Just Married
Watching the wedding had somehow made all of Alex’s fears and doubts about taking a walk with Rook go away. She wanted to be just as happy as Jack and Goldilocks one day and she didn’t care how many emotional obstacles she’d have to go through to get there.
“All right, now everyone get out of here before I’m seen with you,” Mother Goose said. “And to that ogre in the back—you still owe me seventeen gold coins from our card game last week! I haven’t forgotten!”
All the guests disappeared into the forest as quickly as they had appeared. Froggy joined Alex and Red in the center of the clearing and gave Alex an enormous hug.
“Hello, Alex! It’s always wonderful to see you!” he said. “Lovely wedding, don’t you think?”
“It was beautiful,” Alex said. “Don’t you think it was beautiful, Red?”
Red didn’t respond. Her arms were crossed and she was frowning in the direction Jack and Goldilocks had ridden off in.
“Darling, what’s wrong?” Froggy asked. “Didn’t you enjoy the ceremony?”
“I did,” Red said unconvincingly. “Especially the dress—because it was mine! She stole it from me!”
CHAPTER FIVE
INSIGHT AT THE GRAVE SITE
After being on the plane for what felt like a week, Conner and the others finally reached London’s Heathrow Airport, where they boarded their connecting flight to Berlin. Seeing so many people of different cultures and nationalities traveling around them made Conner feel very worldly. He was sure he’d return home much more dignified than when he left—dignified but exhausted, that is. By the time their second flight touched German ground, Conner had only slept three hours of their fifteen-hour journey, and wondered if his neck would ever recover from sitting in a cramped position for so long.
“I recommend we try to sleep as soon as we get to the hotel,” Mrs. Peters instructed her group as she led the way to the baggage claim area. “We don’t want to be too jet-lagged for the readings tomorrow.”
Mrs. Peters, Bree, and the Book Huggers collected their luggage at the baggage claim with no problem, but Betsy was nowhere to be found. Conner wasn’t worried about his luggage being lost, though. On the contrary, he thought wearing the same clothes for the next few days might be worth not having to lug the decaying trunk around Germany. Just as he had happily come to terms with the idea, Betsy slid down into the luggage carousel, making more noise than any other suitcase had. Betsy had arrived in Germany and she wanted everyone to know about it.
The group followed Mrs. Peters through the crowded Berlin airport as they made their way toward the Ausgang, or “exit.” They shuffled their way outside where Mrs. Peters had arranged for a small van to pick them up. The driver was a stern older man with a plump face and a thin mustache. He held up a sign that said PETERS.
“Guten Tag,” Mrs. Peters said to the driver. “I’m Evelyn Peters, so nice to meet you.”
“HELLO,” Cindy said very loudly to the driver, and forced him to shake her hand. “WE’RE FROM THE UNITED STATES. IT’S AN HONOR TO BE IN YOUR COUNTRY.”
Everyone rolled their eyes at her except the driver. Clearly this wasn’t his first experience with a tourist like Cindy, the type who gave tourists a bad name.
“I’m German, not hard of hearing,” the driver said in perfect English. “Let me load your bags into the van and we’ll be on our way to your hotel.”
As the driver drove them away from the airport, all eyes in the group widened as they took in the first sights of a new country. Seeing his first glimpses of Germany reminded Conner of seeing the Land of Stories for the first time; they were so far away from home, yet a very familiar world of its own existed here. The Book Huggers took out their cameras and started taking pictures of everything they saw.
“Look, it’s a telephone pole!” Lindy said, and showed the others the photo she’d taken of it.
“It looks just like the telephone poles back home,” Bree said.
“But it’s a German telephone pole,” Lindy said, as if Bree was missing something.
Every street the van drove down gave them something new to gawk at that they would never see at home. A massive cathedral with gargoyles stood next to an office building made entirely out of glass. An abstract art installation of a balloon dog was planted near a statue honoring a famous German opera singer. Tiny shops that looked like gingerbread houses were across the street from strip malls similar to ones in the United States.
Berlin was unlike any city Conner and the girls had ever been to. It was a combination of new and old, with monuments celebrating people and events of the past, alongside tributes encouraging thoughts and ideas for the future.
“Of all the cities in the world, Berlin is very much among those that shaped the world into what it is today,” Mrs. Peters said. “There is history everywhere you look, some noble, some terrible, but highly important nonetheless.”
Conner took what she said to heart. He looked out the window and wondered just how many people had traveled down these streets before him, and what their lives had been like.
“It seems more dirty than historical to me,” Mindy said, not showing any enthusiasm. “Look at that wall over there—it’s covered in graffiti!”
“That’s the Berlin Wall, Mindy,” Bree said. “It’s one of the most important and historic sites on earth.”
The driver let out an amused snort under his breath and Mindy turned bright red. The other girls instantly started taking as many pictures of it as they could.
“Oh,” Mindy said. “Well, you’d think there would be a sign or something.”
Occasionally they would see a brown poster taped to a bus stop or pinned to a message board advertising the Brothers Grimm event.
At a couple stops, they found the poster had even been translated into English:
The University of Berlin Presents
A Grimm-Fest
Be among the first to hear three never-before-told stories by the Brothers Grimm as the University of Berlin opens a time capsule left by the famous storytelling duo.
Wednesday, 12:00 noon
St. Matth?us-Kirchhof cemetery
Contact the University of Berlin for ticket information