Chapter 17: John’s Shuttle Service

Mark

My emotional outburst was shot-lived, thankfully, but I was no less embarrassed. That was a bit silly, considering that the only reason why Regina and I were even talking to each other in the first place was because we were both impacted by the disaster. I didn’t know if she said it to ease my embarrassment or if she really had a point when she blamed my emotional swings on the added stress of the jet-lag.

And I certainly felt said jet-lag by now. We finished our drinks chatting a bit more and we gave each other a short hug, agreeing to meet for breakfast the next morning before we both retired for the night.

Lydia

Mark being Mark had of course called me the next morning, ‘confessing’ that he had spent the evening talking to a girl that had not only almost lost her daughter in the sinking of the ferry, but actually was one of the survivors. On top of it she had a history that was almost freakishly similar to mine by the sound of it.

For the first time in our relationship I felt an undercurrent of insecurity and jealousy. And me being me, I planted my foot firmly in my mouth.

“Mark, that girl is quite vulnerable right now, and probably also a bit lonely if her history is so similar to mine. I hope that you don’t do anything foolish.”

I was cut of by a sharp “Lydia!” and I could hear the hurt in his voice. The fact that he had used my name, instead of mom had not escaped me either.

“For starters, I’m quite pissed that you think I would cheat on you, and second that you even think I would take advantage of a woman’s insecurities...”

He didn’t finish his sentence and I could hear a few muffled curses.

“Mark, I’m sorry,” I said. “I guess I had a bit of a jealousy fit. The way you described her she’s more or less the same type of woman as I am, just your age.”

“It’s okay mom, I understand,” he said in a more conciliatory tone. “You don’t need to worry. I don’t know how to describe it, but I get the feeling we could become really good friends, especially you and Regina. I would suspect the group meetings of ‘14-year-old mothers knocked up at Prerow’ wouldn’t exactly fill a stadium. I’m not going to fuck up a potentially very good friendship by fooling around.”

I had to laugh a bit about that. He continued.

“She actually was a fan of yours before we fled to West Germany and I would hazard a guess she still is, else she wouldn’t have worked out who I am so quickly. Mind if I give her your number?”

“Does she know, I mean about us?” I asked him.

“She knows that we’re mother and son,” he said. “Everything else is a bridge that we’ll cross when we come to it.”

“How is grandpa doing?” I asked him.

“Pretty shaken,” Mark admitted. “I’m not quite sure why he cried so hard. He cried when granny Aurelia died, which is a given. They were married for sixty-five years, but Bea isn’t dead and he completely lost it.”

“It’s because of those idiot parents of mine,” I said with disgust. “When they disowned me and grandpa took me in, my parents punished him by not letting Bea visit him anymore. All the while he could see that they were taking their frustration out on Bea and he could do nothing. It probably still haunts him.”

Again I heard muffled curses and this time they were of a rather ripe variety.

“Tell me one good reason not to seek out these two dipshits and beat the raw shit out them,” he growled and I actually had to take the receiver a bit away from my ear.

“Mark, the reason is that you’re better than that. We can’t change the past and both of them having lost all their status and power is the worst punishment they could suffer. Status and being someone was all they ever lived for. Now they’re two old farts on welfare benefits who can’t find any work because they were hard-liners under the old regime. For them that’s worse than a beating, because that punishment never ends.”

“Thanks mom, I needed that,” he said with grim satisfaction in his voice.

“Now, honey, calm down a bit and send your Regina, and especially Bea my regards.”

“She’s not my Regina,” he insisted and I could bet he was rolling his eyes.

Mark

I sat on the same bench as the evening before, clearing my mind before going back into the hotel for breakfast.

“That looked like the most turbulent phone call I’ve ever witnessed,” Regina said after I had sat down. She had already been waiting for me and apparently seen me trample the lawn outside while talking to my better half.

“I got a few news about our past that weren’t exactly pleasant,” I said. “A least I do understand now why my great granddad lost it so badly yesterday.”

She looked at me wide-eyed. “You look my age. Your great grandfather is still alive?”

“Being quick to have kids runs in the family, I guess,” I said with a lop-sided grin. “None of my ancestors was twenty at the time of their first offspring and my ancestry is a straight line of first-borns, but of course mom beat them all as far as getting an early start is concerned.”

“Why haven’t you brought him with you to breakfast?” she asked.

“He’s eighty-seven and yesterday was really hard on him,” I explained. “He wants to stay in bed. I’ve organized with the hotel that he’ll have his meals brought up to the room. I can’t stay with auntie Bea all day anyway, so I’ll get back to look after him in between hospital visiting periods.”

“You’re taking up quite a few responsibilities at your age,” Regina said. I chuckled.

“Says the woman who raised a child at an age when other girls had just about been weened off their barbie sets.”

