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Zöe Beck
didn’t own a car, so he
was driving back to town
with us. Silvana’s parents
also didn’t come, but that
hadn’t been arranged. We
took her along as well. My
parents weren’t exactly
thrilled because Silvana
lived in Jürgenohl, which
was quite a bit out of our
way. As my father pulled
up at the public housing
building on Königsberger
Strasse, the lights were
blazing
in
Silvana’s
apartment on the third
floor. We could see that
Silvana’s mother was
standing on the balcony.
We could hear through
the closed car doors that
she was screaming at her
husband. We could hear
him yell back, and her
volume level spiked so
sharply they had to have
heard her as far away as
Rammelsberg. I looked
over at Silvana. Cem was
sitting between us on the
back seat, and he was
watching her, too. She
had dropped her head,
shut her eyes, and stuck
her fingers in her ears. My
parents were whispering
with each other, but I
couldn’t make out what
they were saying. Then my
father honked briefly, and
the yelling on the balcony
broke off. In response,
the lights in the other
apartments flashed on.
Silvana tore the car door
open just as my mother
was turning around to
say something to her. She
jumped out of the car and
dashed to the building,
but we couldn’t see if she
actually went in.
“It has nothing to do with
us,” my father said, andmy
mother shook her head
like she did whenever
I came home with a
hopelessly
screwed-up