

### Taxi - Threats

By

Sophia DeLuna

SMASHWORDS EDITION

*****

PUBLISHED BY:

Sophia DeLuna at Smashwords, Inc, Los Gatos

www.smashwords.com

Taxi - Threats

Copyright © 2017 by Sophia DeLuna

Cover design

Copyright © 2017 by Sophia DeLuna

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

*****

Thank you to my wonderful beta-reader and friend extraordinaire, Patti.

Thank you to my much valued proof-reader and friend, Lee.

### Taxi - Threats

Ulrike put the receiver on the cradle, and furrowed her brows. Yet again, Else had ended the call after a curt reply, and Ulrike felt increasingly worried about her mother. It almost seemed as if she was avoiding her. She used to be such a pest, calling her about the most trivial issues, but since Ulrike had fetched her and Rosemarie from the airport last month, she hadn't even called her once; and whenever Ulrike called her, she seemed terse and in a hurry. She hadn't come to the inauguration party of Norbert's business, and she hadn't even showed up during the move, claiming that she wasn't feeling well. However, when Ulrike had wanted to check in on her just before they got Nobbi's things from her cellar compartment, Else had not been at home, and neither had Rosemarie. At the time Ulrike had been puzzled, but occupied with Norbert's move, she hadn't spent much time thinking about it. Now that she had more time and her mother kept acting strangely, Ulrike was beginning to seriously wonder what had caused it. Alas, whenever she asked her what was wrong, Else just said, "Nothing," and ended the call with some brusquely uttered excuse.

Shaking her head, she decided to call Norbert to see if he could shed any light on their mother's unsettling behaviour.

"Hey Nobbi, how's things?"

" _Why? What did I do this time?_ "

Raising her eyebrows in surprise, Ulrike said, "Uh, nothing. It was just a question. Why are you so tetchy? Is something the matter?"

Norbert groaned and explained, " _I thought Oma Hertha might have ordered you to call me_."

Ulrike's eyebrows rose even higher up. "Why would she do that?"

Norbert groaned yet again and elaborated.

Frau Schubert, his secretary, was ruling his small business with an iron fist. If he didn't show up at her door by nine in the morning, she'd call him until he finally woke up and took the call; and she wouldn't leave him alone until he arrived at her place.

The other day he had been so tired from working on a programme for a customer until late into the night that he had unplugged his phone, trying to prevent Frau Schubert from waking him. He had not taken into account though that by sealing a deal with Oma Hertha, he had also surrendered control over the success of his new business to Oma. And Oma was a force to be reckoned with! He had been less than pleased to discover that unplugging the phone would not help him when the next morning he was roused from sleep by the persistent ringing of the doorbell and he opened the door, still in pyjamas, to Oma Hertha.

After a lengthy discussion, in which Oma praised him for his diligence but also scolded him for forgetting that he had an appointment, they had found a compromise that would hopefully work better for Norbert in the future. Frau Schubert wouldn't make appointments before ten in the morning, and he would check his schedule in the evening and only work into the night if there was no early appointment. In that case, Frau Schubert would refrain from waking him before eleven, but that was the latest Oma Hertha would agree to, as she thought that messing around too much with his sleeping habits would be detrimental not only to his business but also to his health, and she wouldn't budge on that.

Ending his tirade, Norbert said, " _I tell you, the woman is merciless!_ "

Ulrike chuckled. "Yep, she is." In her opinion Oma Hertha was a genius, and she was more than relieved that she no longer had to worry about her brother – he was in good hands! "I take it she's using her vast contacts to provide you with customers too, huh?"

" _Yeah, well_ ," said Norbert, " _The woman should have been a saleswoman._ "

Chuckling, Ulrike agreed, "He he, yes, I guess she has a way of convincing people."

Norbert snorted, and said, " _She could sell a fridge to an Eskimo!_ " and he elaborated, " _She's now drummed up a group of five retired women who want to do a cookbook together. She wants me to buy and install a computer for each of them and teach them how to use it._ "

"That's awesome!" exclaimed Ulrike.

" _I don't know_."

"Why? I thought you love doing that."

" _I do. But it's ridiculous. They don't need to have a computer each. Three of them don't even know how to use a typewriter. In my opinion it would be a lot cheaper if they paid a student to type the stuff for them. If they really want to do it themselves, it would be more than enough for one of them to get a computer and to type up all the recipes. But Oma says I'm a bad businessman. Frau Schubert has told her how fascinated she is with the computer, and how easy it was to learn using it, and now Oma thinks everyone should have a computer."_

"Did Oma get one too?"

" _Not yet. But she said she'll get one as soon as she has an idea for what she could use it. She's now trying to organise a room to set up a little computer school, and she said she'd be the first student to subscribe._ "

Ulrike laughed. The woman had guts. The way she was embracing all this new technology, and at her high age at that, was impressive. Ulrike herself had never seen any reason for changing her old habits, even though Norbert had mentioned several times that her bookkeeping would be a lot easier with a computer. Remembering her initial reason for calling her brother, she asked, "Tell me, have you talked with Mutti lately?"

Hesitating for a moment, Norbert replied, " _No, I think the last time we talked was before I moved. Why? What's the matter?_ "

"She hasn't even visited you at your new flat yet?" asked Ulrike, seriously surprised.

" _Nope. She may have tried though. I don't know. I've been pretty busy the past few weeks, and I'm not at home as often as I used to be._ "

"Hm, granted, I've been pretty busy too; but I did call her a few times and she never seems to want to talk much at all. She says she's okay, but don't you think it's odd that she hasn't even visited you yet? I mean, this is Mutti I'm talking about. You'd think, now that you're living so close, she'd be pestering you several times a week."

" _Uh, yeah. I'm glad she doesn't._ "

"I bet you are, and I can't say I miss having her constantly nagging me either. Nevertheless, I'm beginning to worry about her."

" _I don't know. I wouldn't worry about her. Perhaps she's just having trouble with Rosemarie and doesn't want to talk about it._ "

"Hm, I guess I could call Rosemarie and hear what she says."

" _Why be so nosy? Why not just leave them alone for a while?_ "

"Mutti wouldn't think twice about nagging us if she thought something was wrong."

" _And you just love that about her, yes_?"

Halting for a moment, Ulrike admitted, "No."

" _If she wants to talk to you, she'll call you, and she'll tell you more about it than you ever wanted to know. Enjoy the nag-free time as long as it lasts. I certainly will._ "

"Maybe you're right. It's Rosemarie's birthday soon. I'll call her then anyway."

#

Meanwhile, Else was torturing a ball of yeast dough, cursing Carmen's family.

Bloody Bauers! They were taking over her family. Who did they think they were? The holy Samaritans? Just because they were rolling in money, didn't give them the right to take her children away from her. They were **her** children, goddammit! But now all Ulrike and Norbert could talk about was the darned Bauers - Carmen's Oma did this; Carmen's father did that, blah blah blah.

For once, she had treated herself to a little vacation to get a bit of peace and quiet and get away from the dreadful winter weather, and then suddenly when she got home she found her whole world had been turned upside down. The Bauers had taken charge of her family; her son was now an independent entrepreneur, obviously too busy to remember his poor old mother; and her daughter was constantly raving about how brilliant Carmen's Oma was. Damn them all!

#

Without the usual smile on her face, Carmen strode through the halls of the school, heading for the teachers' room. She had just survived a Spanish lesson with the 9B, and she was looking forward to an hour of free time in which she could calm her nerves before she had to teach in 10A.

"Frau Bauer? Have you got a minute?"

Forcing herself to smile, Carmen turned around and said, "Yes, Tanja. What's the matter?"

"I just thought you might be interested to hear the news," said Tanja, grinning.

"What news?"

"Roger's father has thrown Roger out because he stole money from him. My father thinks he did it to buy drugs."

"Gosh, that's terrible," said Carmen, clearly not understanding why the girl was grinning at this.

"Yeah, well, Roger is an asshole," said Tanja, "But I think it's great that his father finally sees this too."

"Perhaps. But I don't think that being thrown out will get him back on the right track."

Tanja shrugged, "Nah, surely not. Roger's a hopeless case. He won't change."

Carmen sighed. "I wish he would. The world really doesn't need any more troublemakers."

Later, in the teachers' room, Carmen listlessly nibbled on a carrot stick, her thoughts occupied with the disruptive behaviour of the worst troublemakers in 9B. She hoped for them that they would not go down the path Roger purportedly had gone.

She knew, many of her colleagues had developed a hatred for these kids because of their behaviour, but she just couldn't. She hated their behaviour and the fact that the few diligent pupils suffered from it, but knowing their various backgrounds, she could empathise with them.

She had tried to engage their attention by incorporating their private interests into the lessons, but that had only resulted in them making fun of her ignorance about the subjects. And when she told them to teach her about it, so she could brush up her knowledge, Matthias had remarked, "Oh, but we're not here to teach you. You're supposed to teach us. If you don't know how to do that, perhaps you should change your profession," causing the rest of the class to break out into laughter. It got even worse when she blushed despite rationally knowing that there was no reason to be embarrassed and that he was just provoking her for the fun of it, blurting out what he learnt at home, namely, if they failed it was never their fault, it was always because the state or the boss or the teacher was incompetent.

"Hey there," Susanne roused Carmen from her musings, "Gosh, you look exhausted. Let me guess – 9B."

Sighing, Carmen nodded while Susanne sat down opposite her.

"You know I admire your patience, I really do," said Susanne as she opened her lunch box, "But you are neither helping these kids, nor us with your lenient attitude; and as it seems it's not making your life any easier either."

They'd had this conversation before, and although Carmen could see her colleagues' point, she was still reluctant to change her teaching methods.

"I know you don't want to hear this," said Susanne, "But Matthias and his buddies would have been expelled already if you and Herr Fröhlich would back us. I know you feel for them and you think you can help them, but so far it hasn't changed their behaviour for the better at all. Instead it has got increasingly worse, and they are dragging down their classmates as well. I just talked to Swetlana the other day, and I found out that the reason why she's become so quiet is because she is afraid of being laughed at by Matthias and his cronies because of her accent."

"Gosh, I didn't know that," said Carmen, visibly upset. Swetlana wasn't in her Spanish class as she was one of the few who had chosen another subject as their elective, but she knew her from back when she had the class in English. She remembered that she had been quite impressed with the girl. Her family had only moved from Russia to Germany a few years ago, and Swetlana's knowledge of German had been very rudimentary. However, the girl was extremely diligent, and she had managed to catch up so quickly that after only half a year she was able to follow all subjects in German. By the end of the school year, she'd received good enough marks to move up to the next level. Carmen was shocked to learn that the ambitious girl was now bullied into silence. She knew the feeling all too well.

Back in San Martín where she grew up, she was teased by neighbourhood kids because they were Germans, and her classmates bullied her because she couldn't speak Spanish properly but was switching between German, Italian and Rioplatense. Carmen's best friend and next door neighbour, Felicia, was Italian, and Carmen had learnt to speak the language fluently because Felicia and her parents didn't speak Rioplatense. Her own mother and most of her family switched between Belgranodeutsch and Rioplatense, and her father spoke High German with a Berlin accent.

When they came to Berlin, she was bullied because her Belgranodeutsch was considered 'weird', and she occasionally switched to Rioplatense. To compound matters, she often could not understand everyday people, because they were talking with a strong Berlin dialect. Her teachers were the rare exception, but even though she could understand their High German, it didn't make going to school any more appealing to her. Not only were they chastising her verbally for her bad accent, but also many of them still used corporal punishment even for minor misdemeanours, and on top of it their lessons were excruciatingly boring.

Nevertheless, despite her own bad experiences with bullying, she still didn't like the idea of becoming one of those teachers she had hated so much when she was a kid. She had wanted to become a teacher to make a difference. She wanted to show the children and the teachers that learning and teaching could be fun. She wanted to prove that as a teacher you could build a relationship of trust and respect with the pupils without sternness and punishment but rather by encouraging them and piquing their curiosity in a way that made them love going to school.

"You know," said Carmen, "When you look at their marks, Matthias and his buddies will have to repeat the class anyway. Perhaps, you can encourage Swetlana by telling her that she won't have to put up with them for much longer."

"She shouldn't have to put up with them for another single day," said Susanne, clearly annoyed with Carmen.

Lowering her gaze Carmen agreed mumbling, "No, she shouldn't."

#

Having just dropped off a customer at his desired destination, Ulrike looked at the clock. It was almost noon, and she was not too far away from Marianne's Currybude. _Nice_ , she thought, and headed for her favourite _Imbiss_. She hadn't been there in quite a while and she hadn't seen Kalle in over a week either; if she was lucky, he'd have lunch at Marianne's too.

The past seven days had been crazy busy for Ulrike. Markus Kühn, the photographer, had been to Berlin for a week. He had sent her a list of some of the places he wanted to visit beforehand, as well as a few notes as to what else he would be interested in, and he had offered her rather a nice deal for organising a schedule and driving him to the locations. Thus, she had spent most of the week driving him around; and although they had met with Carmen for dinner on several occasions, she was looking forward to a nice relaxing weekend with just the two of them, where they would hopefully have a bit more time for each other.

Once more, Carmen had been amazed at how Ulrike managed to build connections with people she had only met by chance on a holiday. For Ulrike this wasn't really such a special thing. Nonetheless, she was enormously pleased when Carmen compared her to Oma Hertha's mysterious ways of knowing everybody and their dog.

Ulrike adored Carmen's Oma ever since she had got to know her. That she had even managed to get Nobbi out of his mess was nothing short of a miracle to her, and her Christmas present was finally starting to be great fun too. Granted, Ulrike had cheated a little by taking extra private lessons with the dancing teacher, and she had watched the final dance scene in the movie countless times, wrecking her VCR in the process. But all this extra training had helped her tremendously. She no longer felt like a klutz compared to Carmen, and she was looking forward to their last dance lesson on Sunday, in which every pair would show off what they had learnt in a final performance. She was confident that she would now manage the famous last dance without a blunder.

