Heroine: The Husband's Cologne (19 page)

   A hand softly stroked over my derriere. I was all by myself in my apartment in Cologne and waited on somebody. When I turned around I saw Horst’s grinning face in front of me and yelled out in panic.

“
Juliane, it is only me”, I heard Daniel’s voice. It was only a dream. Relieved I turned around and embraced my husband. He wanted to welcome my body to the New World and covered it with kisses all over. His tongue found its way down on my body and what I was incapable of doing just the night before we made up for now. At least somehow because I still didn’t have enough when Daniel got up.

“Darling, I would love spending all day with you in bed. It’s a shame but I must work today. You need to stay alone until tonight. I woke you up a bit earlier so I can explain to you what you can do until I am back from work. Please don’t be such a scaredy-cat.” I’d made a face.

“But I don’t know my ways around here at all! Do I have to stay in the house until you return?”

“Everything is quite simple here. You’ll find your ways around.” We both got up. When I returned from the bathroom, coffee sat on the table and an omelet sizzled in the frying pan.

“You prepare lunch now?” I asked and yawned. It was seven o’clock in the morning; I didn’t sleep for more than four hours.

“This is what we eat for breakfast here. Most of the time we add some bacon or eat pancakes with Maple syrup.”
That made me shiver.

“That doesn’t go together at all, does it?" I replied slightly disgusted.

“Not for us but for Americans it is quite common. You’ll soon get used to the eating habits here.” Daniel smiled and shoved some of the omelet onto my plate. I picked on the omelet with my fork and took a few bites. Actually, I wasn’t hungry at all. I had preferred something else. Dreamily I looked at Daniel.

“You really look exhausted. When I’m gone you can lie down again. I just wanted to explain to you where we are and how you can find your ways around here.” He spread a map out on the table and showed me where we lived.

“Here, that is Roquetas. At this intersection is our house.”

“Did you rent it? Is it expensive?”

“The house belongs to the local university. They use it as a guest house for professors and others who come here from overseas. My company rented it from them for us for one year.”

“One year?” I asked a bit shocked. “When you traveled over here you already knew that it would be for a year! But you told me that it would only be gone for three weeks.” I was quite indignant. Daniel mumbled something in embarrassment.

“Initially they wanted me to be here for only a few weeks. But then my work performance impressed them so much that they didn’t want to let me go. They told me over again that I had to extend my stay.”

I remained silent because that hit me hard. “
If Norman hadn’t pulled the emergency brakes I’d still be sitting alone in my Cologne apartment to at least the end of this year. With the prospects that Horst and Igor would take ‘
care’
of me,”
I thought to myself in an onslaught of sarcasm.

Daniel took my silence as my consent that the subject was off the table. For me it was quite obvious that I would let him pay for that. He kept on explaining the surroundings. Everything seemed to be very simple.

“When you leave the house and turn to your left you’ll headed directly for the mall in Roquetas.” He saw my questioning look.

“A mall is a giant shopping center with all imaginable shops. You’ll like it. They’re opening at nine o’clock as far as I know. You have some cash in dollars on you, haven’t you?” I confirmed. Then Daniel described how I could walk to
Roquetas’s downtown.

“Is that like the inner city in Cologne?” I asked interested.

“No, there are only three or four streets with many small shops and nice cafés. Something like a pedestrian zone probably only exists in San Francisco. And even that is small compared to ours.” I received some more information and then he finished.

“Don’t worry if you get lost and if you don’t find your
way home anymore; that will hardly happen. And don’t worry if people are friendly to you. In the first case you can always flag down a cab if necessary and let them take you to our address. The people here are quite relaxed and friendly. Everything here is much less complicated than back home.”

With a kiss he was out of the door and I saw through the window how he drove his little off-road vehicle out of the garage. Then he was gone.

I decided to first lie down again. Since it was already warm I left Daniel’s bathrobe that I had found in the bathroom after getting up, lie on the ground and then stretched out on the bed. In doing so I noticed the mirror of a large wardrobe at the end of the bed. It reminded me of Norman’s apartment.

Half an hour later I was awake again and I pondered why I couldn’t sleep. Then I remembered that it was early afternoon back in my old country. My body told me that this could not be the time when adults should lumber around in bed.

So I took an extensive shower in the small tub. Then I unpacked my bags and hung my clothes into the wardrobe. Behind the mirror there were only a few simple boards on the wall, so I put all my things beside Daniel’s belongings. Not everything seemed to fit there. Therefore I put some of my clothing in a black dresser beside the wardrobe and left most of my things in the other bags that I stowed behind the mirror.

My cell phone rang. It was Norman who called me from one of the offices in Hamburg just to ask if I had arrived safely. We had small talk for a while then he hung up.

