The War to End All Wars
#7 of 1849
Chan Vulpino had seen terror and destruction like this before- the utter devastation of his hometown in 1906 but that was due to natural causes. Here the fox found himself at a Gothic cathedral, now converted into a field hospital during a war which was the first, and hopefully last, of its kind- a war which had embroiled the entire world, in the French city of Amiens, near the River Somme. This river might as well have flowed blood rather than water as many of the world's young fighting men had surrendered their lives in this war which was now well in its fourth year, with seemingly no end in sight. And to think this war would not have started had Archduke Ferdinand of Austria never been assassinated and the Lusitania, a British ship had never been sunk. How Chan wished he had never signed up for the Army and could still be in warm, sunny, peaceful California rather than in a cold Europe which was divided by a war which would be endless.
He had seen the bulldog from Britain standing guard at the narthex (lobby) of the church, protecting the nurses and fallen warriors and thought back to David Carrington, a British 49er who helped his grandparents during the Gold Rush in 1849. But that was so long ago- and the works of several greedy prospectors paled in comparison to what the entire world had done. Nothing, not even the earthquake he and his family had narrowly survived would compare to the utter destruction of Europe as wrought by this war between the Central Powers and the Allies. Chan thought as he stood in the nave of the cathedral, which dated back to the days of Charlemagne the Frank, that the racism of his home which had kept minorities, like Mr. Vulpino, a Chinese-American whose grandmother had some Italian blood, from holding jobs in California was the worst but this war was even worse.
As a devout Catholic, Chan Vulpino could not hope to comprehend the wisdom of turning this cathedral which in times of peace would be a house of peace and joy and worship into a field hospital- any historian will tell you that at this time, medicine was not advanced enough to handle many of the wartime injuries and illnesses of today. Thus, this was not a place where people got better but one where people only got worse, more infected than when they came in. It was also essentially a hospice, the last place that many soldiers on the way out of this world would see and to add insult to injury, their hopes of ending this war by defeating the Central Powers would only be met with more explosions.
The only comforts that these men had, with the world seemingly coming to an end around them and the war dead mounting with each passing day was the wine that the Benedictine monks had made for themselves but later sold to the Allies when it became obvious that the soldiers would need something to forget about the war to end all wars. This wine was also the dying wish of many of the soldiers and in the absence of painkillers, which had become scarce months ago, served as both a reward and analgesic for the ones who had to go through painful surgeries
"Inquiﾃδｩtez-vous pour enlever le bord avec du vin? Il est d'excellent cru," a French wolf would ask Chan. He obliged, heading into the church basement where the wines were kept in two different rooms- the numerous barrels filled with wine in one room were for the soldiers and monks today and those in the other room, locked away by the abbot, were for the day when this war would ever end. Inside this cathedral, even as the world collapsed around them, there was at least some semblance of peace, with the monks recognizable by their shaven head-fur, were still singing their daily vespers and praying to God that someday this war would stop and Europe would someday, years in the future be completely rebuilt.
Pierre LeBlanc, speaking through an interpreter told the fox everything he had gone through- his indoctrination to hate the Germans, a hatred that Chan having grown up in an interracial family could not quite understand. But as he found out in Europe, stationed in the battalion of many species in the U.S. Army, the rivalries of Europe, so bloody and violent would need to be settled. He began to understand exactly why the President, Woodrow Wilson, that sage from New Jersey wanted to keep America out of the war at all costs. Here, the Americans were stranded in a petty skirmish magniifed a thousand times between the French, British, germans, and the Russians and a dozen other assorted nationalities. Only the sabotage of naval bases on the East Coast brought them into the war, a war which Chan was opposed to from the very beginning. He was forced to join the army for want of money for his large family but the distant deployment had forced him far from his wife and children, at a time when he was needed back home in California the most.
And LeBlanc himself, drafted into the French Army only wanted to be back home with his parents and wife near their mansion in the French Riviera. He was a child of privilege who joined the army of France as per his father's condition to get money in the will but this was before the World War had started. His six-month tour of duty, initally started during a time of peace, had transformed into a four-year odyssey which had seen him cheat death numerous times, while fighting the Central Powers.
Chan positioned his canteen under the spigot of the barrel and filled it, before pouring it into a goblet made of steel (the tin and copper the monastery owned had long ago been turned into bullet shells). With explosions going on outside, and death and destruction all around except in this cathedral-cum-field hospital, he took the goblet and raised it.
"Here's to hoping someday this war will end."
And the French wolf, himself a survivor of numerous incidents, raised his goblet which he had filled with wine as well and joined in.
"Je sens la mﾃδｪme maniﾃδｨre." If there was one thing that people of sanity throughout the entire world want, it's peace in their time. A dream, a fantasy for some to be able to walk the streets with confidence and love for everyone and a dream that these two soldiers shared. Maybe one day, the world would be at peace and the fighting would come to an end.So the fox and the wolf, from varying parts of the world and with very different life stories, shared their dreams of what they would do when the war ended and finally peace should reign over the entire world. And Chan Vulpino and Pierre LeBlanc, now listening to one of the monks who was now playing the organ at the behest of a dying soldier, for a moment imagined that the war to end all wars was over.