The last time, Carmen had been quite impressed that Ulrike could lift her. At first she, and the teachers, had been reluctant to even let her try. But Ulrike was having none of it. If she was going through all this effort, she wanted to do the whole performance including the lift. That lift was the most important part in Ulrike's opinion, and for her it wasn't even the most demanding part; moving at least halfway as gracefully as Swayze had been the far bigger challenge.

She was very pleased when she discovered that she had been right in her self-evaluation. When they had practised the lift with six fellow male dance students as spotters, it had turned out that it was far more difficult for Carmen to keep her balance than it was for her to lift Carmen. Of course it did help a lot that Carmen had lost a few kilos, and that she had phenomenal jumping power. Though how she could manage to run and jump in pumps was still beyond Ulrike. Now, lowering her down was a whole other matter – her arms and shoulders had been sore for almost a week after the practising.

Suddenly a taxi behind her flashed it's lights. Recognising Kalle, Ulrike grinned and waved to let him know she had seen him. _Mmh, what a nice day_ , she thought. Finally she could catch up with her friends.

#

Entering Renato's hair salon, Else stopped in her tracks when she spotted her son on one of the hairdresser's chairs to the right. He was obviously having an argument with an old woman, who, as Else deducted quickly, had to be Carmen's Oma.

"Don't get your knickers in a twist, lad. I'm not saying he should shave it all off. We'll just tame that wild look of yours a little. It doesn't suit you. It makes you look like a stoned hippie who's just stepped out of the 70s rather than a respectable entrepreneur in the IT business."

Else was about to quietly turn around and leave when Luisa greeted her from the counter, " _Guten Tag,_ Frau Hoffmann; punctual as always. Have a seat. I'll be right with you."

Reluctantly, Else returned the greeting, and resigning herself to her fate, she turned towards Norbert who had swivelled around in his chair.

" _Hallo Mutti_ ," said Norbert, surprised and obviously grateful for getting an excuse to postpone the inevitable.

" _Hallo_ ," replied Else, unable to sound cheerful, displeasure clearly written on her face.

"Well, I never!" exclaimed Hertha. "You're Norbert's mother?" She went over to shake Else's hand. "We've met here before. My name is Bauer, Hertha Bauer. I'm Carmen's Oma."

"I gathered," said Else dryly. "I'm Else Hoffmann." Yes, she'd had the displeasure of sitting next to Frau Bauer, trying to tune out her constant chatting while they were getting their perms. Good grief, the impudent woman could talk like there was no tomorrow with her rude Berlin dialect! And this was supposed to be the magnificent woman her children kept raving about? She couldn't believe it.

"You know," said Hertha, "I really must thank you, Frau Hoffmann."

Else looked puzzled and asked, "Whatever for?"

"Frau Hoffmann, if it's all right with you, we can start now," said Luisa, gesturing to a free hairdresser's chair on the left side of the room.

"Go ahead," said Hertha. "I'll join you in a moment." And she strode back to Norbert and Renato, ordering, "Now, what are you waiting for? Get on with it. The boy has an important appointment in an hour."

" _Jawoll_ , Frau Bauer," joked Renato, while Norbert quickly swivelled back to face the mirror, not daring to start another argument.

Grabbing a chair from the waiting area, Hertha placed it next to Else and sat down. "Now, where was I? Ah, right, I wanted to thank you. You know, many parents would be indignant if someone was intervening so much with their family."

"You don't say," said Else deadpan.

"Oh yes," said Hertha gravely, while Luisa began to wash Else's hair. Raising her voice to make sure Else heard her, Hertha continued, "But you are different of course. Your son told me that you've always wanted to become a teacher, and I find that truly admirable. It's a shame that you never got the chance to fulfil that dream of yours. Really, too many talents have been wasted because of the war."

"Because of the war?" asked Else.

"Yes, didn't your father fall in the war?"

"Uh, yes," admitted Else. God, what other personal details about her had her children divulged to this woman? She had to concede Hertha's point though. Had her father not died in the war, she would have been able to continue school, and she certainly wouldn't have married the first halfway decent man as soon as her mother remarried. She had not been in love with him, although he did look handsome, but he was an honest man, and she just wanted so badly to go to Berlin and further her education to become a teacher. It didn't matter to her that her husband was only an ordinary man, who had never learnt a profession because he had been drafted right after leaving school, and who had no aspirations to broaden his horizon; a man who had seen so much horror in his young life that he suffered nightmares every night for many years, interrupting her sleep as well with his bloodcurdling cries. All he wanted was to build a family and live a decent and hopefully peaceful life. To her it only mattered that he wanted to go to Berlin, and that he promised not to hinder her aspirations as long as she fulfilled her uxorial duties. It was a pact, and they both abided by it until that freak accident killed him.

"We've all suffered great losses," said Hertha, and although she just continued where she had left off, to Else it seemed as if she had read the thoughts that had flashed through her mind. "There's nothing we can do about that," Hertha continued. "But we can consider ourselves lucky that at least the generation of your children and my grandchildren got the chance to grow up in a time of peace. I am truly grateful for the opportunity to make a difference in my old age by helping your son. I was beginning to feel old, you know. But helping someone to follow their own path and fulfil their dreams is truly rejuvenating. All those new ideas and new projects, stepping out of your comfort zone... it keeps you sharp."

Hertha continued talking while Luisa set Else's perm, not letting Else get a word in edgewise. When Luisa was done and Else got up to go and sit under the hood drier, Hertha shook Else's hand again and said, "Thank you so much, Frau Hoffmann. I need to go now. I see Renato has just finished with Norbert. I hope I'll meet you soon for a more private conversation." And hurrying over to Norbert, she left Else staring at her back, dumbfounded.

"Come on, Frau Hoffmann, we need to get you under the drier," said Luisa as she touched Else's arm, shaking her out of her befuddlement.

Feeling as if she had just been struck by a force of nature, Else followed Luisa to a seat at the driers.

#

After the 10A Spanish lesson, Carmen had two hours of free time. Usually, she could go home, but this was the only time when the school hall was empty and Susanne and her guitar class as well as the crucial pupils from Carmen's dance class were available in order to practise together for the school festival.

Thus, Carmen was making use of those two hours by correcting the tests of the 10A. Gosh, this class was a lifesaver, especially on Fridays. There would always be an interesting conversation or a funny comment that would brighten her mood after it had so severely been crushed by the pupils of 9B. It was as if the pupils of her favourite class knew that she had been struggling with the class from hell, and purposefully tried to cheer her up. Perhaps that was indeed the case, who knew? Carmen liked to imagine that it was. Tanja, for one, had certainly noticed her less than cheerful mood despite her efforts to put on a mask; and Silke's brother was in 9B, so she would know that he had Spanish on Fridays before her.

Carmen smiled as she thought about how Silke had blossomed since she joined the dance class with her bandoneon. The once so quiet girl who had suffered from bullying was now fairly outgoing. She laughed often, and, as far as Carmen could see, she now had a lot of friends.

She wished there was such an easy solution for Swetlana as well. Alas, despite her twenty years as a teacher, she still refused to accept the fact that she couldn't save everybody. There had to be a way to get through to Matthias and his mates to end their disruptive behaviour, and to stop them from bullying Swetlana, without ruining their future by expelling them. However, if she didn't find that elusive way soon, she feared she would have to accept defeat and support her colleagues' wish, and she didn't like that prospect one bit.

Sighing, she shook her head and turned her focus back to correcting the tests.

#

Meanwhile in the school yard, Silke's brother Andreas was accidentally overhearing Matthias ranting about Frau Bauer to his friends. Usually, he tried to avoid Matthias and his gang, but the waste basket had been full and the next closest to him had been the one in the smokers' corner. After throwing away his sandwich paper, he was about to quickly retreat when he heard Matthias say, "She's pathetic, but damn she's hot as fuck. I wouldn't mind screwing her. I bet she's a lot better in bed than she is as a teacher."

Andreas liked Frau Bauer a lot, and despite being afraid of Matthias he couldn't resist defending his favourite teacher, "She's a lesbian you moron. She'd never go to bed with someone like you anyway. She's far too classy."

"Well, well, look at our little nerd getting all protective," jibed Matthias. "Be careful, four-eyes or you'll lose your brownie points. Bauer isn't a lesbian. Lesbians want to be guys. They don't wear skirts and high heels."

"You are so stupid! Lesbians don't want to be guys! They just prefer girls. And I know that Frau Bauer is a lesbian. My sister was at Frau Bauer's place when her girlfriend came home."

The school bell rang, and Andreas quickly headed for the entrance, hoping to reach the classroom before Matthias and his gang caught up to him.

#

In the evening, Ulrike and Carmen were sitting in a nice little restaurant, not too far from Carmen's place. Carmen had been rather quiet all evening, and now that they had finished their meals she was playing with the wine glass in her hand, absentmindedly staring into the red liquid.

"What's going on in that pretty head of yours?" asked Ulrike.

"Hm, oh, nothing. I don't want to bother you with my school problems," replied Carmen.

"It bothers me a lot more if I know something is troubling you, and I don't know what it is," said Ulrike, and reaching over to touch Carmen's hand, she reassured her, "Come on, tell me about it. I don't mind listening to your school problems."

Smiling weakly, Carmen sighed and related what she had experienced at school.

After a while, she ended, "So, now I've told you about my problems. I know you'd probably side with the others and say that I'm too lenient, but I'm asking you to please not rub it in, all right? I'm having a hard enough time as it is."

Emptying her glass of beer, Ulrike hesitated before she looked at Carmen and said gently, "Thank you for telling me about your problems despite thinking that I'm an insensitive bitch."

Carmen wanted to protest, but Ulrike stopped her, "No, no, it's okay. I guess I have a bit of a tendency to be insensitive. I will need to work on that." She winked at Carmen and went on, "However, what I've never been lacking is loyalty. I would never 'side with the others' against you."

"But," Carmen started to argue, however, Ulrike yet again stopped her with a gesture and a shake of her head. "Sure, I'd be lying if I said I completely agree with your view. But, I truly admire you for your patience. I certainly couldn't put up with these little shits for any length of time, and I wouldn't give a damn about their future..." Ulrike paused and noted, "There's that insensitivity again. But I'll never be able to change in that context. I just can't tolerate bullying behaviour. You, on the other hand, you're putting up with all this crap because you care. You care about the future of your pupils, even those that are a major pain in the arse. You're at least trying to give them a chance of a better future, while my methods might stop their behaviour, but only on the surface. They'd stop because they don't dare to misbehave, not because they truly understand that their behaviour is not okay. And while I'm not blaming myself for Roger's downfall, as he already was a sick bastard before that, I can acknowledge that my stunt did not help in getting him back on the right track."

"Well, my methods don't seem to have that effect either," sighed Carmen.

"You've been a teacher for how long? Twenty years?" asked Ulrike, and when Carmen nodded, Ulrike inquired, "Have you ever had to deal with pupils as bad as these before?"

"Occasionally," admitted Carmen, "But never with so many in one class."

"I bet that makes it a lot worse, and a lot more difficult to get through to them."

Carmen nodded, and said, "Yes. When there was just one or two of them, I used to be able to reach them somehow, at least to a degree. And except for one case, they all changed their behaviour eventually, usually once they got to year eleven. But it has been getting worse in recent years, not only in the current 9B."

"It's not just in school either," said Ulrike, "I fear it's a coarsening of society in general. I've noticed it with my customers too. They are getting ruder and more annoying every year."

"Yes, the parents are getting a lot more difficult to deal with too," agreed Carmen.

"I guess there's nothing we can do to change that," said Ulrike. "So, perhaps you should take that into account. Don't see it as a failure of your methods. Your methods may be fine with other kids. But times are different, and kids and parents are too, so perhaps you will have to adjust your methods accordingly."

Carmen pondered Ulrike's words for a while before she replied, "Perhaps you are right. You have certainly given me something to think about."

#

By the time they got home, Carmen was feeling a lot better, and she vowed to put her worries aside for the time being and enjoy the rest of the evening with her partner. The wine had also made her a little tipsy, and as they rode up in the lift she suddenly felt the urge to kiss Ulrike.

Surprised by Carmen's sudden show of affection, Ulrike tilted her head to free her mouth and cautioned, "Uh, maybe you should hold that thought until we are inside your flat?"

Carmen pouted and said, "Don't be such a spoilsport! It's past eight. No one's going to call on me this late."

The lift halted, and Ulrike opened the door and let Carmen pass. It was dark in the hallway, but with the light coming from the lift, Ulrike could tell that no one was waiting at Carmen's door, however it seemed her partner didn't care anyway.

Grabbing Ulrike's wrist, Carmen pulled her forward and purred with a slight slur, "C'mon tiger, reign in your protective instincts... I need your passion elsewhere now."

_Holy smokes!_ thought Ulrike. She hadn't seen Carmen this horny in quite a while, and conceding that it was probably indeed too late for unexpected visitors, she gave in and let Carmen pull her towards her flat.

Finally, switching on the light, Carmen fumbled for her keys in her handbag.

"Come on, _Liebling_ , let me do it," said Ulrike, and she gently pushed Carmen to the side in order to unlock the door.

Unnoticed by them, a dark figure retreated silently down the stairs behind the lift.

#

The following Friday, Carmen headed for the teachers' room. The weekend was ahead, and there was only one more week until the Easter holidays started, but instead of feeling relieved, she was feeling decidedly uncomfortable.

For the second time this week, Matthias had been behaving very strangely. On Wednesday, as well as today, he had not joined his mates in their disruptive behaviour; instead he just sat there quietly, watching her every move with a grin on his face which Carmen could only describe as evil. It unsettled her more than his insolence ever had. At first, she had asked him questions in Spanish, clinging to the slim hope that he may have changed and was ready to participate, but the only responses she got were a grinning, " _No entiendo_ " or " _No sé_ ".

