A New Heaven

If ever there was someone who should never have been involved in the rough and often brutal business of journalism and politics, it was Friedrich Wellstone, yet he was involved in both.

His father a miner and his mother a pre-feminist feminist, Friedrich was brought up in a family devoted to left wing socialist politics. His very name, Friedrich, was given in honour of Karl Marx's collaborator and frequent supplier of money, Friedrich Engels.

Determined that Friedrich should not have the harsh life of a miner his parents skimped and scraped, and with the aid of scholarships Friedrich made it through university, graduating with first class honours in economics and political science.

True to the tradition of his family Friedrich joined the Young Communist League when he was sixteen, eventually graduating from there into a full blown member of the Communist Party.

Intelligent and sensitive Friedrich had visions of a more just world in the shape of a proletarian paradise.

He began his career in journalism writing articles for a Socialist newspaper and in time for other left wing publications. Quietly spoken, unlike some of his more strident comrades, he became one of the most sought after speakers at gatherings of "The Party."

It should be noted that for members of the Communist Party it was always known simply as "The Party," since in their opinion no other political organization was worthy of the title "Party."

His views, so deeply and sincerely held, and the clarity of his expositions on the works of Karl Marx, Vladimir Ilych (Lenin) and other communist writers and leaders, he held his hearers spellbound despite the gentleness of his delivery.

His devotion to the cause was absolute, or nearly so. Until the age of thirty eight he lived the life of an ascetic. In another age he might have been a devout monk praying for the coming of The Kingdom, or a preaching friar spreading the Good News of the coming reign of God on earth.

One evening in his thirty eighth year he was expounding to a gathering of a Party branch on the glories of the Soviet Union. At that gathering was a young woman, Adelaide Allington, an art student who, like many of the young people at that time, had been influenced by the left wing of politics.

She was a tall, slender, full breasted girl eighteen years of age, and her long dark hair was soft and bright. Her mischievous expression gave her an elfin charm. Her face was regular, if a little round; her nose short, perhaps too small; her mouth a little over-wide with a full upper lip that gave her a stubborn appearance; a feature contradicted by the warmth displayed in her dark brown eyes.

After the official meeting was over she came to him to ask some questions and the questions and her manner of asking revealed, despite her mischievous appearance, a sharp intelligence.

Friedrich was overwhelmed. For him she was the femme fatal, but such was his inexperience and shyness where women were concerned, nothing might have come of this unexpected encounter if it had been left for him to take the initiative.

Adelaide was equally inexperienced and, it might be noted, still a virgin, but she did not suffer from the same timidity as Friedrich. She was in fact a sexually ardent young woman who had been tempted many times to yield up her chastity, but she had her own ideals, and this included the preservation of her maidenhead until she met the man of her dreams. From the first moment of seeing and hearing him she knew that Friedrich was that man.

Friedrich was lost. If sexually he lacked both the theory and practice, Adelaide, a young women of great vitality, had at least got the theory and exercised it one night with Friedrich in her rather luxurious flat.

To this day it is unknown whether Adelaide deliberately set out to become pregnant to Friedrich. Whether she did or not is perhaps irrelevant since she did become pregnant, much to the horror of her wealthy parents.

Their horror was less because she was pregnant than the man she became pregnant with; a member of the Communist Party bent on the overthrow of the bourgeoisie, the class to which they belonged.

Despite parental imploring and threats Adelaide married her political comrade and in due course gave birth to Karl, so named in honour of Karl Marx.

That Adelaide was deeply in love with her gentle comrade, and that Friedrich was enamored of Adelaide we need have no doubt, yet here I must insert some "buts."

But number one; I have mentioned that Adelaide occupied a luxurious flat. This was the result of an affectionate and indulgent grandmother who, on the expiration of her life partner had inherited his considerable wealth made through wily investments on the Stock Exchange.

