Chronicles From The Future: The amazing story of Paul Amadeus Dienach

We arrived at the terrace around the time the sun was setting. At some point, for some inexplicable reason, all those who were sitting on the terrace, stood up and started heading towards the second balcony. Everyone had stopped talking and the only thing you could hear was the twittering of the birds. We hadn’t yet arrived when Silvia beckoned me to go closer. We joined them and I was impressed by the religious devotion that characterised everybody’s behaviour even though we were outdoors, not in a church. But suddenly, I heard a melody, a very familiar one indeed. “It’s ours! Ours! Of our time!” I thought. I then realised it was a part from Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. No matter how much time has passed, it hasn’t been forgotten! I felt the need to say something to Silvia; a word, a name, something. But I barely managed to stifle a cry of joy inside me. Only a castaway who sees the vessel that will save him approaching, after days at sea, can feel the way I felt at that moment: a feeling of salvation and incredible pride. I wished that Stefan was there to tell me why, if such a strange barbarity characterised my time, modern culture now takes its works of art and turns them into prayers. “Listen, Stefan!” I would say, “This comes from an era that you call ‘prehistoric’!”

The symphony played for quite a while. The dusk had already fallen, when I noticed the tear-filled eyes of two of the people next to me, who were devoutly listening as the prophetic words of the chorus faded out, words that cried faith for the great destiny of humanity, words that were written more than twenty centuries ago…

Froh, wie seine Sonne fliegen

Durch des Himmels pracht’gen Plan

Laufet, Bruder, eure Bahn,

Freudig, wie ein Held zum Siegen

(As joyously as His suns fly

across heaven's splendid map,

follow, brothers, your appointed course,

gladly, like a hero to the victory)

As soon as night fell, the environment around us changed completely. We were about to leave because we had told the group that we’d have dinner all together, when we heard the first young voices and saw the first bonfires on the nearby mountaintops and in the clearings of the woods on the opposite slopes. Little by little the songs multiplied and so did the fires and the phrase “The new Cives... The new citizens!” was chanted by every mouth. We learnt that thousands of young men and women had just completed their two-year service yesterday and would stay here tonight, in the "palaces of the foreigners". They had already put spare tables and chairs all over the ground and first floor and had made many preparations that we hadn’t even noticed. If you looked around, you wouldn’t find a single unhappy or dissatisfied person, as though everyone was possessed by the charm of the old beloved tradition. Even older people were singing along to a few songs they remembered from their time of service. The “partners” on the other hand, the future Cives—still children—bubbled with excitement, enjoying in advance the bliss of the “great day” which, for them, was due in a couple of years, but still, today it had at least interrupted the monotony of work.

The new citizens are burning their deep green, silken work-suits. The ritual will soon be over and several of these young men and women will spend the night at our Civesgard. But we need to go. As we leave, I see all the gestels

together for the first time; these majestic hotels must number over 100 in the whole area. I hadn’t realised how many they were during the daytime but, now, as I see them glowing from above, they look like an entire state of hotels that spread further than the eye can see!

THE ESSENCE OF SAMITH AND THE GLIMPSE OF THE GREAT BEYOND14-X

Stefan and I went for a one-hour walk in the Albiel forest, just the two of us. It was another precious day and the whole thing reminded me of my first walks in the company of Father Jacob. At the time, I was overcome by bitter scepticism and lack of faith. How many great and incredible things have happened to me since then! This time, I might have not had a very educated clergyman by my side, but then again, the people of today seemed to know much more and at a younger age than any of the educated men and women of our time; it is as if they are redeemed from doubt.

“Stefan, promise me that you’ll take me to the Valley of the Roses when the time comes,” I urged him in a warm voice. “I think I more than deserve to come with you. Please promise this to me! You know how much I’ve suffered… It’s only fair that you satisfy my request.