Over the Fence (3 page)

The creative director, Adam Chapell, smiled at her. “We had hoped the suggestion would come from you, because that shows your willingness to continue bringing something to the table for our company, and we think the world of you.”

Matthew nodded. “We discussed all possibilities but agreed in advance that if the proposal didn’t come from you, we would terminate your employment contract. We are aware that you are in a very difficult situation, but you convinced us that you can perform your duties and still hold meetings on a reliable basis. So it’s all settled.” Matthew rose, walked over to Eva, and offered her his hand. “Good luck, Eva, to you and your parents. I hope you can come back soon, because you’re a good designer and we’d hate to lose you. But keep in mind, we only make this offer based on your compliance with agreed-upon deadlines and regularly scheduled meetings.”

Eva inhaled deeply and took Matthew’s hand. “I won’t disappoint you,” she said, reading the relief on everybody’s faces. “You can count on me.”

“Good. Then you can discuss everything else with the IT department. The first round of meetings will be the day after tomorrow at three. Do you think you can get all the technical equipment set up by then?”

Eva nodded, though she had no idea if she could get the Internet installed so quickly. But she’d think of something.

With the help of IT, she installed the appropriate software on her Mac. They even set up remote access to the corporate network, for which she had to sign a declaration of trust. Now she could access all company files, which was critical for her work.

Afterward, she phoned Chris and told him he needed to set up an Internet connection at their parents’ house immediately. She would have to drive to her brother’s house in a neighboring village until Internet was installed, but that little inconvenience was nothing compared to losing her job.

After saying good-bye to her colleagues, she collected all her documents and left in the early afternoon to pack her bags. She gave her three houseplants to a neighbor and caught a taxi to Heathrow. The whole situation started to feel so bizarre. Less than twenty-four hours ago, she had comforted herself by saying she could go back to Germany anytime if things didn’t work out in London. Now, she was on her way to the airport, leaving her little apartment in Hampstead. She took a last look and wished she could stay. She feared her backward hometown life even more than she feared the lonely hours in her London apartment.

Three

“When are you coming home? I have to get a vaccination before I can fly,” Stefanie complained.

“I can’t help it that your flight plans have been moved up, especially since you found it unnecessary to tell me about them in advance,” David retorted.

Stefanie sighed. “Why do we have to discuss the same thing over and over again?”

He rolled his eyes. “I’m on the way. I’ll be home in an hour at the latest.” David leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes for a few seconds. Stefanie’s behavior was becoming increasingly irresponsible.

He cleared his desk, grabbed all the necessary files, and stuffed them into his briefcase along with his laptop. Tomorrow he would start his vacation, and he could easily finish the rest of his work at home.

In these stressful moments, he longed for a cigarette, and it took considerable willpower not to stop and buy a pack. Even though he’d stopped smoking once his son was born, there were times he just had to have a puff or two. He never took more than a few drags, though, because it no longer tasted good to him. It was more a matter of being alone so that he could think in peace. Maybe these smoke breaks also allowed him to revisit his youth, a time when his world was less complicated and his whole future was ahead of him.

Stefanie was waiting for him at the front door. “Well, you certainly took your time,” she mumbled as she pushed past him and ran to the car. “Jonas will be here soon, and he doesn’t have a key.”

“You could have given it to him, and then I wouldn’t have needed to rush,” David said, but Stefanie didn’t hear him because she was already revving up the engine in the driveway.

As he retrieved his laptop and files from the trunk and returned to the house, he thought about how much Stefanie’s behavior bothered him. After all, they had a child together. Was it really asking too much for her to consult with him about her plans when she wanted to travel with a friend for two weeks? Generally, it wouldn’t have made any difference to him, but this time, Stefanie’s mother was on a cruise. David didn’t buy the excuse that Jonas, at age fourteen, wasn’t old enough to stay home alone after school. He was certainly old enough. As if on cue, the front door opened.

“You’re already home?” Jonas asked. He threw his schoolbag on the floor and groaned. “Getting tutored in math is a real bitch.”

“You’ll get there one of these days, and then you won’t need any more tutoring.” David patted his son on the shoulder. “What do we do now?”

“I’m meeting a friend on the soccer field. That’s okay, right?”

“Of course it’s fine, but let’s have some dinner, OK? If Mama has prepared the dough, I’ll make us a pizza. Otherwise, I need to see what’s in the fridge.” David didn’t mention that he would love to do something special with his son since he had come home early, but his boy’s expression left no doubt that he’d rather meet his friend.

After dinner, Jonas swung himself onto his bicycle and pedaled down the street. David watched him through his home-office window. His son had grown up. He wasn’t so vulnerable anymore. But it was still hard to let his son go his own way. Maybe it was time to talk with Stefanie.

Four

Chris was leaning against a pillar at the arrival gate when Eva came out of baggage claim. Despite his smile as he walked toward her, he looked tired. The last few days seemed to have drained him.

“Hi, Chris,” Eva said as he embraced her.

“It’s so great you could come home so quickly. It’s like a madhouse here. When I turn the music down, the girls complain, and the little one sticks to Kati like glue. And since Ma can no longer look after him, Kati has to drag him with her to the office. She doesn’t know whether she’s coming or going.” He picked up Eva’s carry-ons and suitcase.

