Stupid Luck and Happenstance, Thread III

ferdi254

Banned
OTL some Swedish soldiers got their 15 minutes of fame after it was discovered that they used cameras installed to detect Red Fleet subs to view women. AFAIK that was pretty much careerending for a lot of people.
 
Part 130, Chapter 2224
Chapter Two Thousand Two Hundred Twenty-Four



30th June 1973

Tiergarten, Berlin

It was cloudy and threatening rain, but the crowd didn’t seem to mind because it was a warm afternoon. Zella’s mind was a bit blown when she had walked out onto the main stage before the Moondogs were about to start their set and was greeted by the sight of a sea of people as far as the eye could see, attendance was later estimated to be around one and a half million. That made it second only to the March Revolution decades earlier. She was to introduce the band and officially start the show, she and Yuri had been filming the scene on the way in. However, they had no idea how massive this thing had grown until they had emerged onto the stage and were shocked by what had greeted them.

John and Paul had promised that today they had something special that they had been working on for years and this was going to the public debut. It was going to largely be material from an album that was going to be released in a couple months anyway. Zella’s connections with the bands who were going to play this afternoon had gotten her exclusive access to this event along with a few other teams from ARD who were posted around the venue. That included the interviews she had gotten over the prior days and the footage of the concert. ARD was just overjoyed with her at the moment and were planning on broadcasting it the instant the edited cut was produced tomorrow afternoon. This time there was an entire team ready who were going to help, and Zella had been told that this broadcast would probably have an international reach. Despite everything that Zella’s mother had ever said about her not becoming a part of the story, the chance to go in front of the camera and introduce a band whose members were all old friends to the world was too much to pass up.

As Zella approached the microphone, she saw a photograph of John Elis had been projected onto the screen at the back of the stage. Everyone knew the whole story now, who he had been, how he had hidden successfully for decades. Then when he had nothing left to lose, John Elis had taken one last devastating whack at those who had sent him into hiding. Today’s show was in his honor. The American outlaw who had provided the legendary venue where the careers of dozens of artists had been launched. The bands who were taking to the main stage and the second stage in the coming hours reflected that. The Moondogs, Napkinwaffe, Metro, Molly Fryer, Skorpions, Mythology, and those were just the headliners. There were a number of less well-known acts led by the American band Big Star as well. They had difficulties in their home country but had done well in Germany last year. They were hoping to repeat their success and playing in one of the largest festivals ever put on certainly would help get their name out there. The grand finale would be a set by the Reinhardt Orchestra with Django Reinhardt himself having come out of retirement to conduct the ensemble.

Stepping up to the mike, Zella saw John in the corner of her eye. He had his guitar turned down and was tuning it, making sure everything was perfect before they started. Paul had his bass ready and was nervously fidgeting. George was just nonchalantly waiting, a few minutes earlier as they had been coming from backstage, he had jokingly told Zella to not dally about and just get on with it.

“Good morning, Berlin!” Zella yelled into the microphone, and she was nearly bowled over by the roar of the crowd. “Today we honor a man who came to Berlin and made it his own, who contributed to the fabric of the city. Whatever he did before that…”

Zella just shrugged; she had no answers.

John Elis, formally known as John Dillinger had robbed banks, conducted daring prison escapes, and left a trail of mayhem across the United State back in the 30’s. Zella, like everyone else had agreed that while they might acknowledge it, bringing it up directly would be in poor taste. Even if many found that to be the most Rock & Roll thing ever.

“Without further ado, I give you the Moondogs!” Zella yelled in conclusion as Ringo had already started drumming and the crowd went wild.

“We want to thank Marchioness Marcella for the delightful introduction” Paul said into the mike as Zella backed away. “May she always walk in the sunshine.”

As the rest of the band launched into the first song, Zella retreated to where Yuri had been recording the proceedings. The comment by Paul was referring to a song that he and John had written about her when she had been younger. That had been before the world had dealt Zella a few kicks and she’d had a rather high opinion of herself in those days.

“Who is Sergeant Pepper?” Yuri whispered to Zella as the first song concluded. She had no idea, but with the Moondogs it was often difficult to tell if something was based on events or locations from their childhood or something that they had just made up on the spot.

