Part 130, Chapter 2212
Chapter Two Thousand Two Hundred Twelve
14th April 1973
Charlottenburg, Berlin
Zella was sitting on the couch by the window looking down at the crowds of people as they went about their business in the shopping district as she was procrastinating on a Saturday morning. Her own apartment, now that she had moved in, was six floors above those busy streets. She had spent a considerable amount of time finding an apartment that suited her needs. A modern building located in a neighborhood that had some life in it. Living in a business district where everyone went home at the end of the weekday, effectively making it a ghost town by early evening most days. Which was completely unacceptable. The energy in a place like that was always odd, artificial.
She had needed to move out of her parent’s house oddly because they were no longer there. With Zella’s mother having retired from the BT they suddenly had time to do the things they wanted to do. That had left Zella knocking about an empty house and the silence had really started getting to her. Moving into an apartment had its disadvantages, but you were always aware that there were people around. It was those interactions that Zella missed, despite how annoyed she got with her mother’s probing questions. It was also the first time in Zella’s life that she had not lived the townhouse belonging to her parents. Supposedly, she had moved with her mother back to Berlin after being born in Australia but had no memory of that move. That made it quite an adjustment.
Moving in had been simple enough with most of the furniture needing to be ordered, it had been delivered and set up before Zella had started moving her things in. Getting things just how she like was going to take a whole lot of time though and there were still boxes everywhere. The apartment itself was of an open floorplan with only a partition separating the “Bedroom” from the common area. A small bathroom was just off the kitchen. Zella suspected the kitchen probably wouldn’t see a whole lot of use and that it had been designed that way to simplify the plumbing. Bay windows made up the much of one of the walls and they gave her an excellent view of the roof of the Department Store across the street and the pigeons who roosted there. Beyond that, there was a glimpse of the Tiergarten several blocks to the east and the towers rising in the City Center.
There came a pounding on the door.
She had agreed to help her “Aunt” with a different niece who had been causing a great deal of trouble with one of her sisters lately and she had asked if Zella could help out? She said that it would be good for both of them, and Zella had felt obligated. With a great deal of annoyance, Zella got to her feet and padded over the door. Looking out the wide-angle lens of the peephole, Zella saw that it was the guest whose presence she was dreading. Throwing open the bolt, Zella opened the door. It was a heavy steel door hung in a steel frame set into reinforced concrete, so nothing short of explosives was getting through. Even so, it had ball-bearing hinges which meant that it swung smoothly open.
“Kat says that I am supposed to help you unpack” Sophie said with the sort of pout that was to be expected of fourteen-year-olds everywhere, her birthday having only been a couple days earlier. “It took me forever to find this place.”
“In this neighborhood?” Zella asked, “I doubt it was a hardship.”
“I don’t know where anything is around here” Sophie replied pushing her bicycle into the apartment. “I was…”
Sophie had stopped talking when she saw the boxes waiting to be unpacked and switched to several swearwords that Zella had been unaware that she would know. Of course, living in Kat’s household for the last five years must have been quite the education for her. Some of things that Kat insisted on were terrifying until you realized it was her way of teaching you to deal with those things out there which were far worse.
“I guess there is a lot left to unpack” Zella said, unsure about what else to say.
As Sophie looked around, she saw that one of the cardboard boxes contained hand tools. “Don’t you have a motorcycle?”
“It is in the shop” Zella replied, “And even if it weren’t I wouldn’t park it up here, there is a garage on the ground floor of this building, next to the loading dock.”
Zella’s motorcycle, a BMW K3 she’d had for the last few years was a model that was somewhat notorious for shredding tires. Michelin had finally decided to make a belted radial tire for motorcycles that promised to finally fix that problem and Zella figured that the new tires were worth springing for. The trouble was that she lacked the time to do it herself. So, Zella had swallowed her pride and taken her motorcycle to a mechanic who her father had recommended.
“The box of tools is not what we are going be unpacking today” Zella said, “The boxes over by the windows contain art supplies, I would like to get those sorted.”
