The Heritage Paper

Chapter 71



Flavia glided in. Adding her presence to Kingston and Jamie, the room was now on charisma overload.

She was dressed down, compared to the previous day—a pair of snug-fitting jeans, sweater, and a bouncing ponytail. But the accessory that caught Veronica’s attention was the document she held in her hands.

“Uh-oh,” Maggie said softly.

“That’s the only version you were talking about?” Veronica whispered.

Maggie nodded stoically.

“How can you be sure?” Veronica asked. “Ellen admitted to telling lies for sixty years, what’s one more?”

“Because TJ made the cover—how could she copy that? She wasn’t exactly Bill Gates with the computer.”

Flavia handed the memoir to Kingston, and now Veronica was the one to say, “Uh-oh.”

Flavia turned her head in her direction. It was as if she noticed her presence for the first time. “Veronica?”

“You lying ...”

“It’s not what you think.”

Veronica looked at Maggie, who for the first time looked overwhelmed. She silently stared out into space.

“Then enlighten me,” Veronica said.

“I’m just following Ellen’s orders.”

“Following orders just like those Nazi soldiers?”

Flavia shook her head. “You just don’t understand.”

Those were the same words Eddie used when he took her children. Veronica wasn’t seeking understanding, all she wanted was to take them home to a safe world.

Veronica took another peek at Maggie, who was now catatonic. So Veronica spoke the words she thought her daughter would say in this situation, “Whatever.”

When Kingston held the memoir, he smiled with relief. He had been more worried than he’d let on.

He handed the document to Sterling—still in the wheelchair—who laid it out on his lap. He read the title out loud, “My Family Tree—The Last Leaves of Evil, by Ellen Sarowitz-Peterson.”

He began examining the pages. “This could have ruined everything we worked for,” he said with great relief.

“She was old—she didn’t know any better,” Kingston defended. “I’m just glad we were able to get it back before my enemies could use it against me.”

Sterling flipped to the back of the binder, where he found something taped to the back cover. He pulled off the tape and handed it to Kingston. It was a disc.

“This should be interesting,” Kingston said with an amused look and placed it into a DVD player. Flavia made sure the doors were locked and the room secure.

Ellen appeared on the screen, wearing her Sunday best, along with her usual scowl. Veronica tensed—the last time Ellen made a video they all ended up in the principal’s office.

“Hello, James—this is your grandmother,” Ellen began in her usual curmudgeonly tone.

“I spent the latter part of my life trying to protect my family from the dangers of our heritage. I’d seen too many lives cut short by tragedy. Your father Josef was a victim of it, as was my other son, the half brother you never met, Harry Jr. I tried to protect Maggie’s father and others, but since we’re here today, it means I’ve failed miserably.

“I suspect you are about to be elected President of the United States. And while this is a great achievement, it’s not what defines you. It is what you do with this great responsibility that will. As a man once said—sooner will a camel pass through a needle’s eye than a great man will be discovered through an election.”

“It’s Hitler,” Zach whispered.

Things had gotten so zany that Veronica’s first impulse was to ask, “Where?”

“No—the quote about the camel’s eye, it’s from Mein Kampf. It’s probably why he’s smiling.”

“That or he’s just a sociopath and that’s what they do,” Veronica said back.

“So now begins the last revolution,” Ellen passionately continued onscreen. “In gaining political power the Jew casts off the few cloaks that he still wears. The democratic people’s Jew becomes the blood-Jew and tyrant over peoples. In a few years he tries to exterminate the national intelligentsia and by robbing the peoples of their natural intellectual leadership makes them ripe for the slave’s lot of permanent subjugation

“Around people who offer too violent a resistance to attack from within he weaves a net of enemies, thanks to his international influence, incites them to war, and finally, if necessary plants the flag of revolution on the very battlefields.

“The ignorance of the broad masses about the inner nature of the Jew, the luck of instinct and narrow-mindedness of the upper classes, make people an easy victim for this Jewish campaign of lies.”

Veronica was stunned. “How could this possibly be helping?”

“I have no idea,” Zach whispered back. “But I do know she’s regurgitating Hitler’s words. Those were exact quotes.”

That can’t be good, Veronica thought with a hard swallow.

