The Ashes of Bohemia

By Steven Reak

Rose and Augustine Cipera, and Josephine and Benjamin Dedic are forced to enslave themselves to the Lord of the Manor in 1750 Bohemia. After years of struggling on their small plot of poor land to survive, the two families along with thousands of other towns people, rebel against the authoritative Lord of the Manor and their Queen, Maria Theresa, in the town square of Ceske Budajovice. It soon becomes an all out revolt as the towns people fight for basic necessities to survive. Two of Rose and Augustine, and Josephine and Benjamins children get married. Their neighbors are horrified as army men come and kidnap their young son, Joshua, declaring them unfit parents, sending Joshua to work in their woolen factories and spinning mills. Emotionally crushed, Pavel and Karolina are forced to accept the absence of their young son, as Queen Maria Theresa sends twenty-thousand troops to regain control of the town and the people. Reigning from Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna, Austria the fair minded Queen Maria Theresa has her own problems dealing with Catherine the Great of Russia, Fredrick the Great of Prussia, and her daughter Marie Antoinette, Queen of France. As the powerful French people rise up against their own leaders for better living conditions and basic necessities, they become even more and more powerful, creating fear and wars among the reigning Royalties of all the countries in Europe. Bohemia is invaded again and again as Pavel and Joseph discuss in deep thoughts, the problems each men face with being forced in and out of servitude and their own families and children's survival. Joshua returns to Ceske Budajovice as a member of the Queens notorious army. Karolina sees him, and is stricken with emotion and collapses to the ground. Members of European Royalty are at their wits end, trying to stop the powerful French people from invading and claiming all of their lands and holdings and decide to hold a mutli-nation congress, called the Congress of Vienna. With dignitaries and Royalty from every sitting Monarchy and union the delegations debate ways to try to end the fighting and bloodshed. Redesigning boundaries and dividing nations in the process. With uncertainty and mayhem everywhere Frantisek and Anna, and Pavel and Karoline and their neighbors hear about a foreign land, America, that is giving away free farmland to anyone who is willing to farm it. They discuss the painful decision to leave their beloved Bohemia for the unknown and uncertainty of journeying to a new land. But the group finally decides they will be better off to leave, walking for days on end to meet the train that will take them to the ship that will cross the ocean and take them there. Storms ravage the ship and its passengers on the voyage, but the three families, and other passengers make it safely to New York harbor. With the long ocean voyage behind them, trying to find a place to settle becomes an even more daunting task, but the adventurers eventually find a place to build a shelter and finally call home.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Steven Reak
• Release date: Nov 9, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310544767

