Chapter 1: The Wall

Chapter 1: The Wall

The lights from the television screen danced over her face. She sat cross legged in front of the television set and leaned forward, her nose nearly touching the screen. Her mother scolded her for sitting so close to the screen, saying it would ruin her eyes. But it was the only way she could clearly see the figures that moved across it. She watched as the people took tools, clubs, and their bare hands to a wall covered in graffiti. She watched, not comprehending why the people looked simultaneously angry and sad, with tears streaming down their faces. She watched for a long while because her parents were not in the room to make her stop. From around the corner, she heard the foot fall of her mother emerge from the bathroom.

“Mama, what is Berlin?”

No response. She tried a bit louder, “Mama, what is Berlin?”

“A city in Germany!” Her mother’s voice sounded tired as she called from down the hall, frustrated by the intrusion.

“What is Germany?”

“A country!”

“Why do they have a wall?”

“To keep out the Americans!”

“They don’t like us?”

Her mother rounded the hall corner and looked at the girl with a furrowed brow. “Why would you think that?” she asked her daughter.

“If they want to keep us out, they must not like us.”

Her mother stopped to think for a second. “Maybe some of them don’t like us.”

“Why not?”

“Because they are communists and we aren’t”

“What is that?”

Her mother let out another frustrated sigh. “It is complicated, honey.”

“What will happen with the wall?”

“What wall, honey?”

“That wall,” she pointed to the screen inches from her face. “They are taking down that wall, they said it was in Berlin.”

Her mother shooed the girl away from the television and looked at the screen in silence for what seemed a very long time. Finally, a single tear rolled down her face. “So, it’s over,” she said.

“What’s over, mama?”

“The war.”

“We were in a war?”

“Kind of, honey.”

“But not now?”

“I guess not.”

“Why are you crying, mama?”

“Because we have been at war as long as I have been alive.”

“Are you sad the war is over?”

“I don’t know, honey.”

“Then why are you crying?”

“I don’t know.”

The girl looked up at her mother, a person more inscrutable at this moment than even the people tearing down a wall in Germany.

“It’s ok, mama, it will be alright.”

Mother looked down at child. “I hope so, honey, I hope so. You go on and play now.”

The girl got up and skipped towards the door. As she pulled on her Velcro shoes with the light up heels, she glanced back at her mother, who remained in front of the television, wringing her hands and staring at the images on the screen. The girl slipped out the door and into the backyard. The summer heat and humidity hit her like a waterfall. But she didn’t know any better than to think that it was anything other than normal. To her, the whole world was central North Carolina, or just like North Carolina. She made her way to the swing-set. As she scooted her bottom onto the rubber swing and planted her heels firmly into the ground below her, she kicked off with all her strength. A light dusting of red brown dirt, dry from the summer drought, puffed in the air like the flour Grace’s mother clapped off her hands when making bread. But she had underestimated her strength and her body moved backwards faster than she anticipated, and she gripped the metal chains of the swing tighter as she steadied herself.

Not pausing, she ferociously pushed her legs out in front of her and pulled them tight underneath her as she swayed from front to back in her seat, propelling her body through the air. She had to push and pull harder and harder to get higher and higher. She liked that moment when she got to the maximum reach of the swing and there was a split second of weightlessness as she hung in the air. She wondered if little girls in Germany did the same, if they were doing the same right now, and if they were at a playground near the wall, watching people take it down. Her parents had said some of her great-something grandparents had come from Germany a long time ago. Did she have family in Germany? What did they look like? Did they not like her because she was American? Was the sky as blue in Germany and the sun as hot? Why had her grandparents left Germany? Why did they come to America? Did everyone have grandparents from Germany? If her grandparents were from Germany, why did she speak English and not German?

Her thoughts were interrupted by her friend calling out to her.

“Grace!”

