Zeitgeist Ein

Prague 1989
The thunderstorm lashed the rain under the roof of the platform and peppered us with liquid shrapnel. I pulled her closer to me and paid the rain no heed as I buried my face in her sunshine hair. With my eyes closed I etched the moment in my mind and prayed to any passing deity to freeze us in this moment for eternity. My train was leaving in minutes and I didn't want to leave. The Czechoslovak Socialist Republic border police had different ideas though and there was no question of me overstaying my visa.

Reluctantly I opened my eyes and started the clock again. Katya still kept her eyes closed for another moment. They were brilliant blue and pulled the breath out of me every day. She literally shone and especially so when compared to my green/brown/khaki nondescript. No-one noticed me when we walked down the street.

I pressed the thin wad of korun into her hand. I wouldn't have been able to change it back into hard currency anyway and it would have been of no use to me in the DDR. East German Grenzpolizei wanted western currency for their bribes. Some of the Berlin veterans back home had shit me right up with their tales of attempting to bribe the wrong guard at the frontier. Thousands of East Germans were voting with their feet that summer and fleeing to Czechoslovakia and Hungary and on to West Germany. I couldn't imagine they'd give a rat's arse about me taking the train from Prague to East Berlin even if there weren't many other Westerners in evidence. The map of Europe was a lot different in those days.

A doom laden roll of thunder underscored the tableau. I closed my eyes again and leaned in to kiss her for the last time. A bolt of lightning hiss-cracked across the sky and a tiny bit of my heart did not restart when the shock of it passed.