“So have you made any plans for your time in Thuringia?” Johanna asked, breaking the silence. “We’ll have a great deal of work on our plate until the end of the year, but after that there will certainly be time for a few sightseeing trips if the weather plays along. If there’s anything you particularly want to do you must be sure to let me know.”
“I honestly don’t want you to go to any trouble for me. Quite the opposite,” Wanda replied earnestly. “I just want to . . . be there with you. Do what you all do. You know, Marie told me so much about the workshop . . .” All at once she found it hard to put her desires into words.
“And there is probably somebody else you particularly want to meet . . .” Johanna said, raising an eyebrow meaningfully.
“That’s right,” Wanda answered firmly. She hadn’t thought that her aunt would broach the topic so soon. “I . . . does my . . . does my father know that I’m on my way?” Her heart hammered as she spoke, and she chided herself for being so nervous.
“I have no idea. Most likely he does. Everybody knows everybody else’s business in Lauscha. Somebody will have told him that you’re coming, although it wasn’t one of us.” Johanna looked thoughtful, as though she was trying to decide what to tell Wanda.
“We don’t have much to do with the Heimers anymore; we each went our own ways a long time ago. Though that’s mostly because we make Christmas tree decorations and they make housewares. We don’t have anything in common, do you see?”
Wanda nodded, though she knew from Marie that that was only half the story. After Ruth had left, there had always been a certain . . . antipathy between the two families.
“It must have been something of a shock to you to find out about Thomas, wasn’t it?” Johanna asked gently.
Wanda nodded again. There was a lump in her throat now, and she swallowed painfully. “Do you think he . . .” She stopped.
What had she wanted to say?
Do you think he’ll meet me at the station? After everything Marie had told her about her biological father, she knew that he certainly wouldn’t do that.
Or: Do you think he’ll come and visit? Was he going to come and visit her at her relatives’ house and talk to a family who had been his sworn enemies for almost two decades now? He wouldn’t do that for the world.
Instead of pressing her, Johanna talked on, unwittingly repeating almost exactly what Marie had said on the roof of the apartment building several weeks earlier. “Thomas Heimer isn’t a bad sort. But don’t expect too much. He’s not a straightforward man. He never was, and that certainly hasn’t changed with age. He didn’t grow up in a loving home; he and his brothers had to lend a hand with the work even when they were very little. Nobody ever asked how they felt or whether they missed their mother. More work than wurst, as we say hereabouts. When I think of how our father spoiled us, it was quite the opposite. Life’s hard and you have to be hard yourself—I think that was an unwritten motto for the Heimers. They were an unloving, hard-hearted family, and that’s what your mother found so hard to bear. But how could Thomas ever have learned to behave any differently? Especially when you think what his father’s like! And nobody can help the way they’re born, can they?” Johanna seemed almost surprised as she spoke, as though this were the first time she had allowed herself such thoughts.
“That rather sounds as though you’re speaking in his defense,” Wanda said. Although Johanna had only meant well, Wanda felt a heavy sadness in her breast. Somehow it had been easier to bear when her mother had raged bitterly about Thomas Heimer.
Johanna shrugged. “Now that you say it . . . perhaps I am. You know, I see some things differently these days. When I was younger I always used to laugh at him for being such a lout, and even despised him a little for being so much under his father’s thumb. In Lauscha we’re used to seeing a glassblower’s son make his own way in life at some point. But the Heimer boys never did. Today I feel sorry for Thomas because of that. If you never look farther than the end of your nose, how will you ever get anywhere in life?”
Wanda frowned. What did Johanna mean by that remark?
It was just before eight o’clock when the train stopped in Lauscha. Since Wanda had so much luggage, Johanna suggested that they wait until the crowd had thinned before disembarking. She knew almost everybody who went by, and chatted a bit with some of them. Wanda watched, glassy-eyed, as dozens of women all carrying huge baskets on their backs vanished into the dimly lit station building and then into the foggy night air beyond.