FRANK HAS MADE it to Bad Kreuznach in less than an hour. Heavy snowfalls in this hilly region of Birkenfeld, just east of France, slows him down. On the northern bound A-62, farther away from Baumholder\u2019s Smith Barracks, that military base which has its reputation of facilitating the best coached Little League players in Germany, the snowing stops. Absolutely no sun along the Rhineland today, a sky seems as miserably grey as skies get in Germany. Just past Cologne, a couple of kilometers north of Leverkusen, Frank decides he\u2019ll turn the Beetle around, head back to the military base. It\u2019s raining far too hard to consider an overnight drive up to Hamburg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThen what about Berlin,\u201d Isaac asks cleverly. Sitting in the back seat directly behind his father, his only interest is to get himself out of the car.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe aren\u2019t allowed to go to Berlin. There\u2019s a blockade\u2026a big, big fence<\/em> there, and we won\u2019t be able to enter East Germany and go into West Berlin by car,\u201d Frank tells his two boys, exacerbating them reasoning: How can it be that they are living in West Germany, but that there exists a city called West Berlin in East Germany.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Actually, there\u2019s a third child in the family now, Keith; but he\u2019s only barely a few months into his first year and looking at him while his mouth pumps precipitously on his pacifier, Mille senses he\u2019s aware that his older brothers are upset. Indeed, Isaac and Wendell are disappointed. Simply riding up along the Rhine on a rainy day in a Volkswagen Beetle wasn\u2019t the most ideal of circumstances for either of them. This amuses Frank. He likes when his boys speak-their-mind. He tells them that they\u2019ll see Hamburg in the spring. I promise you<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the crest of puberty, Isaac and Wendell adore The Beatles. Frank understands his boys are informed that Hamburg has made a name for itself due to those Beatles. He understands how his boys are able to appreciate the influences of R&B in The Beatle\u2019s music, and certainly within his boy\u2019s generation, those four British \u201clads\u201d have become demigods, British boys yelling to screaming girls, singing such simple silly brilliant melodies like: she loves you\u2026ya, ya, ya\u2026she loves you\u2026ya, ya, ya\u2026she loves you, ya, ya, ya, yah\u2026.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Isaac and Wendell never seem to agree on the same favorites. Currently Isaac loves \u201cPlease, Please Me,\u201d and Wendell\u2019s favorite is \u201cDo You Want to Know a Secret.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe shouldn\u2019t break promises,\u201d Isaac says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe know,\u201d Mille inserts. \u201cAnd I hope you\u2019re not being sassy with your father?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNo! No, I\u2019m not gettin\u2019 sassy wit\u2019 him! I\u2019m just underscoring a fact!\u201d Isaac says, observantly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhere\u2019d you learn such a word?\u201d Mille asks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFact or underscoring?\u201d Isaac counters, displaying an ever-succinct sense of contentment over his articulating his thoughts as he has.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFact.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFrom Daddy\u2026I heard him say that to you a couple of times.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWell, you needn\u2019t repeat everything your father says to me. You under<\/em>stand the point I\u2019m underscoring<\/em>?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYes, mama.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDo you? Really?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYes, mama.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wendell doesn\u2019t say anything. His eyes center solely on the landscape, concentrating on the altering shades of grey and intervals of rusty metallic parts which are scattered about in the distant \u2014 depending on whether or not it\u2019s a half-bombed-out building\u2019s remains or traumatized trees still in their decayed state following a nation\u2019s moral and physical replenishment in a mere decade and a half. Seconds linger with grey-colored stones covered by scaffolding settle starkly into his recollection of Cologne\u2019s cathedral\u2019s twin towers that he\u2019s just witnessed. Even from the distance with which Wendell had viewed that<\/em> monumental cathedral, from a good mile on the other side of the Rhine River, its ruined remains appear noble. Somehow. <\/p>\n\n\n\n On the radio, The Beatles sing \u201cI Wanna Hold Your Hand\u201d in German. Without needing a clue inside their father\u2019s recently purchased beige Beetle, Frank\u2019s boys sing Komm, gib<\/em>\u2019 mir deine Hand, Komm gib<\/em>\u2019 mir deine Hand!