Bone and Blood by Margo Gorman

other stories about an American soldier but Katharina was born too soon after the end of the war for that. Anyway whoever it was, it’s fairly sure they were never married. That’s probably why Bridget never came back to Ireland. Well they couldn’t to begin with. Berlin wasn’t the easiest place to travel to. Even when it came to our time to travel in the late 60’s, your Gran was never keen. She used the excuse of the wall going up and people being killed. She made it sound as if Aunt Bridget was right in the middle of it. The real reason was that as long as Bridget was in Berlin and didn’t have much contact with the family, there was less scope for scandal. Anyway, from accounts we heard, Berlin seemed to be stuck in a time warp.’
    â€˜I’m surprised you didn’t make an effort. I thought that would be just up your street, Dad – a bit of living history. The Berlin Wall came down some time in the late 1980’s, didn’t it?’
    â€˜November 1989. I’m surprised you don’t remember that date. The end of the German Democratic Republic and the unification of Germany followed on really quickly. It was the death knell of the Soviet Bloc.’
    â€˜I was only born in 1983 remember. I wasn’t watching the news at 6 years old. And the Soviet Bloc is history now.’
    â€˜I suppose so,’ her dad frowned and she could hear him slipping into history lecture tone which she mocked internally in half listening mode, ‘Your aunt was in the bit of Berlin controlled by the Allies at the end of the war but she was close to the Wall by all accounts.’
    â€˜So I’ll be visiting an interesting specimen of social history. I’m surprised you’re not coming with me.’
    â€˜Well I would love to but… ’
    â€˜Just think, Diarmuid,’ Her mother sighed, ‘ Michael was just born.’
    Danger zone of life BMD and life AMD – life-before-Michael-died and life after-Michael-died. Dad kicked the ball back into history.
    â€˜No need to be sarcastic, young lady. Remember, it
is
part of living history not something only in schoolbooks. And apparently Berlin has a real buzz these days. Now it’s the capital city again. Seat of government. Media hub and so on.’
    â€˜Be careful of what you say about the war to Brigitte. She was in some camp for a while during the war – somewhere near Berlin,’ her mother added.
    â€˜A prisoner-of-war camp? What did she do to get in there?’
    â€˜Well, it wasn’t a prisoner of war camp – more some sort of labour camp. They rounded foreigners up apparently.’
    Her father butted in, ‘Where did you hear that, Mary, surely I would have known about it?’
    â€˜I don’t know the full story but apparently your uncle Liam talked to her a lot when she came over to look after your grandmother that time.’
    â€˜Oh,Liam! Well it could be hard to sort the fact from the fiction. You’ll have to be a bit more tactful than usual, Aisling.’
    â€˜Look who’s talking!’
    â€˜Don’t worry. Just don’t ask too many questions. Let Aunt Bridget tell you what she wants.’
    Aisling said nothing – a funeral, a relative older than God and historical research; maybe Berlin could be more boring than being stuck at home. Still it wouldn’t be for long and it would make the break from being the good daughter. There must be clubs and cool places to hang out in Berlin. Maybe the buzz her father talked about had some connection to the Love Parade. Berlin was bracketed in her memory with the Love Parade. She reminded herself again to Google it. She’d have time to look at the guide at the airport if not before. It sounded as if there would be a few skeletons in the aunt’s cupboard worth a rattle too. Gran always censored out the more colourful bits of family history except maybe when she had a few sherries at