Snake Point

Snake Point

by

James N. Bade

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locations, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

World Castle Publishing, LLC

Pensacola, Florida

Copyright © James N. Bade 2021

Smashwords Edition

Paperback ISBN: 9781955086400

eBook ISBN: 9781955086417

First Edition World Castle Publishing, LLC, July 12, 2021

http://www.worldcastlepublishing.com

Smashwords Licensing Notes

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in articles and reviews.

Cover: Karen Fuller

Editor: Maxine Bringenberg

Chapter 1

This must be the bumpiest road in Germany! said Tom. We’ve got potholes in New Zealand, but nothing like this. Surely there must be some other way to get to the CNN people at Lake Stechlin.

There doesn’t seem to be, Luise replied. Bus 836 is the way to get there from Gransee Station.

I didn’t mind the RE5 train ride, Luise, but this is ridiculous!

Well, it’s not as bad as the road to the Potsdam wrestling meet I went to last night, Jake commented, as the bus took a sudden lurch to the right to avoid a pothole. That must be the bumpiest concrete road in Europe. When you’re standing on the sidewalk at Schilfhof, the traffic sounds like horses galloping past!

How did the wrestling go last night? Tom asked.

Good! It was Potsdam versus Artern. Lots of students from Potsdam University. But when I got there, two of the Potsdam wrestlers had to withdraw because of injury—86 and 66 kg. I offered to step in for the 86 kg guy. And won! That gave Potsdam four points they would have lost otherwise. So they won the dual!

Boy, I bet they were pleased!

"They sure were, Tom! They took me off to celebrate afterwards in a place called Full House–probably named after the TV show—but it wasn’t a full house, we were the only people there. I told them I couldn’t stay long, though, with this CNN interview coming up this morning."

Has your wrestling season finished at Oklahoma, Jake? Luise asked.

We’re halfway through. We’ve got a bit of a break now. Our fall term finished last week, and the spring term starts mid-January. Actually, I’d just gotten back from the last wrestling dual of the season, against the University of Pittsburgh, when I got your message about the CNN news team wanting to interview us. How did they find out about us?

Apparently, Judy Thorpe alerted them. They wanted to know where we should meet. I thought of Lake Stechlin because that’s the area everyone associates with Fontane. Seeing I knew Tom was on a study abroad course in Zürich, I thought he could get to Berlin quite easily. I just wasn’t sure if you could.

Just the right time of the year for me. That’s why I jumped at the chance! How’s Zürich, Tom?

I really like it there. I got a room in a student hostel at Freudenbergstrasse. Lovely view of the city, when you can see it—the fog has rolled in now from the lake, and it’s getting a lot colder. But the university is great. It’s got a Lichthof just like the one at the Technical University in Berlin—you know, a huge indoor atrium with a big glass dome—and it’s got a statue of Nike in it too!

Is the statue anything like the Berlin one? asked Luise.

Almost exactly the same, on a big black stone pedestal that says the statue dates back to two centuries B.C. Have a look!

Tom showed them photos of the Nike statue that he had taken on his phone.

Oh, very nice! I like the pink background, commented Luise.

Yes, but the statue’s not illuminated like the Berlin one, said Tom.

How does your course fit in with your cricket, Tom? asked Jake.

Well, it meant I was in the first two matches, but then I had to miss the rest of the first half of the season. The study abroad course is a three-week advanced German language course, so it’s not too long, and it’s just finished, so I’ll be back for the start of the second half of the season in January.

Any more centuries?

Ha ha! No! Got thirty-six runs in my last game, though! Hey, Luise, how did you manage to get time off for the interview?

Well, I haven’t got any lectures today. We finish for the year at the end of this week, then start again towards mid-January.

So you’re making the most of it, then!

"Aber natürlich! But of course! Look, we’re just arriving at Neuglobsow. We have to get out here. From here, we can walk down to the lake."

Tom and Jake got out of the bus while Luise asked the driver about buses back to Gransee later in the day so they could get back to Berlin in the afternoon. Tom and Jake looked at the surroundings. There were still signs of late autumn colors on the trees, which lined a narrow cobbled lane sprinkled with leaves, wending its way past a number of unpretentious houses and buildings. To their right was a grassy slope down to the water.

Not much to see here, Jake commented. Is that the lake over there?

If it is, it’s pretty small, said Tom.

No, that’s Lake Dagow, said Luise, who had now joined them. It’s just a little one. Lake Stechlin is the main lake here. It’s down this way, about twenty minutes’ walk down the road, past the museum on the right. We’ve arranged to meet the CNN people at eleven, so we’ve got about half an hour.

They set out down the lane, passing a number of Tudor-style buildings on the left and a modern green building on the right, which turned out to be the museum.

I imagine this is a pretty popular place in the summer, judging from all the parks and benches and bike stands everywhere. What’s this village called again? Tom asked.

Neuglobsow, Luise replied.

What a funny name! Jake laughed.

