The International Writers Magazine:Berlin Moment

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View from Berlin • Elizabeth Haggarty The headlights of a once white convertible golf slowly pull around the icy Berlin street corner where the darkness of surrounding cement is spotted in the dirty, dulled whiteness of the city's snow. A slightly battered vehicle, its native Spanish mud has been replaced by the splattered recycled white of Berlin's winter coating; a car camouflaged as it rumbles and begins to accelerate out of the bend.

An outline of the couple inside is visible through the windscreen. A quick glance draws you to their rather large heads, whose apparent bushiness brushes against the canvas of the car's roof as they nod in agreement.
 
As the car rolls forward and unexpected contraction occurs.   The roof begins to gather together; an accumulation that gradually pulls it from the windscreen.  The canvas, seemingly aged in its creaky slowness, retracts over the heads of the driver and his passenger, curling back relegated to perch, stooped over the rear side seats.
 
Through the initial crack, and ever growing in volume, 'the Indigo Girls' burst from the radio, dragged into the surrounding city by the acceleration of the car.  Open to the street, driver and passenger sit laughing, seemingly untouched by the cold, their fur Russian hats clamped by their hands to their heads.   A look up and you see her black curls flying.  A country Christian twang accompanies them as they cling to their hats; smiling against the wind, they accelerate into grey.  

© Elizabeth Haggarty
lizhaggarty@gmail.com

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