A Breach In Berlin

Two - Zwei - Its Not Just A Gate Anymore

Unedited

9:50 pm December 9th 2014, Berlin

Ever had to sit through a really, really awkward family dinner? If you haven't, want to swap places so you can experience one? I'd rather be anywhere but at this table right now.

Mum, Dad and Jared had all power napped for a few hours until midday, while I nonchalantly flicked through the mixture of German and English TV channels on the flat screen hung up on the wall. The most interesting programme I could find was 'pointless' with two hosts who thought they were hilarious and attempted to make tragic puns out of the answers available to the contestants. Both rooms began the room service bill for lunch, but mum probably had it easier because she didn't have to wake up Jared. If he was woken before he was ready to wake up, you face his wrath and I almost ended up with a bruise round my eye for the rest of our visit if I hadn't ducked. He was a very restless sleeper, that much could be said. And I, did not suit a blotchy purple and green mark round my eye.

But now, we were sat at a marble topped table, slowly and carefully picking at our food while we waited for someone to make some sort of conversation. Although, I had myself to blame really for the lack of it. We used to be such a chatty family, meal times was always fun because we would congregate and tell each other how our day was, which kid fell over in the lunch line or who back chatted to the teacher and even though it got them in trouble it would give the rest of the class something to giggle about. Felix would have some interesting history fact to tell us and Dad would add a comical spin to it which lead to the table erupting with laughter like a happy family should. But now Felix had gone and Jared had taken his place at the dinner table in the evening and as much as my parents and I liked Jared very much, his company didn't fill the shoes Felix left behind.

Mum met a mental block for conversation when she asked me if I remembered Berlin from last time we visited. That was nine years ago. Seven of those years were spent clogging up my mind with knowledge of the medical kind for exams. I'd also travelled to many, more interesting, corners of the globe since we took that little road trip when I was sixteen. So, in all honesty, I told her I didn't remember much beside the big monuments that everyone knew about. Jared wasn't exactly the life if the party either, he seemed to have run out of business to talk about to my father, who secretly I knew was far from interested in what Jared did. He was also partially sulking with me because I'd woken him up for lunch, he then couldn't sleep because I'd figured out how to rent movies and was playing 'Fury' a little too loud for Jared's precious ears. He had to suck it up, I wasn't turning it down for him, Brad Pitt had my heart for those two hours. Dad was trying to discretely read a newspaper under the table and mother Vermont, I'll tell you now, is as blind as a bat without her glasses which she never wears for dinner. So, zero conversation contributions from Father Vermont.

I sighed, adjusting the silver cutlery on my plate for the fifth time. I was trying to cultivate some confidence to be excused form the table, but the moment never seemed right. But there was only so much more time I could wait before this whole situation became unbearable. I glanced at my father, who noticed my fidgeting as I cast him a pleading look. He looked down at he newspaper again, almost dismissing my forlorn look until he glanced up at the clink and clatter of my manoeuvring my knife and fork for the sixth time.

"Grace, stop fidgeting," He finally spoke up and a wave of relief washed over me, "Go take a walk, burn of that wretched energy of yours, please!"

"Thanks dad." I smiled and scooted back in my chair, straightening out my top and smoothing down my jeans.