Battle of the Rhine

In the words of an old comrade-in-arms, Michael "took down roots" in the Federal Republic of Germany. "Big Girl" and "Oliver" would write to him every few months and would call later to see how he was doing. "I thought of you when I read "Grimm's Fairy Tales" to my daughter," wrote "Big Girl," "and I think there must be magic vines growing in the fields in Germany, which haunted old Mike to death. It's all sucked away—do you still speak English?"

Michael could speak English, but Quincy refused to allow Michael to teach Carl Jr. how to speak English.He hired a teacher for the bright little guy, with a pure London accent, and Michael couldn't help getting goosebumps when he heard those perfect vowels.

"Can you learn something better?"

"I speak the Bavarian dialect."

"You're so proud."

Facing the ridicule of the college students, Michael was confident, "Of course, I have made up my mind to be a complete Bavarian countryman—shouldn't you praise me?"

Nothing to praise, always redneck from America to Germany.Michael enjoyed the peace of life, and he learned to be as busy as a worker bee in the garden like his German neighbors, tending the flowers and plants and planting neat geometric patterns.He is keen on watching football games, arguing to support Munich 1860 or Bayern Munich - he didn't care at all, Quinnessy supported Bayern Munich, and he went to the stadium to cheer, until 1965, the man named Franz Beckenbauer Quinnessy was fascinated by the young boy, and Michael turned to 1860 Munich in anger and claimed that he would never go to a Bayern Munich game again.

"You're jealous." Quincy seldom got excited. "Jealous, Mike, look at your jealous face—"

"I'm not jealous of him! He has nothing to envy me!"

"Your face is red!"

"I blush for you that you collected his clippings—"

Little Karl is almost 11 years old and has already skipped a grade to boarding high school.Before each holiday, Michael would drive to school with Quincy to pick him up.This time is no exception.They were arguing in the car about whether Beckenbauer had a bright future. Little Carl looked out the window boredly, and suddenly said, "A senior girl in our school asked me if Uncle Carl has a girlfriend."

Michael pricked up his ears, "Senior girl?"

"Yes, that is... those girls are taller than me, they must be 16 years old, no, they are 17 years old." Little Carl fiddled with a hardcover book, "There is a girl named Helga, and Angelita , Babel... They saw Uncle Carl, and they saw that he didn't wear a ring." The little guy blinked his blue eyes with feigned innocence, "They said they wouldn't mind 'getting to know' Uncle Karl."

"Oh, fuck it!" cried Michael. "These little girls are not serious about their studies. What's going on in their heads all day long!"

"I can't stand it, Mike, for your dear God pink, can you stop talking in the vernacular?" Quincy turned his head and smiled at Carl Jr., "How did you tell them?"

"I said, my uncle is married." Little Carl grinned, "but my aunt is a jealous maniac, he is not even allowed to watch football, let alone drink coffee with other girls—"

"I'm not arguing with you." Michael cleared his throat. "But you must never go out for coffee with underage girls. It's against the law, Carl, and I warn you—"

"Come on, I never went out for coffee with a 17-year-old girl when I was 17!"

This was Michael's life, the life he dreamed of.Apart from changing his visa card, he often forgets that he is actually a foreigner.

Quincy occasionally asks him, usually when he notices a gray hair, or loses sleep, "Aren't you tired yet?"

"No." Michael patted Arden's stomach, which was old and didn't like to move very much, "Are you annoying me?"

"Not sure." Quincy patted the dog's head, "Maybe I'll kick you out tomorrow."

"Then I'll go to court to sue you. I'll divide your property and take Arden away."

"You wicked bastard, I won't give you a single Finney!"

"Then let's wait and see!"

In 1968, Bayern Munich won the Bundesliga and the German Cup.Quincy was so happy that he even put a team poster on the wall on the third floor.The third floor has long been converted into a study, and it is also the bedroom where Karl stayed.Michael got mad when he saw that poster. "He doesn't even care about my blood pressure," he complained to Karl Jr. "All he cares about is football."

"You can buy Bayern to win," Carl Jr. suggested, "and use money to repair the wounds in your heart."

"I'm not traumatized! I just need him to care about me!"

Seriously, football is a nuisance.Michael was so angry that he moved to the living room to sleep for several days. Although he moved back later, he still had headaches and leg pains, and worried about his blood pressure every day.Eventually Quincy apologized to him, saying in a very tactful way, "I have to admit, you look like Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate."

"I obviously look like Marlon Brando!"

"……it's up to you."

"What do you say?"

"You look like Marlon? Brando, okay?"

"kiss Me."

"Don't push yourself too hard, Mike."

"kiss Me!"

Quincy kissed Michael once, several times.Michael felt much more comfortable, "Me and Beckenbauer, who do you like better?"

"Then I have to think about it..."

"You fucking think about it? Will Beckenbauer do housework for you!..."

This Christmas, Michael gave Quincy a football for Christmas.It's ironic, he said, ironic about your football obsession.

"Better than your Coca-Cola obsession," Quincy shot back.

1969 came.A lot has happened this year.First, in the distant America, New York, where "Big Girl" lives, a riot broke out.Michael didn't care much about the riots in New York. In his opinion, all kinds of riots happened every day in New York, so it wasn't worth paying attention to. "Whenever there's no chaos in New York, it's the end of America," he said to Quincy, who was reading the newspaper. "That's a center of chaos."

Michael had no interest in "Stonewall," but after a few days, he couldn't sit still - the changes to Section 175 of the German Criminal Code freed him from the fear of Quinnessy being arrested. "You can go out with the ring on!" Michael was ecstatic, "I can hold your hand and go for a walk!"

"Stay away from me." Quincy pulled out the ring, staring at the ring in a daze—he couldn't wear the ring openly, just hung it on a chain around his neck, "Jesus Christ, I really don't understand why."