Eva grabbed her second piece of luggage. “You don’t look very relaxed.”

“That’s the understatement of the century. I hardly get any sleep. You’ll see what I’m talking about soon enough.”

“Can we go right to the hospital?” Eva asked.

Chris shook his head. “It’s getting too late, and after the dinner hour, there are no visitors. You’d just be waiting all night outside intensive care. They won’t make an exception for you.”

Eva pushed out her lower lip. “Then tomorrow morning first thing?” She needed to see for herself how her parents were doing. It sounded as if her mother was in bad shape. The pain of so many fractures must be unbearable.

Her brother nodded. “Sure. I’ll pick you up tomorrow morning, and we’ll go together. On our way back from the hospital, we can stop at my house and you can take our other car. It’s still in the garage.”

She had forgotten about the Polo. At least she would be mobile and able to visit her parents whenever she wanted.

They left the airport, and Eva sucked in the mild evening air, noticing it was much warmer in Munich than in London.

“Best thing to do right now is to go to my house. Kati’s already prepared something for you to eat, and she’ll be happy to see you.” Chris headed for his VW Touran, opened the trunk, and heaved Eva’s suitcases into it.

As if to affirm Chris’s mention of a home-cooked meal, her stomach growled. “Sounds good.”

On the way, Chris reported the details of their mother’s condition. The hip and pelvic surgery went well. She had a clean break in both her left forearm and leg. Because of her two broken ribs, they had wrapped her upper body to keep her chest stable. “You know her. No crying.”

Eva nodded. Yes, she knew her mother well. No bellyaching no matter what happened. She always looked on the sunny side, and the prognosis was good. So Eva didn’t feel the need to worry about her. She confided in Chris that she was more worried about the house and how her father was going to cope with a broken leg. “As if it would be so terrible if the grass got too long and the sidewalk didn’t get swept.”

Chris snorted. “As if what the neighbors think is so damned important.”

“The dear neighbors can kiss my ass!” Eva said, gritting her teeth and remembering how she’d had to sweep the sidewalk when she had done something wrong. She had hated that task! She would have preferred to rake the freshly cut grass clippings.

“And always keep the garage door closed so nothing gets stolen or looks too messy,” Chris warned, a wide grin spreading across his face. “Welcome home.”

“How do you do it? This village’s bourgeois stuffiness isn’t normal.” Eva smiled now, too. “I have it pretty good. I only have to hang around for a few weeks, and then I can get out again. If I had to live my whole life there, I’d throw myself in front of the next lawn mower.”

“Well, you get used to it after a while. Also the sense of community is pretty nice,” Chris said defensively, making Eva feel guilty. It wasn’t her job to determine what his life should or shouldn’t be. And just because their hometown was too provincial for her didn’t mean everybody thought about it like that.

Half an hour later, they exited the highway and continued through small towns, past meadows and forests. Even though Eva couldn’t see anything in the darkness, she knew what each patch of earth looked like. Wheat and cornfields alternated with lush green meadows and pine forests, with small villages scattered in between. Soon the village festivals would start up again, the bands would strike up the music, and the village gossip would make its way from festival to festival. How long had it been since she moved away? Ten years now, but she had never regretted it. She’d moved to Fürstenfeldbruck for an apprenticeship, then to Berlin, where she’d gotten her first job, later opting to study graphic design. Now she was thirty-two years old, had just landed her first decent job, and had officially left Germany—and the past—behind. She enjoyed visits home for Christmas or birthdays but was always relieved to escape from the stifling, conservative environment after a few days. How her brother endured the small-town narrow-mindedness was a mystery to her. Maybe it was because he travelled so much for work and craved the peacefulness of country life. Her brother loved living in Buchenbach, a little over a mile away from Holzhausen. Her sister, Carola, had moved to Canada after meeting her husband during a guided Indian summer tour, a name chosen by travel agents for tourists who want to visit the wilds of Canada in autumn. From the German countryside to the Canadian countryside. Eva had been the only sibling to attempt big-city living.

Chris stopped in front of a single-family house, all its windows lit brightly. They’d hardly pulled into the driveway before Eva’s sister-in-law rushed out to greet them.

Eva wrapped her arms around her. “It’s so great to see you again, but I wish it could have been under other circumstances.”

Kati nodded and smiled. “I never thought you would come back after you found your dream job.” Kati led Eva into the kitchen. “You look good. But you can stow those high heels in the closet. You won’t need them here. I hope you brought some sneakers.”

“Sure did. But I refuse to leave the house in worn-out shoes.” Eva looked down at her feet. “Pretty shoes give me a completely different body awareness.”

“I think it’s those tight jeans you always wear,” Kati said as she poured three glasses of wine. “But you’re right. I like to pull out my heels every once in a while, too. I get a lot of weird looks because of it, especially when I’m pushing the stroller.”

