Page 487 of Edge of Eternity (The Century 3)

On the other side, they stopped and waved, even though they were only ten feet away. "We're free!" Alice said.

Lili said: "Give my love to Walli."

"And mine," said Karolin.

Alice and Helmut walked on, hand in hand, up the path between the fields of grain.

At the far end they waved again.

Then they entered the little village and disappeared from sight.

Karolin's face was wet with tears. "I wonder if we'll ever see them again," she said.

CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE

West Berlin made Walli nostalgic. He remembered being a teenager with a guitar, playing Everly Brothers hits in the Minnesanger folk club just off the Ku'damm, and dreaming of going to America to be a pop star. I got what I wanted, he thought--and a lot that I didn't.

While he was checking into his hotel he ran into Jasper Murray. "I heard you were over here," said Walli. "I guess what's happening in Germany is exciting to cover."

"It is," said Jasper. "Americans aren't normally interested in European news, but this is special."

"Your show, This Day, isn't the same without you. I hear its ratings are down."

"I probably ought to pretend to be sorry. What are you up to these days?"

"Making a new album. I left Dave mixing it in California. He'll probably fuck it up with strings and a glockenspiel."

"What brings you to Berlin?"

"I'm meeting my daughter, Alice. She escaped from East Germany."

"Are your parents still there?"

"Yes, and my sister Lili." And Karolin, Walli thought, but he did not mention her. He longed for her to escape, too. Deep in his heart he still missed her, despite all the years that had passed. "Rebecca's here in the West," he added. "She's a big shot in the Foreign Office now."

"I know. She's been helpful to me. Maybe we could do a piece on a family divided by the Wall. It would show the human suffering caused by the Cold War."

"No," said Walli firmly. He had not forgotten the interview Jasper had done back in the sixties, which had caused so much trouble for the Francks in the East. "My family would be made to suffer by the East German government."

"Too bad. Good to see you, anyhow."

Walli checked into the Presidential Suite. He turned on the TV in the living room. The set was a Franck, made in his father's factory. The news was all about people fleeing East Germany via Hungary and, now, via Czechoslovakia too. He left the set on with the sound low. It was his habit to have the TV on when he was doing other things. He had been thrilled to learn that Elvis did the same.

He took a shower and put on fresh clothes. Then the desk called to say that Alice and Helmut were downstairs. "Send them up," Walli said.

He felt nervous, which was silly. This was his daughter. But he had seen her only once in her twenty-five years. At that time she had been a skinny teenager with long fair hair, reminding him of Karolin when he had first met her, back in the sixties.

A minute later the bell rang and he opened the door. Alice was now a young woman, with no teenage gawkiness. Her fair hair was cut in a bob, so she no longer looked so strikingly like the young Karolin, though she had Karolin's thousand-candlepower smile. She was dressed in shabby East German clothes and down-at-heel shoes, and Walli made a mental note to take her shopping.

He kissed her awkwardly on both cheeks and shook hands with Helmut.

Alice looked around the suite and said: "Wow, nice room."

It was nothing by comparison with hotels in Los Angeles, but Walli did not tell her that. She had a lot to learn, but there was plenty of time.

He ordered coffee and cakes from room service. They sat around the table in the living room. "This is weird," Walli said candidly. "You're my kid, but we're strangers."

"I know your songs, though," Alice said. "Every one. You weren't there, but you've been singing to me all my life."

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