When his weird behaviour continued, she had asked him if something was the matter, but he only replied, "Not yet," which unsettled her even more. She tried to ignore him and proceed with her lessons, however by the end of today's lesson his behaviour was downright creeping her out.

She hoped that Susanne would have time to talk with her. She needed to talk with someone to find out whether this was personal or if Matthias was being a creep with others as well.

#

"Good morning, Frau Hoffmann," two elderly ladies greeted Else as she opened her letterbox.

"Good morning," replied Else.

"Has the postman been here already?" asked one of the ladies.

"Yes, he has, Frau Wilkening." Else smiled and waved with two letters in her hand.

"Well then, let's have a look," said Frau Wilkening, and the other lady asked, "Could we ask you a favour, Frau Hoffmann?"

"Sure, what is it, Frau Van Oyen?"

"Would you be so kind to empty our letterbox while we are gone? We're going to visit a cousin in Cologne for a week."

"Of course, I can do that for you," said Else.

"That's awfully kind of you," said Frau Wilkening, and closing her letterbox, she handed Else her bunch of keys. "I'll give you the whole bunch, just in case there's an emergency. The plants should be fine, we'll water them today, and we'll be back next Sunday."

"All right. Are you going by train?"

"No we'll be flying," said Frau Wilkening.

"For the first time," added Frau Van Oyen shyly.

"Oh, there's no need to be afraid," reassured Else. "It's an amazing way to travel, and so quick! You fasten your seatbelts and before you know it, you're in a different part of the world. It's amazing, I tell you." Suddenly, Else was reminded of Ulrike. She hadn't called in a while, and she hadn't talked to Norbert in ages. Sorrow flicked across her face as the thought crossed her mind that it was probably her fault. She had probably driven them away with all her anger and criticism. Perhaps she should try to reach out to them.

"Are you all right?" asked Frau Van Oyen.

"Huh? Oh, yes, yes, I'm all right," assured Else with a genuine smile. "I was just thinking... you'll need a taxi to get to the airport, won't you?"

"Indeed," said Frau Wilkening. "Your daughter is a taxi driver, isn't she?"

"Yes, she is," said Else. "When do you have to be at the airport? I will ask her if she is free."

#

"Now that you mention it," said Susanne, "Yes, I think Matthias has indeed been fairly quiet this week. I didn't pay much attention to him, mind you. I had enough on my plate keeping his cronies in check. So, I can't say whether he was grinning or not, but I can confirm that he was unusually quiet."

"So it isn't personal," mumbled Carmen, more to herself than to her colleague.

"Huh? You thought his behaviour was personal?"

"I wasn't sure," said Carmen. "He looked evil. As if he had done something horrible, or was planning to."

Pursing her lips, Susanne said, "Not that I couldn't imagine him doing something criminal, but I think you are reading too much into his appearance. I'd say, enjoy his quietness for as long as it lasts. I certainly will."

Carmen would have loved to take Susanne's advice. Alas, she couldn't help a feeling of foreboding creeping up on her.

#

Ulrike had just returned home from work when the phone rang. Only one of her trainers off yet, she hurried over to the sideboard to take the call.

"Mutti!? What's up?"

" _I was wondering if you might be agreeable to drive the Wilkenings to the airport tomorrow morning. They are going to visit their cousin in Cologne_."

Ulrike wondered what her mother was up to, as she was so unusually friendly. Normally, she wouldn't have minded driving her mother's neighbours. She liked the two old ladies who had lived on the fourth floor in the front house for as long as she could remember. When Norbert and she were kids, they had often given them treats. Everybody thought they were sisters, despite one of them actually having the surname Van Oyen. It was presumed that she had simply been married once, so everyone called them the Wilkenings when referring to them. Sometimes, Ulrike had wondered if they were actually a couple and not sisters. In their generation they would probably be far more secretive and keep their privacy far more private than most. Ulrike would have liked to drive them, however she was looking forward to a weekend with Carmen.

"Hm, I guess I could drive them, but I don't normally work on Saturdays. Why don't they just call another taxi?"

" _Well, they could certainly call another taxi. I just thought that since you are a taxi driver, I'd ask whether you'd be interested in driving them. A fare to Tegel airport is good money, no?_ "

"Uh, thanks for thinking of me." Ulrike was baffled. What had got into her mother that she was suddenly being so considerate? Normally, she would have liked this opportunity for a bit of extra cash. However, since she would be spending the night at Carmen's place she would have to drive back to Friedenau to get the Wilkenings, making the opportunity a lot less appealing. Her mother couldn't have known this though, and Ulrike quickly decided to show her appreciation of her mother's consideration by agreeing to the offer. "Okay, when shall I be there?"

" _They have to be at the airport at ten_."

Damn! She'd have loved to sleep in and have a lovely morning in bed with Carmen, and a nice, large, leisurely breakfast afterwards. "All right, then you can tell them I'll be there at half past nine."

" _Splendid. I will let them know_."

"Oh, and by the way," said Ulrike, "Carmen's family is inviting you for Easter Sunday. Carmen wanted to call you about it this weekend, but since we're already on the phone, I guess it's just as well if I tell you."

There was silence on the other end, and Ulrike was about to ask if her mother was still there, when Else finally said, " _Easter Sunday, I'm terribly sorry. I'd love to come, but Rosemarie and I are going on a weekend trip._ "

"Again? You've just been to Mallorca. Where are you going this time?"

Else seemed to hesitate yet again, but then she said, " _I don't know yet. Rosemarie will decide the destination this time. I bought her a gift coupon for a weekend trip. You know, it was her birthday yesterday_."

Yes, Ulrike knew, and she had congratulated the long-term family friend. She had cursed herself for forgetting to ask Rosemarie if she knew what the matter was with her mother, because she seemed to be avoiding her. Now, she was glad that she hadn't asked. Perhaps Norbert had been right with his tactic of not interfering. However, she wondered why Rosemarie hadn't told her anything about their holiday plans. Normally, Rosemarie loved talking about their trips. Well, perhaps her mother had presented the gift after Ulrike's call. Nevertheless, that didn't stop Ulrike from wondering, "Since when are you giving each other gifts again?"

" _Uh, we aren't really_." Else paused before she went on, " _It was just a spur of the moment idea... because... well, I was thinking that so far mostly... well, actually always I chose the destination, and she just went along. I thought for once she should choose_."

Ulrike's eyebrows rose in surprise. Was her mother truly developing a considerate streak? She could hardly believe it. "That's sweet of you. I'm sure she was delighted. It's a weekend trip, you said?"

" _Yes, a prolonged weekend from Good Friday to Easter Monday._ "

"So, you'll be here on Sunday the twenty-fifth?"

" _Why, what's on the twenty-fifth?_ " Else asked, suspicion colouring her voice.

"Carmen's birthday," reminded Ulrike. "She's definitely going to invite you."

" _Uh, that's awfully nice of Carmen_ ," said Else. " _Is she going to celebrate at her place or at yours?_ "

"Neither, there'll be too many people. She wants to celebrate at the Kempinski."

" _Now that's classy!_ " remarked Else. She hesitated shortly, and then asked, " _So all her family will be there too, yes?_ "

"Well, those who are here in Berlin, anyway," clarified Ulrike. "Her cousin is coming in June with her husband. But Frau Krüger, Carmen's neighbour of whom I've told you, will be coming to her birthday too. I think you might like her. Her late husband was a university professor, and they once owned a manor in Kladow and several tenement buildings, including one here in Friedenau. He only sold them before he died, so she wouldn't have to worry about all the paperwork. I'm sure you'll get along well."

Her mother seemed to hesitate again, and Ulrike was beginning to wonder what was wrong; however, just as she was about to inquire, Else asked, " _So this celebration is on the twenty-fifth, yes?_ "

"Yes."

" _Well, I can't think of an...uh a reason why I shouldn't be able to come._ "

"Great, I'll let her know. She'll call you about the specifics once she has booked the tables."

" _All right, and I'll let the Wilkenings know about tomorrow morning. Half past nine_."

"Right. Half past nine. I'll be there."

" _Mist_!" Else cursed as she put the receiver on the cradle. That's what you got for trying to be nice. Now, she had to think of an excuse to cancel the birthday invitation. And she had to hurry to get to the travel agency before they closed. Damn!

#

"Mmh, that was nice," said Carmen as she placed the serviette next to her empty plate.

"Yeah, this new Indian restaurant is certainly getting a place on my list of favourites," said Ulrike as she leant back in her chair.

"Thank you for not minding a change to our plans and bringing in the takeaway," said Carmen. "I really wasn't in the mood to cook today."

"It's my pleasure. How about you go and get comfortable on the sofa while I clear the table?" offered Ulrike.

"Mmh, you are spoiling me. I'll gladly accept."

Getting up, Ulrike stepped behind Carmen, and leaning down she put her arms around her partner and stated gently, "You look like you could use some spoiling."

Carmen closed her eyes as Ulrike placed a kiss on her temple, and she groaned, "Pity, now you've broken the little bubble you've created."

"Huh?"

"Never mind. It wouldn't have lasted much longer anyway, I suppose."

Leaning over to look at Carmen's face, Ulrike said, "I'm not sure I know what you mean."

Carmen sighed. "It's just that you've managed to distract me since you came, but now your comment reminded me why I was feeling unsettled."

"Oh, I see. Are you going to tell me about it?"

Carmen nodded.

"All right, I'll be right with you, I'll just clear the table."

Later, when Carmen had told Ulrike of her worries about Matthias, Ulrike pondered for a while before she said, "So, going by what you've told me about this boy it sounds like he's on his way to becoming a mass murderer or something to that extent."

"I wouldn't go that far," said Carmen.

"Okay, but in any case, while you could have done something regarding his disruptive behaviour, it doesn't seem to me as if you could do anything about his behaviour now. As far as I know it's not a crime to look at you with an evil grin."

"No. But nevertheless it is creeping me out, and I feel like he is up to something. I just don't know what it is. I feel like I should do something to prevent it, but since Susanne said I'm just imagining things, and she really is not fond of Matthias to put it mildly, well, and now even you say there's nothing I can do... I don't know... it just worries me, and I can't get his evil grin out of my head. I'm sure I'll be having nightmares about it."

Drawing Carmen closer to her, Ulrike caressed her partner's hair and said, "Look, it's the weekend now, and then it's only one more week until the Easter holidays, and then you won't have to deal with the little shit for two weeks. Wouldn't it be a shame to let him ruin your time off by thinking about him?"

Raising her eyebrows, Carmen asked, "Have you had a look at my desk?"

"No," said Ulrike and she craned her neck to look at the desk in the corner. A large pile of file folders lay on the desk, and four only somewhat smaller piles of exercise books were stacked up next to the desk on the floor. " _Ach du Schande_!"

"Uh huh," agreed Carmen, "And there's more in my bag."

"Shit! So much for 'time off'," remarked Ulrike.

"I told you, except for summer I don't usually have much time during the holidays."

"Yeah, I know, but it still baffles me. Man, before I met you, I never knew how much teachers have to work. It's terrible. I really don't know how you can cope with that work load."

"On average, I'd say I work about fifty hours per week," said Carmen, and tilting her head, she asked, "How many hours do you work?"

"Um, well, on average, probably the same as you," admitted Ulrike. "How come it feels like you work a lot more than I do?"

"That's because your free time is spread far more evenly than mine. I get most of my time off during summer holidays. If I want to take time off during other holidays or on weekends, I have to work on corrections and preparations all day after school the week before. I'm rarely willing to do that, because it is really hard to concentrate on corrections for such a long time without much of a break. I'd rather have a break after school, then work for two or three hours and then have a break for an hour or more, or even take the rest of the day off."

Ulrike nodded. "I'm beginning to understand."

"Took you long enough," joked Carmen.

"Sorry about that," said Ulrike with a rueful grin. "I guess I was a bit dense in this regard."

"No problem. I'm glad you finally understand," said Carmen. "So, I intend to get the stack on the desk done over the weekend, and as much of the rest as I can over next two weeks, so that I can take the Easter weekend off. Then I'll have another week for the remaining corrections and preparations. That should suffice."

"Apropos Easter," said Ulrike, "Norbert will definitely come, however, my mother won't. She and Rosemarie are going on a trip over the Easter weekend."

"Those two have really taken to travelling, huh?"

"Yeah. I'm wondering about my mother, though," said Ulrike.

"Do you still have the feeling that she is avoiding you?"

"Hm, I'm not sure, but I don't think so. However, now she seems even stranger. Today she called me to offer me the opportunity of a fare to the airport. She's never done that before. At least not like this. Formerly, if she wanted me to drive someone, she put it more like an order, and most of the time I wouldn't get paid because, as she put it, you don't take money from friends and neighbours. She always thought it was tacky of me to take money from Frau Schröder for the weekly drives. Today, she asked me super politely whether I'd be agreeable to drive neighbours of hers to the airport tomorrow. She said she thought I might be interested since that fare would be good money. I tell you, I almost dropped the receiver. I couldn't believe my ears."

Carmen chuckled and said, "I can imagine. Well, perhaps she has finally come to terms with you being a taxi driver."

"It almost seems like it. But I'll need some more evidence before I believe it. It was also very strange that she suddenly gives Rosemarie a coupon for a weekend trip as a birthday present."

"Why is that strange? I think that's very nice of her."

"It's strange because, as you know, we stopped with the presents many years ago, and that included Rosemarie. And suddenly she's giving her something as expensive as a weekend trip? And Rosemarie didn't tell me about it yesterday. Okay, my mother might have given it to her after my call, but to me this all smells fishy."

"Do you think your mother has fallen in love with Rosemarie?"

"What?! No!" Ulrike straightened to look at Carmen with exasperation. Suddenly, she furrowed her brow and pondered, "Although... on second thought it doesn't sound as far-fetched as it did initially. It might explain her weird hesitating... it almost sounded as if she was uncomfortable talking about their trip."

