CHAPTER V
BIG CITIES
THE GROWING POWER OF LOVE
An anxious morning had arrived. Although we went to bed around 03:00 in the morning, I woke up around 08:00. What was going on? There were 20 missed calls on the iPhone. Someone was obviously looking for me. All this did not bode well. How many days had passed?
It had already been three days since our last meeting with my dear relatives, with whom I lived in Germany, apparently they had noticed my absence and their anxiety was growing. My return to my aunt and uncle’s parental home did not bode well. They would simply tear me apart, I thought. It would be an exemplary execution. A massacre.
My aunt and uncles were good, kind and caring people, in whose house I had lived for 1.5 months already. June had passed unnoticed, and on our calendar it was already July 16th. Time flew forward incredibly or inexorably. It was a wonderful summer. My uncle and I spent a lot of time at the car sales area, where my uncle worked. Basic preparation of the car for sale. Repair. Replacement. Insurance. Sale and so on, every day. My uncle was a master of his craft and worked all his life at large factories where BMW and AUDI are assembled. A top-class master. He could assemble and disassemble any car with his eyes closed. Of course, my uncle’s favorite topic and main interest was German cars, about which he knew everything. Life credo.
My work at the car sales area consisted of doing the hardest and dirtiest work that no one wanted to do and for which they paid little. The capitalist hucksters selling cars took all the profits for themselves. I worked for food and a small financial reward. In the capitalist world, everything was calculated, that’s how the capitalist world worked and was arranged. Sometimes I managed to make some money from selling things for my own pocket, but the predators of capitalism immediately stopped my illegal financial activity for the purpose of enrichment. There was enough work both on the car marketplace and in the house where I lived. No one would give you gifts. You had to buy groceries. Walk to the nearest store or go to the supermarket. Cook. My uncle and I spent a whole week sorting out the basement, and then the attic of the house. We had to take out all this unnecessary junk and dispose of it all. Several times I was left to look after my cousin’s children, aged 5 and 6, who destroyed everything in their path. It was just a disaster. We assembled and disassembled a children’s railway. We launched a locomotive and carriages on a toy children’s railway. We assembled and disassembled a Leggo construction set. We played with a children’s ball, knocked down children’s skittles with the same ball. I still had to manage to heat up or cook food for the children and put them to bed. It was rare that I managed to go out into Frankfurt itself and enjoy the city landscapes.
My morning thoughts ultimately led to nothing. It was still early, about 08:00 in the morning, and we went to bed at 03:00 at night. And this Gordeev knot was already impossible to untangle or untie. AKA-47. “What are you worrying about?” “Don’t worry.” In the end, I returned to our bedroom. I climbed under the blanket. I hugged Lena tightly and, warmed by the woman’s warmth, relaxed and fell asleep sweetly in the arms of my beloved woman.
It was already about 12:00 noon. Lena woke up much earlier than me and did not wake me. I quickly got ready. Washed up. We had breakfast. Drank coffee. I grabbed a few apples and an orange so that the train ride wouldn’t be so sad and we went to the Karls-Ruhe station. We bought two tickets to Frankfurt. There were various shops on the first floor of the station, Western Union, a branch of the American bank of the USA, a cell phone shop, etc. Lena left me for a while to buy wireless headphones for her phone and do some ATM transactions.
It felt like someone had turned on fast-forward video footage. The train arrived, people got out, and our train was already standing on the next platform, which quickly rushed forward in 15 minutes. Nothing special happened anymore. We quickly found our seats on the train and I was deeply immersed in my thoughts. I needed a plan of action.
Lena obviously noticed this, the growing tension in me and asked: “What am I thinking about?”
I told her my plan of action. We are arriving in Frankfurt and I will need to stop by my relatives. Resolve contradictions and accumulated problems, that it would be better if she waited for me at the bar “Zur Schoenen Mullerin”, where my friend David, with whom we were in the nightclub “Adlib club”, was working as a bartender that day. You already know David. A cheerful curly-haired guy with whom we were all sitting together at a table.
Lena, my plan of action seemed very complicated. Contradictory. Yes, she was right, without a doubt, that it would be better after we arrived in Frankfurt to immediately stop by the house where I lived on the way. To resolve all the issues, and only then go to the bar “Zur Schoenen Mullerin”, where we were supposed to meet Vanessa and her boyfriend Stefan. At that moment, I thought that Murphy wrote the book “Catastrophe Theory” for a reason. Everything fits together. The catastrophe is approaching!
