Berliners by Vesper Stamper

Author:Vesper Stamper [Stamper, Vesper]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2022-10-25T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

—

Rudi sat at the kitchen table that evening with his Russian textbook, taking notes. What did it matter if he wouldn’t be studying it anymore? He liked the language, and he never knew when it would come in handy.

Rudolf came home with a bag of groceries. “Look what I got—actual milk!” Rudolf said, taking the bottle out of the bag and waving it in the air. “No more powdered for us. Oh, and I picked up the paperwork for your new Hauptschule. It’s a really nice place. I think you’ll get a much better education there than at your polytechnic school.”

He slid the papers toward Rudi, but Rudi refused to answer. He kept taking his notes, pressing the pencil harder into the paper.

“What’s the problem?”

“Nothing. Thanks for the milk. That’s great—we can have real milk. Hooray for us.”

“Oh, come on, Rudi.”

“Everything was fine back home. I was fine.”

“Yes, Rudi. But you weren’t free.”

“Am I so free here, having to start my life from scratch?”

“You think it’s over, Rudi, but it’s just different.”

“It’s all your fault,” Rudi hissed. “You stole my future.”

“What future?” Rudolf shouted. “You think the future was yours?”

A brutal moment of silence passed between them. Rudolf took a sip of his coffee, and Rudi felt his father’s eyes on him. Even if it was an argument, it was strange to have his attention, to have no one else in the house competing for his energy. This might have been the most they’d talked in months.

“Listen, son,” Rudolf said, all business, “I’m sorry to bring this up, but you’re going to need to get a job as soon as possible. I can support us, but there’s no extra, not yet. If you need clothes or books or money for the movies or anything, that’s on you. I’m sorry.”

Rudolf put the rest of the food away, took an apple to the living room and played a slow piece from Bach’s Goldberg Variations. Rudi took a deep breath. As his father played, in spite of his anger, the tight-corded rope in Rudi’s throat slackened. He picked up the school paperwork and began to fill it out.

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