It was a speech given apparently by the Überführer himself.
Konrad locked the dial in place and listened intently. At first, he was mesmerised with the crackling speech as few men alive could say they had heard the voice of a god. The Austrian-accented voice that boomed from the speaker wasn’t what he expected as its vulgar, shrill tones soon started to grate. He realised the voice was simply that of a man, and not that of a god. The speech was full of mundane issues such as reversing post-war treaties, attacking obscure political movements and blaming all the country’s ills upon the Jews. It was relentless. An uncompromising monologue of hate. Could this man really have saved Germany as he had been taught all his life? Could this man have really single-handedly led the armies of Germany against the Bolshevik hordes during the war? His image of the god-like figure just couldn’t be reconciled with the voice that sounded like a trumped up corporal on a parade ground, and so, even before the speech had ended, Konrad slowly turned the dial until a sweeter sound met his ears.
It was a woman, her voice sultry and suggestive, singing. It was as if the distant voice was imploring Konrad to remain with her, to listen to her. For a few moments her voice thankfully remained free of the annoying electronic hisses and whistles and so the sweet song echoed around the abandoned displays and overturned catwalks. He listened like a content schoolboy, his hand sweeping along with the words. Ultimately the static triumphed over the music and swamped the song, the words drowned within a cloud of white noise, but much to Konrad’s surprise the singing continued.
‘Up in the fields we will love one another. Until then I will count the days because I cannot wait to be with my beloved mountain boy!’
Konrad looked up and saw that it was Elsa who had completed the song.
‘Beautiful,’ he simply said as he flipped off the radio and climbed up to join Elsa. She still sat next to the heater with a blanket wrapped around her shivering body. As Konrad sat next to her she waved away the compliment.
‘You flatter me, Konrad,’ she said. ‘I’m not a patch on that singer.’
‘It was just another voice from the past,’ Konrad sighed. ‘Still, it was a pleasant surprise to hear such an angelic sound amongst all this devastation – even if your voice was a little out of tune,’ he said mischievously.
Elsa playfully slapped Konrad across the face. ‘What do you expect from a glorified amateur like me? I was a violinist, not a singer, remember.’
‘If the music you produced on your violin was half as good as your voice, it must have been wondrous to behold,’ Konrad said.
Elsa smiled at the continuing compliments. She decided to move on. ‘What were you listening to down there. I heard chatter.’
‘Old radio traffic. American music. Sport and an old political speech,’ Konrad said as he stared wistfully at the glowing heater. ‘It’s strange hearing all those voices from the ether. It was like listening to ghosts speaking to me.’
‘I wonder how many more ghosts will now want to speak to us from here,’ Elsa said with one eye on their surroundings. ‘Perhaps if we listened to that radio long enough maybe that tower will start to speak to us too.
‘Perhaps it already has.’
‘What’s that supposed to mean, Konrad?’ Elsa frowned. ‘What are you hiding?’
‘Elsa,’ Konrad said with a note of caution. ‘I saw this spire long before we arrived on this damned planet. You do believe me, don’t you?’
‘Nothing surprises me anymore. But if that is the case, how was that possible?’
‘I can’t explain it. I’ve seen it in dreams, visions, call it what you will. But I’m not mistaken, Elsa. The tower has haunted me ever since I was at Neu Magdeburg. I saw those same black walls and felt the same sense of dread I feel now as I look upon it.’
‘That is interesting,’ Elsa said.
‘But there’s more.’
‘What?’ Elsa asked.
‘You, Elsa,’ Konrad said. ‘I saw you in my dreams too.’
Elsa raised her eyebrows in surprise. ‘That is an unexpected surprise!’
Konrad continued; apparently relived that he could, at last, unburden himself before her. All his secrets, all his confusion, could now be exposed and perhaps explained. ‘You’ve appeared in all these dreams, Elsa. Every single one. Why, I don’t know. Perhaps, like the spire, our meeting was always meant to be. Call it fate, if you will. Its hand shaped my arrest, just like it shaped other events so I was selected for this journey, and perhaps fate even shaped the crash. I think it also brought us together.’
Elsa’s eyes were glassy with tears. They rolled down her face, the rivulets washing the dirt from her face. ‘That was perhaps the strangest declaration of love I’ve ever heard in my life,’ she smiled.
Konrad blushed like a schoolboy as he awkwardly tired to hold Elsa’s gaze.