After some time…
So we arrived in Frankfurt and had already left the station. Several taxis were standing on the side of the road opposite the Frankfurt station. We got into the first taxi that was closest to us and was free. Goethestrasse and Schillerstraße. I gave the taxi driver the address and our taxi rushed forward into our unknown future.
The brake pads of the taxi creaked terribly and we stopped at the house. It was raining again, and somewhere in the distance lightning was thundering. It was raining cats and dogs. I tried not to think about anything at all. To achieve the utmost and maximum concentration of calm.
I rang the doorbell and Lena and I stood and waited for a while. I could hear the key turning in the lock. The door handle went down and my uncle opened the door. He looked at Lena and me. There was an awkward pause…
Uncle: “What are you doing?”
Uncle: “You have responsibilities in this house”…
Uncle: “When will you grow up?”
Uncle: “Foul language”…
Uncle: “Absolutely irresponsible”…
Uncle: Said a few more colorful words “Foul language”…
All this was said in Russian. I kept silent and waited for my uncle to finish his monotonous dialogue, which consisted of endless insults to everything and everyone.
Footsteps were heard from above. My aunt was coming down the stairs from the second floor, apparently my aunt had already seen through the window how a taxi had pulled up to the house and that I had not arrived alone. The stairs to the second floor were located opposite the front door, 4 or 5 meters to the left. Right next to it in the hallway was an entrance to the kitchen on the right and further down the corridor there was a door to the left into a large living room. My aunt found herself on our side with Lena and lightning flashed in her eyes. My aunt knew how to put my uncle in his place and spoke to him very harshly.
Aunt: “Why are you standing there like an old stump? Let them pass.”
Uncle: “Yes, I am. Why are you always telling me what to do? You should have come down and opened the door for them yourself.”
Aunt: “Oh, go somewhere already. Just don’t stand there. You’ll stand there forever like a pillar.”
Uncle waved his hand. He opened the door and went into the kitchen. Adding everything he thought in an obscene manner.
Aunt turned to Lena and me: “Don’t stand by the door. Come into the living room. You’re probably tired and hungry? I’ll bring you a pie now. Would you like some tea? I made some delicious tea.” At this wonderful moment of family celebration, I introduced and introduced the name of my companion and the woman, Lena. Lena, and this is my wonderful aunt. The atmosphere relaxed a little and the house was filled with happiness.
My aunt and Lena talked about something in German for a few minutes, and then we went into a more comfortable and spacious room - the living room. The living room was more like a large dining room for German workers. In the center of the living room there was a huge oval-shaped oak table, which could easily accommodate 12 people. In the center of the oak table there was a huge copper candlestick for 5 candles. The oak table was burnt in several places, since the burning candles fell from the candlestick onto the table a couple of times or my uncle forgot to put out one of his cigars, which he lit in the evenings. It was at night. I had just arrived from Russia to Germany and it was my first week of stay. On the second floor I smelled smoke. I opened the door to my room. The smell of smoke was stronger. I went down to the first floor and saw that the tablecloth was burning and smoke was coming out. I quickly opened the window, collected the burning tablecloth from the table along with a huge copper candlestick and threw the whole thing out the window. The tablecloth was completely burnt, and on the oak table closer to the center there was a huge dark spot.
In the dining room there were two sideboards, which were completely filled with dishes. Different sets of dishes for 5 or more people. All this dishes were unnecessary, since no one had used them for a long time. It was clear that a large family had once lived here. My aunt and uncle had three children, who had long since grown up and moved away in different directions. Sometimes their youngest son or eldest son, my cousins, would visit my aunt and uncle. They left their young children, which really irritated my uncle, but he had to sit with them and fuss over the grandchildren.
The living room was large and spacious, there was a large black leather sofa by the wall. I sat down at the table, and Lena sat down on the edge of the sofa. At that moment we looked at each other and exchanged loving glances. Everything was fine, I thought, but I couldn’t relax.
The door creaked and my aunt came in, bringing with her a large porcelain teapot, which was completely filled with hot tea. My aunt put the porcelain teapot on the table and called me into the kitchen to help her. With one hand I carried a meat pie on a tray, and in the other hand forks, spoons, knives and napkins. My aunt beautifully cut the fruit: apples, pears, oranges and put it all in a special fruit rack, which had three tiers. It all looked beautiful, tasteful and professional.
My aunt had worked in the restaurant and catering system of Germany all her life. She was a professional in this and in a couple of minutes she had everything set out. She twisted the napkins. She laid out the cloth napkins that are on the table in restaurants and are called “Muleton”. Our table had been transformed and all that was missing was an aperitif.