Steven Reak

The author was born and raised in a small, rural community in southern Minnesota. While the book, Lexington Glory Days, is a work of fiction, there are in it small elements of truth. The small community he grew up in had a quaint church that his mother took him and his brothers and sisters to religiously every Sunday morning. While he was growing up, along with the church, the small community had a lake, two bars and an old dancehall. The old pavillion held memories for generations of people. When he was younger, him and a friend of his would go swimming in the lake and then go back to the old dancehall where they had a pool table and they’d spend time playing pinball. The old dancehall, built around 1932, holds many memories for his whole family and a lot of other families as well. It was the meeting place for a lot of people for 90 years or so. It was where young lovers met and fell in love, guys could go after work and have a beer and a hamburger, or go camping or dancing when a band was scheduled to play. It was wonderful to grow up in a place where so many people would come. “I went to school in a small town in southern Minnesota where I graduated high school. The following fall I enrolled in college where I hoped to one day study law. During my second year things started to not go well, so I transferred to a different college, hoping to turn things around. As much as I wanted to go to school and learn and still, hopefully, one day study law, I fell into the same old patterns, and eventually quit. I took odd jobs trying to make money and a career out of something. Eventually I wound up doing maintenace for a couple of major hotels near Minneapolis until the Great Recession of 2008. I was fired from my job and couldn’t find anyone who was hiring for anything. I struggled for a few years until I got a union job at a cement company, where I was laid off in the winter time. With all the free time in the world to do something, and nothing to do, nor money to do it with, I decided to start writing. I had a pen and some paper at least. Once I began writing the story of ‘Lexington Glory Days,’ it almost began to write itself. From there it was the matter of polishing it, and editing it. As I write this I can’t help but have thoughts of my dear mother. She just passed away a few days ago and we mourned and celebrated her life and spirit just yesterday. She died June 11, 2014 at approximately 9:18 pm. She was 88. She had been going to dialysis 3 days a week for about four years and had a heart valve that was getting smaller and smaller on the inside, letting less and less blood through. She was in the hospital for a weak where they were doing dialysis everyday, to try to get the fluids and water out of her that had begun building up around her heart and lungs, and to give her options about what could be done about the blocked heart valve. She declined any help or fix to the heart valve. I picked her up at the hospital Thursday evening and brought her home to her apartment at an assisted living home. The next morning, Friday, she had a lot of trouble getting out of bed by herself. Friday was one of her three days that she needed to go to dialysis. She’d made up her mind she wasn’t going to go to dialysis that day, or any other day for that matter. She had taken herself off dialysis. The thing that was keeping her alive. She was ready to let the Good Lord take her. And less than a week later He did. She died at her home, after a long stream of friends, children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren had come to say their good bye’s. Nurses gave her pain medication which made her groggy in her last few days. But she could hear us, and talk to us a little, although she was getting very tired. Occassionally someone would get a small laugh out of her or make her smile. She was on hospice care. She will be dearly, dearly missed by the many family she left behind, and the friends who always said how nice, and kind hearted she was. It was an honor to know this woman, who went through some very hard challenges during her life time, and who remained very nice and kind, and gracious and humble until the very end. Someone had said, ‘if your level of kindness were the speed that determined how fast you made it to heaven, she would have been there a long time already.’ I am a new author that never before this, has been published. I’ve loved reading since I was a small child. The enjoyment I get when the writing is really good, makes me want to write even more, and challenges me to find out what other interesting story lines and plots I can come up with. Thank you for your interest, and I hope I can stand up to the level of reading that makes a book worthwhile.” Steven. Mr. Reak enjoys playing cards with his family, playing the guitar, and being outside near the water. © Copyright 2014 Developed By Saju Aneja(anejasajan@

Book preview

Chapter 1

‘Bohemia, 1780’

The worn out soles on Rose Cipera’s shoes, scuffling along the sidewalk as she searches for scraps of food in piles of garbage, bump into an old man sleeping in the garbage for warmth.

I’m looking for something fit to feed my family, the raggedly-dressed woman murmurs. We have no food or beds for us or the children, and no shelter. Haven’t since before I can even remember, it’s been so long, Rose turns to her husband, Augustine. There’s no food scraps left. What are we going to do?

The only thing left I suppose is to talk to the Lord of the Manor and see if he’ll take us in. I don’t want to, but I don’t see how we have any other choice. We’re going to starve otherwise, he tells her feebly.

In the stately confines of the nobleman landowner’s home, Augustine lays his head into the Lord of the Manor’s hands. By the Lord before whom this sanctuary is holy, I will to the Lord of the Manor to be true and faithful and love all which he loves and shun all which he shuns, according to the laws of God and the order of the world. Augustine repeats these words, which the nobleman’s servant has just spoken to him. Nor will I ever with will or action, through word or deed, do anything which is unpleasing to him, on condition that he will hold it against me as I shall deserve it, and that he will perform everything as was in our agreement when I submitted myself to him and chose his will. Again, Augustine repeats the words of the servant.

Besides Rose and Augustine, there’s another destitute family enslaving themselves to the nobleman. Josephine and Benjamin Dedic look at one another when the brief ceremony is over, not knowing what to expect next.

In her dark ragged kerchief, tattered black sweater, long threadbare skirt and worn out black shoes, Rose approaches the other family. We’ve been living on the street for three years. Us and the kids, she tells them. Josephine stares back at her with sunken eyes that appear to have no life behind them. You poor woman, Rose tells her. You look scared, as white as a ghost.

Josephine mumbles something so quietly, her lips barely moving, that Rose can’t understand her.

What dear? Rose asks. Josephine again mutters something so quietly that Rose still cannot make out what she says. It’ll be all right, Rose tries comforting her by taking her ice-cold hand. It’ll be all right, Rose repeats sympathetically.