Sophie brightened at the prospect of that.
14th April 1973
Charlottenburg, Berlin
Zella was sitting on the couch by the window looking down at the crowds of people as they went about their business in the shopping district as she was procrastinating on a Saturday morning. Her own apartment, now that she had moved in, was six floors above those busy streets. She had spent a considerable amount of time finding an apartment that suited her needs. A modern building located in a neighborhood that had some life in it. Living in a business district where everyone went home at the end of the weekday, effectively making it a ghost town by early evening most days. Which was completely unacceptable. The energy in a place like that was always odd, artificial.
She had needed to move out of her parent’s house oddly because they were no longer there. With Zella’s mother having retired from the BT they suddenly had time to do the things they wanted to do. That had left Zella knocking about an empty house and the silence had really started getting to her. Moving into an apartment had its disadvantages, but you were always aware that there were people around. It was those interactions that Zella missed, despite how annoyed she got with her mother’s probing questions. It was also the first time in Zella’s life that she had not lived the townhouse belonging to her parents. Supposedly, she had moved with her mother back to Berlin after being born in Australia but had no memory of that move. That made it quite an adjustment.
Moving in had been simple enough with most of the furniture needing to be ordered, it had been delivered and set up before Zella had started moving her things in. Getting things just how she like was going to take a whole lot of time though and there were still boxes everywhere. The apartment itself was of an open floorplan with only a partition separating the “Bedroom” from the common area. A small bathroom was just off the kitchen. Zella suspected the kitchen probably wouldn’t see a whole lot of use and that it had been designed that way to simplify the plumbing. Bay windows made up the much of one of the walls and they gave her an excellent view of the roof of the Department Store across the street and the pigeons who roosted there. Beyond that, there was a glimpse of the Tiergarten several blocks to the east and the towers rising in the City Center.
There came a pounding on the door.
She had agreed to help her “Aunt” with a different niece who had been causing a great deal of trouble with one of her sisters lately and she had asked if Zella could help out? She said that it would be good for both of them, and Zella had felt obligated. With a great deal of annoyance, Zella got to her feet and padded over the door. Looking out the wide-angle lens of the peephole, Zella saw that it was the guest whose presence she was dreading. Throwing open the bolt, Zella opened the door. It was a heavy steel door hung in a steel frame set into reinforced concrete, so nothing short of explosives was getting through. Even so, it had ball-bearing hinges which meant that it swung smoothly open.
“Kat says that I am supposed to help you unpack” Sophie said with the sort of pout that was to be expected of fourteen-year-olds everywhere, her birthday having only been a couple days earlier. “It took me forever to find this place.”
“In this neighborhood?” Zella asked, “I doubt it was a hardship.”
“I don’t know where anything is around here” Sophie replied pushing her bicycle into the apartment. “I was…”
Sophie had stopped talking when she saw the boxes waiting to be unpacked and switched to several swearwords that Zella had been unaware that she would know. Of course, living in Kat’s household for the last five years must have been quite the education for her. Some of things that Kat insisted on were terrifying until you realized it was her way of teaching you to deal with those things out there which were far worse.
“I guess there is a lot left to unpack” Zella said, unsure about what else to say.
As Sophie looked around, she saw that one of the cardboard boxes contained hand tools. “Don’t you have a motorcycle?”
“It is in the shop” Zella replied, “And even if it weren’t I wouldn’t park it up here, there is a garage on the ground floor of this building, next to the loading dock.”
Zella’s motorcycle, a BMW K3 she’d had for the last few years was a model that was somewhat notorious for shredding tires. Michelin had finally decided to make a belted radial tire for motorcycles that promised to finally fix that problem and Zella figured that the new tires were worth springing for. The trouble was that she lacked the time to do it herself. So, Zella had swallowed her pride and taken her motorcycle to a mechanic who her father had recommended.
“The box of tools is not what we are going be unpacking today” Zella said, “The boxes over by the windows contain art supplies, I would like to get those sorted.”
Sophie brightened at the prospect of that.
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