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Hearing one Beatle hit after another airing across the waves since the trip itself began, has been that one thing that\u2019s kept the two boys quiet. Only other songs seemingly interrupting any air time comes from The Supremes (\u201cBaby Love\u201d) and a song by the German named Drafi Deutscher, who has his recently released catchy tune \u201cMarmor, Stein und Eisen bricht\u201d <\/em>\u2014 which catches their attention because of what sounds as if it\u2019s the repetition of the words: dum-dum, dum-dum<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Isaac\u2019s got the better genius for German and mutters a stanza silently:<\/p>\n\n\n\n [\u2026] Marnor, Stein und Eisen bricht<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Aber unsere Liebe nicht,<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Alles, alles geht vorbei,<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Doch wir sind uns treu<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Kann ich einmal nicht bei dir sein, dam-dam, dam-dam<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Denk daran, du bist nicht allein, dam-dam, dam-dam <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAll of a sudden it\u2019s raining cats and dogs out there,\u201d Frank says. In a matter of minutes, he finds himself gliding the Beetle and The Beatles off the Autobahn, heading over to the ramp safely. This heavy downpour is too much for the car\u2019s generator. The engine\u2019s flooded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This isn\u2019t supposed to happen to someone who\u2019s an Infantry Engineer, whose daily routine nestled itself on the mechanics of repairing tanks, trucks, and aircraft engines. How was this happening to him, right in the middle of nowhere, on a renewed but wet highway, somewhere roughly twenty-five kilometers south of Cologne?<\/p>\n\n\n\n He sits there for some silenced minutes, thinking how he would even ever manage to conduct any kinda repairs in this rain. He tries to restart the engine. Again, and again. The ignition is unable to ignite. Mille isn\u2019t happy with this either. Ten minutes\u2026 Nothing. Engine hasn\u2019t found its spark. Wendell finally feels the need to announce he\u2019s cold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Frank extends his left arm out and puts his hand under the steering wheel, grabbing a gauge that releases the front-hood of the Volkswagen. He opens his side-door and runs fast to lift up the hood, bringing three blankets and two lunch boxes filled with sandwiches back into the car: Isaac\u2019s Batman lunch box contains Bologna and Liverwurst wrapped in lettuce and mayonnaises. Wendell\u2019s lunch box, sparking a smiling Roy Rogers and Trigger on its cover, carries four peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Keith\u2019s four varieties of Gerber\u2019s adorable baby-jars are already in the glove compartment. Mille distributes sandwiches upon request. Isaac wants one of the peanut butter sandwiches packed in Wendell\u2019s box, and this time around, Wendell gets a Bologna sandwich.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is Frank simply being Frank, giving his family one small measure of his finest of attributes: his attention to detail, and his survival instincts packaged into his ironic disharmony of caring and preparing for his children\u2019s needs. Nonetheless, Mille\u2019s disappointed. Eyes lock onto their father\u2019s K\u00f6rpersprache.<\/em> The boys turn swiftly, towards the foggy rear window, watching as probably as is possible in this apocalyptic interim, while hearing their father scream, piercingly, that the rain is freezing cold. Naturally, they\u2019re tickled by the gestures their father makes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Up until now the boys haven\u2019t had a significant conscientious clue that the Volkswagens\u2019 engines are actually located in the wear of the vehicle. Yet they cannot see anything. They only warily listen to the rapacious spacing of sounds spreading about in the rear, as Frank ties to sort the problem out. He comes back into the car displaying a demeanor of defeat that the boys haven\u2019t witnessed before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This isn\u2019t a good omen. Mille stares a blank stare out unto the grayest of frontiers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She had her temper. She\u2019s known too many evenings with Frank coming home, on the fringe of being so drunk that he\u2019s not even noticed the various samples of lipsticks pasted on his collar. Him going out into the Rhineland\u2019s wilderness, finding some tavern of prostitutes to smelt his penis into for a few hours,<\/em> Mille imagines. It wouldn\u2019t be unlike