“I’ve no clue” Zella replied. They didn’t need to worry about what they were saying finding its way onto the finished recording this time. They had a Sound Engineer running tape that came directly off the mixing board. Yuri was whispering out of long habit from all the times it was just them alone recording.

With that Yuri went on recording the show as Zella watched.
 
Imagine in the early 70's in OTL if you could go to a show and on the bill was the Beatles, the Who, Eric Clapton (before he got too full of himself), the Scorpions, Black Sabbath, and Big Star.

Think it would be worth the cost of a ticket?
 

ferdi254

Banned
To everybody who did not start to sing Sergeant Peppers lonely hearts club band 2/3 along that entry….

There is a special place in hell for you.
 
With no Woodstock ITTL this concert is going to be the one that everybody says they were at 20 years from now even if they were not born yet.
 
Part 131, Chapter 2225
Chapter Two Thousand Two Hundred Twenty-Five



7th July 1973

Neukölln, Berlin

Sophie had no idea where exactly she was, she had just been riding in random directions in an effort to outrun her frustrations. The trouble was that she was now in an unfamiliar neighborhood on a residential street, and it was starting to get dark. This was not how she had wanted to spend her Saturday. Yes, she had wanted to ride her bicycle if the weather was nice, but to ride aimlessly around because she was upset was not a part of the plan.

It had started with an argument with Kat over a matter so petty that Sophie could hardly remember the details of what had started it. Unfortunately, it had started an avalanche with everything coming out. The resentment over her feeling that she had never really belonged, how every time she thought that she was making progress she slammed into another barrier, all of it and everything. Eventually, she had realized that she was just yelling for the sake of making noise and Kat was simply staring at her waiting for to stop. It was horrifying, this woman who she owed everything too and Sophie had been just yelling incoherently at her. Was she trying to get herself kicked out?

When Sophie had realized what she was doing, she had fled.

Down the stairs, out the back door, through the garden to the shed and onto her bicycle. She had ridden several kilometers before she had been thinking clear enough to process what had happened and was understandably horrified.

Rounding a corner, Sophie heard the sound of an S-Bahn train and knew that she had found one of the lines that passed in and out of the city center. Even with everything else that had happened, she still had her student transit pass in her pocket. It would be simple enough to find out exactly where she was and getting on a train that would get her close to home.

Thinking about the train and in the gathering darkness, Sophie failed to notice a grate on the street. The narrow 700 x 25c tire which enabled the Bianchi bicycle’s fast speed had a serious weakness when the tire dropped into the slot and the handlebars were wrenched from Sophie’s hands. The clips on the pedals kept her from flying over the handlebars, so instead she landed hard on the pavement. She heard the clatter of the bike’s frame hitting the street just before…

Next thing Sophie knew she was on the pavement being talked at and was trying to make sense of what was being asked.

“Look here” Sophie could hear a woman’s voice asking as she had a pen light shown in her eyes. The voice was familiar, but Sophie’s mind wasn’t working right that moment.

“Stop it” Sophie said, and the light clicked off. She was aware of a flashing red light in the background. Her head felt like it was full of cotton batting, she was having trouble breathing and her right knee felt like it was burning.

“I need you to hold still for me, Sophie” The familiar voice said.

Who was this and how did she know her name?

“You told me your name, home address and phone number a few minutes ago when we arrived, remember?” The woman asked, “It was helpful even if I didn’t already know you.”

Sophie realized that she had asked that question out loud, that wasn’t good.

“I need to go home” Sophie said, and she tried to get up only to find that a hand was on her shoulder preventing that.

“You are disorientated and probably have a concussion. Your bicycle needs attention as well” The woman said. That was when Sophie saw the front wheel of her bicycle was visibly bent out of true. “When we get you to the Emergency Department, we can…”

“No” Sophie said as she tried to escape this woman’s grasp.

“You don’t get a choice in this” The woman said as Sophie realized just who the woman was and just how much trouble she was in.



Tempelhof, Berlin

Kat and Douglas had entered the Emergency Department to find Kiki wearing the red coat of a Notarzt as she apparently volunteered to do whenever the University needed someone with her skills out in the field. It had just been the luck of the draw that she had been working in that capacity when the call came in of a Cyclist having taken a bad spill that had left them unconscious. She had gotten Sophie back to the University Hospital and then called Kat.

