![]() ![]() He looked dapper, as always, even though his hair was receding and his waistcoat bulged a little beneath the gold watch chain. Father was somberly dressed in a dark gray suit, starched white shirt, and black satin tie. They were sitting at opposite ends of the kitchen table. It was so embarrassing.īut once in a while they had a quarrel. It had nothing to do with.” He had trailed off, and Mother and he had giggled conspiratorially, as if Carla at the age of eleven knew nothing about sex. “Your mother is the cleverest woman I ever met,” he had said here in the kitchen just a few days ago. Now I never tire of it.”įather was just as bad. “We thought the war would last three months, but I didn’t see him again for five years. “I stayed in London while he came home to Germany and joined the army.” Carla had heard this story many times, but Mother never tired of telling it. ![]() Mother had laughed in a pleased way and said: “The day after our wedding, your father and I were separated by the Great War.” She had been born English, though you could hardly tell. Her friends thought it was strange: their parents did not do that. Carla cringed when they kissed in front of other people. Mostly they were affectionate- too much so. She almost turned and walked back out again. ![]() The second she walked into the kitchen she felt the hostility, like the bone-deep cold of the wind that blew through the streets of Berlin before a February snowstorm. Carla knew her parents were about to have a row. ![]()
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