Chapter One Thousand Seven Hundred Seventy-Two
21st December 1966
Mitte, Berlin
It was well after midnight and Kiki was fretting over the syllabus that she had received from the University Hospital of Halle. It was entirely of material that she had covered before in her studies, but this was the practical application of what she had learned. There was also the knowledge that she was expected to spend time in the field with both the local Ambulance Service and branch of the FSR based in Anhalt on top of that.
It seemed daunting.
Kiki’s mind was racing, and her elbows and knees were also bruised from the activities of earlier that day to contend with. What that meant was that sleep was not going to come easily.
Turning out the light and looking out the window of her bedroom, Kiki watched snow swirling around in the city lights reflected off the clouds. This high up it felt like if she were in the center of a snow globe. Nella and Nan had fallen asleep in Kiki’s bed with Rauchbier, which was entirely unnecessary. They had their own bedrooms, but they had wanted to be around Kiki while she was visiting over the holidays and the dog was a nice bonus. They looked so peaceful that Kiki left them alone for now, Nan was wearing Kiki’s splinter-pattern field parka and she would need that back.
Rauchbier’s nose was poking out from under one of the blankets where he was being hugged like a teddy bear by Nella. The girls had been excited to learn about the puppies in Hechingen the day before and had wanted to go see them only to be disappointed to learn that they couldn’t. Kiki wasn’t sure what was going to happen there, Nella had grown up with Freddy’s two big Akitas. Aki had gotten old and everyone was a bit worried about how Nella would react when the inevitable happened. Perhaps the girls having one of Rauchbier’s offspring would soften the blow.
Earlier that day, Kiki had taken them to the Annual Christmas Market in the Alexander Marketplace. The outcome that she had feared of Nella and Nan gorging themselves on sweets and making themselves sick hadn’t come to pass, but they still had plenty of the holiday fare. Kiki had been spared the spectacle of that by the unexpected power of novelty. This year a portion of Alexanderplatz had been turned into an ice-skating rink and the two girls had wanted to take their turn. As Kiki would learn, both the girls were hopeless once they went out on the rented skates. That was how Kiki had ended up with the bruises. She had attempted to teach Nella and Nan how to skate, before they had gotten the hang of it, there had been a number of falls and Kiki herself had been knocked over more than once by one of the girls trying not to fall down.
Leaving the girls in the penthouse apartment, Kiki had taken Rauchbier for a walk. Upon returning, she had found that they were waiting in her room and had a lot of questions. To help answer them, Kiki had opened the locked chest that she kept her field equipment in. This was another novelty for the girls who had looked at the various contents of her Doctor’s bag, the parka and armored vest. They had seen the G44 rifle magazines in the pockets of the vest and the P38/56 pistol that had remained in the chest, so Kiki had felt compelled to give a brief lecture on firearms safety that they had listened to wide-eyed. She realized too late that she was adding yet another aspect of danger to the already extensive list that the girls were keeping. Their impression seemed to be that Kiki was this extraordinary figure, like something from a movie. Somehow, they had learned about the events of Santorini and that certainly sounded like bad fiction upon retelling.
Nan had wanted to try on the parka and armored vest. They were so big on her that even when Kiki cinched the vest as tight as it would go, they were still loose. Still, Nan had loved it, particularly the parka. That was a stroke of luck, with one version of Christmas a few days away Kiki would have time to acquire one for her. Before this, she’d had absolutely no idea what to get for Nan. What did someone get as a gift for a little girl who had no expectations?
The life that Nan had a year earlier had been terrifying and things had not been easy since Kiki’s family had taken her in. Nan had needed to learn how to be a child and that she didn’t need to hide or should expect to be hit over any infraction. The whole time, Nella had been there watching, listening. It had been Charlotte’s intention that Nella needed more than just a playmate. That having her only be around close family and a narrow social circle would ultimately be bad for her. Charlotte hadn’t said “And turn out like Kristina” at the end of that, but it was very obvious what she had been getting at. As it was, Nella was getting quite an education though, probably in ways far beyond what Charlotte had intended.
Turning and looking back out at the snow swirling around, Kiki eventually fell asleep sitting at her desk.