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Menagerie In the morning, a crisp blue sky greeted us. Kay and Anja drove us to the nearby mountains where we hiked with dozens of other weekend strollers. The path started along a slender stream. White stallions and golden-maned fillies gathered in a pasture. Spouts of water spurted down one side of the path, trickling through the ferns. Kay shot a roll of film, taking pictures of the water tumbling over moss-covered rocks. Groups of rock climbers tackled three sides of Nun rock, including one family with two young boys. The family dog offered barks of encouragement from the bottom. No climbers were on the more technical Devil rock. Well, it was a Sunday. Lunch was at the top of a ring of rocks forming a steep wall. We devoured hard-boiled eggs, meat sandwiches, apples and bottled water. Louisa slept after being bounced along in her 4x4 baby carriage up the steep path. The route down was even steeper and rockier with only a single-track over rocks and roots. Back at Kay and Anja's flat Sharon asked about tick bites prompting Kay into action. He drove us to the family physician thirty kilometers away. We had to drive there because Kay and Anja didn't have a telephone. Anja's mom had been on the list for fourteen years; she hoped to be getting one this year. Some persons already possessed telephone equipment but didn't have a phone number. Knocking on the Doctor's house door brought the doctor's son. Luckily, the doctor was in. He told us the meningitis phase for tick bites was only June and July, so we didn't have to worry about that now. Bacteria was still possible though and he wrote a prescription for Kay. Kay, being a university student, received free medical coverage--including the cost of prescriptions. Education was virtually free in Germany too. No tuition fees. Identification cards cost DM50 a term. A transit pass for students was DM55 for six months. Foreigners could attend too. If only I understood Deutsche. On the way to find an open drug store (not an easy task on a Sunday night), I asked Kay how he felt after his tick bite. We found an open Apotheke in Chemnitz. The medicine dispensed through a small slot. We also bought a tick-removal tool. It looked like a plastic tweezers that locked onto the tick's body with instructions to turn the tick counterclockwise, corkscrewing it out. I ran to the public telephone box on the street corner to call Dad in Canada. After some difficulty, trying to reach the proper English speaking operator, getting wrong numbers and busy tones, I finally linked through. "Should I look for a job for you?" Dad wanted to know. "Not just yet," I persuaded him. By the time we returned to the flat, supper was waiting. Krict, nicknamed Ele, had returned from Berlin and amused us with elephant noises. Her boyfriend, known as Phant, made trumpeting calls. Kay and Anja smirked. Ele and Phant had stolen the elephant sounds from them, so they had made up a new one--lovebirds cooing. After a combined demonstration, Kay did a hysterical rendition of a frog's croaking repertoire, complete with bloated cheeks. The best we could offer was Sharon's fish lips. |
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