“If the Jew is victorious over other people of the world,” Ellen continued with her rant, “his crown will be the funeral wreath of humanity—this planet will, as it did thousands of years ago, move through the ether devoid of men.”

Veronica cursed herself for trusting these people—Ellen … Flavia … evil was in their blood.

“As you know, James, those are the words of a man whose beliefs you have dedicated your life to re-establishing, isn’t that true?”

Kingston nodded his head as if Ellen was in the room with them.

“So if you believe those statements as fact, then you will be responsible for this ‘Jewish Campaign of Lies,’ and you are responsible for this ‘crown,’ which will be the funeral wreath of humanity. Because you, my grandson, are of Jewish blood. You are the great-grandson of Etta Sarowitz.”

Veronica shared a look with Maggie, as if to say Oma had it all the way.

“You are a crazy old lady who doesn’t know what she says,” Kingston shouted at the screen.

“You can paint me as crazy if you like,” she continued, as if they were having a real-time conversation. “But every word that was presented to Maggie’s class, was completely accurate. While the Sterlings and others within the Apostles might be using Judaism as a cover for their true identities, my identity has always been true to my blood. I was wrong to keep this from you and your father, along with the rest of the Apostles—only recently did Aligor discover my true heritage. I thought by keeping it from you, I was keeping you safe, but I came to realize how wrong that was.

“And that’s the reason he wanted to remove me from the equation. Because if you found out, then you might question your own beliefs … especially when you find out that the Führer was well aware of my Jewish blood when he took me in and cared for me. That is why he kept me hidden in that bunker in the Alps. He said it was for my safety, which was partly true, but the main reason was that he was worried that if the world found out how he cared for a Jewish girl, he could no longer sell the myth of the Jews as a subhuman race. A myth that fueled his power. A power he needed like oxygen.

“One can detach themselves from large masses of unknown souls, but not from an individual connection. Six million is a statistic, but one person is a tragedy. The Führer treated me with the utmost care and delicacy, but he chose to delude himself about my true heritage. Maybe if he acknowledged it, he would have seen the Jewish people as living, breathing souls, and history would have turned out differently. Nobody will ever know.

“If you don’t believe me, I suggest you ask Aligor about it. He can vouch for what I just told you. In fact, I have it on tape from our last meeting. And while you’re at it, ask him how your father was really killed. The one who was chosen to lead the Apostles by the Führer, despite having the same Jewish blood as his mother.”

Kingston looked at Sterling. He waved dismissively, as if to indicate that Ellen was off her rocker.

She continued, “I knew the Führer as well as anyone, and I know you, James. One of the things you have in common is neither of you carried these vile hatreds until you were young men. You weren’t born with these beliefs. Your father’s murder sparked your anger, just like World War I sparked his. But in the end, it was he, and he alone, who was responsible for what happened. Just like it will be for you, James. The question is whether you take action for the truth, or if you will continue to fall victim to the big lie.”

The screen went blank. The room turned deathly quiet.

Kingston gathered himself. He tried to stand strong and look presidential, but he couldn’t hide the fact that he was shaken by Ellen’s words. He didn’t look at Sterling as he walked to the DVD player and ejected the disc. He causally took it out and broke it in half.

He then began ripping the pages out of the memoir, and feeding them through a shredder.

“No!” Maggie yelled out and began running toward him. Veronica held her by the back of the coat. There was nothing they could do.

Kingston viewed the room, and announced, “Ellen was a great woman who sacrificed for us all. I’d hate for the world to see her in the throes of dementia. She obviously didn’t understand what she was saying.”

Sterling received a call on his cell, breaking the tension. He listened intently, then smiled. “Turn on the television,” he instructed.

Kingston clicked it on just in time to hear the commentator emphatically state, “NBC News is declaring Jim Kingston as the next President of the United States in what is looking like a landslide of epic proportions!”

A loud roar went up in the adjoining room. Kingston moved behind Sterling’s wheelchair and pushed him toward the door.

“So what happens to us?” Veronica blurted.

Kingston shrugged. “I guess it’s up to you. My presidency is about giving power to the people, so you are free to go and live your life as you choose. Spread your lies if you like, nobody will believe you. And as for Maggie and Jamie, they will come to us on their own—they won’t need to be forced—it’s in their blood.”