ALAIN   Andre…
 
Alain wanted to say something, but then realized that there wasn’t anything he could say to console Andre even a bit. Andre’s mind was racing. Could it be that he wouldn’t ever hear Oscar’s voice again, never see her laugh or cry? Could one single moment be enough to end a life they had fought for so long and so hard?
But the thing he refused most to accept was his own calmness. He should have broken out in tears, become mad… But nothing happened. There was only a numbness spreading inside him, as if his heart would become ice. He saw Oscar’s body before him and it was painful to see her pale face, but in his mind she was still so near…
 
Suddenly they heard an explosion in the street near them. The walls of the buildings above them were shaken by the bombs that the soldiers in the Bastille still fired at the citizens. They heard people screaming in panic and fear. Suddenly there was a determined look on Andre’s face.
 
ANDRE   Alain, what are we waiting for? To let them snuff out our lives?
 
Alain and the others were surprised to hear Andre’s bitter but unusual resolute voice. He grabbed his rifle again and disappeared in the crowd of people before him. Alain had difficulties to follow.
 
Whole Company B took the places behind their cannons again, but now Alain was commanding. He was amazed at Andre’s sudden change and was encouraged to win the battle, no matter how many lives it would cost. He knew which war his friend was forced to wage also inside him and therefore didn’t want to prevent him from being part of the war they were leading outside.
 
ALAIN   Ok, everyone, let’s heat up! Fire all you can!
 
The heat and fume that came from the cannons surrounded the men of the former French Guards. As soon as they began to fire at the Bastille again, the building was convulsed by great explosions. The soldiers in Bastille, who were standing at their shoot holes, aimed at them, but they could barely see the men and the crowd, who were hidden behind a curtain of smoke. Some people began to climb up the drawbridge, but still without success. Nevertheless everyone felt the triumph was close: the Bastille would fall soon.
 
Andre, with the smoke around him, wasn’t able to see anything. Instead, he suddenly felt a pain in his chest that was spreading inside. The triumph was close and the citizens were euphoric, but still there was something missing. Somebody…
 
He began to walk towards the Bastille, leaving the security of cannons and smoke, first without even knowing why. It was like an impulse forcing him to do it, he couldn’t and didn’t even want to resist. Alain was shouting behind him he should go back, but he didn’t listen to him. One step after another, he felt himself walking out further to the walls of Bastille. He was afraid, but Oscar was with him in his mind. Her last words were haunting him: ‘Andre… Is everything over now?’ Andre remembered the day when he had sworn to himself that someday he would give his life for Oscar. This thought had become the sense of his life without him even recognizing it, but destiny hadn’t allowed him to do so as Oscar had died before him. Now the fact that he was still alive was hard to endure all the more as he hadn’t been able to show her how deep his love really was.
 
Finally, finally Andre felt warm tears in his eyes and he thanked God for it. He hadn’t turned into ice; it was just a shield he had built around his heart that made him bear the pain for a while. Now the emotions came back with an immense power and floated his mind again. He didn’t see where he was walking. Instead, he saw pictures of Oscar that he would keep in his heart forever: when they swam in the lake and practiced fencing when they were still young, the day when Oscar saved his life, when he saw her in a dress and the day when he confessed his love; and their marriage…
 
Andre spread his arms in an unmistakable gesture and felt a bullet running through his chest.  Lying on the ground, he just wished the pain would fade away soon and hoped he would meet Oscar again some day. Nothing was over, it was just beginning…

 
THE END












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