Well, funnily enough, Fontane’s novel is set here, and Fontane stayed here, but Neuglobsow never appears in the novel at all. Instead, he set his novel in a village called Stechlin, named after the lake. You know how we said Fontane had an uncanny way of foretelling the future? Well, in his day, there was no locality called Stechlin. But now this whole area is called the Municipality of Stechlin.

Is that because of his novel? Jake asked.

Largely, yes. Stechlin is one of his best known novels. It’s a plea for tolerance and open-mindedness and getting rid of the parochialism and insularity Fontane saw in Germany at the time. People identified with it.

So Fontane put Stechlin on the map.

Yes, you could say that, Jake. And when people think of Stechlin, they think of Fontane. That’s why I think it’s a good idea to meet the CNN people at Lake Stechlin.

And is that Fontane Street I can see coming up on the left? asked Tom.

Well, yes, there has to be a Fontane Street here, doesn’t there? Now, see that little Tudor-style building coming up on the left? That’s where Fontane stayed. It’s now called the Fontane House—it’s a restaurant. And that tree there is the one that Fontane sat under.

Ah yes, it’s got a sign on it, said Jake. And I reckon this is one even I can translate. You betcha! Under this tree sat Theodor Fontane!

The others laughed.

And I bet all the restaurant dishes are named after Fontane, commented Tom.

Yes, they are, I think. But I can do one better than that. Lake Stechlin has a species of fish not found anywhere else in the world, and it’s named after Fontane. Coregonus fontanae. A type of salmon.

So we could eat Fontane for breakfast, Tom grinned.

Well, in theory, yes, but they say they’re very small. Shows you how special Lake Stechlin is, though. Quite unique. They have set up a research station devoted to water ecology and freshwater fishing to investigate it. There’s a raft on the lake taking measurements all the time. There’s also a meteorological station there run by the Ministry for the Environment, looking at the impact of climate change. All run on solar energy, too.

Climate change, eh? That’s a really important question for our generation. And what’s that big house on the left? asked Jake.

On the other side of a large wrought iron fence, they could see a tall turreted white Tudor-style mansion nestled at the back of a huge garden, with a grand concrete staircase leading up to it.

Ah, yes! Lots of people that come here after reading Fontane’s novel think this must be his Stechlin Castle. But it wasn’t actually built till the 1930s. Like the village of Stechlin, it didn’t exist in Fontane’s day. It was a product of his imagination.

Artistic license, then? asked Tom.

Yes, but it exists now, just as his Stechlin exists now too! But this building here is something that’s very close to my heart. It’s the yoga house. They have yoga retreats here. My yoga friends in Berlin love coming here.

They took a selfie of the three of them in front of the yoga house and admired the Yoga Haus inscription on the glass doors before moving on down the road and into the forest, where the road narrowed down to a paved track. They passed two men in business suits chatting in the parking lot at the entrance to the forest and followed the track through the trees. These had lost most of their leaves, but there was still a colorful mixture of light green, yellow, and orange to be seen on the trees, and the ground on both sides of the track was covered with a thick layer of brown leaves.

You know, I’m sure we’ve seen those men before, Jake commented after a while.

Yes, I thought they looked familiar too, said Tom. Especially the one with the pasty face and glasses. I’m sure we’ve seen the guy with the beard too. But I can’t remember where.

Well, who knows, they might have something to do with CNN, said Luise. I’ve arranged to meet the CNN team just a bit further down the track on the right. There’s a large circular seating arrangement there, so they’ll have plenty of room for their equipment.

Sure enough, as they came towards the end of the track and the lake started to open up in front of them, they could see a group of people with microphones and camera equipment set up in the picnic area. As they approached, a young woman waved to them and came out onto the track.

Aha! The Glass Mountains team! I recognized you immediately from Judy Thorpe’s description—she called you the Glass Mountains Mission. Hi, I’m Helen Harlowe—I’ll be interviewing you. And this is my team; Patrick McBryde, who is overseeing the whole operation; Christine Niven, in charge of microphones and sound; Brian Duncan, the cameraman; and Keith Leighton, looking after the drone.

Luise, Jake, and Tom shook hands with the CNN crew.

I’m actually an auto mechanic by trade, said Brian. But now I drive the cameras. Not too much difference, really. Always breaking down and needing replacement parts.

And I drive the drone, grinned Keith. That’s where Brian’s knowledge really comes in useful. They are always crashing and needing repair.

And we’re always having problems with the microphones as well, Christine sighed.

Well, I’m sure that will fill them all with the greatest of confidence, laughed Patrick. Somehow the general laughter helped everyone relax.

Let’s move down to the lake, said Keith, and if I can get the drone to behave, I’ll get a drone shot of you three shaking hands with Helen at the lakeside. That way, we can get the natural beauty of the lake and forest right at the very beginning.

They walked down to the lake, and while Keith’s drone buzzed around above, Helen stood at the shore of the lake greeting and shaking hands with the trio. At Patrick’s suggestion, they re-enacted the meeting twice more, so it could be captured from three different angles.

Not often we shake hands with the same person three times in a row, Tom laughed.

"No, we do