“Touché.”

She actually blushed a bit. We finished out breakfast, mostly in silence.

“Well, it’s back to the zoo then,” Regina said as we sipped the rest of our coffee.

“The zoo?”

“We’ve got a public insurance, like most people,” Regina explained. “That means Jenny is in a six bed room with five other women, and some of them are in a bad shape. She’s only four and scared to death by all the groaning and beeping around her.”

“Damn, I haven’t thought about that. Same’s gonna happen to Bea, and she’s expected to come out of ICU this morning. Let me handle that,” I said and stood to go.

“What do you have in mind?” she asked, hurrying after me.

“Public insurance does not preclude you from paying privately for a few amenities. I’ll get auntie Bea and your daughter a 2-bed room. That should give both of them the privacy they need. And although she’ll never have kids of her own, being uninterested in men and all, Bea is really good with kids. I know that from first-hand experience, because she was my ersatz mom for months after mom had fled to West Germany.”

“We could never accept that. This is way too expensive,” Regina said and her voice was thick with emotion. I stopped and gently put my hands on her arms.

“Regina, you and mom have had very similar experiences in life. We got a lot of help from all sides because we were political refugees at the height of the cold war. You are not getting the same help. I’m under no illusion that you and Jenny had an easy life. If we can offer some help to people who were not so fortunate to have the American government making their lives easier, please let us do it.”

She nodded and I could see her eyes filling with tears. I hugged her until she had regained her composure. I collected the wheel chair to deliver it back as promised and we made our way to the hospital.

Jonjo

This sucked, man. I had really hoped to see Mark again. I knew Mrs K was running around somewhere in South Africa, so she could kick some African butts again over the season, but hearing that Mark had had to leave because his aunt had nearly drowned in a ship-sinking was bad. And as a student I didn’t even have enough money to call him. Those overseas phone calls where ridiculously expensive for someone living off a student loan and a modest scholarship in automotive engineering.

My girlfriend Maria was off to Mexico to visit her family and I had taken a rain check on that. We had been there two times already, but her family simply overwhelmed me. By the look of things having less than five kids seemed to be shame there so we were always surrounded by a whole army of aunts, uncles, nephews, nieces and cousins.

It says something when you’re too gregarious for a Jamaican, man.

In the end I took up a short-time job with a local car dealership. Spending my time as a grease monkey would at least give me a few extra Benjamins. A student could always use some of those. The fact that I still got a hefty discount at the Bachlmayer’s German restaurant was a great thing. Mrs K had gotten me hooked on German food over the years and since everyone knew that I was Mark’s bestest buddy, I got the same good deal as him.

Man, you haven’t tasted good food until you’ve washed down a Schweinshaxen with a good Bavarian beer. Don’t ask me how to pronounce that. Mrs K had written it down for me.

Mark

In an attempt not to make Regina even more uneasy with my financial intervention I had done the negotiations with the administrative office while she had gone to visit her daughter. The way they fell all over themselves to accommodate me was a clear sign that the public insurance obviously didn’t pay too generously.

A nurse took me to the room that I had just booked for Bea and Regina’s daughter. During my frequent travels with dad, when he was still alive, I had seen less comfortable hotel rooms. Everything was new in there. This being less than three years after the reunification, it had probably been all rebuilt after 1990. The room even had a large TV set, something I suspected not to be present in the cattle rooms that Bea and Jenny were still in right now.

My thoughts were interrupted when a nurse wheeled in the bed with auntie Bea in it. A second nurse walked alongside, holding the containers for the drip that was going into her right arm. Once they had fixed it in place and hung the drip containers the nurses left.

I grabbed a chair and sat beside her bed. We wordlessly embraced, careful not to rip off any sensors or cannulae.

“She didn’t make it, did she?” Bea whispered in a breaking voice. I knew immediately who she was talking about.

“Listed as missing,” I whispered back.

My auntie released my from the hug and looked at her hands, crying.

“Rita was a lifeguard with the Maritime Search and Rescue Service. She threw me into a life boat and jumped into the water to fish people out of it when we capsized.”

“You’re saying ‘was’. She’s only listed as missing,” I tried to give her hope.

Bea shook her head.

“Rita had all her gear with her. Her crew was slated to take part in a training session with Swedish lifeguards. That’s what we interrupted our vacation for. When the ship started listing, she knew we were headed for disaster and got all kitted up. She would have shot a flare or sent a signal if she had been alive when the lifeboats were picked up.”

“Damn it,” I swore.

“She died doing her job,” Bea said in between sobs. “But damn it hurts. She had thrown me into that life boat so I could help her by pulling the people she collected aboard. That’s what the bruises on my arms are from. She only thought about rescuing others.”

Our talk was interrupted by a shriek.