him to take on such an adventure. Yeah, Pig (as Frank and her brothers called her) had a fantasy and also a brilliant IQ to match that fantasy. Yet, insane, she wasn\u2019t. Besides, unknowingly to most of Mille\u2019s siblings, nicknames of animals were a trademark passed on among the Cherokee. Saved by William Holland Thomas\u2019 tenaciousness, Mille\u2019s maternal great grandmother, Ada Boone (n\u00e9e Bishop) had been held back \u2014 ironically, near Boone \u2014 from enduring the death-defying Trail of Tears<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Frank had claimed he wouldn\u2019t continue hurting her as he\u2019d done a decade earlier. Still, she won\u2019t put it past him, that he\u2019s up to something no-good<\/em>. She\u2019s never trusted Frank\u2019s association with those Masons. No telling what he\u2019s actually up to. Him out there on his own like this, in the middle of nowhere, longer than an hour now. How far was a woman to debase herself within this mundane institution of marriage by way of sacrifices which evolved into an even greater shame and that lessening of one\u2019s honor and starkest representation of Self? Why was she continuing to make herself the hapless victim like this? Why was she sticking around? For yet another two years of his<\/em> overseas duty, and placing herself in the same situation to that circumstance she\u2019d had to endure for three years in France, six years ago? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Autobahn is packed. One only observes the headlights since the rain\u2019s simply too overwhelming to bring any clarity to all the automobiles passing by. No one bothers to stop. Only within scope of a solid two decades following World War Two\u2019s aftermath, this isn\u2019t what one does in Germany.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For Germans free-will evidences itself as independence. Besides, those macho \u2018Armes\u2019 can take care of their own<\/em>, especially those among its black soldiers, goes the ethos of heteronormative along the Rhineland. Americans haven\u2019t come to Germany as guest-workers, refugees, or asylum-seekers as the Turks, Italians, Croatians, Jordanians, and Syrians have. They\u2019re the conquerors: those Armes<\/em>: they\u2019re not supposed to be our friends<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n At last, nearly forty minutes into today\u2019s misfortune, a U.S. military convoy comes creeping towards a halt, five jeeps with American soldiers packed inside, waving and signaling to decipher if Frank and his family are in need of a hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Frank, shouting over the storm from inside his Beetle asks if he can be taken to a military base or a gas station? Then he turns to his boys and tells them to keep the doors locked and to protect their mother and little brother. \u201cAvoid any assistance from strangers! Understand?\u201d And, they do understand him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Two soldiers driving at the rear of five vehicles, are told they\u2019re to leave the convoy and help Frank. He jumps into the jeep, the driver stirring away from the others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n No Beatles can be heard. Frank\u2019s also reinstated to the boys to keep the radio off to avoid any further damage to the battery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s been two hours and Frank hasn\u2019t returned. Poor Keith\u2019s screaming his lungs out into the world with discontentment. Mille attempts to calm her baby, yet he\u2019s as hungry, as cold, and as worried as his brothers are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A car pulls over. The driver driving his Audi backs up, approximately two meters away from the Volkswagen. Stops. He walks up to the driver\u2019s side and asks if he can help. But he\u2019s ignored callously by Mille.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHe wants to help us!\u201d Isaac screams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mille\u2019s lips elicit slowly towards an awkward and indiscreet mumbling, \u201cYou boys stay put back there,\u201d as Isaac obeys, instantaneously. Wendell doesn\u2019t say anything. Yet the noise coming out of Keith\u2019s lungs disturbs Wendell and Isaac.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The stranger looks through tightened windows and yells, \u201cPassed by about an hour ago\u2026only want to make sure everything\u2019s fine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019re fine,\u201d Mille lies, proudly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Can\u2019t be this nice, offering to help a total stranger like this,<\/em> she thinks, as the stranger goes into his blue Audi and drives off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOh, God! Where\u2019s your dad?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHe wanted to help us!