Chapter One Thousand Nine Hundred Eighty-Nine
1st June 1970
Tempelhof, Berlin
Kat signed the letter before putting it in an envelope and sealing it. Not that the contents would remain secret for long. She was once again trying to put an end to her accidental career and had high hopes that it would stick this time. Between being the Deputy Chief of the Luftwaffe High Command, her new role as the Kurfürstin of Berlin, and finally trying to be a mother to her children it was becoming all too much. The letter was notifying the Military High Command of her intention to resign effective at the end of the year and her request that it be done without fanfare.
“I want this delivered immediately” Kat said to her Aide-de-Camp who nodded and accepted the letter. Astonishingly, he held the rank of Oberst and managed her staff on the professional side. One of the advantages of being a General of Paratroopers as well as the Prefect of a City-State she supposed. It was too bad she couldn’t just resign from the latter position as well. The people she dealt with wanted her to play the role of Queen, mostly in the form of being the final arbitrator of their petty squabbles. Most days she sat behind her desk wishing that she had the authority to order all individuals flogged for wasting her time. Unfortunately, if such a matter were properly adjudicated the Judge, who did have the right sort of authority, would say that there was no law against being inconvenienced and even if it were, flogging people for minor crimes went out of style ages ago.
Turning her chair around, Kat looked out her office window down into the back garden. It was basically summer and that was reflected in the state of the garden. Kat saw that Sophie was sitting in the shade of the trees that defined the space at a concrete bench that had been installed out there years earlier. She was dangling a piece of yarn towards Cheshire who swatted at it with his paw. Kat knew that there were handprints from Jo, Tatiana, Malcolm, and Marie Alexandra on the surface of the bench. Whenever Kat looked at it, she noticed how small Marie’s hands had been and wondered where the time had had gone. These days, Kat had no idea just who was going to come downstairs these days as Marie often tried on different personas. Having her going to school like that had become a problem because Marie had gotten a bit too good at it, much to the annoyance of her teachers.
That had also been when Kat had had a wonderful relationship with Tatiana. These days they were barely on speaking terms, with her having gone out of her way to spite Kat again and again. That had culminated in her approaching the BND to talk about joining them behind Kat’s back. That had been months ago, and Tatiana had gone out of her way to avoid Kat with the intent to avoid talking about it. Petia had told Kat that Tatiana would come around eventually. But Kat knew that it had taken decades for Petia’s own complicated relationship with her family to work itself out. She suspected that Darya, Petia’s granddaughter being here as a University Student in Berlin was a version of Tat’s rebellion. Of course, Darya’s mere presence for the last few years made Petia happy, so Kat was more than happy to pull what strings she needed to in order to keep the girl in Berlin. Kat still got along well with Malcolm, thought he frequently talked about things that she couldn’t even pretend to understand.
Jo was continuing her professional aspirations. Much to Kat’s own bewilderment at times. She wanted to be a schoolteacher but had encountered a tremendous amount of misogyny over her appearance. Suse had joked for years about how Jo looked like a Goddess from a Nordic epic and Kat understood that there was a great deal of truth in that. Where it became a problem was in men’s reactions towards her. She was regularly either totally discounted or worse, propositioned. That was why Jo had taken a teaching assignment that made Kat think that she had lost her mind. Thinking of Jo also brought Suse to mind, the two of them had always been close friends. Lately, Kat had been exasperated with Suse because a couple months previously she’d had a pregnancy scare. It had been a false alarm, but Kat’s issue was that her goddaughter had attempted to keep it a secret. While Kat acknowledged that Suse was an adult and entitled to her own space, she was hurt that Suse had not trusted her enough to confide in her and had not exactly taken it well. Kat had told Suse that she was acting much like her mother had twenty years ago. That had been a stupid thing to have said. Then Manny being something of an oaf at times, had said something that had really angered Suse. The result was that Suse was holed up in her room sulking, refusing to talk to anyone or come out.
Finally, looking down at Sophie, Kat realized that she was one of the few successes that she had enjoyed lately. Sophie was finally showing signs of opening up a little bit, something that had taken years. She had practically begged Kat to let her go with her friends to spend the summer in the Spreewald. It was rare for Sophie to ask for anything for herself like that.