Mary, p.2
The Compass Point, page 2
“The protesters started as a few hundred, and now the crowds have grown to include townspeople by the thousands,” Nicoletta said, “with no shots fired.”
“We deserve free access to our history and culture with nothing left out. If this is a test of strength, we will win!” Kristof’s voice was ebullient, unusual for him. “Look at the rooftops with soldiers pointing guns - chilling, but they can’t suppress our will. Like the protests in 1848 and the 1956 uprising, this is the power of a free press.”
“Think of Genevieve Marx’s poem. We cannot tolerate this to be woven into forgetting,” Nicoletta said. She pointed and read more banners: “We want no red terror. No police state. We want our school. Let us learn freely.” Nicoletta added to her notes.
That night, they carried torches to Buda Castle. Young and old, college employees, farmers, shopkeepers, and families stood with the students. “I heard some older people talking about the 1956 uprising. I need to interview them,” Nicoletta said.
Police had positioned water cannons nearby, but they remained unused. Nicoletta was not diminished by them but felt invigorated to consider the strength of a sea of protesters compared to the purview of the Russian gaze.
CHAPTER 4
1978 Austria
In high school, on the kibbutz, Archie waited after class to share a few words with Mr. Friedman, his history teacher. Then, he’d race to the next class to dodge the jeers from other students. They didn’t appreciate his detailed knowledge or how he corrected their answers. At lunch, he’d sit alone working on his Rubik’s cube, solving the corners first. If anyone stopped to look at the curious block of squares, he’d tell them that a Hungarian architecture professor invented it, and they’d walk away. Rivka's friends were even less appreciative of his comments, especially boys who tried to take her on dates.
By graduation, Archie had shown promise in economics and languages, English, Czech, Hungarian, and Hebrew, but mainly in German. An international banker in Vienna offered him a scholarship to major in finance, and he accepted. Rivka was more excited than he was. She would be free of his meddling in her life during her last two years of high school.
The reality of three years of compulsory military service loomed over Archie. Rivka was secretly anxious to get him out of her life, so she encouraged him to take the scholarship and find a way to escape the country. Once he left, he would never be able to go back. Guilt weighed on him along with his compulsion not to mark time waiting for his life to begin. He wanted to change worldviews, not carry a rifle.
They were close to the border, after all. He didn’t take much convincing. The night before Archie was to report for service, he hopped into the back of a flatbed truck, hid under dusty canvas tarps, and made it across the border into Jordan. From there, he hitchhiked to Syria, where he picked fruit. He passed through Turkey and Greece; and then Serbia, where he worked on a farm; and Hungary, where he tutored in languages. After several weeks he finally arrived in Vienna.
His host, Max Bauer, was astounded that Archie had hitchhiked across several countries, living on the odd jobs he’d picked up along the way. On second look, he noticed how thin Archie was and decided that he and his wife needed to feed him before he began his course of study. Archie wasn’t used to the attention but was happy to regale them with stories of his journey. Through it all, he had discovered that he loved to travel.
As part of his scholarship, Archie worked a few hours a week in the offices of Max Bauer and his son Elias, who was also Archie’s classmate. Max was impressed with the quality and speed of Archie’s work and hoped that some of this work ethic would rub off on his son. Although Elias didn’t aspire to Archie’s grades and his meticulous attention to the details of finance, Elias was lighthearted and tried to teach Archie how to joke. Life was about living, not working. Archie’s journey to that conclusion was long and hard-fought. With Elias, he didn’t feel as if he was expecting a punch or a humiliating comment. He now understood what friendship meant when Rivka’s letters from Israel lamented her friend’s woes and celebrated their happiness.
Archie needed to find something worth his time in Vienna. Economics and banking made logical career sense, but he longed to make sense of his life. Vater Bauer, as Archie called him, opened his library, and Archie, always a quick reader, discovered biographies. He read about Ben Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Rene Descartes, Hannah Arendt, and Albert Camus. But, one adage that justified his worldview – an affirmation, was from Aristotle in his Rhetoric: everything in moderation, nothing in excess. Even America’s Ben Franklin and Mark Twain had their versions of this.