"Well, maybe it is their first trip 'together', you know? I could imagine that she would be very nervous and certainly not comfortable talking about it with her daughter."

"Hm, yeah," agreed Ulrike, "Although, I really can't imagine her being a lesbian. Perhaps she has a lover, and she's going on that trip with him and Rosemarie is in on it, and that's why she didn't tell me anything."

"I guess that's another possibility," acknowledged Carmen, and added with a grin, "Though I have to admit that I like my hypothesis better."

"I bet you do," said Ulrike. "I don't know. It wouldn't make a difference to me, if I'm honest. I'd love for her to be happy, whether that be with a man or a woman, doesn't matter. She certainly seems a lot happier since she and Rosemarie are retired and are doing their travelling; and I don't think she's ever been that happy with my father."

"Did they fight often?" asked Carmen, thinking of the many dysfunctional families she had seen in which her pupils lived.

Ulrike shook her head. "Not that I can remember, no. But I've never seen them be close to each other either."

"Well, they must have been 'close to each other' at least twice," joked Carmen.

Ulrike snorted and grimaced. "Yeah, well, obviously I don't know what went on in their bedroom. But when I think of my grandparents or aunt and uncle or other people's parents, you'd occasionally see them walk arm in arm or just put a hand on the other's shoulder, things like that. I never saw that with my parents."

"Your mother doesn't strike me as the openly cuddly type. Perhaps she just didn't like to show her affection in front of you."

"Actually, my mother used to be very affectionate with Nobbi and me. She's even somewhat affectionate with Aunt Hedwig and Rosemarie."

"And your father? Was he affectionate with you?"

Ulrike shook her head. "Nah, my father was a hard working coalman. He rarely spent time with Nobbi and me. He took out the rubbish, fixed things when they were broken, but most of the time when he was home, he sat in the kitchen with his beer, listening to the radio or reading the newspaper, and didn't want to be disturbed. But my mother was very different when my father was still alive. She was always there for us..."

Being reminded of the time when she was a child, Ulrike continued telling Carmen stories from memories.

Enamoured with the goal of becoming a teacher, Else read Goethe and Schiller to her children from the day they were born, and she started teaching them as soon as they could utter their first words. Both of them could read, write and do easy calculations long before they started school.

When Ulrike started school, her mother always asked her about her day and about what she had learnt. She helped her with homework, even when she didn't need help. In the beginning this hadn't bothered Ulrike. She loved being held by her mother while she explained things to her, and she loved the happiness her mother radiated whenever she could teach them something. Sometimes she even asked her mother questions just to see her smile.

Norbert was naturally curious, and he could be a pain in the behind when he bombarded Ulrike with questions, but her mother was never bothered by his inquisitiveness. On the contrary, she seemed to thrive whenever he confronted her with challenging questions.

Ulrike still remembered the old professor who lived next door. Whenever Else didn't know the answer to a particular question, she would go over to his place and ask him. If he didn't know, he would lend her a book to educate herself. He had taught her mother a lot of things, and although he enjoyed being useful in his old age and wouldn't have charged for his teachings, Else would pay him with coals which her husband got for a reduced price, and whenever she baked a cake, she would always give a piece or two to the old professor.

However, when Ulrike moved up to the second grade she became more and more annoyed by her mother's overzealousness, and she started to rebel against it.

Suddenly, Ulrike remembered a particular scene... Gosh, was that the reason why her mother had changed towards her?

"What's wrong?" asked Carmen, when Ulrike stopped and covered her mouth with her hand.

Ulrike hesitated, trying to remember more clearly before she recounted the incident.

Her mother had asked her about her day as always. She had been annoyed about her mother's question and just said something like, "as usual". And when Else asked her if she had any homework, Ulrike had snapped and yelled at her, "You are not my teacher! Leave me alone!"

"God, I regret that now," said Ulrike distraught. "That must have hurt her tremendously."

Caressing Ulrike's hair, Carmen said, "Probably. But that's what kids do. They can be really mean, but in reality most of them don't mean what they say. At least not the way we see it at that moment. They react to the people and their surroundings. You were in a phase where you wanted to do things on your own, but your mother didn't see that, and kept lecturing you."

"She just loved teaching so much," said Ulrike, wiping a tear from her cheek.

"I love teaching too," said Carmen. "But that doesn't mean I can force my enthusiasm on the children. There will always be kids who don't like learning languages. Sure, I could say, 'How can you not love learning languages? It's the greatest thing in the world.' But that won't convince them to suddenly love it. And you will just have to let go of the idea that you can get all of them to like your subjects. You can't. And even though I don't have children of my own, I am fairly certain that there is no big difference." Thinking for a moment, Carmen added, "Well, there is a difference. As a mother I can stop trying to be a teacher to my children, and the children can tell me when they no longer want my help. As pupils in my class, they will have to at least sit there and behave, even if they don't participate and maybe don't even listen."

"There is another difference," remarked Ulrike. "If there are a few kids among the hundreds you teach, it's no big deal. But if you are denied your dream job, and one of your two kids doesn't appreciate your teaching, it's a whole lot worse."

Thinking about this, Carmen slowly nodded, "Yes, you are probably right. Nevertheless, it's no reason for you to feel guilty now for something you said or did when you were a child. And if your mother still resents you for that, well, then that's even worse than you resenting Norbert for what he did when he worked for you."

"I don't resent Nobbi for what he did back then," said Ulrike.

"You don't? I always thought you were still angry with him because of that."

Ulrike shook her head. "I was never really angry with him... well, maybe a little... he really can be a pain in the arse sometimes... but I was far more pissed at myself because I didn't know how to help him, and I couldn't deal with the responsibility any longer. I don't have the tenacity and patience of Oma Hertha; and I certainly don't have as nice a monetary cushion to rely on. Believe me, I've been doing a lot of thinking lately. I'm sorry for how I've been treating Nobbi, but you may have noticed that we've been getting along quite well lately. I feel like a huge burden has been lifted from my shoulders, and I'm eternally grateful to Oma for helping Nobbi. We'll see how long it lasts, but for now her methods seem to be working splendidly."

#

Every Friday, Rosemarie and Else had supper together at Else's place, and afterwards they would watch a favourite TV series of theirs.

However, this time when Rosemarie sat down on the sofa in the living room, she noticed an envelope that leant against her glass. Looking questioningly at Else, she asked, "What's this?"

"Oh, just a little something as a belated birthday present," said Else with a dismissive gesture, and reached for the small platter of cornichons.

Curiously, Rosemarie opened the envelope, and her eyebrows rose in surprise when she pulled out a gift card from their local travel agency. "A weekend bus trip for two, to a destination of my choice?"

"Yes," said Else, who was sitting in an armchair, adjacent to the sofa. "So far I've always chosen the destination. I thought you might like to choose for a change."

"That's so sweet of you," said Rosemarie and reached over to squeeze Else's arm. "But I've always liked your choices. I'm not even sure what place I should pick."

"Well, think about it, have a look at the catalogue; and on Monday we can see if there are still places available," said Else. "Of course you can take someone else, if you prefer."

"Don't be daft," said Rosemarie. "You know I only travel with you." And looking at the card again, she wondered, "But why does it have to be the Easter weekend? We've only just been to Mallorca last month."

Else procrastinated, focussing on spreading liverwurst onto a slice of brown bread. When she looked up, she was greeted by questioningly raised eyebrows. Sighing, she said, "Let's just say, I'd prefer not to be here on that particular weekend."

"And why is that?" asked Rosemarie, the corners of her mouth twitching with amusement over her friend's beating around the bush.

"Boy, you are inquisitive today," grumbled Else.

"Uhuh," agreed Rosemarie, and reaching for a slice of Emmentaler, she said, "Perhaps I should mention that I ran into Norbert today." When her friend still wasn't forthcoming, she elaborated, "I was quite surprised to learn that you declined Carmen's family's invitation for Easter Sunday because we're travelling again." Rosemarie smirked when Else blushed and stammered, "Damn! I... I'm sorry... I just couldn't think of a better reason to refuse."

"No worries, I believe I saved your butt," reassured Rosemarie. "Although, Norbert might wonder whether I'm losing my faculties. But why did you want to decline? When we were on Mallorca you told me you'd love to get to know Carmen's family; and you were disappointed that she hadn't introduced you yet. Why the sudden change of mind?"

Else had lost her appetite, and she put the half-eaten liverwurst sandwich onto her plate. Her gaze still on her plate, she sighed heavily and said in such a low voice that Rosemarie had to lean closer to understand her, "I don't think my children really want me there. They are just being polite. I fear I will lose them." She looked up at Rosemarie's puzzled face.

"What makes you think that?"

Else felt an irresistible urge to look at her sandwich again. There was a spot which she hadn't properly covered with liverwurst, if not for the lump in her throat that prevented her from eating, she might have rectified this imperfection, but in the grand scheme of things, she gathered, it really didn't matter. A perfectly spread liverwurst sandwich wouldn't keep her children from abandoning her.

Watching her friend brooding for a while, Rosemarie finally touched Else's arm and asked gently, "What's going on, Else?"

Roused from her musings, Else asked, "What?" and registering in hindsight what Rosemarie had asked and that she hadn't yet answered her previous question either, she said, "Oh, I..." drawing a heavy breath, she paused again.

She knew Rosemarie wouldn't judge her. She never did, even when Else was in the wrong. She knew Rosemarie would listen to what she had to say, and she would always find a diplomatic way to address even a difficult subject. Else was eternally grateful for having Rosemarie as a close friend. She felt comfortable with her. In Rosemarie's presence she could forget about her anger and sorrows, and just enjoy life. However, when her troubles were burdening her too much, she knew she could tell her friend everything, and she could rely on Rosemarie to take her worries away one way or another.

Nevertheless, this time she was not so sure Rosemarie could help, and looking down at her folded hands, she continued sadly, "It just dawned on me recently that I've been a royal pain in the arse."

Noticing Rosemarie raising her eyebrows in surprise at her admission, she went on, "I know, you've tried to tell me that countless times, but I didn't want to listen. I was stupid and I was angry. And now I realise that you've always understood my children better than I did, and you don't even have children of your own, and you never wanted to become a teacher. I guess it's for the better that I couldn't become a teacher after all. I might have driven hundreds of innocent kids into the madhouse."

"I don't think you would have," said Rosemarie. "You wouldn't have been frustrated about being denied fulfilling your dream, and they wouldn't have been your kids, so your expectations would have been different."

Else shrugged. "Perhaps you are right."

"I'm always right," joked Rosemarie, and she added, "And I don't think you'll lose Ulrike or Norbert. I'm sure they'll be delighted if they learn that you have changed."

"I'm afraid it might be too late, now that they've found other people who support them and accept them as they are."

"Nonsense!" said Rosemarie, "You're their mother. They've stuck with you all those years despite being a royal pain in the arse. They know very well what you have done for them. That doesn't change just because Ulrike finally found a suitable partner and Norbert is getting a little help."

"A little help," Else huffed.

Rosemarie raised her eyebrows, but Else went on, "You know that all my life I've worked my butt off to provide for the children, and to give them the chance of a better future, so they could have a better life than I did, so they could fulfil their dreams. I've read to them for hours and hours from the day they were born. I've taught them to read and write and do calculations before they started school. And when Günther died, I did all I could to pay for whatever they needed to further their education. I never saved for myself. I never went to the hairdresser, never wore makeup, and I didn't buy new clothes unless absolutely necessary. I spent every spare Mark on the children, either directly or by saving it for them. I've paid for their driver's licence. I've paid for their first cars. I even moved into this smaller flat so I could pay Norbert's rent when he wanted to build a life of his own and couldn't manage to hold a job for any length of time. I always wanted them to have a better life, and to have a good education in order to get a good job and earn more money so they wouldn't have to live as frugal as I had to. But, despite all the sacrifices I made, I just never had as much money as the Bauers, and perhaps it was just not enough." Shaking her head, she took a sip of water before she continued.

"When I got to know Carmen, I was delighted, but it was not because of her charming personality, though that's certainly a bonus, but it was rather because she represents the ideal I had for my children – she made good use of the chances she got via her family's wealth; she has studied and worked hard to get to where she is now. She was – and still is – living my dream." She paused, and looking at Rosemarie, she went on, "But Ulrike isn't Carmen, and she isn't me either, and neither is Norbert. And I realise now that their dreams are not the same as mine. I realise that Ulrike is happy with her life as a taxi driver and Norbert with his computers. I should have realised that ages ago. Carmen and her Oma did, but I didn't until recently.

I should have been the one who paid Norbert's start-up money! I should have been the one who helped him fulfil his dream, build his business and ensure that he didn't mess it up. And I shouldn't have condemned Ulrike's career choice when what she did was exactly what I had wished for her – to live her dream and enjoy a fulfilled life.

But at first I was angry that I couldn't continue my studies because of them, and later I was angry at them for not making more of themselves. To me it felt like they were carelessly throwing away all those chances I'd made possible for them, and for which I had worked so damned hard. Especially Ulrike... for what had I made all those sacrifices to provide her a good education when she ends up as a stupid taxi driver, a job any idiot can do?

It felt like all the money I spent on her had been wasted; and with Norbert it seemed like the money-spending would never end. Again and again he needed my help." She sighed heavily, and continued, "For some reason I could never understand Norbert, and I guess I still can't. On the one hand he was such an easy kid... always eager to learn, his nose in a book as soon as he could read. Unlike Ulrike, he was always well behaved, never got into trouble, always did his homework, and always got the best marks, but for some unfathomable reason he is completely lacking when it comes to simple things like remembering to set his alarm or closing the toilet lid. I just don't get it, and in all those years I haven't found a way to help him. And now Carmen's Oma suddenly knows all the right things to do, and the woman doesn't even know Norbert!

