TE23 Double Feature

Marzahn, Mon Amour

Katja Oskamp

and people who only attach temporary importance to how their feet look (a spa break, a stay in hospital or a new girlfriend). Sometimes I manage to convert a walk-in customer to a regular, if the first appointment goes well. Tiffy calls people who come to the salon for the first time newbies. When a newbie arrives at our salon, I place bets with myself: follow up appointment? Tip? Apology? I always bet on the apology and I always win. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a construction site foreman or someone who fancies himself, tattooed from head to foot, whether it’s a pregnant woman or an old one, whether they’re academics or without two brain cells to rub together – in actual fact, everyone who takes their shoes and socks off in a chiropody room for the first time apologizes for their feet. It makes no difference what condition they’re in. It’s all new and unfamiliar; the contact is a little too intimate; it’s embarrassing – all of this is reflected in the apology. 264

One Wednesday morning, I read the name ‘Herr Hübner’in the diary.

‘Do you know him?’ I asked Tiffy.

She shook her head. ‘Newbie,’ she said, ‘bit of a strange character. Came with his wife to make the appointment. I think she wears the trousers.’ At three o’clock, Herr Hübner was standing outside the door: a man in his late fifties, gone to seed, in a slouchy grey hoodie and baggy grey jogging bottoms. He was looking through the window with unmistakable reluctance. His wife was standing next to him, a plump woman dressed in black, with unkempt long hair dyed bright red. On Herr Hübner’s other side stood a young girl, thin, pale, flat-faced, an unassuming creature only given shape by her eyes edged with black eyeliner, presumably Herr Hübner’s daughter. When I opened the door and introduced myself, he didn’t want to give 265