The Honest Spy

by Andreas Kollender

gets

At times he hears the clearing

Fascism.” “Do you think those men

and documents, and worn books.

ill.” “Braunwein picked you up? Now there’s a true friend,” Wegner says.

resolve to finally get

up, the imprint of her body still

something. Then she came back

a place free from war, resolving that when they were together there, they would not talk about all the horror and death and destruction. Whenever she came to the apartment, Marlene made a habit of jingling her wedding ring in the cutlery drawer. She’d open the front door, pass by him into the kitchen without a word, splay out her ring finger, and tug on the gold. She only let Fritz embrace her once the ring had disappeared between the forks and knives. When they had time, they would go strolling through the rubble. They shared their love at busted railings along the Spree River, where scorched wooden planks bobbed in the water; on the inexplicable remains of barges; and upon mountains of debris, where they lost their footing on slopes they’d climbed in order to look out over the shattered city. Their walks, taken hand in hand, led