I should have known how to help my own child. I should have paid for his business, and I could have. You know, I still have most of that money they gave me for compensation when they shed my position. But I didn't even think of giving it to Norbert. I thought he would be all right with his unemployment money, and I thought he would find a job sooner rather than later. He's got three degrees, for crying out loud. So, for once I wanted to spend money for myself, and enjoy life. And now I feel like a pile of crap because I've been spending money for travelling instead of paying for Norbert's business." Heaving a sigh, Else slumped back in her armchair, exhausted from her long monologue.

"But still you went and got another ticket..." remarked Rosemarie, who had patiently listened to her friend's ramblings.

Else shrugged, "Well, yes. It doesn't matter anymore now, does it? Carmen's Oma has already paid for everything. And she's now in charge of helping Norbert. And Ulrike... she does her own thing anyway, like she always did." Looking at Rosemarie, she managed a lopsided grin and concluded, "So, I guess I can just as well pick myself up off the floor and enjoy another holiday with you."

"Wouldn't you rather postpone this holiday and accept Carmen's Easter invitation?"

Else shook her head. "No. I still don't feel up to facing her family yet. Maybe, if I can't think of an excuse for the twenty-fifth, I'll attend Carmen's birthday celebration. She'll celebrate at the Kempinski. That's a more neutral territory and there will be other guests as well, not just her family. I just couldn't cope with visiting her family's place right now."

"All right," said Rosemarie. "Then I will try to choose a destination that will help you recover and digest all your newly found insights, so you'll be fit to go to Carmen's birthday. You really shouldn't refuse that, Else."

"Thank you," said Else, squeezing Rosemarie's arm, "You are a true friend." She did not notice the glimmer of sadness that flashed across Rosemarie's face.

#

The temperature had dropped several degrees overnight and it was raining slightly, but Carmen returned from her shopping with a spring in her step. Today, the weather could not affect her good mood.

She and Ulrike had talked late into the night, and Carmen had learnt a lot about Ulrike and her family. She had been surprised at how deeply Ulrike really cared for her mother and her brother, when on the outside it had always appeared rather the opposite to her. Ulrike, as well as Norbert, seemed to be well aware of their mother's sacrifices, and they both seemed to have a deep appreciation for her despite Else's difficult nature. These revelations had caused Carmen to see her own parents in a different light.

All the hardships she'd had to endure as a child... she had never really thought about how her parents may have felt about all the sacrifices they made. She had only ever thought about how she herself had to suffer because of it. She was grateful for this realisation and she vowed to rectify her lapse by having a long talk with her parents, especially her mother, in the afternoon; and she had just bought some nice little presents for them for emphasis.

Ulrike too, had agreed to have a talk with her mother after she had driven the Wilkenings to the airport. She admitted that it might be a good idea to let Else know how sorry she was about the incident back then and that, even if it may not seem like it, she did appreciate all she had done for her. However, she wouldn't buy any presents, as she thought that would be overdoing it. Carmen disagreed, but she conceded that Ulrike had to do things her way in this regard; it was her mother after all and not Carmen's.

At the end of their talk, both of them had felt a great sense of relief, and a closeness that was almost too much to bear.

The gentle lovemaking after all the talking had been the icing on the cake.

Nearly tempted to whistle, Carmen walked through the entrance hall towards the letterboxes. Setting down her shopping bags, she opened her letterbox and took out the mail.

One of the letters caught her attention. It didn't have a postage stamp, and only her name was on it, written in block letters; no address, no sender. Furrowing her brow, curious as to whom the letter was from, Carmen shrugged her shoulders and put it with the other mail into one of her shopping bags and closed the letterbox.

As she rode the lift up, her thoughts had already drifted back to Ulrike. God, how she loved the woman! Peculiar as she may be in some regards, their differences faded to nothing compared to the closeness she could feel with Ulrike. Somehow the previous night had changed something inside her. She no longer felt the hesitation she used to, to open up to Ulrike, to tell her about her feelings and what troubled her. Somehow she knew now that Ulrike wouldn't judge her, and that she would stand by her no matter what, even if she was of a different opinion.

This newly found trust exhilarated her, and with a beaming smile she stepped out of the lift.

#

Ulrike felt great as she was standing at the airport taxi rank. She had dropped off the Wilkenings after helping them with their luggage and accompanying them until they were in the capable hands of airport personnel. Afterwards, instead of driving back empty, she had decided to use the opportunity and take on another fare, before she headed towards her mother's place.

Carmen was right. It was time to let her mother know that she appreciated what she had done for her. Perhaps, this had been why her mother had turned into such a critical bitch in the first place. It must be a terrible feeling, if you thought your children took all your sacrifices for granted and didn't even appreciate all the efforts you made.

Ulrike didn't know if it was too late to show her gratitude, but Carmen had encouraged her, saying that it was never too late to show someone that you love them. She was probably right with that too.

God, how she loved the woman! Her compassionate nature was not of this world. It was a shame that her pupils didn't appreciate it, the wretched little bastards! If she ever met them, she'd like to show them which side the bread was buttered on. But then again, Carmen would not appreciate that sort of interference, of course. A pity, really.

_Ah, next arrivals are coming out_ , thought Ulrike as the taxis in front of her started to move forward. Now it wouldn't take much longer and she'd be on her way.

When only two colleagues were in front of her, the ringing of her mobile phone startled her. "Christ almighty!" cursed Ulrike, and reaching for the phone she grumbled, "I'll never get used to this stupid thing."

" _Ulli?_ " asked Carmen almost inaudible.

"Yeah, what's up? Make it quick, I'm next in line."

" _I... can you come here please?_ "

"Now?!"

" _Yes, please. I... I don't know what to do. I... there is... I have... Matthias... I told you about him... he sent me a blackmail letter_."

"What?!"

" _Can you please come here?_ "

"Yes. Of course," said Ulrike, and switching off the light of her taxi roof sign, she watched the passing cars, waiting for her chance to pull out into the neighbouring lane of traffic, and assured Carmen, "I'm on my way. I'll be right there."

" _Thank you_ ," said Carmen and ended the call.

Finally getting the chance to move, Ulrike headed towards Carmen's place, and cursed, " _Mensch, wenn ick det elende Miststück inne Finger krieje_..." She couldn't believe that the bloody psycho kid was threatening Carmen. He better not cross her path as she didn't know if she'd be able to restrain herself.

#

Carmen sat at her desk and stared at the letter in front of her.

"I've seen you with your girlfriend.

See to it that I receive better marks.

If I have to repeat the class, your dirty little secret will become public.

Matthias Richter"

She could recognise Matthias' handwriting – unlike his performance, it was surprisingly neat. The boy wasn't stupid. He just rebelled against everyone and everything; and looking at his family background that wasn't even surprising. What Carmen truly didn't understand though, was why he was threatening her of all teachers. Other than most of her colleagues she had always tried to sympathise with him, she had always tried to encourage him to rise to his potential. Heck, she and Lutz Fröhlich were his only allies who had so far kept him from getting expelled despite his bad behaviour. Why was he doing this to her?

#

Meanwhile, Ulrike was having other problems.

"I don't believe this. I do not fucking believe this!" yelled Ulrike, smacking the dented bonnet of her taxi.

The driver of a blue VW, who had halted in front of her, got out and said, "My wife jotted down the van's number. We can both testify that he cut in on you."

"Thank you," said Ulrike, before her gaze once more wandered down to the damage on her taxi's left front that the van driver had caused. The glass of the indicator and headlight was broken, the wing and bumper pushed in and the bonnet dented. "I can't believe the bastard hit and ran. Who does shit like this?" Ulrike ranted and smacked the bonnet yet again.

"We should call the police," said the man, "Shall I go or would you rather?"

"I'll do it," said Ulrike grumbling. "I have a mobile phone in the car." Mumbling obscenities, Ulrike got back into the taxi to get the phone. She would have to call Carmen too. Damn it! Now of all times, when Carmen needed her because of that bloody psycho kid! Damn that blasted son of a bitch with his fucking van!

#

It was late afternoon when Ulrike finally arrived at Carmen's with a rented VW Golf. On Monday she would have to rent a taxi to keep working or make a deal with Kalle or another colleague, but for now the Golf would suffice.

" _Liebling_ , it's me," called Ulrike as she shut the door. Wondering why Carmen didn't answer, she quickly took off her jacket and put it on the hanger, and then headed for the living room.

Carmen sat at her desk, her back towards Ulrike, obviously focussed on a piece of paper in front of her.

" _Liebling?_ " asked Ulrike gently as she walked towards Carmen.

" _¡Madre mía!_ " Carmen cried out as she startled, and swivelling around with her chair, she scolded, "You've scared the bejesus out of me!"

"I'm sorry," said Ulrike as she embraced Carmen. "I didn't mean to. I called you when I came in, but you obviously didn't hear me."

Shaking her head, Carmen said, "No, I didn't."

After sharing a gentle kiss, Ulrike said, "I'm sorry for being so late. So, where's that letter? Have you talked to the police yet?"

Furrowing her brow, Carmen asked, "Police? Why would I talk to the police?" and reaching for Matthias' letter, she handed it to Ulrike. "This is the letter."

Reading the few handwritten lines, Ulrike said, "Well, okay it's not as bad as I feared, but it's still blackmail."

"What did you think?" asked Carmen. "That he'd threatened to murder me? You are watching too many crime films."

As they went over to the sofa, Ulrike said, "Well, you called me all upset, asking me to come immediately because Matthias had sent you a blackmail letter. You didn't specify what he wrote."

"I'm still upset," said Carmen as they settled down. "Though not as much as I was at first."

"So, you know what you are going to do about it?"

"Yes."

When Carmen wasn't forthcoming, Ulrike inquired, "And what are you going to do?"

Straightening up, Carmen looked Ulrike in the eyes and said resolutely, "I will resign as a teacher."

"What?!" exclaimed Ulrike. Then she raised her eyebrow, and asked, "You are kidding me, right?"

Shaking her head, Carmen said, "No, I'm not."

"You want to give up your beloved profession because some wretched little psycho kid is threatening to out you?"

"He is not a psycho," objected Carmen angrily. "He is a fifteen-year-old kid who has a lot of problems to cope with. His father is an alcoholic with a gambling problem, and his mother pops Valium as if they were gummy bears."

"So what? That doesn't give him the right to blackmail you, and bully everyone as he pleases," countered Ulrike.

"No, but it explains where he is coming from, and why he behaves like he does. The boy needs help; not more punishment. And by God I've tried to help him, but obviously I have failed, otherwise he wouldn't single me out as a target. To me, this means that my time as a teacher has come to an end. I am no longer capable of doing my job properly, and I am not willing to turn a blind eye on my pupils' problems and punish them for something that isn't really their fault. Believe me, I have thought about what you said about the coarsening of society and adjusting my methods, but I just can't. My endeavour is to help them, but apparently I'm incapable of that, and I'm at my wit's end as to what else I could do; so it is time to quit."

"Are you finished?" asked Ulrike, and when Carmen agreed, she took a deep breath and said, "All right, then let me tell you something. The boy needs help, all right, I'm gonna give you that. However, the sort of help he needs is not your field of expertise. He needs a social worker or a psychologist or something like that. It is not your job as a teacher to fix the problems your pupils have at home. You wouldn't resign if he had problems in Math and you couldn't help him, would you?" When Carmen shook her head, Ulrike went on, "Thank goodness! So, all is not lost. See, it is not your job to fix his behaviour, just as it isn't your job to teach him Math. It's your job to teach him Spanish. But if he isn't willing to learn, there's nothing you can do about it. You've said it yourself recently. You can't force your students to learn Spanish. But what you can do, and should do, is to demand their respect of you as a teacher and as a person."

"Which is obviously something I'm incapable of," stated Carmen.

"That's nonsense," said Ulrike, "Mind you, I've never seen you teaching, but from what I'm gathering, most of your pupils have a really good and respectful relationship with you. However, it seems like you are mistaking boundaries and consequences for punishment. But there is a difference, _Liebling_. Everybody needs to know how to establish boundaries for themselves and how to respect those of others. Most children have obviously learnt this from their parents, as they should. They know you care about them, and they are either interested in the subject or they just like you or both, so it's an easy deal. But those like Matthias don't respond to your all-compassionate, all-caring nature. The boy probably doesn't realise that you care about him, and how should he?" Ulrike rolled her eyes at herself, "Man, I'm beginning to sound like you; this must be contagious. – You're supposed to be the understanding, compassionate one." After a weak smile she continued, "If his parents are like you say, then he probably never experienced the feeling of someone caring for him unconditionally. Why should you care about him when he's continuously disrupting your lessons and his marks are abysmal? In his eyes there is no reason for you to care about him. You can't expect him to respond to your caring attitude. He can't understand that. But I'm sure he has learnt better than most people whom he can torture at will, and whom he better not fuck with. He needs boundaries, Carmen, and he needs to learn that his actions have consequences for him."

"Well, he will feel the consequences," said Carmen. "I have to write an explanation as to why I'm quitting, which I was in the process of doing when you came; and of course I will attach a copy of his letter to my resignation. For Matthias that means he will be expelled."

Ulrike stared at Carmen dumbfounded for a while, when suddenly her eyebrows rose and she said, "Ah, now I get it! This isn't about you feeling that you can't fulfil your job properly."

"Of course it is," said Carmen.

Ulrike shook her head. "No. If it was, you'd own your decision and tell them that you aren't willing to adapt your methods, and that you can no longer cope with pupils who don't respond to your methods. But that's not what you are doing."

"Yes it is," protested Carmen.

Again, Ulrike shook her head. "No, _Liebling_. If you truly wanted to resign for the reasons you told me, you wouldn't even mention the blackmail letter."

"I have to mention it. It is my duty."

"If you didn't resign, yes," said Ulrike. "But if you are resigning, you could just as well pretend you never got it, to save your poor his-life-is-so-awful-it's-not-his-fault Matthias from getting expelled. But apparently even you think that this boy needs to feel the consequences for his actions. And contrary to what you are saying, you are very well capable of enforcing that. Hence, you are sending them the blackmail letter, fully aware that this will be the last straw to get him expelled. Alas, in doing so, there would be no reason to resign. The worst of the little terrorists will be gone, so you won't have to cope with him any longer."

