Chapter 396: Full Moon
The full moon hung above the city of berlin at just the right angle, and pitch that Bruno could gaze upon it while standing on his balcony. The only thing concealing his naked form from the world beyond his estate’s gates was a bathrobe.
Tonight did not go entirely as he had anticipated it to. What was supposed to be only the slightest of playful teasing towards his wife’s more jealous tendencies resulted in a rollercoaster emotions that affected them both so great that they spent the entire night in their bedroom rather than on the streets of Berlin like they had planned.
Heidi had already fallen asleep, but Bruno was as alert as ever. It was a habit of his long and sleepless night was actually a norm when critical events around the world were happening.
The perpetual itch in the back of his mind, the nagging that there might be a telegram or a phone call that he needed to answer with haste, lest all will come crumbling down around him.
Paranoia? Maybe, or perhaps it was the instincts of a man who had spent his entire life forged and tempered in the flames of war? Either way, Bruno stood beneath the light of the blue moon, gazing upon its beauty and grace in the background, as if it were some benevolent spirit radiating an aura of healing upon him.
One that did not affect the wounds of the flesh, but rather the spirit and the mind. Which were the hardest afflictions to get rid of that a man must bear in this life. In the end, his silent admiration of the world’s beauty was interrupted by the sound of his wife’s bare feet bouncing off the cold stone tile.
She had tried to be stealthy, perhaps as a romantic gesture, but was a woman of noble birth really going to catch a soldier who had spent years in the trenches off guard? I think not. No, Bruno immediately spoke his thoughts aloud with an almost embarrassed scoff as Heidi reached her graceful yet dainty hands upwards in a poor attempt to reach his back.
"You know it is incredibly unwise to sneak up behind a veteran and try to touch him... Men have been struck by much less egregious offenses."
Heidi’s hand froze midair, as she clutched the fine white silk bedsheets that were the only thing concealing her immaculate and divine figure from being fully revealed to the world. She pouted at first, in silence, an act that which Bruno did not turn around to personally witness, could still see nonetheless, perhaps with his mind’s eye as he simply smiled and shook his head.
In the end, his wife revealed her true thoughts, as she immediately recognized the direction her husband was staring at lost in thought for so long, that even he himself didn’t realize how long he had been standing at the edge of the balcony gazing off into the darkness of the German heartland.
"You know this isn’t your war, right? I just got you back... Two years Bruno... Two years you were gone... Yes you came home from time to time, but you and I both know your brief visits only served to further intensify the pain in my heart, the sharpness of my breath, the agony I felt every time I dared to think about what you were up to over there...
I know you don’t want to hear this, but you have already done everything you can... So please.... Come back to me... Please come home already!"