Page 143 - harryDEC12_clean.iba

Quite different from Beatrice, Martha was a woman who was used to making her own decisions and take things into her own hands. I liked that. So I remember another occasion, that we spent a weekend on Gran Canary, That was with some friends from Kiel, a dentist with his married lover, myself (then officially still married to Beatrice) and Martha. Because of her job with Hapag Lloyd Airlines Martha had taken over total organisation and arranged the trip for 20 Marks per person. The flight took us via Madrid but ended abruptly there, because we were told at the transit counter that there would be no more flights that weekend because everything was fully booked out. At that moment Martha pondered for a fraction of a second, produced her crew ID, and explained in Spanish at the check-in counter (we had moved into the background):
“Por favor, entienda que somos un equipo de intercambio - él es el capitán ..."”
she pointed to the dentist, who looked more the act -
“"Y ahí está el co-piloto"”
With a finger at me.
This explanation, that we were an “exchange crew," she gave in such an authoritative tone and with so much emphasis that the check-in agent solely tightened his fingers on the phone but before he could dial a number, Martha butted in once again:
"si no se llega a Gran Canaria esta tarde una máquina totalmente reservado será varados.”
The information that a fully booked plane would not be able to leave Gran Canaria, without us was enough to change his mind.
"all right then"
He said tonelessly and with no further investigation, ordered two Berlin couples out and gave us their seats. Four passengers stood back with bitter feelings and we celebrated this coup on the flight ......in an expansive mood, while consuming a bottle of Lanson champagne which Uwe, the dentist, had bought with foresight - that “coup” at the cost of third persons, that landed us on the airport of Gran Canary, and we took off for the hotel that we had booked, Blue Beach Gran Canary. I have to freely admit, that at this moment I admired her guts. Yes, life was definitely more diversified on her side, accompanied by the bittersweet feeling of betrayal of our partners, which gave the experience a particular taste. We sailed for a bet with hobby cats, tried out windsurfing, which left me stranded on the rocks and spent the evenings in taverns. New intense experiences, which I enjoyed to the full. It was always Martha who constantly found new things to do and gave me the feeling that a new, illustrious part of my private life was in the wake of beginning.
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