On the grandmother's demise a considerable portion of this wealth had come Adelaide's way, much to the annoyance of her parents who thereby lost their economic control over Adelaide.

Many men would have rejoiced to have won the heart of an attractive, vital and wealthy young woman, but not so Friedrich. In his opinion this wealth had been acquired by capitalist exploitation of the workers, and should therefore be renounced.

On the other hand, the pathetic income from his left wing journalistic activities was, to say the least, insufficient to keep a wife and child in reasonable comfort.

I think it was Karl Marx who said that human beings have endless justifications for all their deeds, and so Friedrich eventually found his own justification and became reconciled to his wife's financial condition. This was especially so since this gave him even greater freedom to expound the virtues of, "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs," which, he said and believed, was the situation that prevailed in the Land of Promise, the Soviet Union.

But number two; marriage and the birth of a son did nothing to abate Friedrich's vision of the workers' paradise. After the birth of Karl, Adelaide came to see that, despite Friedrich's love for her, she and Karl took second place to Friedrich's first love, his vision of the inevitable proletarian revolution and the ensuing Workers' State.

Given the freedom that money allowed him -- money that Adelaide did not stint him -Friedrich spent increasing amounts of time away from her and Karl as he traveled the country addressing Party branches and rallies. One result of this was that the passionate Adelaide was less than satisfied with what she had hoped was a lover who would meet her needs.

It was true that after her initial seduction of Friedrich he had been extremely fervent, but as in most cases the ardour declines with time. The trouble with Friedrich as far as Adelaide was concerned was that his ardour dropped away to almost zero. To get him to copulate with her meant a titanic effort on her part, and like the original Titanic his passion would often strike a metaphorical iceberg and sink in mid voyage.

For as long as she shared his political vision Adelaide was content to accept the situation, seeing it as her sacrifice for the good of The Party, for it was Frederic's devotion to the cause that she believed was responsible for his erectile problems.

To meet her need for the giving and receiving of love she turned to her son, Karl. He could not of course meet her sexual needs, but by dint of displacement reaction she showered her love and affection on the boy, a love and that was returned by Karl.

But number three was one that carried some serious consequences. Like many who supported the communist cause in their youth Adelaide eventually became disenchanted. As the evidence mounted it became clear that the Soviet Union and its satellites was far from being the workers' paradise Friedrich, and at one time she, had thought it to be.

The brutal suppression of the Hungarian uprising and the crushing of the attempt by the Czechoslovakians to democratize their state were at first justified by Friedrich as "The historically necessary steps to bring in the socialist state."

Adelaide ceased to share this view and there developed an ideological split between husband and wife.

* * * * * * * *

This split did not lead to divorce since Adelaide still loved Friedrich the man, and he for his part believed that eventually Adelaide would come to understand the historical inevitability of communism. This remained his view until events forced even Friedrich to see the falsity of his life long held political views.

The fall of the Berlin Wall, the revealing of the brutality of the communist regimes, the labour camps and Gulags, brought his world vision crashing down around him. He sank into a deep depression that Adelaide could do nothing to relieve. For Friedrich paradise was not only lost, he now realized it had never existed.

It was not unusual for Friedrich to be away from home for several days at a time on Party business or chasing a story for the newspaper, but he had always told Adelaide how long he expected to be away.

One day he left home without informing her where he was going or for how long; after three days when he had not returned Adelaide, after telephoning their friends and hospitals, she contacted the police. The police had little to go on, and probably regarded it as just one more case of a husband abandoning his wife.

It was a further three days before Friedrich's body was found hanging by the neck from the branch of a tree.

Putting together what appeared to have happened, it seems that Friedrich had driven to a suburban railway station, parked the car and taken a train to the end of the line, a suburb several kilometers from the city centre. From there he had walked up into the forest clad hills and hung himself from a tree. His body had been found by two forest hikers.

The effect on Adelaide was shattering. They had been married for twenty two years and despite their ideological differences and Friedrich's less that powerful libido, she had still loved and admired him, if not for his political views, then at least for the sincerity with which he held them.