"He is not the only problematic child," said Carmen defensively.

"No, but his expulsion will most probably be a suitable warning for the other shitheads, so they will likely give you less trouble in the future, and you could happily go on with your established methods and reserve harsher measures for extreme cases."

"But I don't like using harsher measures as you put it."

"And I don't like scraping chewing gum and puke off the backseat. No one likes everything about their job, but that's no reason to quit. And it's not your reason either."

"Yes it is."

"No. I believe, you are just terrified of owning your sexual identity, and you're afraid that they will fire you for something that has nothing to do with your job whatsoever, so you think you'd rather resign before they can fire you."

"Which they would do," said Carmen, "So, whether I resign or not, the result will be the same, I will lose my job."

Ulrike wanted to argue, but Carmen stopped her, "No, now you let me talk. You think you have it all figured out. But you have not. Not everything is as easy as you think. Things aren't just black or white. There are a lot of shades in between that you are not seeing. Would I rather save Matthias from getting expelled? Believe me, I would. Because I still think there should be a better solution.

But I also have a responsibility towards the other kids, and I cannot justify remaining silent about his blackmail letter when by that he will keep bullying Swetlana and probably others too. He has crossed a line, and yes, I am aware of that. If I just resigned without mentioning what he did, he would most certainly drift even further into criminal behaviour, because it would cause him to think he had the power to make me resign, which isn't even entirely false, I admit that. But this way it will have consequences for him; and I can only hope that his expulsion will finally be a wake-up call for his parents, and that they will seek help, for themselves as well as for Matthias."

Taking a deep breath, Carmen continued, "You are right, in that this is not my responsibility, but nonetheless I feel like I should have been able to prevent this from escalating, at least with regards to me. You are also probably right when you say that Matthias knows whom he can 'fuck' with as you put it. He certainly wouldn't have dared to blackmail Herrn Kunze, even though Kunze would love to see him expelled simply because he once dared to squeeze a chewing gum on his chair."

Ulrike snorted, "Chewing gums are a bitch, I tell you."

"They are certainly no reason for taking such drastic measures."

"Nah, there'd be other measures that are more suitable," agreed Ulrike.

"Yes, and Kunze didn't shy away from taking them, while I tend to simply ignore such minor pranks."

"Boy, I'd have loved to have you as a teacher," said Ulrike.

"Why? Did you have a tendency to play pranks on your teachers?" asked Carmen.

"Well," said Ulrike, grinning. "Let's say, I wasn't exactly an angel."

"What did you do?" asked Carmen, intrigued.

"I'll tell you another time. For now, suffice to say, I appreciated those teachers the most who gave me a little leeway but who didn't let us treat them like a doormat either."

"I'm not letting them treat me like a doormat," said Carmen.

"That's what I thought," said Ulrike. "And that's why I said I'd have loved to have you as a teacher. And it's also why I am trying to convince you not to resign. Forget about all the problem kids. Think about all the others who love you. It will be a great loss for them if you resign. Do you really want to do that to them? What if they get another Kunze to replace you?"

"They might get another 'Kunze' in the next school year too. I can't help that. I don't usually teach the same class for longer than two or three years in a row, at least not in the same subject."

"So, you really want to throw in the towel?"

"Yes."

"And this has nothing to do with the fact that they will learn that you're a lesbian?"

"I didn't say it has 'nothing' to do with it. It's just not as simple as you see it."

"All right, enlighten me, please. Why would you not wait and see whether they really are as antiquated as you think they are? What if they aren't? What if they won't fire you?"

"Ulli, even if they don't fire me, I would still resign, because, apart from the reasons I have already mentioned, I don't want to be subjected to the consequences that come with being outed."

"Which are?"

"Heavens Ulli! Can you really not imagine? The moment they receive the blackmail letter, they will question me about it."

"Sure, but they'll do that anyway, whether you resign or not, no?"

"Yes, but it will be very different because I will no longer be part of the staff, so it's of no consequence to me what my colleagues might think. And it's not just that either. The parents and the pupils will learn about it too, and I really don't want to find out how they will react."

Thinking for a moment, Ulrike replied, "But if you are honest, you don't know how either of these people will react. Perhaps no one will have any problems with it."

"Uh huh, sure, perhaps. And perhaps the sandman will bring me sweet dreams tonight," said Carmen dryly.

Ulrike stared at her and retorted, deadpan, "He better knock before he enters, lest I mistake him for a burglar and bop him on the noggin."

"I'll make sure he gets your message."

"Great," said Ulrike. "Seriously though, I think you should at least wait and see what happens. If it really gets too much for you to bear, you can still quit, but once you quit it will be very hard to get back if you change your mind."

"How come you want me to keep my job so badly? Think about how much time I will have for you. Wasn't that something you were always complaining about?"

" _Liebling_ , if you love your job as much as I love mine, which I think you do then losing it won't be a bed of roses for you. Whatever you may feel about it at this moment, I'm sure you will feel differently once things have calmed down. I don't want you to throw away your beloved job. And to be honest, the thought that you might have more time didn't even cross my mind. I want you to be happy, and I know that at the moment you're not. But if you resign, I'm fairly certain that you will regret it for the rest of your life. And really, I would rather have a happy partner with whom I can enjoy the precious little time she has, than have an unhappy partner who has all the time in the world but can't enjoy it anymore because she regrets her decision and misses her job."

Looking down at her hands on her lap, Carmen mumbled, "I don't know if I can cope with all the shit that's going to happen."

Taking Carmen into her arms, Ulrike said, "I'm sure you can. Try to think about it Nietzsche's way: what does not kill you makes you stronger. You'll just take it one step at the time. As for the first step I would suggest, I call the pizza delivery service. What do you think, can you manage a pizza?"

"Goofball," said Carmen chuckling. "Go ahead, but I'll have a large mixed salad with chicken breast fillet. And then you can tell me about your accident. I'm sorry I haven't asked you about it sooner."

"There's not much to tell. A van cut in on me. The taxi's front is smashed; it's at Mercedes now. The police have the van's number and two witnesses, so they will probably catch him, and his insurance will hopefully pay for all my expenses. I've rented a Golf over the weekend, and next week I'll either rent a taxi or make a deal with Kalle until my Daimler is fixed. End of story."

Raising her eyebrows, Carmen said, "You didn't sound as cool about it when you called."

"No, I was hopping mad," admitted Ulrike. "But after all this talk about your problems, my own suddenly appear a lot less dramatic."

"Well, that's a relief that my problems were at least good for something, after all."

"You'll see, it probably won't be as bad as you imagine now," encouraged Ulrike.

"No, it will probably be worse," remarked Carmen and quickly added, "Go ahead already and order the food. I'm starving."

"Your wish is my command," joked Ulrike and headed for the telephone.

#

The following Wednesday, Carmen felt sick. This would be the first day she would have to face the troublesome 9B after all the drama, in a double lesson at that. So far, most of Ulrike's predictions had come true. She had not been fired; most of her colleagues were on her side and didn't have any problem whatsoever with her being a lesbian, which had truly surprised her; and even though some of her pupils had asked if the rumour was true, there had so far been no insolent behaviour because of it. Nevertheless, Carmen was not so sure the peace would last with the pupils of 9B. Matthias had been temporarily expelled with immediate effect until the education authority decided on his permanent transfer to another school, but she would still have to deal with his mates; and somehow she couldn't imagine them remaining quiet about Matthias' expulsion and especially not about the reason.

She was seriously tempted to skive off work for the first time in her life. Alas, her sense of duty would not permit her to succumb to this temptation. Now that she had let Ulrike persuade her not to resign, she had promised herself, and Ulrike, that she would not let her imagination get the better of her, and that she would persevere until she truly could not take it anymore.

_Who knows_ , she thought, _perhaps Ulrike will end up being right about his mates as well. Perhaps Matthias' expulsion will indeed have been a warning for them and cause them to behave, at least for a while_.

Not really trusting in such a positive outcome, but nonetheless determined to do her job to the best of her ability, she finally grabbed her school bag and a bag full of exercise books, and steeling herself, she headed out the door.

#

Ulrike was driving the VW Passat taxi of a colleague. Damn, she had been lucky that an acquaintance of Kalle was going on a three-week holiday with his wife, and that he'd been more than willing to make a deal with Ulrike. It would benefit them both, as she could continue working while he was earning money lying on a beach on Tenerife.

Having connections was truly a bonus, thought Ulrike, and having a friend like Kalle was even better. When he learnt of her ordeal, he had immediately got on the phone and called every colleague in his little phonebook to see who could help. And in the evening, after the deal, they had gone to celebrate with a few rounds of billiards.

She sobered, when her merry thoughts drifted to Carmen. She knew today would prove to be the hardest challenge yet for her partner, after mastering all the other obstacles with relative ease. They had talked about it at length during the weekend, and even some of Carmen's colleagues as well as the headmistress had offered their support and encouraged her with well-meaning advice after an extraordinary meeting of class 9B's subject teachers. Nevertheless, Carmen remained apprehensive, and Ulrike hoped that the pupils would give Carmen a break at least for a while, until her nerves had calmed down somewhat. She was sure that once Carmen had fully recovered, she would be glad that she hadn't resigned. Really, thought Ulrike, as much as she disliked that her job allowed Carmen so little spare time, Carmen needed to be a teacher. It was not only her profession, it was her life. She couldn't just give up and throw it away without losing a big part of herself. Ulrike was glad that she had been able to remind Carmen of that when the stupid blackmail letter had caused her to doubt herself.

#

Carmen breathed a sigh of relief when the last of the pupils of the 9B filed out of the classroom. The first hour had been just as bad as she had anticipated, and she'd had to send two of her pupils to the headmistress. After that, the other pupils had finally calmed down and she was able to continue with her lesson. Of course there had still been the odd whispered remark, but it was done quietly enough for her to ignore and pretend she hadn't heard it.

However, she had heard, and she knew now without needing to bother her imagination that, for the foreseeable future, teaching this class would be even worse than it had already been before Matthias was expelled.

It was a great relief for Carmen that Frau Fischer, the headmistress, as well as Frau Schneider, the homeroom teacher of the 9B, were fully supportive of her, and that they had offered to talk with pupils and their respective parents in any cases of insolent behaviour towards her. At least she didn't have to deal with that on top of everything. It had been difficult enough to attend the meetings regarding Matthias' expulsion.

The mostly positive reactions she had received from her colleagues meant the world to her, and she was drawing a lot of strength from the support that they were showing her. She didn't think she'd have managed without their encouragement. So far, only Herr Kunze had openly shown that he did not agree with her 'lifestyle', although he was more than pleased that it had resulted in Matthias' expulsion. Well, she really didn't care what Kunze thought of her since he had always disagreed with her anyway.

Now, she had an hour of spare time before she had to teach the advanced courses. Thank goodness, she thought, and gathering her things, she headed for the teachers' room.

However, she didn't get very far, as when she rounded the corner she spotted Andreas sitting on the stairs, obviously crying.

Crouching down, she touched his shoulder and asked concerned, "Andreas, what's wrong?"

Andreas flinched and gaped at Carmen, his glasses fogged and his face tear stained. "Frau Bauer! I... I'm so sorry... it... it's all my fault, but I... I didn't mean to ..."

Sitting down next to the boy, Carmen said, "Andreas, you are beside yourself. What happened?"

The boy gulped and taking off his glasses, he wiped his face with his sleeve. Putting his glasses back on, he looked down at his hands and mumbled, "What Matthias did to you... it's my fault... but I didn't mean to... I mean, I didn't think he would do anything like that... he was saying really mean things about you... and... and I just wanted him to stop... I told him that he is a stupid idiot and that you are... uh well..."

Carmen sucked in her breath, but she let the boy continue.

"And when he didn't believe me, I told him that my sister had seen your girlfriend... I thought it had helped because I didn't hear him talking about you anymore... but now I realise that I made everything worse for you." He looked at Carmen, his gaze beseeching. "I'm so sorry, Frau Bauer. I really didn't mean to cause you any trouble."

Of course, Carmen was not pleased about Andreas' admission, however, she knew that neither Matthias' nor his mates' misdemeanour was his responsibility, so laying her hand on his arm to reassure the distraught boy, she said, "You are not causing me any trouble, Andreas."

"But..." interrupted Andreas.

Carmen shook her head. "You didn't do anything wrong. You just stated a fact. What other people are doing with the information you gave them is not your fault."

The two boys whom Carmen had sent to the headmistress came sauntering towards the stairs, and one of them remarked in a hushed but still well audible voice, "See, now she's openly fooling around with little boys. Told ya all homosexuals are paedos."

Furious, Andreas jumped up and yelled, " _Du verdammtes Schwein_!" Clenching his fists, he was about to lunge for the boy, but Carmen held him back and said calmly, "Don't."

Andreas wanted to protest, but Carmen quietened him with a stern look and a quick shake of her head, then she addressed the boy, "Sascha, what you just said is unacceptable. You will come with me to Frau Fischer."

"I'm just coming from there," complained Sascha.

"I know, but it had obviously no effect on you. Andreas, would you please accompany us."

Andreas nodded quietly, apparently afraid that now he would be punished despite Frau Bauer's earlier encouraging words.

#

Later, in the teachers' room, Carmen was just gathering the things she would need for the next lesson from her locker when she heard a commotion in the hallway.

The door to the teachers' room flew open and Herr Fröhlich, stormed in, and scanning the room, he spotted Carmen and said, "Frau Bauer, could you please come out here, there has been an incident."

"Of course," said Carmen and quickly closing and locking her locker, she grabbed her bag and followed Lutz Fröhlich.

When she stepped out into the hallway, she was greeted by an onslaught of pupils from 9B and 10A talking, or rather yelling across each other in front of the sick room, Herr Fröhlich failing in his attempts to quieten them.