“She has a concussion, a skinned knee, and some bruising on her ribs” Kiki said, “Mostly I would say that it was her dignity that has taken a real beating.”

“Shouldn’t she be awake then?” Kat asked, a touch worried about what she was seeing.

“I sedated her before someone got it in their head to order a Psychiatric Evaluation which she doesn’t need. That was a bit risky considering that she has a concussion, but I didn’t like the alternative and she is being closely monitored” Kiki replied, “She was working herself into a panic when she figured out that you were going to be called. She is desperate for your approval and is scared that you might kick her out.”

“We got into an argument this afternoon” Kat said as she was looking at the still form of Sophie. She couldn’t help but notice a livid bruise over the cheekbone on one side of Sophie’s face. “Over a trifling matter, but with Sophie anything less than perfect is the end of the world.”

“Isn’t that part of being a fourteen-year-old?” Kiki asked.

“If only it were that simple” Kat replied, “Unlike most girls her age, Sophie has already endured many of the worst things that could happen, so consequences are never far from her mind. She probably thinks that she will be punished for running off.”

“Will she be?” Kiki asked, “Punished that is?”

“Do I need to?” Kat asked in reply, “There is no way that I would be that cruel.”
 
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One of the realities of riding a bicycle, especially a road bike with fast, narrow tires, is that sooner or later you are going to take a spill.
 
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This is the second time that Sophie has put herself in harms way with her bike and this time there are consequences for her actions.
The paradox that is Sophie is she is pushing Kat and family away while simultaneously trying to hold on to them closer.
Sophie has seen Kat punish her own children and if Kat doesn’t punish Sophie she will see that as a sign that she is not a part of the family, but Sophie may feel that if the punishment is too “harsh and unfair “ then that is also a sign that she is not part of the family.
What Sophie needs now is because of the abuse she had from her mother is a child therapist that specializes in PTSD in children and teens.
 
I wonder how Dr. Berg would feel about taking on a part time job? She would know the right people to talk to and also be an uninterested person in this.
 

ferdi254

Banned
Child therapist with experience in PTSD in children in the early 70s? Remember we are still talking a time when it was legal for parents and teachers to beat children.
Sophie got lucky, such an accident could like have led to a broken cheekbone which means four weeks on hacheed food.
 
Child therapist with experience in PTSD in children in the early 70s? Remember we are still talking a time when it was legal for parents and teachers to beat children.
Sophie got lucky, such an accident could like have led to a broken cheekbone which means four weeks on hacheed food.
The pioneering work of Dr. Holz and Dr. Tanngerman(? sp) in the 1940's recognised that PTSD commonly called "Combat Fatigue" also happens to people who are victims of violent crimes like rape, armed robbery, and spousal abuse among other things.
While the current consensus is that children are resilient and will "grow out of it" studies have shown that untreated childhood trauma leads to adults having the same behavior of others who have been diagnosed with PTSD.
Currently the University of Jena is among the first to study the effects of the treatment of children who exhibit the symptoms of PTSD and if early treatment will reduce the number of adults with undiagnosed psychological illness.
 
Part 131, Chapter 2226
Chapter Two Thousand Two Hundred Twenty-Six



14th July 1973

Mitte, Berlin

The concrete path in the Tiergarten was smooth under the wheels of her bicycle, Sophie was taking no chances though. She was scanning the path ahead for evil things like manhole covers, another grate, tram rail, or anything else lurking out there that would cause the bike to go out from underneath her. She also had Sprocket with her this time as well. While she was willing to take risks when she was by herself the though of her dog getting hurt was not something she would ever want to see.

This side of the park was near the Zoo, the opposite end from the Great Field where the vast crowds had congregated for the free Rock & Roll festival just a couple weeks earlier. Here the park was the carefully tended artificial forest which had been cultivated for decades to be an oasis of peace in the center of a chaotic city. She was here to meet someone by the lake who Kat had said would help put things in perspective and hopefully try to be less reckless going forward.