Josephine and Benjamin’s six children and Rose and Augustine’s five children are standing nearby, thin as rails and dressed in old shabby clothes so full of rips and holes no amount of darning could repair them. Joseph, 21—Josephine and Benjamin’s oldest child—looks bashfully out of the corner of his eye at Rose and Augustine’s oldest child Anna, 16, and catches her looking back at him. They attempt to appear as though they haven’t noticed one another, quickly catching one another’s eyes and then just as quickly averting their gaze.

Dressed in a new, white colored wool suit and hat, the nobleman landowner in an instant notices them and then just as quickly turns his eyes away. I have two empty cottages near one another. You may live in them at my discretion and will, the nobleman declares self-righteously. Your work duties will be given to you after my servant shows you to your quarters. Haughty, the Lord of the Manor remains seated, squarely and pompously dismissing the families without care.

His servant leading the way, the two families march tiredly and slowly behind. An hour later, they are led into a small shack with meager furnishings and bare dirt floors in a small village just outside of a large city.

What do we do for food? Josephine mumbles so quietly she can barely be heard; the others look around wondering whether somebody had spoken. Food, Josephine stiffly mutters again, desperately, without moving her lips.

There’s fish in the river and birds and animals to catch and fruits and berries on the trees, the servant tells her. Stay out of the landowner’s woods. Men report to the fields at sunrise. He abruptly turns and leaves.

Gradually, often times painstakingly, the two families adapt to their new surroundings, although they have no idea what they’re doing. Within a few months the two oldest children from both families, Joseph and Anna become inseparable, spending more and more time together sharing their thoughts and sentiments.

Anna is tall with shoulder-length strawberry blond hair pulled back behind her head and tied with a red ribbon. Her melancholy state of mind overshadows the strong, determined young woman underneath.

I feel lonely sometimes, Anna admits to Joseph somberly as they sit together one evening. She pauses for a moment and then adds quietly, Do you ever think about taking a wife? Or having children? Joseph blushes involuntarily. He gazes down at the ground as he contemplates her question.

"I have thought about it, he confesses, looking up at her, revealing a slight smile. Whomever I marry would have to move into my parents’ house with me and my brothers and sisters."

Why? Why, couldn’t we…. Catching herself misspeaking, Anna hesitates, looks away briefly and then looks back up at him melancholy. "Why couldn’t you and your wife have your own cottage?"

Joseph replies without hesitation, The nobleman only has so many, I suppose. I have no money and no job. All I do for work is help the nobleman in his fields. Anna listens intently, gently caressing the blades of grass blowing in the breeze below her.

Do you ever think about me? she asks him tenderheartedly, looking down at the grass.

How so? I think of you often, he tells her softly.

I mean… She blushes. … romantically? He pauses momentarily and then slowly leans in, kissing her briefly on the lips.

That was nice, she sighs delicately. Did you like it? Joseph smiles, slowly nodding his head.

Anna reaches for his hand and holds it, caressing his fingers with hers, and then rests her head in his lap.

Later in the evening that week, Joseph and Anna are strolling under the glowing cascade of a full moon and talking.

Anna there’s something I want to ask you, Joseph begins apprehensively. Will you marry me? Before you say anything, I want you to know that I can’t offer you much in the way of material things, but I can offer you a lifetime of loving you. I think about you constantly, and I want to be with you all the time. The times when we’re not together are unbearable for me. I wonder what you’re doing, where you are, and who you’re with. I can’t bear not having you near me.

Anna listens and looks at him curiously, saying nothing, thinking. She reaches out and touches the limb of a tree making its way back and forth in the brisk air.

I want nothing more in the world than to be with you too, she begins warily. But where would we live? We would have to live with either my parents or yours. I don’t want to live with either, but we’d have to. Out of necessity.

As long as we’re together, I don’t care where or who we live with, he exclaims fervently. Please marry me, he asks again.

Yes, Joseph, of course I will marry you, she agrees, allowing herself to express her delight and putting her arm around his waist as he smiles broadly.

One month later, the two are joined together by a neighbor, without a title to make the marriage official or legal, in a little park not far from their family homes.

Inside Josephine and Benjamin’s meager cottage, the new bride has a difficult time settling in among the already crowded atmosphere with Joseph’s parents, two sisters, and three brothers.

Where did my tin of water go? Anna asks, searching the tiny kitchen as Joseph’s younger brothers and sisters look guiltily at one another, struggling not to laugh.