"Silence!" ordered Carmen. Most of the pupils stopped talking immediately, however, some boys and a girl from 9B were still loudly complaining. "You too!" commanded Carmen in a tone that brook no argument. "You'll be given the chance to voice your complaints later. Now, Herr Fröhlich, can you tell me what happened?"

"There was an altercation in the school yard between Sascha and Andreas," explained the young teacher, "And before we could get to them, half of 9B and 10A were engaged in a brawl. Sascha, Andreas, Tamara and Tanja are in the sick room with Frau Weber and Herrn Hinze; Silke, Vanessa, Claudia, Diego, Axel and Bernd went to Frau Fischer with Herrn Kunze; well, and the rest is here."

The names of the pupils told Carmen enough to make a good guess as to what the reason for the fight had been, and she asked, "How badly were they injured?"

"Just scrapes and bruises as far as I could see," said Herr Fröhlich.

The school bell rang, signalling the end of the break. Teachers were filing out of the teachers' room, pushing their way through the crowd to get to their respective classes.

"Who is teaching 9B and 10A now?" asked Carmen.

"I'm teaching 9B," said Herr Fröhlich.

"Well, then I'd say take them to their homeroom now."

"But..."

"We can't stand here all day. I'm sure you will be notified about what happened with the others." She turned to the pupils of 10A and said, "You should go to your homeroom too."

"We're having Music with Frau Weber now," said Melanie.

"I see," said Carmen, while Herr Fröhlich ushered the loudly complaining pupils of 9B forward. Spotting the school's secretary heading their way, Carmen stopped her, "Frau Schlüter, could you do me a favour, please?"

"What is it, Frau Bauer? I'm in a hurry," said the permed sixty-something lady with her latest hair dye in platinum purple.

"Could you find someone to look after my Spanish advanced course? They know what to do. I need to have a talk with the 10A, and I will stay with them until Frau Weber can take over."

"Ah, all right," said the secretary, "I was just sent to find a stand-in for Frau Weber. I'll find a stand-in for you then."

"Thank you, and as I said, they already know what to do. They will continue to work on their presentations, so we just need an adult to stay with them."

When Frau Schlüter nodded and headed for the teachers' room, Carmen addressed the pupils of the 10A, "All right, let's go to your homeroom, and then you can tell me what happened."

It was just as Carmen had already guessed; Sascha and the rest of Matthias' clique had instigated a fight with Andreas, accusing him of siding with a pervert like Carmen because he had a crush on her. Diego, Andreas' friend and also a pupil of 9B, had jumped in to defend his friend as well as his favourite teacher. When Silke, who had a crush on Diego, noticed what was going on, she and Tanja joined in the altercation, and then others got involved. The first blows started and everything spiralled out of control.

The pupils admitted that they would have joined in the brawl as well, if not for the intervention of the teachers Hinze, Kunze, Weber and Föhlich. They were upset and outraged about how these arseholes treated Carmen, and they vowed that they would defend her regardless the consequences.

Carmen couldn't deny feeling honoured and flattered that her pupils loved her so much to go to such extremes. But she strongly objected to any sort of violent behaviour, and she made every effort to get it through to the kids that as much as she valued their support, these sorts of action would not help her but would only make things worse.

#

After an impromptu conference of class 9B's subject teachers, Susanne Weber had taken Carmen aside and invited her for a cup of coffee in a nearby café.

Carmen had gladly accepted the invitation, grateful for her colleague's support after the rather unpleasant discussion at the conference.

Two of her colleagues were of the opinion that all the trouble was Carmen's fault and that she was ruining the reputation of the school; and although all the other colleagues as well as the headmistress had stood by her, Carmen couldn't help but feel awful.

After they had chatted for a while over their coffee, Susanne leant towards Carmen and asked, "Is the woman who was at the opera with you... Hoffmann was her name, wasn't it? Is she your partner?"

Carmen nodded.

Susanne grinned, "I thought so. Why didn't you tell me?"

"Can't you imagine, now that you've seen Hinze's and Kunze's reaction?"

"Surely, you didn't think I'd be like them!?"

"How could I have known otherwise? It's only now after it has come out that I know who doesn't have a problem with it, and that I'm not going to be discharged for it. I guess that's the good thing about this whole mess, but I'm not sure yet if the positives will outweigh all the negatives."

Susanne gave Carmen's arm an encouraging squeeze. "I'm sure they will. It's just going to take some time for everything to settle."

"Perhaps."

"You'll see. After the holidays Frau Schlüter's newest hair dye will be the top issue in the teachers' room again."

Carmen chuckled despite herself.

"And the pupils, well, they will turn to more interesting subjects before you know it."

"From your lips to God's ear!"

Suddenly, Susanne's face lit up and she asked, "You know what?"

"What?" asked Carmen suspiciously.

"Can your partner dance?"

"Uh, not really," Carmen hesitated and admitted, blushing, "We just finished a dirty dancing course. So she can do the final dance from the movie. But..."

"That's marvellous!" interrupted Susanne. "You could do a surprise performance of that dance after our Latin rhythms show. What do you say? Do you think she'd be game?"

Carmen blanched and stammered, "Uh... I don't know... um... I'm not sure if I would be game."

"Oh, come on. It would be a great opportunity to show everyone how well you are suited for each other as a couple. I'm sure it would break the ice for many."

"I fear it would rather be the opposite," said Carmen.

"No, I don't think so," said Susanne. "People love a good show. Haven't you noticed that people seem to be far less objecting to all the actors and other VIPs who are coming out than they seem to be with ordinary people? I'm willing to bet that if they get a good entertainment from you, they'd be far more willing to accept your relationship."

With a doubtful look, Carmen remarked, "Sorry, but I can't imagine that Kunze would change his opinion because of an amateur performance at a school festival."

Susanne waved dismissively, "Forget Kunze, he's an old school conservative. But Hinze might. I don't think he's really opposed to homosexuality, he just doesn't like the trouble this whole matter has caused."

"Neither do I," stated Carmen.

"Nor I, but that's not the point. These two are really the only ones who think all the trouble was caused by your relationship, when in reality this is simply not the case."

"Well, all this certainly wouldn't have happened the way it did if I was hetero."

"Then it would have happened in a different way. These kids have been trouble for years. We've asked you for months to support us with regards to Matthias' expulsion. And now that you did, Kunze and Hinze aren't happy with the consequences. Well, tough. It was foreseeable that Matthias' expulsion would cause trouble. Do you really think Sascha and the others would have remained silent if he had been expelled for another reason? Let them rebel, let them rave. I for one will be glad when all the troublemakers leave our school."

"I would rather they come to their senses, so that we can give them a good education," said Carmen quietly.

Susanne shook her head. "I know you have a soft spot for them. It's a quality of yours which I don't share. Sometimes I wish I had your patience, but more often I think you must have a screw lose to protect these little bastards. It borders on masochism if you ask me. We're teachers, not social workers."

With a half-hearted smile, Carmen said, "That's what Ulrike told me."

Susanne grinned. "She's a smart woman, your Ulrike. So, are you going to ask her if she'd do that famous dance with you at the festival?" When Carmen hesitated, Susanne added, "Look, everyone is already talking about you. So you might just as well give them some real performance to talk about. And once they see you with your Ulrike, they will certainly stop thinking you're into pubescent teenagers."

"Uh huh, and instead the parents will accuse me of corrupting their children and turning them into homosexuals."

"Don't be ridiculous," said Susanne. "We're in the 90s. Everyone who's got half a brain cell left knows that that's nonsense."

"Are you really so sure of that?" asked Carmen.

"Yes, of course."

"So, you think I'm worrying too much?"

"Yes, I do," said Susanne. "Look, I gather that it's difficult for you with all the trouble that's been going on. I'm sure there are still some Kunzes among the parents, but try to look at it this way: people tend to be afraid of what they don't know, but once they realise that there's nothing to be afraid of, it will become normal to them. That can't happen if they never get to know any homosexuals. By showing them via some harmless entertainment how great a couple you are, they will get used to the idea far more easily than if you keep your relationship hidden and leave everything up to their imagination which is based on rumours and antiquated beliefs."

"Hm... again you remind me of something Ulrike once said," said Carmen. "I believe the two of you would get along very well."

Susanne grinned, "I'm dying to get to know her better. So, are you going to ask her?"

Rolling her eyes, Carmen heaved a sigh and said, "All right, I will ask her."

"Great! You can rehearse tomorrow after our dress rehearsal, I'll bring the music," said Susanne, excitedly. "I bet I can even get my husband to join, we can do the part of the dirty dancers, we did that at a wedding last year, it was great fun! I'm sure we can get back into it pretty quickly. Perhaps we can even get a few others to join our impromptu rehearsal and learn the choreography. It's not really that difficult, and it's only about twenty seconds. Anyone with a bit of dancing experience should be able to learn that in an hour or so. It doesn't have to be perfect, but it would be great as a statement of the staff that you have our full support."

Carmen was speechless about her colleague's enthusiasm. Somehow, she couldn't really share the excitement. As much as she appreciated Susanne's zeal, she couldn't help worrying about the possible consequences such a performance might have; and she was doubtful whether Ulrike would agree to perform in front of an audience. Well, she could at least ask her. And if she said no, she could bow out with a clear conscience. Yes, she would leave the decision up to Ulrike, thought Carmen, a relieved smile spreading across her face.

#

At first, Ulrike had not been thrilled about Susanne's idea. She had never performed before an audience, and doing the final dirty dancing dance in front of hundreds of people was not something she would have ever aspired to do, even though she had been tremendously proud when they got a certificate for the best performance of their dance course.

She could imagine that Susanne might be right with her assumptions that such a show might evoke a positive reaction; however, the idea that the staff would join in to show their support of Carmen, was what truly convinced her to agree. If Carmen's colleagues were ready to show their support despite not having practised at all, then she'd be damned if she didn't give them the best show she could muster.

Now, a performance of the school's orchestra had just ended and Ulrike sat down in the audience next to Susanne's husband, Manfred, and Frau Kirsch, PE and music teacher, and also one of the 'dirty dancers', in the first row to watch the Latin Rhythms show. She had done her warm-up together with them and the other 'dirty dancers', while Carmen and Susanne did theirs with the pupils in another room so as not to spoil the surprise.

The presenter, a boy from one of the higher classes, announced Carmen and Susanne's Latin Rhythms show, and then asked people to remain seated afterwards as a surprise performance by the teachers had been added to the programme. Ulrike grinned at the way the boy announced their dance number. He had obviously not been given any information as to what the performance would be about, so he took the liberty to joke about his teachers.

Ulrike was truly curious how the audience would react to their performance. She was still baffled, and enormously proud, that Carmen had agreed to Susanne's idea. It seemed that all the drama regarding Matthias and the other little shitheads had had some very positive side effects.

The four kids of Susanne's guitar class climbed the stairs to the stage from the left; and Silke with the bandoneon, followed by eight of Carmen's dance class pupils in tango outfits came up from the right. Ulrike recognised Tanja as the pupils got into position. She was obviously dancing a lead role as she was wearing a more sensual red dress, while the others wore black. She was paired up with a boy who was slightly shorter than her but had the posture of a professional. His somewhat less formal outfit was obviously meant to make him look wilder in order to stand out from the other dancers. Ulrike was impressed as they started their show. The boy was good, and Ulrike pondered if perhaps, now that the dirty dancing course was over, she could get Carmen to do a Latin dance course with her. Though, of course it would be stupid for Carmen to pay for a beginners' course. Perhaps she could take private lessons to get to a level that was a bit more suitable for her partner. Hm... she would have to think about this. Now that she had finally got the hang of this moving to the rhythm, she really enjoyed dancing, and she would love to keep up with this shared activity.

Carmen watched her pupils' performance with pride. Especially Armando had proven to be an outstanding talent. He was only in eighth grade yet, but he was already moving like a professional; and although he was shorter than Tanja, he was leading her with confidence and ease. It was a pity that his father did not allow him to visit a dance school. As far as she knew, his father hadn't even come to watch his performance. His mother had, and she had chatted with her for a bit, earlier. She was a nice Argentinian lady, and so grateful that someone could talk to her in her mother tongue.

Carmen smiled as Armando dipped Tanja really low, causing the audience to gasp and then cheer with applause. She hoped they would cheer like this for Ulrike and her too.

Despite her apprehensiveness, the dress rehearsal for their surprise performance had actually been a lot of fun. Susanne had managed to get several of their colleagues to join in as the dirty dancers, and all of them had raved about how marvellous Ulrike and she looked as a couple, and they had been greatly impressed about them doing the famous lift.

Carmen felt considerably relieved, and she was now actually looking forward to the school festival, including their dirty dancing performance. She couldn't deny that it had been a wonderful feeling to be so fully accepted and even praised by her colleagues. It had given her a boost of confidence, and she was beginning to trust their judgement that this was indeed a great idea that would help furthering people's acceptance of her relationship in particular and of homosexuality in general. Nonetheless, she couldn't help the tiny bit of apprehensiveness that remained.

When the audience applauded, Manfred urged Ulrike to get up and follow her backstage while the kids took their bows. She could see Carmen at the other side of the stage, waiting for her pupils.

They would have about three minutes until they had to get onto the stage. Herr Fröhlich, who had no talent for dancing but wanted to help them with their surprise performance, had offered to do a solo of El Condor Pasa on his harmonica to give them time to get ready.

Taking off her jacket as she followed Manfred and Frau Kirsch to the room they had used for warming up, Ulrike stopped and turned around as someone called, "Hi Frau Hoffmann."

"Oh, hi Tanja," said Ulrike. Unsure as to how to proceed, she was rescued by Manfred who grasped her arm and ushered her, "Come, we don't have time to chat."

"Who was that?" asked Armando as they headed for the changing rooms.

Tanja grinned, and since it was no longer a secret, she said, "Frau Bauer's partner."