\u201d Wendell reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHow you figure that much, Wendell! You have any clue where we are? Do you?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mille won\u2019t go into any greater details as to why she\u2019s so upset with her boys. They\u2019ll understand how the world works once they\u2019re older. But they do understand. And, although the Smiths \u2014 when they had lived in France six years ago \u2014 had been fortunate enough to have known several of the kindest families anyone could\u2019ve befriended, nevertheless, the boys still shared a remembrance of how often the French had looked down on them in Orl\u00e9ans, often clandestinely offering the evilest-of-rolling-eyes, whenever parents weren\u2019t watching vigilantly. And the French were supposed to be the good guys? <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhy is Keith crying so much?\u201d Wendell asks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBecause he\u2019s tired and hungry and frightened,\u201d Mille screams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cCan I go in the front and get some more food out of the trunk?\u201d Wendell braves to ask.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou stay put, boy!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDarn it! Are we going to be able to watch \u201cRawhide, tonight?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m hungry,\u201d Isaac complains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cTake this peanut butter sandwich,\u201d Mille orders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI don\u2019t want a sandwich. I want some real<\/em> food,\u201d Isaac frowns firmly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI need to go home. I need to use the toilet. We\u2019re going to miss \u2018The Rifleman\u2019 and \u2018Rawhide\u2019 tonight,\u201d Wendell warns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI bet you we don\u2019t!\u201d Isaac says belligerently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI wanna see Clint Eastwood in \u2018Rawhide\u2019!\u201d Wendell demands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPlease, shut up; both of you!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s pitch-dark. And, to the boys living their last two years in Louisiana, spoiled by November\u2019s evening\u2019s sunlight in the Deep South, found it was horrific to see it getting as dark as quickly as it got by 6 p.m. However, it was especially pitch-black in this area where no lamps were mounted for travelers to adeptly understand their surroundings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One cannot begin to perceive how fast darkness falls upon the Rhineland, especially after late-October, useless you\u2019re able to experience it. And the day\u2019s torrential rains make the evening darker than what was normal this time of year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wendell had spotted that dark blue Audi about an hour ago and had noticed it hadn\u2019t stopped, even though the driver made it apparent his concern was genuine. Has to be close to 8 p.m. now, the boys acknowledge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nearly another hour passes. Greta, the adorable attractive daughter of the Hauptmann family projects, \u201cThey should be here\u2026watching Lloyd Bridges on The Armed Forces Network!\u201d Her humanity is well-blended to an elegance that\u2019s reinstated by her striking balletic posturing. Nearby, on one of the two-seated post-Bauhaus sofas, placed impeccably within an open-foyer-enlarged living room, two boys toss their two soccer balls at intervals from hands to heads, getting a squinch from their mother\u2019s eyes each time they execute such actions towards the other\u2019s sphere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As a family unit they\u2019re grateful. As they readily represent what some might consider as a wholesome, sensible, learned, Foucauldian-influenced Zeitgeist<\/em> of a family wavering towards the current collaborative caution against any sort of Excessiveness <\/em>amid Germans \u2014 given they\u2019ve but only in recent years witnessed that unbearable cacophony their grandparents experienced \u2014 insofar as to regain any sense of dignity and pride within the shame two consecutive wars had had on their wellness and purposefulness in life. The Hauptmanns illustrated this humanitarianism and conscientiousness towards being peacemakers who could lead the world\u2019s souls anew undilutedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Inside its neo-Frankfurter-inspired-framework Goethe would\u2019ve admired with surety is this brilliant mediaeval structure composed with a modesty of which only downplays an elegance noteworthy to its owners\u2019 classless yet posh tastes, nonetheless, instilling how this family would rather live with the logic wherein their home<\/em> isn\u2019t that which entertains their wealth best, inasmuch as it is of their best interests \u2014 as a family \u2014 to live a life whereby the bulk of their income entertains the idea of a stability without financial worries \u2014 whereby traveling, skiing, scuba diving, and the amusement found in cultural and artist entertainment would mean more to their family\u2019s yearly livelihood. