Hilde's mother was calling from downstairs that the mystery was starting in ten minutes and that she had put the pizza in the oven. Hilde was quite exhausted after all she had read. She had been up since six o'clock this morning.
She decided to spend the rest of the evening celebrating her birthday with her mother. But first she had to look something up in her encyclopedia.
Gouges ... no. De Gouges? No again. Olympe de Gouges? Still a blank. This encyclopedia had not written one single word about the woman who was beheaded for her political commitment. Wasn't that scandalous!
She was surely not just someone her father had thought up?
Hilde ran downstairs to get a bigger encyclopedia.
"I just have to look something up," she said to her astounded mother.
She took the FORV to GP volume of the big family encyclopedia and ran up to her room again.
Gouges ... there she was!
Gouges, Marie Olympe (1748-1793), Fr. author, played a prominent role during the French Revolution with numerous brochures on social questions and several plays. One of the few during the Revolution who campaigned for human rights to apply to women. In 1791 published "Declaration on the Rights of Women." Beheaded in 1793 for daring to defend Louis XVI and oppose Robespierre. (Lit: L. Lacour, "Les Origines du feminisme contem-porain," 1900)
Kant
...the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me...
It was close to midnight before Major Albert Knag called home to wish Hilde a happy birthday. Hilde's mother answered the telephone.
"It's for you, Hilde."
"Hello?"
"It's Dad."
"Are you crazy? It's nearly midnight!"
"I just wanted to say Happy Birthday ..."
"You've been doing that all day."
"... but I didn't want to call before the day was over."
"Why?"
"Didn't you get my present?"
"Yes, I did. Thank you very much."
"I can't wait to hear what you think of it."
"It's terrific. I have hardly eaten all day, it's so exciting."
"I have to know how far you've gotten."
"They just went inside the major's cabin because you started teasing them with a sea serpent."
"The Enlightenment."
"And Olympe de Gouges."
"So I didn't get it completely wrong."
"Wrong in what way?"
"I think there's one more birthday greeting to come. But that one is set to music."
"I'd better read a little more before I go to sleep."
"You haven't given up, then?"
"I've learned more in this one day than ever before. I can hardly believe that it's less than twenty-four hours since Sophie got home from school and found the first envelope."
"It's strange how little time it takes to read."
"But I can't help feeling sorry for her."
"For Mom?"
"No, for Sophie, of course."
"Why?"
"The poor girl is totally confused."
"But she's only ..."
"You were going to say she's only made up."
"Yes, something like that."
"I think Sophie and Alberto really exist."
"We'll talk more about it when I get home."
"Okay."
"Have a nice day."
"What?"
"I mean good night."
"Good night."
When Hilde went to bed half an hour later it was still so light that she could see the garden and the little bay. It never got really dark at this time of the year.
She played with the idea that she was inside a picture hanging on the wall of the little cabin in the woods. She wondered if one could look out of the picture into what surrounded it.
Before she fell asleep, she read a few more pages in the big ring binder.
Sophie put the letter from Hilde's father back on the mantel.
"What he says about the UN is not unimportant," said Alberto, "but I don't like him interfering in my presentation."
"I don't think you should worry too much about that." "Nevertheless, from now on I intend to ignore all extraordinary phenomena such as sea serpents and the like. Let's sit here by the window while I tell you about Kant."
Sophie noticed a pair of glasses lying on a small table between two armchairs. She also noticed that the lenses were red.
Maybe they were strong sunglasses . . .
"It's almost two o'clock," she said. "I have to be home before five. Mom has probably made plans for my birthday."
"That gives us three hours."
"Let's start."
"Immanuel Kant was born in 1724 in the East Prussian town of Konigsberg, the son of a master saddler. He lived there practically all his life until he died at the age of eighty. His family was deeply pious, and his own religious conviction formed a significant background to his philosophy. Like Berkeley, he felt it was essential to preserve the foundations of Christian belief."
"I've heard enough about Berkeley, thanks."
"Kant was the first of the philosophers we have heard about so far to have taught philosophy at a university. He was a professor of philosophy."
"Professor?"