"You mean...?"

"Yup."

"How do you know her?" asked Armando.

"Oh, that's a long story," said Tanja, refusing to give him any more details.

"She looks hot! Like Patrick Swayze in Dirty Dancing."

"I bet she's part of the surprise that Frank mentioned," speculated Tanja.

"Hell, then let's be quick, I don't want to miss that!" said Armando and jogged towards the boys' changing room.

Meanwhile, Ulrike was starting to feel jittery, and she asked Manfred, "What if I make a fool of myself and ruin everything for Carmen?"

"Don't worry. You were perfect yesterday," said Manfred.

"I don't know. My left knee is still sore from the jump," argued Ulrike. "I'm not used to jumping off stages."

"Then don't jump," said Frau Kirsch. "Take the steps. No one expects you to do an exact copy."

"I do," protested Ulrike. "Well, at least as close to it as possible."

"All right, but if your knee is sore and it's not possible for you to do the jump, you just have to improvise. There's nothing wrong with that," said Frau Kirsch a tad impatiently and added, "Do some more warm-ups, that'll help you concentrate on something else."

Taking a deep breath, Ulrike followed Frau Kirsch's advice. Damn, what had she got herself into?

Shortly after, Susanne entered the room and asked hastily, "What is taking you so long? Carmen is already getting on stage."

"Shit!" cursed Ulrike and hurrying past Susanne, she sprinted for the back entrance.

When she opened the door to the school hall, she was greeted by darkness. Taking a second to adjust her vision to the low lighting, she headed for the steps to the stage just as the music started to play. As she stepped onto the stage, right on time, she halted for a split second, and her jaw dropped slightly at the sight of Carmen in a brand new shining white dress. Quickly recovering, she began her performance.

Her eyes on Carmen and her ears on the music, she only vaguely registered the Ohs and Ahs coming from the audience, interspersed with the occasional wolf-whistles at certain moves during their dance.

Carmen felt as if she had stepped into a parallel universe where only Ulrike and she existed, moving to the rhythm of the music. Forgotten were all her worries about how the audience would react. She was indeed having the time of her life, and she had never felt like this before.

The last few times she had danced this dance with Ulrike, she had been impressed at how well her partner had learnt to move compared to the beginning when it had seemed as if she had two left feet. But now Ulrike was moving flawlessly. It was as if they had both become one with each other and with the music.

When they came to the point when she kissed Carmen's hand, Ulrike quickly evaluated her options. Somehow the pain in her knee had miraculously disappeared, and even though she knew that her knees would hate her for it, she decided to take the risk. Heck, this would probably be the first and last performance in front of an audience for her, and this was important for Carmen. And she took two long strides towards the edge of the stage and leaped. Her arms thrown up, her knees tucked, she sailed through the air, and this time she managed a far softer landing than the previous day – so she thought when she felt no pain.

Carmen watched in awe as Ulrike jumped off the stage. Suddenly, the excited cries of the audience got through to her, but instead of worry about those who did not cheer, a feeling of pride and joy filled her as she watched Ulrike's incredible performance. The feeling changed into one of giddy excitement when she saw her partner, followed by the 'dirty dancers', coming towards her.

Staying back as the other dancers danced past her, Ulrike waited until Manfred and Herr Reinhardt had lifted Carmen down.

Carmen did not hesitate. As soon as her feet touched the floor, she sprinted towards Ulrike and jumped. Putting her hands on Ulrike's shoulders she quickly found her balance and spread out her arms as Ulrike lifted her up over her head. Her face radiating with pure joy, she bathed in the tidal wave of cheers.

The audience erupted in thunderous applause, and for a moment, Ulrike felt as if she could hold Carmen up forever. Alas, her body, though strong, soon made it clear that these feelings did not match with reality; and as her arms began to tremble, she lowered her partner down, becoming painfully aware that she would yet again be sore for at least a few days.

"I love you," whispered Carmen as her feet were back on solid ground.

"I love you too," replied Ulrike. And then they finished their performance while the other 'dirty dancers' pulled people from the audience off their chairs to engage them in the dancing.

#

"You were fantastic!" said Susanne as they met backstage.

"Yes, that was an outstanding performance," agreed Frau Kirsch. "How's the knee doing?"

"Don't ask," said Ulrike, trying not to limp despite the throbbing in her left knee, now that the rush of adrenaline had abated.

Shaking her head, Frau Kirsch admonished, "I told you, you should improvise."

"I just couldn't," said Ulrike.

Furrowing her brows, Carmen asked, "What's wrong with your knee?"

"Eh, don't worry about it. It'll be okay," Ulrike tried to reassure her partner. "This was a once in a lifetime event. I just couldn't bring myself to do less than the best I could."

"Well, as long as you didn't suffer permanent damage, I'm glad that you did it," conceded Carmen. "You were phenomenal!"

Other colleagues and pupils joined in to congratulate them on their performance, and while Ulrike soon had enough of all the gushing praise, Carmen visibly relished in all the positive attention, and for once she did not dismiss the praise she was receiving.

The throbbing in Ulrike's knee was increasing, and she could tell by the way her movement was impaired that the joint had started to swell. And as if that wasn't bad enough her left ankle was starting to hurt as well. Damn, getting older was a bitch!

#

Later, when they were leaving, Carmen was carrying the big bag with her clothes herself, while Ulrike was limping beside her. As they reached the Alfa, Carmen rummaged in her handbag and furrowed her brow.

"What's wrong?" asked Ulrike.

"I can't find my keys," said Carmen, and putting the bag onto the boot and the handbag on top, she continued searching with both hands.

"Have you put them somewhere else?"

"Where else should I put them?"

"Well, in your pants pockets or in the jacket?" suggested Ulrike.

"I never do that," said Carmen, but searched there anyway, without success. "I must have lost them." Looking at Ulrike she thought for a moment and then said, "Stay here and watch my bag. I'll go back and see if I can find them."

Not happy about the prospect of standing in the cold for an unforeseeable time, Ulrike sighed and said, "All right, but make it quick."

Squeezing Ulrike's arm, Carmen assured, "I'll do my best."

Fifteen minutes later, Ulrike was leaning against the Alfa for support, Carmen finally emerged from the school building, gesticulating visibly upset, Herr Fröhlich at her side.

She saw him pointing in the other direction, and then Carmen waved at her, obviously signalling that she should follow them. Heaving a sigh, Ulrike grasped Carmen's bag and limped towards them.

Ulrike groaned when she realised towards which car they were heading, knowing Lutz Fröhlich's 2CV would not be the most comfortable means of transportation with her damaged knee.

Her concerns were confirmed when she got in on the passenger's side and bumped her shin on the radio he had mounted underneath the dash tray. "Ow! Son of a bitch! That hurts!"

"Ulli! Watch your language, please," admonished Carmen, embarrassed about her partner's cursing in front of her colleague.

"It's all right," reassured Herr Fröhlich. "I'm not fussy about cursing as long as it's warranted, which it surely was. I'm sorry about that."

"It's okay," said Ulrike, still rubbing her shin. "I should have been more careful, but the damn knee hurt so much that I got in too quickly. Jesus, this leg's getting tortured today!"

"I hope you'll be better soon," said Herr Fröhlich, and starting the car he asked, "So, where shall I take you?"

Leaning forward, Carmen said, "Ringbahnstraße one, in Halensee. You know how to get there?"

"Sure," said Herr Fröhlich. "I was a taxi driver while I was studying to become a teacher."

"Really?" Ulrike perked up.

"Yes. It's been a few years since I last drove a taxi, but I still have my license. Just don't ask me about the East. I never learnt that."

Ulrike huffed. "Neither did I, but I had to once the wall came down, and so would you if you ever wanted to drive a taxi again."

"Uh, I think I'd rather remain a teacher," said Herr Fröhlich.

"To each their own," said Ulrike. "I wouldn't change places with a teacher for a million marks."

Once they had reached Carmen's place and said their good-byes, Carmen and Ulrike slowly headed for the entrance.

"He's a nice chap," said Ulrike as she took out her keys and opened the front door.

"Yes, he is," agreed Carmen. "He's very popular with the kids too."

"I can imagine," said Ulrike as she held the door open for Carmen, and looking at the bunch of keys in her hand, she asked, "Do you have spares or shall I take mine off so you can have them reproduced?"

"I don't have another set, but I'm still hoping that someone will find mine," said Carmen as they headed for the lift. "I really don't know how this happened. I've never lost my keys before."

"Well, it's been a lot of hustle and bustle today."

"Yeah, I guess," conceded Carmen, and as they stepped into the lift, a smile spread across her face, and she said, "It was so wonderful!"

Nodding, Ulrike agreed, "Yes, it was. Even if my poor old body is of a different opinion."

"Pfft, you are not old. You'll be fit again in no time, torturing the poor machines in your gym."

Ulrike laughed and admitted, "You're right. Even if I ended up in a wheelchair, I would still go to the gym and 'torture' the upper body machines."

"That's what I thought," said Carmen grinning.

When they headed for Carmen's door, Ulrike suddenly stopped in her tracks, causing Carmen to bump into her.

"What's the matter?"

Turning to Carmen, Ulrike pointed ahead and asked in a hushed voice, "Did you leave your door open?"

Carmen swallowed and shook her head.

"Stay behind me," ordered Ulrike in a whisper, and she slowly approached the door which stood a hand's width ajar.

Carefully, she kicked the door fully open. The sight that greeted her caused her to hiss, "Shit!"

The wardrobes in the hallway stood open, the curtain that concealed the pantry space was torn down, and the floor was littered with clothes and stuff from the pantry.

"Oh my god, where is Tabitha!" cried Carmen.

"Shhh," Ulrike hushed her partner and whispered, "We should go to Frau Krüger and call the police. Maybe they are still in there."

"No, I need to see if Tabitha is all right," protested Carmen and wanted to walk around Ulrike, but Ulrike stopped her.

"Be prudent, for Christ's sake!"

"I am prudent! Frau Krüger is not at home! She's visiting a friend over the holidays. And if there still were any burglars in there, don't you think we'd have heard them?"

"Not if they heard us first," disagreed Ulrike. But giving into Carmen's urge to look for her cat, she said, "All right, but stay behind me and don't touch anything. They'll need the fingerprints." Slowly, she took a step into the hallway and listened as she let her gaze wander over the wrought devastation. "Look!" she whispered, "Your keys!" Suddenly it dawned on her and a wave of fury surging through her, she shouted, "This is the work of your blasted psycho kids!" And storming ahead, her fists ready for a fight, she yanked at the door to look into the kitchen and when she found it just as vandalised but otherwise empty, she strode through the hall, cursing, "God, I hope they are still here, so I can beat the crap out of these fucking bloody bastards!"

Setting down her bag, Carmen followed Ulrike. Like in a trance, she stepped over the piles on the floor, only vaguely registering the graffiti on the mirror and walls that read 'fucking lesbian whore' and other similar insults. Searching for her cat, she kept calling for Tabitha, looking in every nook and corner, until she finally found her hiding under the bed.

"They are not here. I'll call the police," said Ulrike and made her way through the mess in the living room to get to Carmen's desk. _Oh crap, this is going to be a nightmare to sort out_ , she thought when she saw piles of exercise books strewn about, many of them torn apart, the pages crumpled to balls.

No longer bothering about messing up fingerprints as the kids had probably left them all over the place, she dialled one-one-zero.

"Hello, my name is Ulrike Hoffmann. I want to report an act of vandalism... Ringbahnstrasse one in Halensee, fourth storey, Bauer."

When she ended the call, she walked into the bedroom and saw Carmen sitting on the bed, cradling Tabitha in her arms.

"They'll be here shortly," she said calmly as she sat down next to Carmen, drawing her close. "Is she all right?" she asked when the cat didn't even move a single claw.

Carmen just nodded and buried her face in the crook of Ulrike's neck.

###

Recipes **:**

Mixed salad with fried chicken breast fillet and yoghurt dressing

Fried chicken breast fillet

Mixed salad (e.g. various types of lettuce, finely chopped carrots, maize kernels, onion rings)

Yoghurt dressing:

150g yoghurt

1/2 lemon

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1 clove of garlic, finely chopped

1 pinch of salt

2 teaspoons of dried herbs (e.g. thyme, oregano, basil, marjoram, parsley, tarragon)

1 table spoon olive oil

Typical German/Berlin supper

A typical German supper is usually a rather simple meal, consisting of bread (mostly brown bread made from wheat and rye, or whole-grain bread), butter (or margarine), various cold-cuts, sausages and cheeses, and the odd vegetable like tomatoes, cornichons, radishes or cucumbers.

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My Smashwords author page: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/SophiaDeLuna

My website: www.sophiadeluna.com

Other books by Sophia DeLuna:

Taxi series:

Taxi (Book 1)

Taxi - Trials (Book 2)

Taxi - Trauma (Book 3)

Taxi - Timing (Book 4)

Taxi - Talk (Book 5)

Taxi - Tuxedo (Book 6)

Taxi - Tactics (Book 7)

Taxi - Trip (Book 8)

Taxi - Telephone (Book 9)

Taxi - Traditions (Book 10)

Taxi - 1992 (Books 1-10)

Taxi - Teamwork (Book 11)

Fantasy short stories:

Footprints in the Sand

Desert Wind

Fénya and Elynor

A Matter of Faith

An Unusual Gift

Alternatives

The Fool

Other short stories:

Summer Holidays (young adults, short story)

A Christmas to Remember (short holiday story)

Fire and Ice (short love story)

That's What Friends Are For (short story)

Novels:

Hidden Secrets (science-fantasy novel)

Laments and Liaisons (romance-mystery novel)

Children's stories:

Once upon a Dragon (children's fantasy story)

The Witch and the Fiddler (fairy tale, short story)

The Little Owl (children's and language learners' short story / English)

Die Kleine Eule (children's and language learners' short story / German)

A kis bagoly (children's and language learners' short story / Hungarian)