She became extremely depressed and it was Karl, now a medical student, who bore the brunt of her bereavement while trying to cope with his own, although admittedly less sharp, sense of loss.

The funeral was a secular affair and there were eulogies by some members of the now severely depleted Communist Party. Their words were predictable; "A great loss to the cause;" "The tragic demise of a devoted comrade;" "He died for The Party," although how his suicide was for "The Party" is difficult to comprehend.

And so it went on while Adelaide sat unhearing and seemingly unseeing, until the coffin disappeared behind a discreet curtain on its way to the incinerator.

There was a wake organized by members of "The Party," at which cheap cask wine and home made scones were dispensed. Adelaide remained detached, lost in her misery.

As the wine began to take effect on the assembly Karl discreetly led Adelaide from the scene and took her home. There she went to bed and was mercifully granted the gift of sleep.

* * * * * * * *

Over the following days and weeks Adelaide continued in her state of introspective depression. Irrational though it might seem, she suffered pangs of guilt over Friedrich's death, but grief and rationality are not often bedfellows. She told herself and Karl that she had not supported Friedrich as she should have done; she had in the end been opposed to his political views; she had never properly appreciated his gifts as a writer and speaker; if she had encouraged him more...and so it went.

When she married Friedrich she had not given up her artistic ambitions and initially her work was of workers in heroic poses, triumphant over the oppressing classes. These paintings were extremely popular with Party members and left wingers in general.

As her political adherence to The Party declined she turned to landscape painting, and although this lost her the left, she had some minor successes among the "bourgeoisie."

After the death of Friedrich her work took on a dark aspect, almost rivaling the "Dance of Death" paintings of the Late Middle Ages in their gloom and pessimism. These found little favour with anyone.

Throughout this time of Adelaide's depression and despair it was Karl who bore the brunt as he sought to comfort and support her.

An intelligent young man he had long realized that much of the love and affection that Adelaide had tried to give and receive from his father she had eventually sought with him, Karl. This had been both a blessing and a burden for him; a blessing because most young men like to stand high in their mother's affections; a burden because on entering the time of puberty the love and affection he had returned to his mother had taken on a new emotional and physical content.

He believed that he should find these new feelings for Adelaide abhorrent, but no matter how he tried he failed to quell them, and even came to enjoy them, however frustrating they proved to be.

He tried to avoid any close physical contact with Adelaide, but even in this he failed, partly because she seemed to derive what little comfort she got from such contact, and partly because however sexually provoking her closeness was, the very provocation became increasingly desirable.

It is not surprising that Karl came to feel this way about Adelaide. She had, as people say, "Worn well." Still extremely attractive she attracted some of her late comrades who came calling, allegedly to console, but it truth, to try and seduce.

Adelaide repelled these approaches, but in her behaviour towards Karl one wonders if she was repeating the seduction she had once exercised with his father. It is not unknown for the bereaved to seek consolation, especially with a loved one, in the euphoria of sexual love.

Now, in the time of her grief and depression Adelaide sought Karl's comfort more than ever. She would often silently come to him and without a word hug him, staying close, as if the pressure of his body brought her some relief from her misery. There were times when she curled up against him on the divan like a child seeking the reassurance of a parent, thus seeming to reverse their roles.

It was almost a year after Friedrich's death, and the end of Adelaide's grieving was still not in sight, when Karl decided that he must make some further effort to draw her out of this dark time.

His choice of action might seem unwise and even calculating. They had rarely had holidays with Friedrich. Always he was too busy, too involved with bringing in the "Great Day" to engage in such frivolous activities as going away on holiday. Thus Adelaide, unwilling to deprive herself or Karl of this pleasure, had often gone away accompanied only by her son.

They had gone to many places on these occasions, but one place in particular had made an impact on him. This was a shack in the mountains with a stream running close by, and the silence of the mountain forest broken only by the sound of bird song and the rustle of small animals in the undergrowth.

