17 Enchanted Rock When I arrived at the reception, Audrey and Her Dietzel were in a discussion behind the desk. When Audrey
saw me entering the door, she quickly wrote down something on a paper and gave
me the note together with my key. On the note, she wrote 12:30pm12:30. At 12:15pm12:15, I left my room and walked to the rendezvous point
where the Land Rover was already waiting for me. I went in on the passenger side and without
having the chance to fasten the seat belt she raced away. Just outside the city, Audrey took the 965 or N. Milam Street and
that road took us all the way to the ‘Enchanted Rock’. While she was driving she started telling me
about the rock. “This
Rock is so special because it is a 500-foot-high dome of pink granite, the second
largest formation in North America. I often
go to this Rock alone. The
legend of the Indians and the spirituality that comes with it makes the place so
special for me. I want to show you why! The Moss family owned the land, from 1875 to
1978. It was
opened for tourists in 1929. Last year the Moss family, who I personally know
very well, decided to sell the land and it became a state natural area but not
available for tourists. On the recommendation of Mr
Moss himself the new owner made an exception for me. The rock
is an impressive geological feature with an estimated age of one billion years,
making it among the oldest exposed rocks in North America. The rock has something mysterious which fascinates
me, I will tell you more when we are there.” The drive itself from Fredericksburg to the
park was beautiful and twenty minutes later, we passed the sign “Enchanted Rock”
and Audrey parked her car in a parking lot in front of the park. From the parking lot I could already see the
impressive Rock, it was enormous. Audrey told me
“It is a granite anomaly in an area dominated by limestone. It remained relatively unchanged from the beginning
of the prehistory up to now.” This
bald pink giant looked alien. The hike
to the top took twenty minutes. At the top we had the whole place to ourselves
with phenomenal views of Texas Hill Country. Audrey told me she always felt she had to lie
on her back in an attempt to get closer to the soul of this monument of nature.
The silence, the sense of immensity and closeness
to the sky always invited her to meditate for a while. We both sat down,
drank some water and got ourselves some sandwiches from her backpack. “You have
to know Peter,” Audrey started with a serious voice. “This place
is a giant archaeological site. In the
18th century, the Tonkawa controlled the area, but the Apache took control and superseded
them. At their
turn, the Apache were superseded by the Comanche who controlled the region when
the German colonists established Fredericksburg around 1840. We know little of how Enchanted Rock
functioned in the minds of the Tonkawa, Apache and Comanche, beyond the fact
that they held the rock in great religious awe.” Audrey waited
a while before she went on with her story. “The name
Enchanted Rock goes back to the
unwritten Indian history and tells the story of aboriginal rites and ceremonies,
of love and war.” She took a bite from the sandwich and after
she’d transported it to her stomach, she went on with her story. “At night,
tells the story, strange lights appear on the rock and it generates groaning
and creaking sounds. There are many Indian legends about this phenomenon.
According to one story, the spirit of a doomed
chief has to live on the rock forever as a punishment for sacrificing his daughter.
I feel
connected to that girl, because I feel sacrificed by my biological parents” We settled ourselves on this rock for about
two hours, the first hour we talked about her parents who in fact were her foster
parents. She told me that she’d experienced real problems,
not knowing who her real parents were and about the why question. This feeling had been getting stronger because
she did not have a real warm relationship with her stepmother. Audrey
started to talk very negatively about her stepmother. She gave me an insight of the not so nice
side of herself. She told me she would never leave Fredericksburg
and her ideal was to start a family on a ranch somewhere outside Fredericksburg
with many animals and many children. “Are there enough male candidates to realize
your ideal picture”, I asked. “No, but enough about me, let me show you how
to meditate, if you take it seriously, maybe you’ll feel the spirit in the rock
like I do.” The next hour she was in meditation, but already
after ten minutes I got restless because this meditation stuff was not my cup
of tea. Out of
respect, I waited twenty minutes before I rose to my feet. Not to disturb Audrey too much I walked to the
other side of the rock and enjoyed the view. After an hour, she awoke from her meditation
and looked at me with a strange blissful facial expression. “Did you not feel the spirit in the rock?” she
asked almost reproachfully. “No,
maybe they knew I was just a passerby and you’re their faithful spiritual soul
mate.” “Yes, those are nice words for an Outlander,”
and her disappointment was gone. At 5:10pm17:10, Audrey dropped me off at the bank were I thanked her
again. I wanted to close the door of the car when she whispered, “If,
around 9:00pm21:00, you hear four
knocks on your door, it’s me. “ I was completely surprised and before I knew,
she was gone. When I
walked into the National Bank, I went straight to my ‘friend’ Brian. Brian saw me approaching and started to look
sad. The expression on his face and the shaking of his head, told me enough. He told me Sr. Riemann was not in the office today and during the weekend,
the Bank was closed. After a moment of contemplating, I told him I couldn’t
stay in Fredericksburg until Monday. Brian told me that it would be no problem. “You can go on with your cycling trip. On Monday you can call Sr. Riemann
and if the money has arrived you can discuss with him what to do to get your money.” On my way to the motel, I bought myself some
fast food because during the picnic we already had eaten many sandwiches. While I was eating my meal, the news was on
and I saw our Prime Minister van Agt. He was visiting President Carter in the White
House in Washington today. After the Newsflash about both leaders in the White house
the TV-program went on with this item and two experts on international relations
were invited to a forum to discuss the subject that was on the agenda of the two
leaders: The arms race with the Sovjet Union and the associated modernization of nuclear missiles in the western part of Europe. One expert, called Ruben, explained that in
the western part of Europe, they had the United State Pershing IA pointing at
Eastern Europe, while Eastern Europe had the SS-20 pointing at West-Europe. The other specialist, Frank, explained that the United States-government was
determined to achieve further arms control and arms reduction in Europe, both nuclear
and conventional. This required that their allies in Europe allowed
America to start a Nuclear Force modernization within their borders. Only then
would the Sovjet Union agree to realistic negotiations.
