Trafika Europe 9/10 - UK in Europe

two crimestories

for this? Did she have to go to jail now? What did I think about someone who had an abortion? I had no idea. It was hard for me to think poorly of her, but my mother obviously did, as did half the city. Or at least, most of the people we knew. Instead of doing my homework, I sat down and tried to write a letter to my brother. I didn’t know what to say though. I called the number in Berlin that he had given us, but no one picked up. I finally decided to wait until Papawent behind the house to have a smoke. I wanted to know what he thought about Silvana’s mother. “It’s her business,” he said. “You know what, boy, the woman definitely didn’t make it easy for herself. But at the same time, we can’t just say

she did the wrong thing.” He sucked in a lungful of smoke. “The problem is that some people are going to do just that.”

It was only a rumor. Nobody actually knew if Herr Schneider had gotten Silvana’s mother pregnant or if she had had an abortion. But it was one of those rumors that survived the next two weeks undamaged. During PE class, Silvana had a screaming fit in the changing room. We heard her run into the hallway and watched as she hurled the door open, shouting: “My mother isn’t a murderer!” She then sank to the floor, sobbing. Without giving it another thought, I ran over and wrapped my arms around her. I wasn’t

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