Trying hard not to appear too obvious, Anna looks everywhere she can think of trying to find the tin of water and finally gives up with no success.

Struggling to fit in with her husband’s family, she glances into the sitting room and speaks to her sisters-in-law, Annie? Mary? I understand you’re both getting married soon. Are you both moving in with your husband’s parents afterwards? The two sisters look at each other and rudely start snickering at her.

Annie, the older of the two sisters, tells her dryly, Oh, we can’t wait. Annie looks at Mary and rolls her eyes, at which Mary chortles.

Anna looks around with a confused look on her face again and says to them, I laid some baby clothes that I got from the neighbors on this chair this morning. What happened to them? They avoid looking at her or one another, shrugging their shoulders, knowing one of them has hidden the clothes from her.

Anna your three brothers are outside, Joseph conveys to her as he is walking in the door with his dad after spending another endless day slaving away in the landowner’s fields.

Outside, Anna’s brothers, Thomas, 16, Frank, 15 and Emil, 13, are playing with a four-foot-high, thin piece of wood shaped and rounded into a circle, rolling and hitting it with a stick, trying not to let it fall over. The three boys are the same ages as Joseph’s brothers.

That’s nice, she replies absentmindedly, walking over to a small cupboard hanging on a bare wooden slat wall and taking out a small vase to put flowers in.

What a day, Benjamin complains. My back is so sore I can hardly stand up anymore.

Joseph, how was your day? Anna asks, walking over to welcome him home.

John, 15, quickly rises and picks up the vase Anna has just set down, sliding it down into the front of his pants.

Hot and sticky, Joseph sighs, as she places an exhausted kiss on his cheek. And how is the mother to be? he questions her tiredly, returning the peck on her cheek.

I’m okay, she responds, relieved that he has returned. She turns from him to retrieve the vase and finds it missing. A curious look crosses her face.

I’ve been misplacing things all day, she tells him. First my tin of water this morning, then some baby clothes, and now a vase. Sometimes I think I’m losing my mind. James and Charles, both smirking, look up at John.

Hearing voices, Josephine stops her sewing and comes out of the one and only tiny bedroom in the house to find everybody except Anna sitting around quietly.

I thought I heard your voices, she tells her husband and son meekly.

Is supper ready? Benjamin asks his wife plainly. I’m hungry.

No, I haven’t started it. It won’t take long, she stutters. Girls, help me. We’ll have bread, vegetables and fruit, like always. Anna begins setting the table as Annie and Mary get up from their chairs in the living room to assist.

What did you boys do today? Joseph asks his younger brothers, sitting down and settling in while his father walks over to a canister full of water and dips the ladle in and takes a drink.

We went out hunting earlier, but we didn’t have any luck, James declares.

Stay away from the landowner’s woods, Joseph reminds them. If they catch you in there, they’ll whip you within an inch of your life!

The family starts to gather around the meager amounts of food for supper and begins eating. Afterwards, with the dishes washed, Anna walks the short distance to her parents’ humble cottage to visit with her family.

Are you hungry? her father, Augustine, asks her, handing her an egg from a small bowl sitting on the table, after she arrives.

Thank you, she replies kindly, accepting the egg, and begins tapping it on the wooden table to peel it. A sudden look of despair clouds her face.

It isn’t boiled! she complains forlornly, looking up at him as the yellow yolk and clear mucous liquid slides down her hand. Her father begins laughing boisterously as his thick black mustache tweaks up and down from the muscles around his mouth.

Why did you do that? Anna’s mother Rose, demands. You wasted a perfectly good egg now!

I wanted to is all he tells her, continuing to laugh strangely, hysterically.

Anna broods in her chair, wiping her hands with the towel her mother has handed her.

Mother… She begins to say but breaks down crying over her father’s lack of compassion. Anna springs from her chair and dashes out the door in tears, her head full of anxieties and doubt, questioning why everyone harasses her so cruelly.

Anna! No, don’t go, her mother calls after her.

Let her go, Augustine tells her, finally calming his laughter, turning his attention away from both of them.

Over the course of the next sixteen years, the problems the family faces never seems to halt for very long, even after Anna and Joseph have long since had their own family. Joseph and Anna now have eight children and the youngest is just a baby. Anna sits down wearily on the small couch in front of them.

Frantisek, Anna tells her fifteen year