He was ready to share Aristotle in a letter to Rivka when he came across a biography of Teddy Roosevelt. The Trust Buster had even named one of his five children Archibald. Archie didn’t ride horses like Roosevelt, but when he read about Roosevelt’s having overcome childhood asthma with a strenuous lifestyle, he began working out at the university gym and running before morning classes. He convinced Elias to join him on the Lünersee trail outside Vienna. It was six kilometers long and could be reached by gondola. The trail wound around lakes and through dense forests. By the end, Archie had a new passion for hiking, and Elias told him never to suggest hiking to him again. When Archie wrote all of this to Rivka in a lengthy letter, he ended with a Roosevelt quote: “Knowing what's right doesn't mean much unless you do what's right.”
After that letter, Rivka decided to accept a scholarship as far from Archie as possible: in New York City.
CHAPTER 5
1980 Austria
Max Bauer wasn’t just a banker; he knew a talent when he saw one. After Archie’s summer internships and his university MBA in finance, the world of Klimpt art, opera, Viennese coffee, tortes, and mountain climbing opened up to him. Archie worked and played hard but lived differently from his childhood kibbutz life, where everyone had the same: enough. Social housing in Vienna helped, but the homeless people he found in the subway ate away at him.
Archie talked freely with bankers who recognized his financial insight. Bauer’s cohorts encouraged him to give Archie control of his own small fund, unheard of at his young age. He took calculated risks and poured his private money into the fund, dutifully disclosing his contributions. It became wildly successful, but once he’d succeeded, he felt restless to do more than make money.
On a trip to Africa, he saw the poverty, the men who were off fighting, and the women who were resourceful enough to keep their children alive with no support. Imagining what they could do if they could afford school for their children, he set up a fund to offer microloans to the women left behind. With a goat for milk and cheese or chickens for eggs, the women could pay for school and uniforms for their children. And with few exceptions, they always paid him back. As much as he aimed toward balancing the scale with this type of loan, autocrats worldwide saw his growing power as a threat to established society and spread rumors about his motives.
CHAPTER 6
1988 Austria
Despite the indignant anger among European and US investors toward Archie’s success, they flocked to his lectures on investing. Embarrassed by his growing wealth, he started a free international university in Budapest, Hungary –, University Europe Central –, hiring lecturers he’d met from around the world and guest lecturing there himself. The university garnered a reputation for diversity from a growing number of cultures and also openness to truth-seeking debate. Multiple threats to Archie’s safety required security forces wherever he traveled. His fame left him in physical danger, feeling isolated and alone.
It was the evening of another of Max Bauer’s dinner parties. Archie was still on good terms with the Bauers despite working for himself in Europe and abroad, but he balked at the invitation. Elias told him he had to come to this dinner. There was someone he wanted his friend to meet.
At the table, he looked past Elias to the polymaths, economists, and philosophy professors from the University of Vienna, and the bastions of the Vienna Securities Exchange engaged in civilized but bracing arguments. After the wars, Vienna’s artists, architects, and designers, who saw art, science, and economics as puzzle pieces of philosophy, fled west in a diaspora to Britain and the US. Austria’s Arnold Schwarzenegger was now governor of California, applying Austrian influences in his adopted country – working hard and gathering a variety of perspectives in support of environmental issues and a push toward universal health care. From Schwarzenegger’s life during the war, he knew that everyone had to contribute. A state-run economy was impossible. An Austrian native son inspired and influenced Americans in the American state that Europeans loved best.
