A Breach In Berlin

Three - Drei - The German Identity

Abruptly he turned on his heels, the not so shinny boots clicking at the heel, and walked towards a small hut further down the smooth pavement that separated the cobblestones. A dim light lit up the small space and a table was set in the middle, two garden chairs with worn tapestry pillows on the seats either side. The man took the one facing the door, shifting round the edge of the table as it took up a lot of the space in here, and gestured for me to take the other seat. I did so quickly, wrapping my coat further round me as the temperature difference wasn't much compared to outside. The man however seemed perfectly content with the temperature sitting comfortably and upright I his chair opposite me, staring down at the table and the pack of card that had been previously laid out for a game of solitaire.

I leaned forwards and picked up a card, receiving a red jack of hearts which I out up against the queen of spades and then moved a row from ten to seven – alternating between black and red suits – on top of the jack. The man had chucked when I tried to moved them because I ruined half of the other rows and a few cards went on the floor. But his small exclamation reminded me he was still present in the room, and I sheepishly retreated from the card game. An amused smile still played on his lips, a mischievous glimmer in his eyes as he stared at me from underneath his cap.

I then opened my mouth, wanting to ask his name. But he held up his finger, silencing me from saying what was to come.

"Kurtis, but others call me Kurt." He smiled softly, removing his cap.

You know when you see someone from behind and they turn around and it just gets better? When Kurt took his cap off, the handsome man in uniform got ten times more handsome. Even though it looked like he hadn't had a shower in a while, it added to the effect it was having over me. His yellow blond hair was shaven from the nape of his neck and slowly got longer until it was neatly parted down one side of his head and shorter strands fell over his forehead. A little bit of gel would do wonders, just to neaten the stray strands and tufts that stuck up, I already felt the urge to do it now, just for him. But his head sat proudly upon his broad shoulders covered by his uniform jacket, even if it was hung out of tiredness right now. His large hands that had pulled me up from the ground place his cap on a shelf and took out the chair again, his large frame swallowing up the rather sad looking garden chair.

"Tell me, Miss Vermont, how come you are here?" His thick accented English abruptly brought me away from ogling over him, way to rain on my parade Private.

"In all honesty, I couldn't tell you, I don't even believe it myself." I tried to laugh but out of all places this wasn't somewhere I wanted to be. He paused.

"Retrace your steps, explain it, might as well start getting used to the strange things this war will bring." He leaned forward, adjusting his body in his seat.

"But, if you're part of the army, why are you here?"

"I am a guard of the political heart of Germany," He eyed me, waiting for the next question.

"But," I paused, raising my eyebrows and slightly smirking as I did exactly what he was expecting, "Why?"

He smirked, "It needs protecting, there aren't many of us because for now the war is in France, but just in case Tommy decides to send one of his planes over us or deploy secret agents, I am here to shoot them down."

I had to accept that this was the brutal truth, nonetheless Kurt said it all so reluctantly, the fact one day he would have to shoot someone in the name of his country, when the man was as innocent as he was. They were pawns in political meltdown.

"Now, something more interesting, fräulein, how did you get here?"

I nodded, remembering the real issue at hand. How the hell I got here at the beginning of a war.