Walli and Rebecca puzzled over a low-key report on ZDF’s seven o’clock Today program. There were new travel regulations for East Germans, but it was not clear what they meant. Walli could not figure out whether his family would be allowed to visit him in West Germany or not. “I wonder if I might even see Karolin again soon,” he mused.

Alice and Helmut arrived a few minutes later, pulling off their cold-weather coats and scarves.

At eight Walli switched over to ARD’s Day Show, but did not learn much more.

It seemed impossible that the Wall that had blighted Walli’s life could be opened. In a flash of memory that was all too familiar, he relived those few traumatic seconds at the wheel of Joe Henry’s old black Framo van. He recalled his terror as he saw the border guard kneel down and aim the submachine gun, his panic as he swung the wheel and drove at the guard, his confusion as bullets shattered his windscreen. He was sickened as he felt the sensation of his wheels bumping over a human being. Then he crashed through the barrier to freedom.

The Wall had taken his innocence. It had also taken Karolin from him. And his daughter’s childhood.

That daughter, now a few days from her twenty-sixth birthday, was saying: “Is the Wall still the Wall, or not?”

Rebecca said: “I can’t make it out. It’s almost as if they’ve opened the border by mistake.”

Walli said: “Shall we go out and see what’s happening on the streets?”

• • •

Lili, Karolin, Werner, and Carla regularly watched ARD’s Day Show, as did millions of people in East Germany. They thought it told the truth, unlike their own state-controlled news shows, which depicted a fantasy world no one believed in. All the same, they were puzzled by the ambiguous eight o’clock news. Carla said: “Is the border open or not?”

Werner said: “It can’t be.”

Lili stood up. “Well, I’m going to have a look.”

In the end all four of them went.

As soon as they stepped out of the house and breathed the cold night air, they felt the emotional charge in the atmosphere. The streets of East Berlin, dimly lit by yellow lamps, were unusually busy with people and cars. Everyone was headed the same way, toward the Wall, mostly in groups. Some young men were trying to thumb a ride, a crime that would have got them arrested a week ago. People were talking to strangers, asking what they knew, whether it was really true that they could go to West Berlin now.

Karolin said to Lili: “Walli is in West Berlin. I heard it on the radio. He must have come to see Alice.” She looked thoughtful. “I hope they like each other.”

The Franck family walked south on Friedrich Strasse until they saw, in the distance, the powerful floodlights of Checkpoint Charlie, a compound that occupied the street for an entire block, from Zimmer Strasse on the near, Communist side, to Koch Strasse, which was free.