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSie ist s\u00fc\u00df! Und, nat\u00fcrlich\u2026hat sie Angst<\/em>!<\/em>\u201d Bernard acknowledges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou\u2019re going to allow them to remain out there in the cold like that,\u201d Heidi goes off in English spontaneously: in what also represents that barometric signifying of her excitement, as well as of her commitment of her desire to keep her children conversing in other languages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAber sie ist so stur. Verst\u00e4ndlicherweise besch\u00fctzt sie ihre Familie<\/em>,<\/em>\u201d Bernard reflects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAngstvoll auch, stimmt<\/em>.<\/em> A woman left out on her own in the car like that. I wouldn\u2019t roll my car window down either,\u201d Heidi notes. \u201cShame on her husband. They\u2019ve been out there for three hours!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat if we have flooding due to the rains?\u201d Their daughter, Greta, exclaims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDon\u2019t dare think of such a thought, dear. Bernard go back! Go back with Greta,\u201d Heidi counters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s senseless. I saw her look. I\u2019m labeled. Stereotyped.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Isaac\u2019s eyes glistened a desired salvation when he notices the Audi pulling up in front of them again. This time the driver turns the front end of his car towards them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNow what the hell is he up to? Ah, if I only had a gun. Some peoples<\/em> gotta lot of nerves,\u201d Mille mumbles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He keeps his upholstery lights on: as well as his park lights on. Mille and the boys notice someone else is with him. Rain hasn\u2019t stopped. It is, indeed, dark, pitch-black actually. With their flashlights guiding them towards the Beetle, a driver and a young girl approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cGirl walking beside him has to be his daughter,\u201d Mille says and shivers, and then attempts to look into her boys\u2019 eyes; but it\u2019s too dark to see their expression. Blankets weren\u2019t keeping them warm. That was her only clarity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Greta comes over to Mille\u2019s side of the car and places a likeable, sophisticated voice into the window, saying, \u201cMy father wants to help you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mille cracks her window low enough that Greta doesn\u2019t have to yell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMy name is Greta. My papa is Bernard Hauptmann, and he brought me back because he wants you to trust him. He knows you\u2019ve been out here for hours now. You must be starving. Freezing. And what about your baby: Please let us take you back to our house\u2026?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mille turns to the boys. Frozen by the moment\u2019s awe, her eyes become teary. \u201cI wanna go home. Think I\u2019m getting a fever,\u201d Wendell moans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m cold,\u201d Isaac states. Mille dropping her head into her baby\u2019s body implodes and sobs: \u201cLord, forgive me if I\u2019m doing my boys harm.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI won\u2019t harm you. I\u2019ve written a letter for your husband. It\u2019ll tell him how to get to my home. He\u2019ll be able to find you. My wife has a meal waiting for you, and it will disappoint us all if you won\u2019t join us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLet\u2019s trust them, Mom!\u201d Wendell proclaims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe only care about your safety,\u201d Greta shies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the dinner table the boys are joined by Bernard and his wife, Heidi. The Hauptmanns are: their only daughter, Greta, fifteen, while the boys \u2014 Stefan and Hans, roughly Isaac and Wendell age \u2014 are eleven and ten, respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMan, if you all had gotten here sooner, you\u2019d have seen it. Hoss and Little Joe were really very funny tonight,\u201d Stefan says, looking at his older sister for reassurance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe music\u2019s so special!