That fall, Chris found Ernst Drechsler where he expected. “Ernst wanders off sometimes, and I don’t know where he goes, but he always comes back,” his wife had told Chris that morning when he went around to call for the first time since he’d been back in Texas. “I can’t tell you how long he’ll be gone, or I’d have you come in and wait. Would you like to come in anyway, Christoph? I have some brownies in the oven just about ready to come out.”

“Another day, Mrs. Drechsler, when I have more time,” Chris said. “Right now I’d just like to say hello to your husband before I drive back to Austin. I think I know where to find him.”

Mrs. Drechsler, like everybody else in town, just wanted to pump Chris about where he’d been, what he’d been doing the past two years without once showing his face in New Braunfels or contacting his parents. The Brandts’ explanation that he was off on some secret mission for the State Department was generally believed and accepted, but now that Chris was back home, confirmation of his activities would have been appreciated. It had not been forthcoming, so he was somewhat of a mystery man around town.

His homecoming had been less than what Chris had expected. His mother resented his “abandonment” of them bitterly, and his father, to appease his wife, took her side. Were telephone calls or letters too much for parents to ask of the son and only child they had nurtured and raised? It would have been one thing if he’d been over there in the line of fire, but whatever his job was for the State Department did not preclude him from contacting his family from time to time to save them the agony of worry. The misery that he had put them through for two years could hardly be forgiven.

Chris had been hurt and disappointed, the reason that he had moved quickly back to Austin and enrolled in the University of Texas to pursue his doctorate in education. He had the money for it without having to work, since two years’ worth of uncollected wages were waiting for him in his bank account when he was discharged from the OSS. His parents had not approved of that decision, either. In the German manual of child rearing, deviation from parents’ expectations was seen as a betrayal that carried a lasting sting, and things would never be right between them again. Chris couldn’t help but compare them to Ernst Drechsler and his wife, who would have accepted Dirk back no matter under what black cloud.