Ruben
added that the Warsaw Pact had developed a large and growing capacity of nuclear
systems that were threatening Western Europe. This week two more new SS-20 sites
had been discovered, bringing the number of SS-20 warheads to 675. This exceeded
the NATO program. Frank complemented
this by telling the moderator he was fully convinced that the Sovjet Union would not move to reductions in the SS-20
program if NATO didn’t reach a joint position in regards to their nuclear missile
modernization. President Carter was aware that the Netherlands
had problems with this modernization. For this reason, President Carter had invited
Prime Minister van Agt. Yesterday the Dutch Second Chamber had accepted
a motion that in essence said that they didn’t yet decide whether to allow the
modernization on their territory. The United States, who were negotiating on behalf
of their allies were looking for success. This success would be more difficult to achieve
if the Netherlands appeared not to be involved with these negotiations by
distancing itself temporarily from NATO's decision. I was fully in the story when somebody knocked
on my door. A complete stranger was standing in front of
me. “Sorry
to disturb you, but my daughter Audrey was gone the whole afternoon, was she
here with you in your motel room? Sorry; but I have to ask!” He tried to sound polite with a whiff of fury
and determination, only his figure did not help him. “No not here, but we were together the whole
afternoon. She invited me for a picnic to the Enchanted Rock. At around 2:00pm14:00 we drove
to the park in her Land Rover. She wanted
to show me the beautiful nature and her favorite spot on the Rock. She often goes
to that park as you probably know. We had a picnic in the park with sandwiches
and talked a lot. It was really nice, you have a lovely daughter.” “O, euch, OK, euch, thanks.” He probably did not expect this detailed
answer and therefore did not know how to start his next question. “Sorry,
I have to ask, but did you, in return, invite my daughter in your motel room
for the evening’” “No,
not really” “Not really, do you mean she invited herself?” “She told me she would visit me this evening.” The man sounded more determined when he asked
“How late?” “Sorry sir, I understand your part as a father,
but for the rest of the information you really have to go to your daughter and
ask her.” Now the little man did not try to look determined,
he was! “Let me tell you this, I want you to promise
me you will not let my daughter into your room, not this evening, not this night
and not tomorrow. If you don’t promise me this, I will make sure you will get into
trouble.” I had already enough of this whole situation
and did not want to be in a tricky conflict between a parent and daughter. “I promise I will not let her in but maybe
it is better if you talk to her and tell her what you told me so I will not be
forced into a tedious situation where I have to explain that she isn’t welcome.” “I will,
Thanks,” were his last words. I looked
at the TV again and Ruben and Frank were still discussing the same subject. Their
end conclusion was that in the given situation the Dutch government had three options:
It could
bow its head and recognize that there is a majority ruling from parliament against
the modernization program. The second
option is that it can ignore parliament and say yes to the modernization
program. This would mean political suicide.
A
third option was an in-between position, that the Netherlands would not oppose NATO’s
plans, but only delay its own decision. However, the contents and results of this meeting
were top secret. After a while, there would probably be a short press-announcement
with some general conclusions. Five minutes before nine I heard a knock…….knock, knock………knock. My first reaction was SHIT. I opened
the door and it was Audrey, beautiful but furious. Without saying hello, she started with, “Did you
promise my dad you would not let me in?” “Yes,” was the only possible answer? “Stop me if you can” and she bursted into the room. “I won’t stop you and we can talk for five
minutes, but in respect to your parents, if you do not leave I will have to leave
myself and will wait outside till you are gone.” “I thought you were a real man, but you’re a
coward, you’re a fake.” I wanted to end this discussion
as soon as possible so I confirmed, “You’re right, I am a coward.” “I am
not interested in a coward I want a real man who stands up against my parents in
favor of me. So cycle to hell with your stupid Coco” Before
I could say goodbye, she was gone. The only
thing I felt at that moment was relief. At 10:30pm22:30, I turned the lights off. |