Layla

Chapter 4: Buenos Aires, Argentina

Buenos Aires, Argentina

March 5, 1962

(3:00 pm)

"Have you seen Gentlemen Prefer Blondes on stage?" The tourist assistant at the front desk of the hotel asked. 

Layla smiled as she took the pamphlet for the theatre down the street from the hotel that was currently putting on a production of the musical made famous by Marylin Monroe. She had seen the film when it premiered in Frankfurt back in 1953, she had thought the whole show was a bit extravagant but had enjoyed it nonetheless. She had never seen the performance live, and well, this was a vacation of sorts wasn't it?

"No I haven't," Layla answered still with a smile on her face. "I think I will see it. Do you have any sort of discounts?" 

The tourist assistant held up a finger to indicate a wait while she searched for the information. The theatre pamphlet just held basic information of the history of the theatre and the musicals that were playing this season. Nothing about discounted tickets could be found within the pamphlet, though it did offer information about the singers performing in tonight's show, two of the Germans. 

She wasn't here just for tickets to see the musical. She was here at the desk to learn about the Villa Gesell, it was seaside town she knew, but she needed to know specifically about the Villa that Schmidt owned. So far she had heard several dozen people speaking German, some of them tourists, some of them held an accent that suggested they were native. Immigrants, with an accent like that they had to have been in Argentina since they were children, and most of them were far too old to have immigrated long after the war. 

Layla had spoken to one woman from Frankfurt that now owned a restaurant here in Buenos Aires, she had arrived just before the war had begun, her children had remained in Germany. Two of her sons had been killed, and the one remaining was short one arm and worked in the kitchen with his mother. Physically he posed no threat, but he could still harbor the ideology that had been pushed into his brain since basic training. 

She was cruel really to think that after the man had suffered the loss of an arm and possibly torture at the hands of the Soviets, she assumed the Soviets, that he would still harbor Nazi ideals. It was doubtful that after all these years and living in a multicultural city that he still was a Nazi.

Had she any proof that the former soldier had been one of the ones at the camp... She would have had the man stick his head in a vat of boiling water before stabbing himself repeatedly with a kitchen knife. It sure would be entertaining to watch while she ate the meal that he had prepared for her last night. Dinner and a show. 

"I do," The tourist assistant cheered, pulling out the discount sheet from beneath a pile of god knows what else kind of papers. "This should get you 25% off tomorrow night's show." 

Layla frowned for dramatic effect. 

"Oh," She sighed. "My husband and I were thinking of visiting that seaside village... Villa Gesell I believe is what he called it?"

The tourist assistant's face lit up in recognition of the name of the city. She was quick to again go digging through the pile of papers and pamphlets she had one her desk. Layla was all the more happy to smile and stand there as she waited for the woman to dig through the stack. 

It was warm in the hotel lobby, it was summer here in Argentina, Layla wore a white sundress decorated with black floral patterns. She was rather fond of the warm weather down here, and she had only been here a day and a half. She could see now why so many had immigrated to Argentina. 

"It is a very popular spot for German tourists," The assistant commented, digging through her stack still. "The owner of this hotel also owns a hotel out there."