He remembered that quote from L. P. Hartley, the opening line of his novel, The Go Between. ‘The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.’ OK, Hartley had ‘borrowed’ the line from a historian friend – but it still held true. Arnie stood outside the flat feeling as nervous as he had when Lotti had first taken him on that tour of Bad Schandau back in 1938.

Then he rang the bell.

He wasn’t sure what he was expecting. He wasn’t even sure he should be doing this. After all he was – supposedly – a happily married man. And forty-three years had passed since he’d last seen her.

A middle-aged woman answered the door. He immediately realised there was something wrong with the left-hand side of her face, dropped his gaze, then felt embarrassed for having done so. So he tried to focus on her eyes, even though he wasn’t sure if she was blind in the left eye.

‘Ah, hello. I was looking for Lotti Rolf.’

The woman gazed at him with a peculiar expression. ‘You’ve found her.’

‘Ah.’ Arnie could feel himself reddening. He should have known. The person in front of him looked nothing like the girl he remembered. She was dowdy, downtrodden almost. But then they had both been twelve – or perhaps Lotti had been thirteen, he couldn’t remember. Now, he was fifty-five, middle-aged, with most of his life behind him. She was the same. Of course she would look entirely different.

‘I’m sorry, I didn’t recognise you.’

A slightly sad look passed over her face, together with something else. Almost a flash of anger.

‘Why would you, Arnold? It’s been a long time.’

‘Ah, you remember me then?’

She peered at him oddly. ‘Not really. We were only children. But my mother phoned ahead to let me know you’d be coming. And although your German is very good, you still have a trace of an accent. An English accent. So yes, I knew it was you.’

They were standing there, on her doorstep, the door only half open. Arnie had expected her to invite him in. But that didn’t seem to be happening.

‘Do you have time for a coffee, or something?’ he asked, hoping to embarrass her into letting him enter her apartment. But she still stood there with the door half open, almost as though she was on guard.

She looked at her watch, and then nodded. ‘Give me ten minutes to get ready. I’ll meet you at the HO Gaststätte Glück Auf – in the Straße der Jugend.’ She gave a vague wave towards the way Arnie had just arrived from. ‘You can’t miss it.’

Then she closed the door.

Chapter 30

30

Dresden

February 1982