That was in keeping with everything that Sophie had gone through during her period of non-punishment punishment. It was the sort of confusing thing that happened in Kat’s household. Waking up in the hospital with Kat and Doug at her bedside had been unexpected. They had treated her the same as if she one of their actual children. Sophie had not had enough time to figure the meaning of that when Malcolm had shown up with Marie and Angelica. No one had any idea where Tatiana was, something that was fairly typical these days. Kat said that while she was disappointed in her oldest daughter’s behavior at times, she understood that there were things that Tatiana needed to work out.

In the days since, Sophie had found that the bruises she had were impossible to hide. That had resulted in stares and whispers at school while they were going into the final examinations of the Spring Term. That was the last thing she had needed at the moment. The exams were always a fraught time for Sophie with her usual paranoia becoming unbearable. At least unlike in the past, this time she had been in an actual accident as opposed to years earlier when she had gone to school looking like that.

Slowing to a stop, Sophie got off her bicycle and rested it on the kickstand. Lifting Sprocket out of the basket and placing him on the ground, she looked down the shore of the lake within the park. Almost immediately, Sprocket’s priority was sniffing towards nearby bushes.

“Sprocket, heel!” Sophie called out. She knew that while he would stay close to her, he also tended to follow his nose into trouble if she didn’t pay attention to what he was up to. It was up to her to see to it that eventuality didn’t happen. She knew that she should have brought a leash but had not though things through. It seemed like that was something that Sophie had done a lot lately.

Walking her bicycle along the shore, Sophie saw Doctor Berg wearing a broadbrimmed hat and working on a painting.

“Katherine told me you would be along today, Fraulein Sommers” Berg said, “She said if I have the time to try to talk some sense to you because she hasn’t had a whole lot of luck.”

“She ordered me to come here” Sophie said, “Do you understand that? She said it was nonnegotiable.”

“That isn’t a surprise” Berg said, “Katherine is used to getting her way.”

“I wish she hadn’t done that though” Sophie said as she looked around for somewhere to sit down. There was nothing.

“Would you have asked for help on your own?” Berg asked, not looking away from the painting.

“Are you supposed to be the one who would help me?” Sophie asked.

“Me, hardly” Berg replied, “I’m a retired Doctor who happens to be an objective observer in this case. I just happen to have time to talk today.”

“You look like you are busy painting” Sophie observed.

Berg snorted at that. “I am only doing this because I was told that I should take up a hobby now that I don’t have all my hours filled with work” She said, “The truth is that your dog is probably better at this than I am.”

Sophie looked at the painting and saw that it was an attempt to paint the lake with the rowboats and the trees beyond. At least that was what she thought it was. The painting could have just as easily been some sort of abstract piece for all she knew. She had just not wanted to be the one who said that to Berg in case she got it wrong.

“Then why are you doing it?” Sophie asked.

“Because it is the only real way to get better” Berg replied, “Plus it is nicer to meet with a patient here rather than in impersonal office.”

“I thought you said that you were retired?”

“Damnedest thing” Berg replied, “Retirement means that you get to do the things that you want to do, and no one gets to question it.”

Doctor Berg said that last part rather smugly. Like if she were doing Sophie a huge favor just by talking to her… Then it occurred to Sophie that Berg was in fact doing her a huge favor.
 

ferdi254

Banned
Just for the record there are no final exams at the end of a year in Germany. It is two to three „Klausuren“ (large written tests) during the term which make up the written grade which is 50% of the total grade with the other 50% being your oral contributions during the term.

One exception is the Abitur at the end of your school time if you made it that far.
 
Just for the record there are no final exams at the end of a year in Germany. It is two to three „Klausuren“ (large written tests) during the term which make up the written grade which is 50% of the total grade with the other 50% being your oral contributions during the term.

One exception is the Abitur at the end of your school time if you made it that far.
As a teacher in Germany i can tell you even that isn't correct in every state.:openedeyewink:

In some states you have 1 or 2 Klausuren which is 40% of the total grade, the rest are so called "sonstige Leistungen" which can be oral contributions, verbals examinations, or small written tests. In the lower years the Klausuren or Klassenarbeiten (differnt word same meaning) only contribute 30% of the total grade.
 
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