Vienna’s vibrancy, beauty, and stability made Archie feel grateful. Even now, it remained a city of ideas, thinkers, and doers centuries after Florence, Italy, and decades before California’s Silicon Valley existed. Instead of tormenting and using brute force to point fingers of blame around a cause, the Viennese disposition was to embrace new ideas, draw on traditional civilization, and protect the rule of law. As often as he declined these dinner invitations, he blamed himself and his hubris. Vienna’s economics professors were some of the best in Europe, and his successful application of their knowledge made him the scourge of polite society in Vienna.
The stock market crash in ‘87, the year before, forced selling that triggered what was now known as Black Monday. Archie had been alarmed by what he had heard from his European financial friends in the months before. They spoke of portfolio insurance and how it would protect them, but Archie had predicted danger and told them so. They laughed at his caution when he broke ties and sold trusts. He bought gold with some of the proceeds and sold real estate before the flat real estate market fell further. Hong Kong crashed first before the spread to European markets. When the British FTSE dropped 23% in two days, Archie was one of the few left standing.
On that infamous Monday, October 19th, British brokers, in particular, were eager to unload loans to him. When the loans appreciated within days, he packaged them as securities to sell at a premium, as British law allowed. Stocks in 19 countries lost a year’s gains, and Archie’s canny moves gave him cash to buy them up. With the selling frenzy, liquidity vanished, and everyone from CEOs to homeowners was stunned.
When Archie profited, British newspapers painted him as a villain and called him reckless. Editorial cartoons in Europe caricatured him as a grotesque puppet master with a Star of David on his lapel. In America, Wall Street claimed that Archie was partly to blame for his packaging of securities. Ignoring the backlash, he quietly bought up bargain bin stocks that he found most resilient – a call center company and a meat packer, on the New York Stock Exchange. Another American company he had been watching, Apple Computers, looked like a bargain at $14 a share. He liked the inventor Steve Jobs’ idea to make computer design intuitive and easier to use. Archie hadn’t broken the law, but he had used the trajectory of the market to his advantage. His rocketing wealth had made him a scapegoat for everything that was wrong with capitalism.
Archie sat next to Max at the head of the table with Elias on the opposite side. Elias’s mother had set the table with particular care this evening, it seemed. The candelabras seemed brighter, the flatware newly polished.
“Archie, this is Jean Marc Arbogast.” Max said.
“Ravi de te rencontrer Archie - real estate and finance from Strasbourg.”
“Arbogast – “
“Yes, from south Germany. The Arbogast name means foreign warrior. Our family has been in Strasbourg since the 7th century.” He puffed his chest when he spoke. “Maybe you’ve heard of our organization – “
“I remember that German billiard table salesman with the same name in prison for – “
“Archie, I’d like you to meet Layla,” Elias interrupted, and Arbogast fell silent.
Archie turned his attention to the woman on Arbogast’s right, a striking presence. Elias spoke to introduce them, but Archie interrupted with his own introduction. She met his eyes, angling her head slightly, tucking a wave of dark hair behind her bare shoulder. Layla revealed her name and said that she was working on a project requiring his expertise. Archie decided in an instant that whatever project she wanted his help with, sewers in Bangladesh, flack protection for Tibetan Buddhists, he would be her expert.
“Now, no more talk of business,” Max waved away her comment. “Layla, tell us what you think of our city of Vienna?”
Archie knew that she was speaking, but his eyes held hers, so lovely it felt as if he was looking into a still mountain pond after an all-day climb. He forgot where he was. She paused. Had she asked him a question?
“What was that again?” he asked.
“Der Haberer – “ Elias guessed that his friend had no regrets over his mother’s seating arrangement. “She heard you were going hiking and asked where.”
Archie was ready to leave on a long-planned vacation, but he knew better than to say so with so many people listening. Instead, he spoke of another hiking trip in Spain, the Camino de Santiago.
Layla’s face lit up. “I’ve covered various lengths of it with my Tia Gabriella but never the whole trail. Maybe someday.”