An uncle came into the living room, quite cheerful, and in his hands he had an open bottle of German port wine, and his face was filled with red shades. The old vessels gave away that the uncle had consumed alohol. The uncle drank only port wine and collected some varieties of different years. The uncle was a real German worker. A man from the old world and the old school. He always filled a glass or goblet to the brim and drank it all to the last drop without any hesitation.
The aunt came up to the uncle and took the open bottle of port wine from him so that the uncle would remain cheerful, sober and not fall asleep at the table. The uncle began to swear in German. I heard the word “devil”, which sounded in German like “Teufel”, “Der Teufel”. At that moment I laughed involuntarily and thought that all this reminded me of a family of some alcoholics and marginals, on the other hand, this whole colorful family picture only improved my mood with each passing second. At that moment I became kinder and thought that it was good. I would stay to live with my wonderful old people. After all, they were sweet and kind old people. People of advanced age, who were already over 60 years old. In August and September I would live here and watch the house so that it would not burn down. I would continue to help my uncle at the trading platform. The path of Jesus Christ. The true path of faith. I felt Lena’s warm gaze on me, which was filled with happiness. I looked at my beloved woman and completely melted like ice cream. We were both calm and confident. Everything was going according to plan.
We were all already sitting at the table. I took the teapot and poured tea into our teacups. Uncle pushed the tea aside and said: “That he won’t drink tea” and asked me to pour him some port, which I did. I opened the white table wine and poured it into glasses to observe our tea ceremony. Everyone had everything poured: tea, port, and wine. Everyone was happy. No one was offended!
Uncle raised the glass of port and addressed me in Russian. A malicious and sarcastic smile appeared on his face. Uncle loved to vulgarize everything and show off his genius to those around him. How smart and knowledgeable he was.
Uncle: “Have you already crawled under her skirt…aaa…?”
I looked away to avoid a conflict situation and pretended that I had not heard anything. Of course, I wanted to answer: “What the hell business is it of yours?”, but I kept quiet so as not to get into a verbal altercation, which was out of place.
Aunt: “She tilted her head to the side a little. Don’t listen to him. This old fool.”
Uncle was already in a state of condition. A few more glasses of port and he’ll go to bed, which was undoubtedly pleasing!
Uncle switched over after a while and continued in his spirit of exhortations. Snotty German youth are not capable of anything. Only drug addicts, alcoholics and LGBT. Nobody wants to work. A story about old times began. In the old days… Uncle showed his huge German worker-peasant fist and clenched it slightly. You must definitely serve in the German Bundeswehr if you are a real man. We talked for a while, and then stopped this useless and meaningless argument.
After some time, the aunt and uncle switched to Lena and it was mostly German speech. Perhaps it was similar to the interrogation as it happened in the GESTAPO of Germany in 1930-1945. It was clear that they were asking her the most ordinary questions, where she was born, where she studied, where she lived, who her parents were, where they worked, I understood some words in German and I was definitely uncomfortable in front of Lena. An uncomfortable moment. Lena answered all the questions and asked her own, which were related to me, since I heard my name, so as not to interfere with the family idyll, I went up to the second floor for a while.
The second floor consisted of three rooms. Two bedrooms and a nursery. The large bedroom was behind the aunt and uncle. I settled in the small bedroom, which used to be a nursery. I entered my room. I opened a large black suitcase, which contained my clothes. I changed my clothes, put something away. I took it out. I closed the suitcase and put it under the table.
After some time I went down to the first floor and entered the living room. Auntie brought a family album, Lena and Auntie were sitting on a black old sofa and looking at the album with old photographs. There were several photographs with my image from my happy childhood. Lena sometimes turned her gaze to me, and then to Auntie and these funny old photographs. Madhouse, I thought, where do I live? At some point Uncle called me and we went to the kitchen. Uncle took several Cuban cigars out of the box. The kitchen was filled with tobacco smoke from the cigars and we decided to go outside to freshen up a little. Smoking was not allowed in the house, since Auntie had mild asthma. Where did you meet her, Uncle continued? Nice girl. She will be a good wife. Marry her and you will be happy, Uncle laughed and patted me on the shoulder. We sat on the porch and started laughing.
All this looked more like some kind of another mockery from my uncle. The old man was very spiteful, and sometimes poisonous and toxic.
