the conversations going on around us as we wandered the market and waited in vain to hear a word I recognized. There were none. That would come eventually, I told myself—but still, I had never felt more foreign, and I found it disconcerting.
When Shayla finished her fruit, we headed into a nineteenth-century church just behind the market and decided in unison that its garish, life-size crucifix, complete with profusely bleeding wounds and dying grimace, was a little too graphic for our tastes. High above us, in the rear balcony, an elderly gentleman brought a pipe organ to life with hands and feet and soul, and the broad chords of “Ode to Joy” filled the church with a warmth and power that made my heart smile. Shayla, unfortunately, wasn’t as entranced as I was with the music, and she dragged me out of the church after just a few minutes to continue our exploration of Kandern.
The square at the center of town, the Blumenplatz, was framed by knobby trees and paved with cobblestones. By the time we got there, we’d become accustomed to the greetings we received from just about every person we passed. At first, I’d figured they were mistaking us for someone else, but as I observed other travelers on Kandern’s sidewalks, it became clear that these curt greetings were a common thing in this culture. The word they said sounded like tuck, and after a bewildered “They don’t even know us” from Shayla, she’d taken to the game with vigor. She had no clue what she was saying, but she uttered her tucks with the kind of verve that earned her smiles and pats on the head.
We found a small paper store, on the corner of the Blumenplatz, with racks of postcards displayed outside. “Let’s get this one for Twey,” Shayla said, pointing to a picture of a cow posing in front of snowcapped mountains.
“You sure?”
She nodded vigorously. “Twey likes cows,” she said with conviction. “He dwinks milk all the time.”
There was no arguing with that kind of logic, so we bought the card and headed home. Bev and Gus were waiting on our doorstep when we got there.
“Are we late?” I asked, embarrassed to have kept them waiting.
“Not at all!” Gus swung Shayla off the ground and perched her on his shoulder. “We old folks tend to get places early, and today’s no exception.”
Bev wrapped me in a motherly hug. “Did you sleep all right, honey?”
“Right until Shayla woke up.”
“I had two mohnings this mohning,” came Shayla’s voice from above me.
“How’d you manage that?” Gus said.
“I woke up and I ate hawd bwead and then I went to sleep and then I woke up and ate hawd bwead again.”
“You think the bread made an impression on her?” I said to Bev.
“But Shelby said we’d get some diffewent bwead this afternoon and maybe a toastoh to toast it.”
Gus raised an eyebrow at his wife. “Who’s going to break the news?”
“Here’s the bad news, ladies,” Bev announced. “Only grocery stores are open on Saturday afternoons in Kandern. All the rest of the stores are closed. And they stay closed until Monday morning.”
“They do?” It seemed like a pretty poor economical choice to close stores on the two days of the week when people were actually home, but who was I to question it?
“We can’t get a toastoh?” Shayla asked.
“I’ll loan you mine,” Bev assured her. “But before we do that, how ’bout we go to school and show your mo—and show Shelby where she’s going to be working?”
Shayla seemed to think she had a say in the matter and pursed her lips in thought. I laughed at the independent streak that was already so strong in her and wondered what her teen years would be like. For her and for me. “Let’s go, Shayla.” I lifted her down from Gus’s shoulder so she could walk next to me on the narrow sidewalk.
We arrived at the school a few minutes later, and Gus gave us a royal tour of the premises. One building was nondescript, four stories high, and had recently had a gym and auditorium built onto it. The second building, which stood behind the first, had just been renovated and was home to a state-of-the-art library. The school’s classrooms were divided between the two buildings, and it was in the second, newly renovated one that I found mine.
As the academic year had started five weeks before, the teacher covering for me had already made herself at home in