Until noon I made myself familiar with my new home. As I saw the night before the house had principally only two rooms – one bedroom and one living room which was connected with the kitchen via a counter.

Through the kitchen door I reached a wide wooden porch that was widely covered with a roof that expanded into the small but well-kept garden. The garden was fenced in by a high wooden fence that needed some paint badly. Small bushes had been planted everywhere.

I hoped that perhaps an attic might offer some more storage space but when I climbed on a chair to look over the edge of the roof I realized that it was a flat roof. Then I inspected the garage. It offered room for at least two cars. And there was a lawn mower and some tools.

Satisfied I finished my survey. I decided then to have coffee somewhere and to explore the surroundings. Everything was different from where I used to live. Wide roads, palm trees here and there, many trees and bushes I wasn’t familiar with, blue and clear skies and billboards everywhere.

For a while I walked around in amazement and absorbed everything with great curiosity. The traffic around me increased permanently and suddenly I realized that I was standing right before a multilane highway. I had expected a shopping center as Daniel had told me that it was only a fifteen minute walk away. By now I had walked for much longer.

Puzzled I looked up the map for the route I had taken. I couldn’t find it and neither could I allocate the street names. What did Daniel say? What should I do when I can’t find my way home?
To hail a cab.

I looked around for a while but all kinds of cars passed by except for cabs. Only later I became aware that at least ten or twenty cabs had passed by from where I stood. But they all looked much different from those in New York which I knew from watching television.

A bit disturbed I wanted to turn home but soon realized that I wasn’t on the same street that had led me here. Somehow a wide road had intersected the other roads diagonally – normally they are designed rectangular- and I must have turned into it while heading again towards east. But in which direction? When I reached into my purse to fetch my cell phone – it wasn’t there. I had left it at home lying on the kitchen table right after my call to Norman.

Some angst was creeping up my spine. Frantically I searched the street map for landmarks. Then one of those gigantic American sedans - big enough, to squeeze in a whole school class in Germany - stopped at the curb beside me and the window buzzed open slowly.

“Hi, Miss, are you looking for something?” 

A pretty young woman in her mid-thirties with curly
blond hair and a small face looked up to me laughingly. She wore a light floral dress above hips that were not necessarily slim but fit her soft curves quite well. I liked her instantly.

“Well, I wanted to walk to the
Roquetas mall but obviously I got lost on my way”, I replied a bit uncertain in bumpy English.

“But you’re going into the completely wrong direction. The mall is all the way back there.” She pointed into the direction from where I had come.

“Do you have a car? Then I show you the way.” Her pronunciation was pleasantly soft, somehow like Bruce’s which I had enjoyed yesterday. I told her there was no car. I had walked. When she asked me where I was living I told her my address. She was dumbfounded.

“Jeepers-creepers that is three miles away.
A young woman like you shouldn’t be walking out here by herself in such a dangerous area. Come on, get in the car. I’ll drive you to the mall because I live nearby.”

A bit taken aback I opened the passenger door. Didn’t Daniel tell me this morning that everything is so simple and safe here? At least in one point he was right. Apparently people here are friendlier and more open than back home.

The car moved slowly across the large intersection and then turned west. I realized that because the street signs feature the directions.

“My name is Irene. Are you new to this area?” she said
with a friendly smile while focusing on driving.

“Great to meet you, Ms. Irene”, I said a bit shy. “Yes, I arrived here just today; this is my absolutely first day in the United States.”

“Please, don’t call me Ms. Irene, only Irene, we all address one another by first name unless you are the President of the United States,” she laughed out loud. Sheepishly I introduced myself.

“Oh, Julie-Anne is a beautiful name. Are you from England? You speak an excellent Oxford English; however your accent is not quite English.
Where you from?”

“From Germany, I live there in the west of Cologne and I am still a student.”

“You once studied, that is over now”,
said a sad voice in my head.

“Wow, from Germany! Bavaria and a lot of beer, isn’t it?
And the castle New Schwanstein. I always wanted to visit the Oktoberfest. Are you going there every year?” When I tried to explain to her that I had never been to Bavaria nor visited or planned to visit the Oktoberfest Irene didn’t want to believe me at first.

“This is where I live”, I pointed to the small corner property which we just passed to my astonishment. I was totally flabbergasted that we were driving now in the opposite direction. I realized that I must have turned into the wrong direction this morning.

This was how I got to know Irene who invited me to her home a bit later and who became my best girlfriend during the course of my stay in California. Her exquisitely soft pronunciation fascinated me and I decided to replace my stiff Oxford English with her American. It sounded so much more relaxed.

  
In the afternoon Irene dropped me off by car at my house though her home  was only in maximally fifteen minutes walking distance from where I live.