Uncle continued… And she is not from a poor family, no, I tell you for sure. Bavaria. Bavarian merchants. It’s surprising that she even came here with you to our hole, apparently, you charmed her with something? Or surprised her? Do you understand that you are not worthy of her? She is from there above, and we from here below look at them, where the big money is, there can be hidden big problems and troubles. Absolutely incapable infantile youth do not want to think about anything, that’s how we lived in the old days…
Uncle, how did you live, what was fundamentally different, I asked again? And what do the old days have to do with it anyway? David and I went to a nightclub. I met her completely by chance, there was such a situation that I thought that she lived somewhere here in Frankfurt, but in the end we arrived at the station and went to another city…
At that moment, Uncle interrupted me… Now, what? You take drugs and, most importantly, no one wants to work. Where is this world heading? You walk around some dens at night… Nephew, you will get into a bad situation someday. Life will teach you quickly.
At that moment, I thought that I had enough of listening to all this senile delirium, consisting of speculation, advice and some ridiculous assumptions that formed in Uncle’s thoughts more from the amount of port he drank. He put out his cigar on the porch and went back into the house. I returned back to the living room and looked at the clock. It was already 11:00 p.m. I sat down at the table and poured the remaining white wine into our large glasses. I stood up from the table. Dear women. I nodded. Dear women. Auntie. Lena. Let’s drink to our wonderful meeting. To you, Auntie, that you are always healthy and never get sick. Lena, I put my hand on my heart and to you, my dear woman. To the most beautiful girl in this world. To our meeting. To our dear women, I continued! We clinked our large glasses and sipped some white wine. Auntie practically repeated my entire toast word for word in German so that Lena could hear the main meaning of my words. After a while, we raised our glasses again and the magical clink of glass was heard.
Then Uncle returned back to the living room. I thought that at this time, under the influence of port wine, he was usually already asleep, but my uncle decided to drain the bottle of port wine to the end and poured the rest into his glass. He drank and continued, but already on a political topic, some obscene, untranslatable vocabulary… The German government is strangling us with taxes and has completely robbed us, leaving us with a small pension, which is hard to live on. We talked about the fact that Germany used to have a German mark. “Iron German mark”, which was one of the main competitors of the dollar. The American government pulled off the scam of the century, participating in the creation of the European Union (EU), in which all the main expenses and concerns of the EU hang on the necks of Germany and France.
The European Union came into being in 1992 and automatically the “French franc” and “iron German mark” were knocked out of the world currency arena by the dollar. The national currencies of Germany and France, the mark and the franc, were stronger and more robust than the euro and had higher volatility and purchasing power in commodity and monetary terms. They were more elastic currencies, under which the French and German economies grew and developed more dynamically. GDP growth in the 1990s was up to 3-4-5 percent per year.
There was such a name “German economic miracle machine”, under which there was a rapid growth of the German economy. Heavy, medium and large German industry grew at a rapid pace. The economies of Germany and France developed more dynamically and grew faster before the 1990s.
Therefore, the Americans put a pig on France and Germany in the form of the European Union. The EU economy, which is developing less dynamically or there is no economic growth or there is a modest urban GDP growth from 0 to 2 percent of GDP, and the EU economy can also show negative growth in the minus 1-2 percent. With high inflation, the European Union is slowly and surely falling apart and, if nothing changes, the EU will fall apart according to economists’ estimates before 2040 due to huge internal and external debts and economic problems that are shaking the EU. Perhaps it will happen earlier if nothing changes.
After some time, I took a sip from my cup of cool tea and looked at Lena. It was obvious that she was tired and I was a little tired from all these endless conversations. I caught a pause and told my aunt that it was already late and we would go to bed, as we were very tired. Until tomorrow, everyone. We left the living room and went up to the second floor with Lena.
I fell onto the double bed, and Lena lay down next to me. I asked her: “How is she feeling? Her impressions?”
Lena answered that everything was fine and she liked being my guest. Her aunt and uncle seemed very nice and good people to her. I thought that the first impression can be deceiving. Yes, it all probably looked very decent and presentable, especially when you don’t understand what they are talking about in Russian…
Yes, Lena, you are absolutely right. Very kind and sweet old people. I love them very much. Everything worked out in the best possible way, just as I wanted.
Our plans changed a little and we moved our meeting with friends to tomorrow, since both Vanessa and Stefan will arrive in Frankfurt tomorrow and we agreed to meet them at the same place where David worked as a bartender “Zur Schoenen Mullerin”.
That was the end of this amazing evening of meeting my dear relatives. We were tired, no doubt. We undressed and went to bed. We fell asleep almost immediately.
- ADLIB CLUB Adlib Frankfurt am Main - FIRST IMPRESSION
2.Frankfurt am Main Station Русские в Германии. ЖД вокзал Франкфурта-на-Майне