“Let them talk. They’re going to talk about you anyway,” Eva said, grinning as she eyed Kati’s dyed-red hair. Kati dyed her hair a different color practically every month. Sometimes it was blue, sometimes purple, then a shiny, fiery orange. With her funky short haircut and fine facial features, she could carry off any color. Eva remembered the shocked faces well when she and Kati had strolled through the streets of Buchenbach. Kati’s purple hair shone in the sun, tattooed roses adorned her bare upper arm, and her high heels clicked on the asphalt. Only after she married Chris and their first child was on the way did the villagers stop commenting on Kati’s appearance, at least openly, though it was probably still a topic of conversation behind closed doors.

After the evening meal, Chris drove Eva to her parents’ house, and they kept their good-byes short. When he drove off, Eva discovered her parents’ black-and-white cat, Felix, waiting on the front stoop for a human to open the door. Eva stood in the hallway, feeling a little insecure. Even though she had often been home alone when she was younger, it felt strange now to be inside the bungalow without her parents present. Eva had forgotten how quiet the house was. There weren’t many people around them. To their left and across the street were a few houses, and to the right was one neighbor, their yards separated by a white picket fence, then a dirt road leading into an adjacent field. The cat’s heartrending meows interrupted the silence. She leaned over to scratch the bundle of fur’s back.

She put her suitcase in the room Kati had prepared for her. In less than five minutes, she had unpacked her bags and put her travel kit in the house’s one bathroom. She’d gotten so used to the noise in London and Berlin that the quiet here was almost unbearable. There were no cars honking, no alarm systems screeching, and no sirens wailing. She opened a can of cat food in the kitchen, and Felix padded over to his bowl to eat.

Even though it was after one in the morning, she went to the living room and turned on the TV so that she’d at least have a bit of connection to civilization. She flicked through the channels until she decided on a movie adapted from a romantic novel. She wrapped herself in a fluffy wool blanket and soon drifted off.

An unusual pressure on her stomach woke her. Before she was clearheaded enough to realize where the weight came from, she felt a wet nose and whiskers tickling her face. Felix was demanding his breakfast.

The TV was still on. Eva stretched, found the remote, turned the TV off, and went through the adjacent dining room to the kitchen. Felix was so excited that he jumped up onto the counter and tried to knock his food bowl onto the floor.

As she poured some food in his bowl, the cat gazed at her. “You live in the country. You should be able to catch yourself a mouse,” Eva said to him.

Ignoring her, he devoured the cat food.

Eva turned on the radio, then put ground coffee and water into the coffeemaker. A glance at the stove clock told her she could take her time. Her brother would come at nine, in about two hours, to drive her to the hospital. What should she do until then? After looking over the house, she took a shower and got dressed. In the dining room, she picked up an old newspaper and leafed through it while sipping coffee and scratching Felix’s belly. Her gaze kept wandering over to the yard.

When the doorbell finally rang, Eva sprang to her feet and rushed to the door. “Good morning! I forgot how peaceful it is here. I’m dying of boredom already.”

Chris held up a bag with freshly baked rolls and buns and the day’s newspaper. He handed it to her and went into the kitchen. “I can imagine. But soon you’ll be happy to have just ten minutes to yourself. Are you ready?”

Eva looked into the bag and pulled out a salt roll. “Yup!” As she took a hearty bite of the crusty roll, she closed her eyes, chewing with pleasure. “I’ve missed this so much,” she mumbled, her mouth full.

Felix followed her until she climbed into the car. He jumped onto the yard’s fence posts and watched them drive off.

On the ride to the hospital, Eva ate her breakfast and took in the surroundings—neatly trimmed bushes, small cottages, beautiful gardens, and farms. This was the idyllic countryside she had loved as a child and hated as a teenager.

There wasn’t even a bakery nearby. You had to drive several miles to Gautheim to buy anything. Even Gautheim wasn’t that great, though it had a nice open market and a handful of shops, three supermarkets, two butchers, three bakeries, a hairdresser, and a small medical center. Nothing much had changed since her last visit. She had gone to school in Gautheim until she went to high school. Eva knew every nook and cranny of the little town.

The hospital was located six miles from Fürstenfeldbruck. The closer they got, the more nervous she became. Eva shuddered at the thought of seeing her normally energetic mother lying in bed, hooked up to machines.

“Who do you want to visit first?” Chris’s words roused her out of her thoughts.

“Mama,” she answered without hesitation. “Papa’s going to be released in a few days. I’ll see him often enough,” she explained.

“That’s what I thought.”

They parked the car in the visitor lot and entered the building. Chris led them through several corridors to an elevator, then pressed the button for the second floor. Once there, they turned and walked down a long corridor until they came to a door with a little sign with their mother’s name on it. Chris quietly knocked on the door and opened it.

In the room were four beds; Eva saw her mother lying on the left one next to a window. Her heart ached seeing her mother in such a state, but she remembered she had to stay upbeat for her. Her mother saw her immediately.

“Eva! You didn’t have to come.” The smile on her mother’s face belied her words, and her eyes began to sparkle.

“Even when you do things like this?” Eva teased. She rushed to her bed and kissed her on the cheek. “How are you?”

“Actually, pretty well.” She looked at her IV and smiled. “They take pretty good care of me here. And since I know I’m going to be good as new, I don’t worry about a thing.”