#Atsuko Muhlfeld

[abenteuerinwestberlin]

PREQUEL. BERTRAM & DIANA. 4/8

Setting: 1955. West-Berlin Dahlem. An interlude.

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As to be expected with artists (or, at least, Bertram supposed), his cousin Nicklaus, or Niki as he prefered to be called, constantly had his girlfriend over to their apartment. Bertram had been a bit surprised to say the least that his cousin had brought home a Japanese girl, but he found it rather poetic that the son of a propaganda film star was in love with about the least German girl in all of Berlin. Atsuko wasn’t even Christian, Niki had told him once. Niki had, obviously, as of yet neglected to introduce the girl to his parents.

“Hey!” Niki called when he heard the door. Bertam went into the living room. As expected, Niki and Atsuko were curled up together on the couch. Bertram wondered why Atsuko even bothered to pay for student housing. He also wondered why he hadn’t told his aunt and uncle what was going on yet. “How’d your date go?”

“Really well,” Bertram said, still feeling like he was dreaming. “She… really seems interested.”

“That’s great!” Niki enthused. “She Catholic?”

He knew, of course, how important that was to Bertram’s parents - how important that was to his parents, too. Bertram hesitated for a second before saying, “Lutheran. But… I don’t think my parents will be too upset over that. After all… my mother was a Protestant, and she converted to marry my father, and your grandfather was a Lutheran and never had to cover to marry your grandmother.”

“Yeah, and her father was a merchant, not a baron.”

“Her father’s a count. Diana’s, I mean. Besides… how many good Catholic girls even live in Berlin? Most upper-class women here are Lutheran.” At least, he hoped his parents would see it that way, too.

“Well,” Niki said, “You should probably let them know before they meet her.”

It was rich coming from a boy who hadn’t even told his parents that he’d had a girlfriend for very nearly a year straight, but… well, he did have a point. “I was planning on it,” Bertram said. And it was true; his parents needed to know something like that ahead of time.

It was only a matter of how long he could put it off.