Cullen John - Empty Hearts

Eagles and Angels

In Free Fall

Decompression

Knut and Janina come over at five.

The weathers splendid. For several days now, the sun has shown the kind of strength you would hardly have thought it capable of after a typical Braunschweig winter and the drizzly first weeks of spring. The light lies like pale yellow chiffon on the smooth surfaces of the furniture, sparkles in the glasses on the table, penetrates into the remotest dust-free corners. Three times a week, Britta has Henry, a young man from Laos, make the house spick-and-span. Unfortunately, the picture windows always exhibit a couple of smudges that Henry has missed.

With the children, daily routines have changed somewhat. Before, the adults would have met at dusk for the first aperitifs, not in broad daylight for dinner. But thats normal, its the same for all of them, the whole army of parents with only children. Britta used to work until midnight, sleep until noon, and ingest the first solid food of the day in the early afternoon, when Babak, no morning person himself, would come to the office with somethingusually a sandwichfor her to eat. The arrival of baby Vera seven years ago put an end to all that. Only sometimes Britta still feels a slight dizziness and something akin to alarm, symptoms of existential jet lag.

This mess keeps falling apart, Richard calls from the kitchen, addressing no one in particular. Out in the hallway, Britta accepts the bottle of red wine that Knut has brought, a nice gesture, even though they have a whole cellar full of Luis Felipe Edwards Cabernet Sauvignon, a 2020 Chilean she and Richard like and have grown used to. Shell regift Knuts Rioja, a bottle with a ribbon around its neck, when the opportunity arises.

Sticky fingers. Richard laughs as he raises his gummy hands in the air and greets his guests with his elbows. Im following the recipe exactly, but the stuff still looks like biowaste.

Before him lie shreds of seaweed and clumps of gooey rice, the results of his wrapping experiments. Richard has got it into his head to make his own sushi this evening, and Britta never interferes in such plans. The kitchen is Richards domain. Shell keep the guests entertained and make sure the children eat something, it really doesnt matter what, by seven oclock or so.

Man, it looks great. Well get some flat spoons and eat it directly off your granite countertop, says Knut.

Its actually polished concrete, but Britta keeps her mouth shut. Knuts kind of a wimp and probably not even particularly intelligent, but Britta likes him anyway, because hes good-humored and because his daughter, Cora, gets along so well with Vera. Seven years ago, Janina and Britta met at baby swim class, each with a screaming bundle on her arm; after that first day, they spent many a long, sluggish afternoon together. At first, theyd indulge in reciprocal venting about their troubles; later, theyd enjoy an hour or two of relative peace by the side of a play area while the two little girls kept themselves busy. This play-date friendship has even withstood their decision to send Cora and Vera to different schools. While Knut and Janinas daughter goes to a childrens music school where piano lessons are compulsory and smartphones prohibited, Vera is receiving a normal, Silicon Valleyinfluenced education, and is certainly no worse off for it. Coras practicing Faster, Faster, Little Snail on the xylophone; Vera has just written her first program, which causes a fish to swim back and forth across her computer screen and snap at a baited hook when its dropped into the water.

The two girls have already disappeared into Veras room, while the adults are still occupied with standing around, which is apparently a phase that must be endured at every such gathering. You lean in a doorway or support yourself with both hands on the back of a chair and laugh in one anothers faces until everyone is finally relaxed enough to sit down. Brittas house has a spacious living-and-dining area with big, glazed windows; nevertheless, everybody always squeezes into the kitchen and insists on sitting at the much-too-small breakfast table. Shes given up wanting to do anything about this.

Britta pricks up one ear and aims it at Veras room across the hall until she hears the usual Mega-Melanie sounds. The girls are wholly in love with Veras Mega-Mall, a multilevel plastic monstrosity that has Wi-Fi, several electronic screens, and a programmable sound track. When Cora comes for a visit, she always brings some of her Glotzis, cuddly little aliens with three big eyes, currently all the rage. They constitute the driving force of a complex Martian attack on the Mega-Mall, which must be repulsed by Mega-Melanie, Mega-Martin, and their Mega-Friends. Most of the time, after various complications, the members of Mega-SWAT start shooting wildly in all directions, killing not only the Glotzis but also all the customers in the Mega-Mall. Then the adults hear dramatic music and synchronized whoops of Collateral damage!

While the Edwards is breathing in the decanter, Britta opens the refrigerator and takes a moment or two to enjoy the sight of perfectly presented food. A stick of butter in a glass butter dish. Little vegetarian sausages, two eggplants, three tomatoes, a pitcher of milk. She takes out two different bottles of beer and hands each of the men his favorite. She opens a bottle of prosecco for Janina and herself.