Chapter 44 43

【Broken City】 I put the letter back in the plastic folder and look out the high window of the café.I don't want to read those letters anymore. I walk across Rosenthalplatz, into a convenience store, and study the two dozen German bottled beers in front of the refrigerator's double-pane doors.I chose a chunky brown bottle with a picture of St. Augustine on it.Outside, the western sky was a shade of purple.I walked back into the street and climbed the shallow slope of Weinbergstrasse towards Prenzlauer Berg. (Ashley doesn't know anything about her,) I thought to myself. (Just like me.)

I followed a battered tourist map and had a half-hearted desire to head east.I found a church in Zion Church Square. The church has a tall steeple, the gate is unlocked, and there is no one inside. It seems to have been in disrepair for a long time.I sat on a bench for half an hour, looking at the faded walls and the columns next to the choir: those Byzantine-style intricate trims and patterns, originally painstakingly painted by artisans who have long been dead. It's faded to the point where it's almost invisible now. I walked in the former East Germany's well-known Karl.On a fifty-foot-wide sidewalk off Marx Boulevard, Stalinist apartment blocks stretched to the eastern horizon.I bought a bottle of herbal bitter from an outdoor fast food counter and headed down the boulevard to the Frankfurter Tor in the old city.

(It's no use writing to people who can't read at all,) I thought. (And having the letters read by a stranger eighty years later won't help.) I walked south along Warsaw Street to the Spree River, where I took pictures of the last remnants of the Berlin Wall, a twelve-foot concrete wall covered in graffiti.Above that big wall in front of me is written TOTALDEMOKRATIE (Total Democracy).From the gap in the wall, the entrance of a large nightclub by the river can be seen, and the guests walking out are scattered on the sidewalk.Young people on foot and on bikes swarmed past me with drinks in hand, and I wondered where they were going at this hour.I looked at my watch.It was just past three in the morning.

I kept a distance and followed a group of people around a large train station, through small streets, and into an uninhabited industrial area.At the end of the road was a return lane where a line of beige Mercedes taxis waited to pick up passengers.Between two barbed wire walls, a dirt road leads to a large, dilapidated gray stone building.Light and music erupt rhythmically from the windows above.I got into a long queue. It was an hour before I saw the guard guarding the gate.The two girls ahead of me couldn't get in, and then a group of well-dressed students were also turned away.The big man at the door sat on a stool by the entrance and looked at me with some curiosity.He has a black beard and half his face is tattooed with a pattern of barbed wire.I held up a finger to signal that I was alone.He waved me in.

I paid the entrance fee, checked my coat and camera, and passed rooms of indeterminate size and shape that looked like giant caverns ending in either total darkness or swirling colored electronic lights.There are sweaty dancers everywhere.The bass is strong.The air thumps against my lungs and shakes my stomach.I went upstairs and found other rooms, and through hidden cracks, except for the walls or ceilings, there were barely visible bodies hugging tightly.I bought a beer from one of the bars and drank it down.No one is drinking but me. Not long after, I wanted to go to the bathroom.On the second floor, I found a shorter line, but there were only two toilets at the end.Those in line barely advanced.I waited uncomfortably, counting how many people were ahead.nine.seven.six.The walls start to spin.I fixed my gaze on a green emergency exit light at the end of the corridor, trying to ease the spinning.A stylishly dressed girl jogged alongside the line.Several people behind me expressed their displeasure at the girl who jumped in line.She saw that I was alone and stopped beside me.She took my hand and spoke to me in English:

Let me rank here.I'm really in a hurry. I asked the girl to wait with me.She held my hand for a while.She was wearing an oversized black sweater with electric blue tights underneath.Pale red bangs hang down in front of the eyes. Thank you so much.she said softly. The girl asked me where I was from.I tried to focus my eyes and pay attention to what she was saying.She has an accent that I don't recognize.I found a silver brooch pinned to her sweater. That's Celtic style, right? The girl looked at me and held the brooch in her hands.It was a dragon and two snakes intertwined with silver threads, their bodies intertwined and struggling.I leaned over to see clearly.

gosh.I've seen that thing. have you been to iceland I stared at the brooch.I've seen something similar in my grandmother's jewelry box in the garage at home, but can't remember what it looked like. It's Viking style, from Iceland.The girl said: It represents some kind of battle.Dragons are good, snakes are bad The girl frowned.She popped a cigarette into her mouth, then brought the brooch up to her eyes, and re-examined the warring creatures. Or, she wondered, the other way around? The door of one of the toilets opened.The girl thanked me and rushed in.The other room soon became available, so I went in next.When I locked the door and walked past the mirror, I suddenly trembled and turned around instinctively.I look back at the mirror.Something doesn't look the same, something doesn't seem right on my face.I leaned against the sink, inhaled slowly, and looked at my reflection.Are the shapes of my eyes different now?Or the corners of the mouth, or the forehead?Fear began to overwhelm me.I turn around.

It must be from drinking.I whispered. After a few minutes, I walked out of the bathroom, but the Icelandic girl was gone.I went to every dance floor to find her.A few times I thought I saw her profile in the flash, but when I approached it was always someone else. An hour later, I staggered out of the club into the annoying dawn light.There was also a long queue waiting to get in.I scanned the crowd for the girl's face, but she wasn't here, so I took the subway back to my hostel, only to fall asleep on the shaking train.A man shook me awake and held up an identification card in front of me.It's a ticket inspector.I showed my ticket stub and hopped out to Rosenthal Square before the doors closed.

The hotel attendant fell asleep inside the counter.I put a euro coin in front of his drooping head and sit down at one of the computers in the lobby.Then wrote an email to my stepbrother. □□□ Hi Adam Europe is really impressive.I don't know how long it will be.Tell dad I've been trying to study British institutes.He will probably be disappointed.But if you tell him it's seven o'clock in the morning in Berlin and I've been out all night, he'll probably be happier. I want to ask you to do me a favor.It's kind of weird, but trust me, it's important.I want you to find a brooch in my grandmother's jewelry box.It's in one of the cardboard boxes on the top shelf in the garage.I don't know which case it is, it has a label on it and it should be near the top because I only looked at it last month.The jewelry box is green.What to look for is a silver brooch that should have dragons and snakes, but basically it looks like a bunch of things woven out of thread.

Can you send me the brooch as soon as possible?I will be forever grateful.Please send to this address, use the fastest shipping method, and I will refund your money: ∮ Circus Youth Hostel Weinberg Road 1A 1219 Berlin Germany ∮ Grateful.I'll tell you some stories when I get back Tristan PS don't tell anyone about the brooch