Coffee
Ali Qapu Palace
The usual lunchtime patrons in the palace dining rooms were starting to file out. A few hung around for tea and other snacks. Izinchi sipped her cup of tea. It tasted different from what she was used too.
I’m a coffee person. Coffee helped me get through so many awful days at the Reichsrat. So basically the whole time I was there. Tea dinnae pack the same punch. But I suppose I should try it out while I’m here. Wait, but that also applies to the coffee.
“Senator Ochimeca!” Izinchi looked up and saw Julian approaching.
Ach, isn’t that just great. It’s the bloody Anniona lad again.
“Uh…
teotlaquiltitzino, Julian. Didn’t expect to see you here.”
Julian sat. “I’m here to get some coffee.”
Izinchi raised an eyebrow.
Ye want coffee? At yer age, laddie? Ye’re barely auld enough fer college, y’ken?
“Ye're an awfu blether, y’ken?”
Julian was perplexed. “I…I’m sorry? Was that…Nahuatl?”
“It’s Scots Deutsch! Ye daft, laddie?”
Julian shook his head. “Still can’t understand you, sorry.”
Godsdamnit, did I over do it again? But it’s only 1 in the afternoon, and I haven’t even had a drink yet!
For the first time in a couple months, Izinchi forced herself to speak like a Berliner. “Sorry. For the last few weeks, I…let go of my Brandenburg accent. It’s not my native accent. You always see politicians speaking with a Brandenburg accent in public. It’s the ‘default’ accent of society. A regional accent gives the impression of backwardness and incompetence. Doubly worse for a Caledonian, with our stereotypes of being inner city alcoholic gangsters, and far worse for Nahua Caledonians, since we’re considered all of the above but with the added stereotype of being bloodthirsty terrorists secretly plotting world domination. When I entered politics, I took classes. Watched loads of recordings of people speaking with a Brandenburg accent. Forced myself to speak like them so people would take me seriously. So they would see a trusted Roman politician instead of a bloodthirsty alcoholic terrorist.”
“And how did that turn out?”
“It worked, for a while. But as the years went by, I felt like I was becoming…you know, your average politician. One face to the public, another hidden from all. Saying one thing and doing another. I felt like a sellout. I campaigned on bringing a new perspective to an institution rooted in the past—like what Baudet used to campaign on—but I was hiding myself. I was becoming one of those old suits, instead of convincing them to think like me. I wasn’t true to myself.”
Izinchi relaxed and slipped back into her native accent. “But after everything that’s happened, it dinnae feel necessary anymore. Feels better to talk like I used to. More natural. No longer have to hide meself.”
“So…what
were you saying earlier, then?”
“I was saying yer nae good at gossiping.”
“What does gossiping have anything to do with what I said?”
“Well, ye said yer here for coffee, and I was thinking…ain’t ye a little young to be drinking coffee?”
Julian laughed. “I get that a lot. Truth be told, I do look younger than I am.”
“And how old are you?”
“I was born in 2017.”
Which would make him…21 or 22? Graduation age? Legal drinking age? And here I was thinking this lad was 14. The way he always appeared in Bremerhaven. Wait, has it really been eight years since then? Ach, time flies.
“I’m so sorry, Julian.”
“Don’t worry about it. It’s nothing too big. I just want some coffee.”
Izinchi got up from the table. “I could get ye a cuppa. Howd’ye like yer coffee?”
“Black.”
“Want any sugar or milk?”
“Nah.”
“Wow, just pure caffeine?”
Julian shrugged. “Pretty much.”
Izinchi laughed. “Yer a right proper laddie! Reminds me a lot of meself.”
“Really?”
“Aye, unsweetened coffee carried me through college and my Reichsrat years.”
“Coffee carried me through Bremerhaven.”
Izinchi smiled. “Guess that makes two of us.”
She went to the coffee machine and poured a cup of coffee. It gave off a fragrant yet strongly bitter smell as liquid dropped from the machine into the cup. The sounds of coffee splashing inside the cup, combined with the bitter fragrance, evoked a memory in her mind. A memory of walking through the marble halls of the Reichstag Building, with heels clicking against linoleum tiles and hands busy trying to both hold a stack of important legislation and prevent a cup of coffee from spilling all over them. She remembered reaching her office, placed at the far end of the building because she was a relative newcomer, and slumping in her chair at her desk. With the stack of bills thumping loudly on wood, she raised her cup of coffee and eagerly chugged it like beer, feeling the hot bitterness wash over her tongue while energy shot up her spine, invigorating her late in the evening so she could continue working until almost midnight and meet her deadlines. Just as she had done in college. Returning to the table, she handed the cup to Julian.
“Not quite something your local Starmarks would brew, but I like it,” Julian said.
We should have more Persian coffee stores at home. If we win, of course. No, when
we win.
For a few seconds, they quietly drank their coffee.
“So…what was Bremerhaven like?” Izinchi asked.
Julian stopped drinking. “Uh…”
Frak, that was bad.
Izinchi held up her hands. “Ach, m’bad. I dinnae mean to cause a stooshie…”
Julian shook his head, though. “No, you’re fine. Bremerhaven was…a city like any other. Honestly, there was nothing different about it.”
“How?”
Julian shrugged. “I don’t know how to describe it. The city was…how it always was. We were being ourselves.”
