Furrowing his brow, Adolph Hitler pursed his quavering lips as he tried to form words. Eva Braun held his shaking hands as they sat on a sofa in their bunker beneath the streets of Berlin. Bombs exploded overhead, causing them to jump.
“So, I am not God?” His voice was soft and uncertain.
“No, my darling.” Eva’s hands cupped his sagging jaw. Her fingers then glided across his cheeks, pausing over his puffy eyelids. “When we first met you didn’t have bags under your eyes. What are we going to do with you now?”
“And I was not meant to rule the world?”
“No, you were not meant to rule the world.”
“Why didn’t anyone tell me?”
“No one wanted to make you unhappy.” Eva wiped the tears from her eyes.
“They didn’t mind telling me I was not a good artist.” He glanced around the room, looking for something that was not there. “I would have much rather been a good artist than God.”
“Of course, my darling, but you must understand the people who said you weren’t a good artist were not the same people who didn’t tell you you weren’t God.”
“But all those people shouted for me to rule the world. I saw them. They filled the streets. They filled stadiums. They saluted. They called out my name.”
“They were wrong.” Eva paused as she reached for a bottle of pills. “We were all wrong.”
“Then all those people didn’t have to die. All the young men on the battlefield, all the Jews, Gypsies—“
“No, they should not have died.”
“I can’t understand why I wasn’t told.” He looked into Eva’s eyes. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I love you. I tell you anything you wanted to hear.” She fumbled with the lid on the pill bottle. “Now I must tell you something that will make you very unhappy. It is time for you to take this pill. Don’t worry. I am going to take a pill too. We shall leave together, as we lived together.”
“I always believed I knew what was right and wrong. It was so simple. Now, you’re telling me I didn’t know right from wrong.”
“No, my darling. No one knows right from wrong. No one knows good from bad. We just live the best we can. And now it is time to die the best way we can.”
“Die? But God cannot die—but I am not God, am I?” He forced the palms of his hands into his eyes, trying not to cry. “I still don’t understand how I could make such a mistake. I pride myself on never making mistakes.”
Eva put the pill to his lips and with love pushed it through to his tongue. She reached for a revolver. “Use this. In case the pill doesn’t work.” She kissed him and put a pill in her mouth. “In a few minutes you won’t have to worry about any of this ever again.”