Berlin Moment

by Grace Andreacchi

Walking once with my son on the Anzengruberstrasse, we had been out shopping, we were carrying rolls, cake, fruit, I said, "I don't understand how a man can be frightened of a woman, because, after all, men are bigger and stronger than women." And my son, who was then seventeen and already much bigger and stronger than I am, said, "Not when you're a little boy they're not." When he was little I used to hold him on my lap and read to him, and smell his milk-sweet hair, and sing to him love songs and lullabies, and watch the light in his eyes while I gave him kisses. Of course we don't do those things anymore. I still love him though. He's not frightened of me at all, I don't think.

6S

Grace Andreacchi, author of Mister Moon, was born in New York in 1954, but has lived on the far side of the great ocean for many years - sometimes in Paris, sometimes Berlin, and nowadays in London. Works include the novels Give My Heart Ease (Permanent Press 1989), which received the New American Writing Award, and Music for Glass Orchestra (Serpent’s Tail 1993), the play Vegetable Medley (Soho Repertory Theater, New York and Boston Center for the Arts, Boston, Massachusetts), as well as numerous short stories and collections of poetry. Additional work can be viewed on her website.