Their conversation turned to pitons, hiking boots, and trail food. Dinner guests around them seemed nonexistent until after dessert when the Fakir was served. The waitstaff placed strong black coffee with sugar and rum before them, and at last, they paused their conversation to look at the others.
“Mutter Bauer, the meal was superb,” Archie said. Other than the coffee, he couldn’t recall one thing he had eaten.
“I can’t remember when I’ve had a more pleasant dinner conversation,” Layla told her.
At the end of the evening, Archie drew Elias aside. “Oida, you didn’t tell me about Layla. This woman! Why haven’t I met her – “
“We have been friends for a while. I thought you’d hit it off, but step back, my friend. You’ll scare her off with your tactics!”
“Tactics, nothing. I’m going to ask her to go on the hike with me. Two weeks. I’m taking a holiday.”
“What woman would agree to that – mud, dust, twenty miles a day? You saw her, impeccably dressed in every detail.” Elias shook his head. “Prepare to be disappointed.”
“All she can do is say is no.”
As they were saying their goodbyes at the door, Archie asked her in blunt terms if she would go on a two-week hike with him.
He saw a trace of a smile. “I think that it would be a wonderful opportunity for us to talk about foreign relations, and we are hiking,” she said. “No stuffy boardroom.”
CHAPTER 7
1988 Corsica
Archie lowered his expectations when she mentioned getting away from a boardroom, but he was hopeful. He explained that this was his holiday and that he didn’t take many vacations. They flew to the island of Corsica and spent the night at a local inn before their hut-to-hut hike, the Tour de Mont Blanc.
After a light meal of local food, the two sat shoulder to shoulder on the ground before a campfire. Archie felt a charged pulse. He knew so little about her, but the anticipation was palpable as they watched the last tinges of orange sky escape between the Corsican mountains.
“So – what’s your story?” Layla asked.
“I guess – “ Archie didn’t want to scare her off. “My sister and I grew up on a kibbutz in Israel, where we moved after my father died in Hungary. Our mother was killed in Haifa, crossfire during a random dispute, and we were sent to a kibbutz that looked after us. I came to Vienna for college and met Elias. After graduation, Elias’ dad gave me my first fund to manage. My sister is married to a New Yorker and teaches international relations and history at CUNY.”
Without comment, Layla began with her own story in a strangely dull voice. “I grew up in Palestinian territory next to the West Bank, land that was stolen from us. My parents were activists who planted hundreds of land mines.”
“Terrorists.”
“Activists. We want our state back. I grew up living with the sound of Israeli shells exploding, never feeling safe. When I was old enough, Tia Gabriella invited me to join her in Spain. She sent me to college.” Layla stared into his eyes.
“My sister lost her foot from land mines.” Archie snapped. “I took off before my compulsory three years of service and never went back. She said her mandatory service in the military was for both of us. It wasn't long before she became an expert in anti-personnel mines. They assigned her to de-mining duty during the last six months.” He tried to keep his voice steady. “She was so good at it that she trained other soldiers to find IEDs.” Archie stood. “It should have been me.” He gave her a look. “That land you mentioned had been Israeli land since 2 BCE.” He left the campfire and returned to the room. In a corner chair, as far from the bed as possible, he tried to sleep.
Layla watched the embers die and returned to the darkened room, covering herself in the only bed. From the corner of her eye, she could barely make out the shadow of his figure slumped in the chair and wondered why she had agreed to two weeks with this man.
When they woke the next day, Archie spoke only of necessary things. Layla inquired and found that neither had been able to sleep deeply. Archie asked if she wanted to spend two weeks with him after their prickly night. She blinked and nodded, not a resounding declaration of agreement. By the time they stopped for the cheese, baguette, and dried fruit that had been packed for them at the inn, they had trotted out a few safe subjects. The mountain views and bracing trails had lightened their moods. “I’ve only hiked alone, so you must tell me if I’m not considering what you need,” he said.
“I think our pace is sustainable,” Layla agreed. “I can pick up the pace if we need to.”