She slowed her legs pumping and prepared for the dismount. One, two, three, and she let go of the chain link of the swing and let her body fly through the air. Expertly, she drew her knees to her chest and let her feet hit the ground even and hard. Dust and sand floated up in her face. Running towards her was Tasha, her best friend. The two girls ran towards one another, and greeted each other with a hug, as they always did.

“Mom says I have thirty minutes until I have to clean up for dinner,” Tasha said.

“That’s lots of time! What do you want to do?”

“Swing.”

“Ok! I was already swinging, I went as high as the sky!”

“Did not!”

“Did too! I got so high all I saw was blue.”

“I can get that high too!”

The two girls dashed back to the swings, pushing off and pumping their legs furiously, trying to outpace the other one to the highest point possible.

“My brother says you can turn a full circle over the bar.”

“No way.”

“He says he did it once.”

“Nuh-uh. No way.”

“I’m gonna try.”

The thud of the girls’ weight as they came back towards to the ground from their zenith point reverberated through the air.

“They are taking down a wall in Germany,” Grace told her friend.

“Where is that?”

“I don’t know, but they are taking down a wall.”

“Why?”

“My mama says it’s the end of the war.”

“There was a war?”

“That’s what she says.”

“What war?”

“I dunno.”

“Well, so what, they are taking down a wall somewhere.”

“My parents say I have grandparents from Germany a long, long time ago.”

“So.”

“Do you?”

“I don’t think so. My parents say we are from Africa.”

“When did your family come to America?”

“I dunno, a long time ago.”

“Mine too.”

The two girls continued swinging in silence for a moment.

“School starts soon,” Tasha said to Grace.

“When?”

“Soon.”

“I am not going to school this year.”

“But I am, I am a year older than you.”

“Are you scared?”

“A little, but my brother, Erwin, says it will be a lot of fun and I will learn a lot.”

“I want to learn too.”

“I will teach you everything I learn when I get home from school, then you will know more than everyone else when you go to school!”

The two girls giggled.

“I already know my ABCs,” Tasha said proudly.

“I do too!”

“Do not!”

“Do too!”

“Then sing with me…A…B…C…D...”

The two girls sang in unison, but Grace stumbled at M, N, L, O, P, looking to her older, and who she considered smarter, friend to help her through.

“Can we sing it again?” she asked. Her friend grinned at her and started singing again.

“Tasha, dinner!” Tasha’s mother called from across the yard.

“Gotta go!”

The two girls let go of the chain link at the same time and landed hard on the ground, their heels reverberating with the shock. They embraced one another and did their secret handshake. And Tasha was off, running through the yards to her backdoor for dinner.

Across the fenceless divide between the friends’ houses, Grace went back to her swing, but with her friend gone it wasn’t as much fun to push herself to touch the sky. Instead, she took off her shoe and concentrated on digging her big toe into the ground. She circled her toe round and round and wiggled it like a short, fat, worm. The dirt on her skin turned her complexion from peachy-pink to light brown. In fact, it made her skin look more like Tasha’s. Grace smiled to herself, she could look like Tasha, how much fun would that be! She quickly took off her other shoe and began slathering dirt over her skin, she rubbed it up her legs and over her arms, down her neck and over her face. She giggled to herself as she spread on more and more dirt, wanting to turn her skin brown to match the darker complexion of her friend. She continued in her task, planning on going over to her friend’s house after dinner to show Tasha what she had done. They would laugh together! And everyone would comment on how they were twins now. Yes, as inseparable as twins!

“What are you doing!?” shrieked Grace’s mother.

Grace stopped what she was doing and looked up. Her mother’s figure blocked out the afternoon sun. Her face was in shadow, but Grace knew from her mother’s tone that she was not smiling.

“Stop what you are doing this instant!” her mother shrieked, “You are filthy!”

“No, I am making my skin brown.”

“I see that, you are caked in dirt! We will have to take baths before dinner today. Your father will not be happy waiting for us. Get inside at once, young lady!”

Grace hung her head and started to let out a pout, but her mother lightly wacked her on the back of the legs, not enough to hurt, but hard enough to sting, “In!” her mother said.