The Sweetest Sounds

Kapitel Sieben

Today, Luka and I were both free since there was not orchestra practice. It was chilly today, so I wore a navy sweater and simple jeans. I waited in the park for him, watching all the children play on the playground.

There was this little girl that held my interest. She was adorable with her long brown hair and blue eyes. She was sat on a swing and was struggling to pump her legs to make her move. After a minute, I went to get up from my seat to go help her. But as I took a step forward, this little boy ran over to her. He had dirty blonde hair and was pretty tall for his young age. He went over behind her, without asked, and pushed her. The girl started swinging and instantly giggled and shouted with joy. As I looked at the little boy, his eyes were filled with admiration for this little girl. It was a beautiful scene.

Finally, Luka walked towards me after a few minutes of waiting.

"Okay. I'm here. Where are we going?"

"Well... I actually don't know"

"Are you serious? You ask me to "hang out" with you and you didn't even plan where we are going?"

"Hey! I'm not from here! I was wondering if you had any idea where we should go." He thought for moment then started walking away.

"Come on!" he shouted as he walked, motioning with his hands to walk with him.

After a few minutes of walking, we stopped in front of this bike rack. Luka put money into the machine, and then took a bike out of the rack.

"Here. We will need bikes to get to where we are going to go." After I took the bike from him, he turned and grabbed a bike of his own. I threw my leg over the bike and got on. He didn't wait for me as he peddled away.

I followed his lead the whole way. As I looked around, Berlin was a lot more beautiful than I thought. All of the buildings were decorated in bright colors and people looked so content with one another.

We biked for about 15 minutes until Luka came to a stop. Before me was the Berlin wall. Colorful art decorated along the side that looked to go on forever. Luka laid his bike on the ground and walked over to the wall. He placed his hand on a painting of a big heart with the word Berlin in it.

"It's beautiful. The art work on this wall." I whispered

"Yes. The wall is very important. My grandfather grew up with this wall being here. It separated him from a lot of his friends and family."

"I'm so sorry." I looked up at him, he was facing me now.

"Not your fault. My grandfather was on the eastern side of the wall. While his family was on the western side. He wasn't allowed to cross it and he didn't see his family for 28 years. He was around 21 years old when this wall was built and when he was 26, he met my grandmother. As you know, the eastern side wasn't free like the western side of the wall."

"The wall was created to keep people from escaping to the western side, right?"

"Yes." He muttered.

"Does he tell you stories about what it was like?" I questioned.

"He did. He is no longer a live now. He died of pancreas cancer when I was young."

"I'm sorry about that. My grandparents died when I was young too." He didn't say anything but nodded his head at me. He then walked past me and got back on his bike.

We rode through the town again until we reached a small coffee shop on a corner that was called Oslo Kaffebar.

"I thought you might like to try Berlin coffee... It is the best." We locked the bikes on the rack and went inside. Instantly, I was hit with the sweet aroma of coffee and bread. Luka lead me over to the corner that was not as illuminated as the other tables but still very pretty. A waitress walked over to our table immediately. She was quite tall for a women and wore a black apron with the place's logo on it.