Last Stop Vienna_A Novel by Andrew Nagorski

Author:Andrew Nagorski [Nagorski, Andrew]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, General, Historical, War & Military
ISBN: 9780743238335
Google: dPR8FVDMQgkC
Amazon: 0743237501
Goodreads: 18114636
Publisher: Simon Schuster
Published: 2002-12-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

The ceremony was simple. Of necessity. It wasn’t just the fact that we had so little money. Sabine would have liked a church wedding, and she would have somehow scraped together enough to pay for it if that had been a possibility. But no priest would marry a Catholic and a Protestant. And she knew that there was no chance I’d convert to Catholicism. I’ve never had much use for any religion, and I wasn’t about to pretend for the sake of a wedding. So we had a plain civil ceremony officiated by a squat, dour bureaucrat with thick glasses that kept fogging over. Although it was a cool autumn day and the room wasn’t overheated, he kept wiping sweat from his narrow brow and flaccid cheeks as he took care of the formalities. He dabbed at the drops of sweat that plunked down on his papers with the same wet handkerchief, only smearing the ink further. I could see the disappointment on Sabine’s face at first, but then our eyes met, and she put her hand up to her mouth to suppress an attack of the giggles.

The official stopped in midsentence. “If the fräulein cannot control herself, no wedding will take place,” he intoned solemnly, leaving no doubt that Sabine had offended the dignity of his office.

I stared straight ahead, afraid to look in her direction. I could hear her trying to stifle more laughter and coughing to disguise it. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I really am.”

I heard Uwe behind me, coughing through his laughter as well.

“Maybe everyone here is too sick for these proceedings,” the official added. “Perhaps all of you would be better off recuperating at home.”

I bit my lower lip, and somehow Sabine pulled herself together. Uwe fell silent.

“Well, then, let’s see if we can proceed.”

We barely managed to get through the rest of the ceremony. When it came to the exchange of rings, I was so nervous that I extended my left hand to Sabine instead of my right. She tried to slip the ring on my finger, but it got stuck halfway; evidently the ring finger on my left hand was thicker than on my right, but I still had no idea why she couldn’t get it on. I could see she was trying to suppress a new burst of giggles, and I desperately jammed the ring on myself. Later it would take a lot of painful pulling, with the help of soap, to get it off. By the time the ceremony was over and Uwe and Petra had signed as official witnesses, I was sweating as profusely as the bureaucrat. He brusquely took his documents and left.

“Haven’t you forgotten something, Karl?” Uwe asked.

“What?” I asked, and then blushed. Sheepishly, I kissed Sabine.

Uwe shook his head. “I have to remind that boy of everything.”

“You’d better keep reminding him,” Petra added with a strained smile.

Sabine looked as close to radiant as I could remember. Certainly much happier than since she got out of the hospital.

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