\u201d Greta says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMy sister can play \u2018Bonanza\u2019 and \u2018The Rawhide\u2019 theme songs really well,\u201d Stefan says smiling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAh\u2026on that piano, there?\u201d Wendell asks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNo, I usually play it on a violin.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cGreta\u2019s also quite a talented painter,\u201d says Bernard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAre those her drawings on the wall? I wish my boys could draw and paint like that. Actually, I have a younger brother who\u2019s an artist.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYeah, Uncle Will really has great paintings,\u201d Wendell exclaims. \u201cHe likes to get up very, very early, and sometimes he stays up all during the night and when we wake up, he\u2019s done with his paintings. Amazing!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Greta\u2019s articulate, inspired, humane eyes land on Isaac, waiting for his interaction. She notices Isaac possesses incomparable features. With exception to the fact that his forehead was far narrower than the Egyptian queen, Isaac\u2019s face was chiseled into a perfection that made Greta believe that he looked as if he were a living reincarnation of Nefertiti. Greta noticed that a triangle-wedged piece on the tip of his ear \u2014 roughly a fraction half-a-centimeter \u2014 was his only<\/em> imperfection on his face. He\u2019s simply breath-taking<\/em>, Greta thinks, wishing there was a chance to paint a portrait of Isaac. Heidi must\u2019ve been thinking the same thing. She utters. \u201cYour three boys are all so wonderfully handsome. And you yourself, Mille, are simply as gorgeous a beauty of a Negro woman I\u2019ve ever seen, and we do travel a great, great deal!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Any sort of immodesty Wendell evinced about himself always subsided in his brother\u2019s presence. He accepts that although he has the brighter skin and curlier hair, Isaac has the height, the face, and the body of a demigod. That cut into his ear was his only defect. He had had a terrible fall at the age of two. The boys had suppressed its recollections, momentarily, for wont of eluding from a rather ugly fight which had occurred between them when they were babies. At the expense of their silence and rare camaraderie upon their father\u2019s stormy entrance into their bedroom, that moment elicited itself into becoming their first successful understanding of the empowerment a lie brought unto one\u2019s existence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou could be a movie star,\u201d Greta injects. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThanks for the compliments, but those boys are my only form of entertainment I\u2019ll be experiencing during this life.\u201d Mille\u2019s genuinely faltered, states: \u201cYour English is so strong. All of you! I\u2019m so, so impressed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI studied law at Michigan for three years,\u201d Bernard acknowledges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe actually met there,\u201d Heidi explains. \u201cI was a high school senior during an exchange year abroad. Bernard was nearly ten years older\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSeven to be exact,\u201d her husband interrupts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOkay, seven years older\u2026I admit it\u2026but we couldn\u2019t keep our eyes off of each other and exchanged addresses and kept in contact\u2026and I got into the university in his hometown and there we were\u2026manifesting into this<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLovely,\u201d Mille utters, a bit sleepily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Frank got back just minutes after they\u2019d left. He was furious, shocked seeing no bodies inside the car. He rushes to open the door, looking for signs of kidnapping and double-checking to see if any blood stains were inside the car.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHoly Cow! Shit-shit-shit! I\u2019ve surely screwed up!<\/p>\n\n\n\n J-Jay, one of the fellows riding in the jeep, sees the note Bernard\u2019s left on the dashboard. It on a yellow sheet of stationary, written quite legibly, placed just over the steering-wheel:<\/p>\n\n\n\n I brought my daughter back by to speak to your wife and children after seeing that they had been in the cold for three hours. This has been an unusual gruesome storm for this time of year and so we pleaded with them to come home with us. Your family is safe with food and shelter until you come to pick them up. You and your family are very welcomed to spend the night at our home should you find it\u2019s very late to return tonight. Yours sincerely, Attorney Bernard Luther Hauptmann <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The letter eased his anxieties. However, Frank knew that this wasn\u2019t going to win him any points with Mille. How stupid his intentions had been. He continues thinking: What a dilemma. Mille would probably leave me and return to the States after such chaos and all this chaos after only a month\u2019s stay in Germany.