A Promise Page #4

and chased it out the window.

Everything's fine now.

Come along, Friedrich,

I need you too.

No, no darling. Otto has

been waiting for his lesson.

- Will you see cowboys and indians?

- No, Mexico isn't America.

But it's a huge big country

too with lots of deserts.

- Will you carry a gun?

- Well, definitely.

- How long will it take you to get there?

- Just over three weeks.

So, we sail from Hamburg, here, down

the coast of England and France.

Spain, Portugal and all the way

across the Atlantic to Brazil.

Venezuela, and finally dock here in

Mexico in a port called Tampico.

Will you send me stamps

for my collection?

That's enough now, Otto,

it's time to supper.

Will you come back

here afterwards?

Yes. I promise I'll

come back here.

There.

It's finished.

Now what do we do with it?

Break it up.

Stop. Stop! St...

Stop.

Stop.

Come closer to me.

It's ridiculous this great

table separating us.

Soon it'll be an ocean.

Why don't we try and

be happy this evening?

Yes, I'm sorry.

Here's to your last night.

Our last night.

I may, mayn't I?

For our last night.

I'm going to make

a suggestion and I want you

to think very carefully

before you answer me.

Now what if you...

- May I clear the table, ma'am?

- Yes, of course.

Thank you.

It was delicious.

What if you come away with me?

With your son, of course.

- You must be...

- Think... carefully... please.

You must be dreaming.

Then I shall stay here.

If you stay here

we'll be found out.

I want to say goodbye to Friedrich

before he leaves tomorrow.

At the crack of dawn

for what I hear.

Yes, sir. Five o'clock.

Let's make the most of these

last few moments together.

I wanted to thank you for

making this immense sacrifice...

...for leaving your homeland and

your loved ones behind you.

Karl, do you really

think you should...?

Why deny oneself a pleasure

while one is still alive?

My secret love. Your letters

take so long to get here

that I can't bear to wait for

the next one before I write.

Hello, I've... I've come for some

letters for Frau Verlage.

They should be transatlantic

mail from Mexico.

I'll check for you.

We are still only at the prospecting stage

and I cover vast distances on horseback.

I have had to learn to ride,

shoot, make a campfire.

I dull my mind with work

to try and numb my yearning for you.

But the evenings by

the campfire, tired as I am

I write to you envying the sheet of

paper which will soon be in your hands.

Pressed to your breast...

...perhaps even to your lips.

My beloved,

I can think of nothing but

you from morning till night.

Especially at night.

If only you knew how

much I miss you,

no sooner was our love disclosed

than we had to say goodbye.

The moment I saw the

train take you away

I knew that your absence

would be unendurable.

But do not worry.

This is our pact and I will stand

the test with fortitude.

We're aparted by distance,

but also by time.

Little by little the past feels more

and more like a foreign country.

Your letters are all that I have

to keep it alive inside me.

I too preserve your

letters like treasure.

But yesterday I had quite a fright.

Otto showed me a Mexican stamp which

he said his father had given him.

Look at the stamp

that father gave me.

I was terrified that Karl might

have found your letters.

I had a letter from Friedrich.

Poor boy had bad luck.

Caught some kind of fever.

Seems he almost died.

Ma'am! Ma'am!

Are you all right?

Let me help you.

Are you all right?

"Dear Herr Hoffmeister,

Everything is going well here.

I shall be back in six months.

In the meantime I wish you a happy

and prosperous year for 1914

to you, your gracious

wife and young Otto.

Respectfully yours, Friedrich Zeitz."

Father, may I keep this

stamp for my collection?

Hans, what does that bell mean?

It means we are at war, ma'am.

"After stabilizing all fronts our

glorious army has retaken

the initiative."

"This time in the East."

How I wish this war would end.

I don't care whether we win

or lose as long as it is over.

I no longer even know when

I can hope for your return.

This may be my last letter or the

last you will receive for some time.

We have heard there is

to be a naval blockade.

I feel like a man

under house arrest.

Cut off from my country

and the woman I love,

by an ocean of steel and fire.

Returned to sender, ma'am.

Why?

Well because of the

war, I suppose.

Is there a war in Mexico?

I wouldn't know, ma'am.

My husband wondered whether

you've heard anything from Fr...

From Herr Zeitz?

I'm afraid we've lost

touch with him, madam.

How so?

Didn't Herr Hoffmesiter tell you?

All see trafic between Europe

and South America has stopped.

No ships, no mail.

Can't somebody cable him

just to see if he's all right?

I'm sure he is all right.

There's no war there.

Tell your husband not to

fret, Frau Hoffmeister.

I can't... I can't breathe!

I can't breathe! I can't breathe!

Sssh.

It's all right. It's all right.

It's all right. It's all right.

Sssh.

It's all right.

Sssh.

It's all right. It's all right.

Still these letters which

you will never read.

The steelworks have been requisitioned

to make artillery guns.

No word from you, but

I keep on writing you.

Karl tried to object. They threw him out

and put an army officer in charge.

As a result my poor husband

has fallen ill again.

I am frightened, I've got

nothing to hold on to.

The world of yesterday, the

world I knew, is vanishing.

And I can't endure the present.

On his last day, Karl told

me a stupendous secret.

I wanted to bring you together

from the very beginning.

But then I felt such pain.

I could see that you loved him

more than you ever loved me.

He took possession of you

and dispossessed me.

How could I have kept

you from loving him?

I told Otto it was for his sake. That

he'd be safer in a boarding school.

But in my heart of hearts

I felt I was abandoning him.

Just as I feel abandoned

myself now that I'm alone.

With no one left to love.

I remember those lines from the

poem I read you one evening.

The week before you left.

"In the old, cold, lonely park

two ghosts recalled the past."

And you answered at once.

"Why take refuge in the past

when we can revel in the present."

Please, ma'am.

Don't sit there in the dark.

For six years now

we've been apart.

And for four of them I haven't

heard a word from you.

Not a single sign of life.

And yet I am certain

you are still out there.

Somewhere alive. I still think

about you all the time.

The only thing that keeps me

alive is the memory of our love.

It is for our love

that I am in mourning.

Your skin, my skin, our union.

Ma'am?

Ma'am!

We have lost the war.

We've lost what?

Germany has lost the war.

Hallo.

Yes. Tomorrow.

Yes.

Herr secretary!

Hello, Hans.

Thank you, Hans.

What a pleasure to come back

here after all these years.

Yes, Herr secretary.

All these years.

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes