself Ah, the days of my youth, I hope
I’ll be able to keep up being the age that
I am.
The next day, Tom went down to
his nearest draft office in northern
California, and got his physical, and just
like last time he was assigned to division
1A to be on the front lines once again.
This time, Tom didn’t have as big of a
reaction when receiving his draft notice
as he did the first. He could sense he
would be drafted being that he shot up
from private to lieutenant-general in a
year, and that he been drafted previously.
War, he thought to himself I haven’t
experienced war in a long time, I don’t
think I can do this, I’m old, nearly
crippled-
Tom’s thoughts were cut short by
a knock on his door. Tom opened the
door, his neighbor Vaughn Krystöveak,
or as Tom calls him Kristi. Vaughn is a
tall and slender Norwegian man that
moved in the neighborhood the year
before last from
Kvernbergsundsødegården, Norway.
They had a quick talk about what
division they got put in the Army, and
they had received the same division.
Thomas then saw him out the door, shut
it, and locked it, then pausing a moment
and thinking about the word wife that
Vaughn had said, for Tom had never had
a wife nor been engaged. He had dated
many women in his time, but it only
ranged from a one-night stand to a year
of one woman. Tom shook off that
thought, sat down, turned on his
television set, and set it to NBC.
June 1944
Tom is in the army now and he
has been put with 9 other men, including
Vaughn Krystöveak, for a covert team to
run missions in Berlin, Germany. Tom
has just received the information for their
first run to Berlin. Their first objective is
simple, bring in any general officers
(which include the German ranks,
General of the Army, General,
Lieutenant-General, Major-General) for
question and information on any attack
plans. This mission was supposed to be
simple, and easy but in the life of Tom
Ricky nothing is easy.
 The date 11th of June 1944.
Thomas and his team set out for Berlin at
1 a.m. sharp to get to Germany whilst it’s
still dark so they’re not seen. They flew
in a transport plane, out from an aircraft
carrier in the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii.
They land in a field just outside of Berlin.
They snuck into the city and set up camp
in an abandoned theatre near the Nazi
offices. The first four days in Germany,
the men had not seen or captured any
German men. They all go back and meet
up at base camp in the abandoned theatre
to exchange their days with one another,
then one of the men noticed something
and said,” Hey where did Kristi and Tom
go, is he here? I don’t know where
Tommy and that Norbagge are.”

“What in tarnation is a
Norbagge?” One of the other men asked.
“Ol
d Swede racial slur for them
Norwegians.” The first man said
The man who called Vaughn a
Norbagge, is a younger white man with
brown hair, in his thirties named Harrison
Dahlgren. He is Swedish but born and
raised in Stillwater, Oklahoma. The next
moment there was a loud noise, the sound
being a door slamming into a wall on it’s
way open. All the men looked over to the
entrance to the theatre, and there was
Vaughn dragging a German soldier in by
its right arm. Kristi yelled over to the
guys, “I caught a kraut!”
The men hurried over toward
Krystöveak and picked up the
unconscious man and tied him to one of
the front row chairs of the theatre seating.
The men started questioning the German
soldier when he awakened ten minutes
later. The kraut did not know any english
so the men being lackadaisical in their
efforts to understand that the German
doesn’t speak english, they punched the
man every time he wouldn’t answer.
They keep yelling at his for five more
minutes “I want to know what the next
Nazi attack plan is you pissant!” yelled
Harrison
Tom walked into the theatre and
noticed Harrison and the other men
beating the kraut. He ran (walked as fast
as he could with a cane, so still slow)
over to the men and saw the German they
were beating. “STOP!” he screamed.
“STOP BEATING ALBRUN!”
The men stopped and looked at
Tom. “Who?” They all said in unison
with a questioned tone.
“That’s Albrun König, he was a
friend of mine in World War One.”
“Albrun, nimm mich zu dir nach Hause.”
(Albrun, take me to your home) Tom said
in German.
“You know how to speak German
too? You kraut lover!” Harrison yelled
Tom ignored him
“Ich möchte sehen, wie es deiner Familie
geht Al.” (I want to see how your family
is doing Al.)
November 1944
Tom had been living with Albrun’s
family at first for a month and then
quickly moved in with a beautiful Dutch
women named Roxanne Dorenkamp he’d
been dating since he abandoned his
American company men. He had joined
the German army to help Albrun while he
is a little injured from Harrison beating
him. Tom was assigned to be a guard in
the German prisons with Albrun because
he shot up to Colonel from being a
Private on the front lines in attacks on
Poland in 4 months. Tom had been
having mental problems with his
thoughts the whole time. He thinks he’s a
German Nazi, but now and then
questioned the side he’s fighting for, he
doesn’t know what side of the war he’s
on and this has cost his mental stability
and being exempt from injury. He has
been shot in his arm and left leg when
he’s been thinking and not paying
attention to anything when he was in
Poland.
Tom kissed Roxanne goodbye
and left to walk to the prison for his daily
army job now. When Tom arrived, he did
his normal check on all the prisoners. He
noticed a new prisoner that he hadn’t
seen before that looked oddly familiar.
He went on and then noticed a shadow
moving on the wall. He followed the
shadows as quiet as he can be. They
eventually stopped and he caught 8 men
trying to open the strange new prisoner’s
cell. Suddenly everything clicked in
Thomas’s mind. The prisoner was
Harrison Dahlgren, and the men were the
Americans in his company he had been
assigned. Thomas fired a waring shot
with his Luger over their heads. They all
turned and started yelling at him
simultaneously. From what Tom could
catch from their angry speech was
Vaughn was yelling” You complete
trader. I thought I could trust you I am
not proud to be your neighbor now.” Tom
having a German mindset he yelled at
them in German and locked them in the
cell with Harrison. Tom didn’t
understand what he did but just did it
because he felt it was the right thing at
that time.
 The next day, November 6, 1944
Tom left the men overnight. And
then showed up to the prison next with a
headache from the American and German
sides of his brain being at war with each
other. Tom started thinking, what should
I do, they are my friends. NO THEY’RE
NOT, THEY ARE AMERICAN SCUM!
No, they aren’t, you literal douchebag,
I’m gonna’ let them out. DON’T FOLD
TO THE UNITED STA- No, you German,
I ain’t listening to you anymore.
Tom proceeded to unlock the cell.
The men thought he was joking but
Thomas yelled at them to go. They
followed instruction. Just then another
prison guard saw them and yelled
“AUFHÖREN!” (Stop)
Thomas and the men started
running for the door. The guard pulled a
gun and shot. He missed Vaughn’s head
by an inch, and it hit the wall. The men
flipped over a secretary’s table and
dropped behind it. A shot went through
the table and hit Tom’s right leg. The
guys scooped up Tom. Before they got up
Harrison, Vaughn, and another man
grabbed their guns. On the count of three
the men got up shot the German dead and
they ran out of the prison. They drove
back to Roxanne’s house and spent the
night there because that’s where Tom
lives for the time being.
December 1944
Tom had healed from his injury
whilst living with Roxanne and had the
rest of the guys over at Albrun’s place to
stay while they’re waiting for a plane to
go home. Tom pulled out a postcard to
send to his father to let him know what
has happened. He included information
about his new fiancée Roxanne and their
wedding date (Which is Feb. 19, 1945.)
and the war. The postcard he used was
from the Nazi army and on the front
picture portion, it had a red and black
swastika and said,” Greetings from
Berlin.”