“In this unsafe neighborhood a woman should never walk by herself on the streets”, she emphasized vehemently.

Daniel returned home only by about eight o’clock. It had made me feel uneasy since I expected him back by five. After all he had left the house at seven o’clock in the morning. He embraced me with laughter when I complained about it in a disgruntled mood. I expected more attention from him after we had been separated for such a long time.

“Let’s go and eat at the mall and then we go shopping for something nice for you, to make up for the wait.”

“Still now? Don’t they close the stores in a bit?”

“No, didn’t I tell you everything is much more relaxed here.”

We sat in a Mexican restaurant and fed one another with bits of Tacos. Then I found the courage and addressed Daniel with the subject that Irene had mentioned to me today.

“Daniel, I made a nice acquaintance today. Her name is Irene who lives quite close by and we arranged to meet on a regular basis. Her husband works for the government or so and they live in a gigantic mansion.”

“That is great. I’ve told you that people are much less complicated here. Big homes, by the way, you’ll find here everywhere.”

“Yes. But Irene had warned me urgently to just walking through the neighborhood here. It is far too dangerous. There are too many crimes committed in this area. She insists that I should buy a car.”

Daniel made a face.

“I am rather short on cash. Your apartment in Cologne is still being charged to my account for three months. After that we can perhaps talk about that. But then my plans are to return to Stuttgart anyways. And how did she get the idea that we have many crimes here; that puzzles me.
May be once in a while a bike falls over.” Somehow I felt my stomach tightening. Three months without a car? Perhaps I could handle that although it wasn’t necessary. But then returning to Stuttgart where I didn’t know anybody? After only one day I felt already comfortable here.  The only alternative for me was to go back to Cologne if I had a choice.

“Money shouldn’t be a problem. I’ve saved some during the last few years and could perhaps pay for a small car with my savings.” To be honest I should have pointed out that Erich had saved some money for me. But that story was not for my husband to know. I felt guilty only for a short while that I betrayed him in that way.
“Why did he leave me all to myself”,
I pouted – on the inside.

Daniel looked at me with surprise and showed some
joy.

“Then let’s buy one this Saturday morning. And then we go shopping in your new car. I invited some friends from my company for Saturday afternoon. Let’s have a barbecue.” I was glad though I had preferred to spend the weekend alone with him after our long separation.

“May Irene join us”? I asked carefully.

“Of course, as long as she doesn’t bring her whole family.”

The next few days I spent most of the time in the shopping center where I met with Irene twice. Subsequently she showed me the downtown area and some interesting shops. She also gave me the most important information about the Bay Area so I would find my ways around. However, she first had to explain the term ‘Bay Area’ to me. Soon I also learned quickly that without a car you are pretty much lost here. There were some buses running but their schedule was about as inexplicable as their destinations. If I had gotten onto one of them Daniel would probably had to pick me up from Alaska. 

On Saturday Daniel and I drove to one of so many car dealers that could be found along a wide and lengthy road, one after the other. Already at the second dealer I fell in love with a small gray-green car that was parked and lost between huge vans and SUVs.

“A Chevy”, explained the salesperson. It was not even four years old and had low mileage. The dealer wanted four thousand dollars. Daniel offered two thousand and insisted on that.

“I’ve seen that car parked here a year ago,” he growled at the young man who served us.

“Nobody will offer you more than fifteen hundred for that. If you don’t accept our offer the car will still be sitting here in five years. Two thousand, not one dollar more.” The car was ours. We went to the sales room, all made of glass.

“Credit card?” asked the salesman. I shrugged my shoulders.

“I don’t have one. Don’t you accept cash?” I asked back carefully.

“Of course, absolutely,” laughed our salesman. I took my wallet out from the purse and counted twenty one hundred dollar bills on the table. Daniel’s eyes popped wide open. Was something wrong? Then the salesperson went to a glass box adjacent to us and talked to a colleague. At the door it said: DMV.

“When can I pick up the car”, I inquired. Now it was the salesman who looked at me in disbelief and it was Daniel who laughed.

“We’ll take it with us right away, darling”, he said in German. And to complete the round it was me now who looked in disbelief.

“But don’t we have to register it?”

“All done already.
The license plates, the DMV officer took care of all that. Insurance is paid and here are the keys.” I couldn’t believe it.

“Didn’t I tell you that everything is much simpler than back home”, he enlightened me once more. Well, now I did believe it finally. Once outside, Daniel abruptly grabbed my arm.

“Tell me, are you insane? You cannot walk around with two thousand dollars cash in your purse. If somebody sees that you’ll be hit over the head in no time and there goes your money. Do you have more?”

