It is more than ironic that the basis for this freedom had been discovered in the world's largest prison, the walled-in state of East Germany with borders guarded by tanks, land-mines, and machine-gun towers that were put into place to keep the people in. I didn't realize at the time what worlds upon worlds would become intertwined with the fate of the two spies who had been caught, one in New York, and one in East Germany, whose exchange I had been assigned to arrange in this imprisoned land behind the iron curtain. Heather came into my life as the direct result of that.



      When I had finished reading her letter that day, my eyes wet with tears, I folded it up again, carefully, placed back into the envelope and looked out of the window for a long while. Heavy tears came which that moment of utter sadness, tears for Sylvia, my wife, tears for the love that we shared that I had taken so long for granted and had allowed to dim rather than to be constantly enriched with new unfolding treasures of love.

      It took a long time, so it seemed, before I was in any acceptable shape to go to the coffee shop for breakfast where I knew Tony would be waiting. I saw Heather's footprints in the sand. What could I have done to prevent this tragedy? If I had understood what Steve had been telling me in East Germany, the impasse might have been resolved, or might not even have happened. But how could anyone have comprehended so much in so short a space of time as I had been confronted with in the East?

      My trip into the eastern part of Germany had been like a great unfolding mystery to me that had been as impossible to see through as the Iron Curtain had been in a political sense. Inside this militarily imprisoned land I had found an oasis of freedom that defied all imagination, which should never have been found there. It was built on a platform as tall and as grand as the most advanced breakthrough in mathematics. I had grasped a few crumbs, nothing more. Still, these crumbs had been tremendous. The little that I had comprehended of the freedom I had experienced there had allowed me to open my eyes just far enough to meet Heather. Still this brief experience in the East had not been sufficiently deep and wide to provide a platform for Heather and me to see this thing through. Nevertheless, the precious privilege of meeting her had made a difference. It had changed my life and would continue to do so. It had changed it even without me realizing that it had.

      I am certain that I would not have stopped the car for Heather without the East German experience being still fresh in the back of my mind. Much less would I have dared to invite her into the car. I would have denied everything that I truly felt as I had done a thousand times before. Of course, had I continued in my accustomed manner there would have been no agony, either. Would this have been better?



      My heart had been pounding that day when I stopped the car for Heather. It was mid afternoon. The heat had been intense, almost white. I was tired and pressed for time by a deadline I had to meet. I had to be in Key West in four days without fail. This was the first day of my trip south from Pittsburgh. The sun had beat down from a cloudless sky, making the Virginia landscape appear gray like a dessert so that I squinted to cope with the glare of it. The tires thumped over the cracks in the concrete. The monotonous sound would have made anyone sleepy.

      Her sun-burnt face had startled me.

      I know that I would have passed her by had it not been for the freedom I had experienced in East Germany that flashed into my mind. I brought the car to a halt a long way beyond where she stood. She came running, short of breath, sweating. I opened the passenger door. I had no idea then, how lucky I was that I did.

      Later that evening, after we had picked up Tony along the way, Tony noticed a steak house as we passed through Elizabeth City. He suggested that we should stop for the night and go for dinner. We noticed a small motel, just down the road a block. It appeared well kept, clean, with a small garden in front. Tony suggested that this was heaven, and that we should treat our lady to a formal steak dinner "with all the trimmings."

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Stories about  Healing from novels by Rolf A. F. Witzsche