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, the kids were watching westerns on the Armed Forces Network when Frank arrives. \u201cRawhide\u201d is airing when the doorbell rings. The boys dash to their father and hug him. \u201cWe\u2019ve already watched \u201cWanted Dead or Alive,\u201d Isaac shouts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bernard\u2019s daughter, Greta, and the boys had all cheered cool-talking Steve McQueen in those belated-airings running in Germany of \u201cWanted Dead or Alive,\u201d before the Hauptmann boys dosed off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Shoot<\/em>. This is all of a greeting I\u2019m going to get from my boys<\/em>, Frank wonders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Isaac and Wendell held their breath as Bernard and Frank exchanged words. Bernard exhibiting a gracious and unexpected hospitality, states: \u201cHeidi, isn\u2019t it no problem, whatsoever, if the Smiths spend the night over\u2026decide it\u2019s better to go back to the base tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI really like the Rawhide music,\u201d Wendell notes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIs that Clint Eastwood\u2019s voice, singing the theme song?\u201d Hans asks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI don\u2019t think it is Clint Eastwood,\u201d Greta confides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s Frankie Laine: I think,\u201d Heidi acknowledges. This was the German at their best, already well-informed and understanding every facet of Hollywood\u2019s culture in a manner surprisingly to the most informed of Americans. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Still a good two-hour drive back to Baumholder. But there\u2019s a new battery in the VW Beetle, so Frank states, \u201cWe don\u2019t want to be of any further nuisance to you all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s no inconvenience, whatsoever.\u201d Heidi pleads. \u201cWhy take such a risk considering your car could break down, again? Nine-thirty now. We\u2019ve got space. The children are so cute in front of the fireplace. Please, be our guests!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cCan\u2019t we stay? I need to see Clint Eastwood,\u201d Wendell flashes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou mean, you want to see Rowdy Yates,\u201d Frank adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYeah, and Wishbone! I really love those two guys,\u201d Wendell tells Greta.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cShoot, I need to see \u2019Rawhide\u2019. We\u2019re going to miss \u2019Rawhide\u2019 again this week,\u201d Isaac reinstates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Frank tittered and amused as ever, smiles at his sons\u2019 expressing their specific demands and interests. Usually, Frank would let them have their way. Often conflicting with Mille\u2019s principles, he encouraged his children to have a voice in its family\u2019s affairs. My grandma, Jenny Wall, raised me to believe that it is the children who lead their parents, not the parents who lead their children, <\/em>Frank said repetitively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet, tonight, feeling an explicable measure of euphoria and self-esteem that his family is safe, he views it, moreover, his responsibility to drive them back to Baumholder: No matter how obvious it is that the Hauptmanns are trustworthy, generous, caring. Therefore, unfortunately, the boys have to forfeit any notion of their mother sitting caringly beside them, roasting marshmallows near a fireplace in a town somewhere unknown to them along the Rhineland \u2014 since tonight there could be no Clint Eastwood, because tonight they\u2019d be unable to stay there in front of that television set and enjoy the Hauptmann\u2019s well-furnished room with its cozy fireplace \u2014 while watching Rowdy Yates complain about Wishbone\u2019s sour coffee, and the two cowboys sorting out ashes in front of a wagon train\u2019s campfire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" FRANK HAS MADE it to Bad Kreuznach in less than an hour. Heavy snowfalls in this hilly region of Birkenfeld, just east of France, slows him down. On the northern bound A-62, farther away from Baumholder\u2019s Smith Barracks, that military base which has its reputation of facilitating the best coached Little League players in Germany, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":24944,"template":"","categories":[64,10],"class_list":["post-24886","stsp_text","type-stsp_text","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-issue-33","category-prosa"],"yoast_head":"\n