“Ye stood up t’ the committee when no one else in the Reich would. When everyone else was scared into submission or dinnae care ‘bout a thing, you stood up for what was right. Ye n’ yer sister. We heard ‘bout yer bravery in Russia.”
“I was only doing what I thought was right.”
“And yer just a lad, too. Ye did way more than this here Senator did. Nae, I fled like a coward. Seeing ye…sometimes, I wish I stayed ‘n did what I could.”
Julian patted Izinchi’s shoulder. “Don’t say that, Senator. You were only doing what you thought was right. I don’t blame you for leaving. After Red Christmas, things got really bad. First the siege, then the nuke that killed Eva. We were only doing what we thought was right, but that was our fight, not yours. I wouldn’t wish for you to have been in Bremerhaven with me the whole time. It was a horrible time, especially towards the end. It would not have been an appropriate use of your talents.”
Kid not only looks younger than he is, but he sounds older too?! Sounds like something Da would’ve said.
Izinchi was confused. “What…what d’ye mean?”
“I mean that the princess wouldn’t have achieved what she did had you not been at her side.”
“Awa' an bile yer ‘eid!” Izinchi dismissively waved her hand.
Julian didn’t flinch, though. “I read up on what you did this morning. The library has a bunch of old newspapers and webpages saved offline. Lots of stuff about establishing the government-in-exile the first time. Then the second time, when the princess arrived. Working with her and General Remmele to find a compromise between civilian and military authority, though I didn’t expect you to agree on Commissioner Kresge, of all people.”
To be fair, I dinnae expect that either. And neither did Kresge himself. Hope he’s okay, wherever he is. I hate that we were unable to save him.
“Continuing on to advise the princess, spurring her on to represent the true Reich at the UN, then helping her get through the first two months of the war…it couldn’t have been easy. It couldn’t have been without pain and suffering. But you didn’t hesitate to do what was right. Like I did, but in another way.”
“I…I was only in the right place at the right time. Like escaping Bloody Tuesday. I was simply lucky.”
If my sister wasn’t getting married when she did, I’d have been a bloody mess on the floor of the Reichstag chamber alongside Merkel, Baudet, Lorenz, and the other victims.
“And so was I. I was in the right place at the right time in Bremerhaven in 2031. I was lucky my sister refused to give in. We both made the best of what we had.”
“…I suppose so.” Izinchi sipped her coffee. “We aren’t really that different after all, I guess.”
“What will you do now?” Julian asked.
“Do…now?”
“Yeah. Now that you’re safe in Isfahan, you surely have plans, right?”
To be honest, I’ve been so caught up in just trying to get back to my normal life that I haven’t had much time to think about it.
“Well, obviously, I’m going to restore the government in exile, a third time. Gebbers has already agreed to put his troops under the authority of the Kaiserin, so I suppose I should do the same with the civilian government. That seems easy enough. Really nice how it all lines up.”
If only Kresge was still with us.
“And what about ye, Julian? Yer not in Bremerhaven anymore.”
“I don’t know. Maybe I’ll organize a protest in the Kleinrom neighborhood. Though with the state of the war I suppose I won’t have to do much organizing.”
Wow, that’s dedication.
“Haven’t you thought of other things?”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know…school? College?”
Did ye even finish high school, Julian?
“Sometimes, I think about it. But we’re in the middle of a giant war for the fate of the world. I don’t think it’s appropriate to head off to school while it continues. I want to do my part. Same as I’ve done for the last eight years.”
“Hmmm…haven’t ye thought of taking a break? Letting more qualified individuals take charge for once?”
Julian looked straight at Izinchi. “Ma’am, I have eight years of hands-on experience. More than many of your colleagues from before.”
…he’s not wrong. Lorenz was in the Diet for what felt like forever, yet he was a complete idiot when it came to problems that weren’t from the 1950s.
“Aye, fine, I get it. Yer nae gonna stop. So how ‘bout another suggestion?”
“What is it?”
Izinchi smiled. “Work with me. The government in exile could use more manpower.”
“Me? In the government?”
“Why not? Ye were in Bremerhaven City Hall for a good while.”
“Still, it’s the government in exile. Are you sure there isn’t someone more qualified?”
“
Now yer concerned ‘bout more qualified individuals? Face it, lad, yer qualified. Nae just ‘cause yer sister ‘n great-grandmother were great leaders. Ye led Bremerhaven yerself too. Ye wanted to help your fellow citizens, look after them in an uncertain world. Ye wanted to make a difference. Felt the same way when I first started. Had the same look in yer eyes. The look of an idealist. We could use two idealists.”
Julian thought for a moment. “That is appealing…and it would be something to put my skills to good use at. I’ll have to consider your offer and get back to you.”
“Really?” Izinchi lit up. “Great!”
And so our civilian government in exile has literally doubled
in size.
“Only downside, though.” Julian held up a finger and then gestured between the two of them. “We’re both PMS. The two of us would effectively be one-party state. It would be wise to get an opposition faction so we don’t accidentally build ourselves an echo chamber.”
Again, this lad’s acting like he’s freaking Adenauer. Not that I’m complaining.
Izinchi laughed. “Gebbers was CMU before. Like most generals. We’ll be fine.”
We need someone like Adenauer in these times.