Chapter One Thousand Three Hundred Ninety-Eight
1st September 1960
Seoul, Korea
Nancy’s actions were entirely unexpected but hardly surprising. With the situation with China somewhat resolved, but no one with an ounce of sanity thought that it was for more than just the moment, the 3rd MID had returned to Winter Quarters in Pusan. It had been shortly after his arrival in Pusan that Tilo had discovered that he had a daughter, Anna Gertrud, as he had been informed in the telegram. It might have been the medium, but it did seem rather tersely worded. Tilo would have found that understandable, except it included words to the effect of them having to talk this over as soon as Nancy got there. Whether he liked it or not, Nancy had decided that as soon as she had recovered enough to travel, she was coming to Pusan.
Now a few days later, Tilo was at the airport in Seoul watching Nancy descend the stairs from the airplane down to the tarmac while carrying Sebastian. At three, Sebastian was getting a bit big for that, however he was still too small to go down the stairs on his own. A second woman who Tilo had seen at Kat von Mischner’s house but had never been introduced was walking just behind Nancy. He remembered that she was French, but Tilo couldn’t recall her name to save his life. Instead of dwelling on that he took Sebastian from Nancy.
“You remember Noella Proulx?” Nancy asked, “Kat’s children are old enough that she didn’t need her services as a fulltime nanny anymore and Kat didn’t want to just dismiss her out of hand, so she referred her to me.”
“Shouldn’t we have discussed this?” Tilo asked in reply.
“You were obviously not available” Nancy replied as she took a bundle from Noella, “Noella has already proven valuable. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to travel with children?”
Looking at the bundle, Tilo saw a scrunched-up face that reminded him of Nancy when she had a particularly vexing problem to deal with.
“Say hello to your Poppa, Anna” Nancy said, “For such a smart man, he’s a bit of an idiot at times.”
“You don’t need to put it quite that way” Tilo said as he noticed that the other passengers leaving the plane were giving Nancy, and presumably Anna, a wide berth. Few things were worse than being trapped in an airplane with a baby. “And your telegram was a bit vague about your plans.”
“My plan is to not end up like Ilse” Nancy said, “Her husband is gone most of the time and she spends most of her time alone or at the University. Seriously, her and Albrecht are leading almost completely separate lives.”
“You think you are staying here?” Tilo asked, only to get a withering look from Nancy.
“As long as you are” Nancy replied, “After how you ran off while I was pregnant with Anna, you owe me.”
“I wasn’t given a choice in the matter” Tilo said, “If I had been, I would have…” He trailed off when he saw that Nancy clearly didn’t care, she was walking in the direction of terminal building. Tilo had left her and had received a promotion in the process, in her mind he didn’t have a leg to stand on. He wouldn’t be the only Officer with a family in Pusan, far from it and he would be happy to have them around. He just wished that Nancy had discussed this with him first. On the other hand, he knew that once she made up her mind to do something, then she would plow ahead through any obstacle. It was something that he loved about her, but there were times when that got her into trouble. Like what she was about to walk into, he had to warn her…
“There is something that you should know before you go in there” Tilo said, “Word about you coming leaked to the press and this story mixed with Korean attitudes about family. It’s sort of a big deal.”
“I can deal with the press” Nancy said, “Remember what I do professionally, I’m not helpless you know.”
Tilo took a deep breath. He knew that she was acting this way because she was angry about having been left behind during what had been a difficult time for her. Rightly or wrongly, the perception that the Government in Seoul had been fostering in the Korean public was that two of the heroes from the liberation of Korea, Tilo and General Gang, had gone to the border and the Chinese had pissed themselves in fear. Everyone knew that it was a load of pure crap and Tilo knew that if the Chinese had started a war his Division would have been overrun in the first hours, but people loved a good story. Inside the terminal was a media circus, Tilo’s young family arriving in Korea was a human-interest story that the networks and newspapers hungered for.
Stepping through the doors, Nancy was shocked by the spectacle that greeted her. There were photographers, television camera crews, even a band that struck up a tune as soon as they entered. In counterpoint Anna started wailing and Nancy was trying to calm her down, she shot Tilo an accusing look. He had tried to warn her about this.
It took a few minutes to get the band to stop playing. Then Nancy had to deal with shouted questions, many of which she couldn’t understand, as graciously as possible. As he watched Tilo knew that she wasn’t through saying her piece with him and he was reminded of something that his father had told him on the day he had married Nancy. No matter how high he rose or how much power he acquired, there would always be one person in this world who wouldn’t care.
