Chapter 20 of Through different Eyes has been posted. This is the final chapter - but there is an epilogue to come next week.
Thank you for reading - and please don't forget to vote!
I left the Munich University bookshop, walking into the sunshine of an Indian summer and stood, savouring the view. I’d seen photographs of the wrecked city of 1945 and today’s cityscape astonished me. Restoration work was not yet complete, but the careful blending of old and new delighted me. Mutti and I had lived amidst the concrete bleakness of Leipzig’s reconstruction under communism. Despite this, when we visited on our return, there had been a sense of people shaking off twenty years of restrictions, seeking a new identity. Willi’s remarks about the young people he had met on his visit to east Germany seemed almost prescient.
Where are you Willi? I tried searching for your doctor mother – but still nothing. Jennifer said you’d come looking for me …
Walking away from Mrs Henderson had meant walking away from my single remaining link to Willi. Reliving that decision caused emotion to slice through me. I needed the rhythm of movement to soothe me.
I strode for a tram, my textbook-loaded bag’s gentle thud on my hip helping me contain my inner turmoil. In our apartment, I started preparing tea with Imbi threading through my legs, purring happily. Aunt Anastasia’s money had allowed me to fly him here and he was settling in, although I expected he would find the upcoming winter challenging. With the shepherd’s pie in the oven, I sat with Imbi sleeping on my lap, glancing through my Russian textbook whilst at least half my mind gnawed at the fruitless search for Willi.
Always there, coiled like a serpent waiting to strike, was Mrs Henderson’s offer: acquiesce and Willi would be mine. Jennifer’s warning of what this would do to me had been stark. I would have to ignore it were I to succumb to Mrs Henderson’s blandishments. The endless, self-destructive lies required for Mrs Henderson carried more weight than Jennifer’s warning.
My most recent newsletter included an excerpt from one of the three new projects I'm working on. The next couple of newsletters will include an excerpt from the other two.
If you are interested in reading these and helping me choose which one I progress first, please drop me an email here on Stories on Line. I'll be happy to add you to my newsletter so you get to read them.
Thanks for reading...
... and don't forget to vote!
Iskander
(Robert Hart)