He and his mother had visited it a number of times, and in Karl's memory it had always been a place of magic. It was to this place he decided to take Adelaide, in the hope it would have a healing effect.

Adelaide made no objection, but then, since Friedrich's death she seemed to have given up making decisions for herself, and accepted what Karl suggested.

* * * * * * * *

They drove up the shack to spend a couple of weeks there. It was very isolated, the nearest little town, Willabang, some twenty kilometers distant, and with few other habitations nearby.

The shack itself was hardly the epitome of comfort, but for Karl and presumably Adelaide, that was part of its charm.

It lacked the convenience of gas and electricity, light being provided by kerosene pressure lamps or candle. Cooking was done on a wood fired stove and water provided by rainwater tanks. There was a bath but no shower, and if hot water was needed then it had to be boiled up in vessels on top of the cooking stove. The toilet was a small shed a little distance from the shack, containing a seat on top of what looked like a metal drum, and beneath a pit that had to be occasionally dosed with lime.

The shack itself consisted of a single room extending the width of the shack, serving as lounge, dining room, and bedroom. Dominating this room was a huge wood burning fireplace that might have warmed the hall of a medieval castle. Leading off from this room were the kitchen and the bathroom, neither of them having a door. For modesty's sake the bathroom had a curtain where a door might have been.

Food supplies, linen and other necessities, had to be brought with them. As Adelaide had once put it, "It does no harm to live rough for a while."

How other users of the shack dealt with the sleeping arrangements is unknown to me, but in the case of Adelaide and the child Karl it was felt that no allowance for modesty need be made, hence Karl had seen his mother naked on many occasions when they used the shack, and had even shared the bath with her. This latter event Adelaide claimed to be in order to save the rainwater and the trouble of boiling more water.

I have sometimes wondered if this freedom and nudity in each other's presence was for them part of the charm and magic of the shack.

Since they had not visited the shack after Karl was twelve the matter of modesty and nudity had not been an issue, but for their present visit the situation was different. Karl had grown to manhood, and as already indicated, he was easily sexually aroused by his mother.

Precisely what Adelaide's feelings were up to this point remains ambiguous, but she made no attempt to suggest that they might screen off the areas around their beds; hers a large double bed, and Karl's one of two single beds that were provided.

But then, neither did Karl make such a suggestion. Perhaps he wanted to be tormented by the sight of his mother's naked body. Such is our human nature that we often torture ourselves with pictures, videos and attendance at strip shows when we know that the naked and desirable female or male is not available to satisfy the sexual arousal they inspire.

On arrival this was not, or course, an immediate issue. There was unloading of goods and chattels to be done, and since the shack had not been used for some time, cobwebs to be removed from corners of the shack and general dusting to be done.

Karl had the task of splitting logs for the cooking stove and the fireplace in the lounge.

Cooking for the evening meal was, at least for the first evening, simple. Adelaide had prepared and frozen several meals and so it was a matter of unfreezing one of them and then heating it.

It was after the meal that, if you were a devotee of the apparently essential items in the contemporary home, the television, computer, and deafening sound reproduction, you were at a loss, because no such items existed at the shack. Adelaide and Karl had brought with them a battery operated radio, and with this they were content to listen to music as they sat quietly on a low couch in the glow of the fire.

Adelaide cuddled up to Karl, and remained there until it was deemed time for bed. The effect on Karl of Adelaide's closeness had its now usual results. He suffered a pulsating erection and almost succumbed to the temptation to fondle his mother's breasts.

Understanding that they had two weeks of living very closely together, and if Adelaide had rejected his approach it might create an unpleasant atmosphere between them, and they might even have to abandon their holiday, Karl resisted temptation.

* * * * * * * *

When the time for bed arrived Karl was still suffering his erection and knew he would have to quietly masturbate once he got into bed.