“Yes, I still have one thousand more. You’ve told me to exchange money and to bring it with me.” Didn’t he tell me just yesterday that there is no crime around here?

Daniel looked at me silently for a while with his mouth open and big eyes.

“Sometimes you are unbelievably naive”, he said quite calmly.

“On Monday you’ll get a bank account and a credit card. Then you pay with that in the future. You should never carry more than twenty or thirty dollars in cash.”

With pride I got into my newest acquisition and while I followed carefully behind him I frantically thought about what I could have done wrong. But soon I started to enjoy that the vehicle handled so easily. With the automatic transmission I could drive along those empty roads totally relaxed.
“California is magnificent”,
I thought to myself.
After shopping for the barbecue we still sat together for a cup of coffee. I gave Daniel a kiss.

“Thank you for negotiating so professionally with the
car dealer. To get such a nice car so cheaply is pretty impressive.” It was great that he was brave enough to do so.

“How did you know that the car was parked there for such a long time? You’ve been in this country for only a few months?”

“I just tried it. These little cars are currently hard to sell. He can call himself lucky that he got rid of that vehicle.”

“Even when he takes such a loss?
After all he surrendered two thousand dollars.”

“He didn’t pay much more for the car when it came in.
Probably less. And when you paid him the money cash on the table he was happy. In this way he doesn’t need to run the deal through his books and he probably lists the sales price at one hundred dollars in his tax return.”

“Can I assume that car dealers here act just like those back home?” Horst’s face had appeared before my inner eye.

“Exactly, darling. In old times they traded horses. Today they trade horse power. The ways remained the same.” I remembered that some of them also traded women.

In the afternoon I got to know some of my husband’s colleagues. We had placed the grill in the middle of our little garden, beer and juices were available on the porch. Daniel had also purchased whiskey, gin and other hard liquor. With the fruit juices he wanted to provide mix drinks. I found all of that exciting and fascinating. Irene didn’t want to come because she found that such parties
among colleagues have a more exclusive character. Beside that her husband went to a tennis tournament and she wanted to join him.

Over time all guests that Daniel had mentioned to me arrived. With the first welcome kisses that our friends distributed – much to my surprise – I became aware that this was actually meant to be MY welcome party! Daniel wanted to introduce me to his colleagues and their families. I was dizzy with excitement.

“Ingvar is my boss. He’s from Sweden and a few years ago he married Shane. Please watch what you might give her to drink. No hard liquor and no mixed drinks. Only juices and water. She’s not very healthy.” I understood. Next I welcomed his colleagues from his department, Ben and Kurt who was from Switzerland. They had come alone. Raphael, John and others had come with their spouses.

“Bruce! You are here too!” I gave my driver from Monday night a big hug and kissed him on the cheek.
“How nice to see you again.”

Bruce looked a bit embarrassed and he mingled with the crowd after a while. Altogether more than twenty adults and four children crowded our garden until the early evening. We relaxed for several hours with nice talks and I was happy that I was welcomed by all in such a friendly manner. At sunset the first guests started saying goodbye.

“Did we do something wrong?” I asked Daniel slightly confused when we were alone again and cleaning up.

“No, that is quite common here. Other than back home those parties come to an end earlier. Even larger events draw to a close mostly around ten o’clock in the evening.” I was not quite sure whether I could get used to that. After all, back home we used to get ‘started’ around midnight.

During the following weeks I learned that garden parties would be happening every other week around this time of the year. Sometimes even the people from management would invite us to their barbecues. However, those parties were quite more formal than ‘our’ department parties. On some Saturdays Daniel would go to baseball or football games with his friends. That left me by myself quite frequently not only during the week but also on Saturdays. In addition, Daniel had to go on business trips quite regularly so that sometimes he wasn’t home for three days at a stretch. But at least on Sundays my husband would show me the beautiful surroundings so I felt more and more comfortable. And I did have Irene to talk to.

After about three months I became aware that Daniel intended to stay in California well beyond this time.

“What are we going to do about my visa?” I asked him one evening, a bit worried.

“I only have a tourist visa and that runs for three months only, then I must leave the country.” Daniel shrugged his shoulders.

“They don’t take it that seriously here. Or has anybody asked you about your passport before? Your driver’s license has been quite sufficient so far. When you leave the country now, it will cost us a lot of money. You would have to go back to Germany and, as far as I know, you may only reenter the country after a few weeks. And we will be sent back soon anyway. So a few days more or less really don’t matter.”

I was not certain, I really couldn’t believe his whole story, in particular because the three months would then become four and five months. But in the meantime a totally different situation had incurred that would help me coping with the wearisome phases of my loneliness. I had started an affair with Bruce – with Daniel’s approval.