The Three Flamingos
By: Enne Baker
Tags: Literature, Love, LGBTQ, Fiction, History

The Three Flamingos

A Short Story (Part 6 of 6)

Photo by Vivek Doshi on Unsplash

Back at the apartment, Gereon was putting on his jacket to go to the store. Adam, laid on the couch, reading the newspaper, drinking tea.

“What else do you want from the store besides bread?”

“Whole wheat bread you mean?”

“Yes, darling, whole wheat bread.”

“Maybe, more of the herbal tea bags, but the ginger kind. And, maybe some sugarless chocolate chip cookies, and raisins. We need some sunflower seeds too… and yes, lemon for the fish we are about to eat tonight — do you want me to write this down?”

Gereon laughed and said, “Are you calling me old?”

Adam took off his glasses and said, “Why no, your spirit is younger than the young-bodied people. I just wanted to help you.”

Gereon went to the couch and kissed him on the lips.

“You know, how about I go to your store, instead? Try some samples before I purchase?” Gereon said.

Adam laughed like he was in his twenties again.

“You’re so silly. How about you go to the actual establishment, and then you can sample as many treats as you want out of this tray.”

“I can hardly wait.”

“I’ll be waiting here.”

They kissed one more time and Gereon left. No more than a couple of minutes had passed before there was a knock on the door. It sounded gentle, yet quite intentional and at the same rhythm. Adam knew that it couldn’t be Gereon because he had a key — and if not he wouldn’t knock like that — since it would be more knuckle and would have said something by now.

“Who is it?”

Adam put down his glasses and paper, grabbed his cane, walked to the counter, opened a drawer, pulling out his pistol while still hearing the knock.

Adam was by the door and asked once again, “Who is it?”

A wave of relief and confusion occurred at the same time when he heard the voice behind the door.

“Hey Doctor, it’s Charlotte,” she said.

Adam whispered an oath to himself and placed the pistol in his back pocket, then opened the door. Charlotte stood there with her red coat and long black hair, dyed he thought, holding her handbag.

“Well Charlotte, hello. I wasn’t expecting — may I ask how you happen to know where I live?”

“I — I — I’m sorry. I took a cab and told my driver to follow you after I was done with classes today.”

“Is everything okay?”

“Can we — um?”

“Why yes, dear, please come in,” Adam looked around before he closed the door.

Charlotte sat across from Adam on the couch.

“Would you like anything to drink dear? Gereon went to get more tea bags, but for now, would you like — ”

“No, Doctor — ”

“Adam, please.”

“Adam. I won’t be here long. I will not be here by the time the professor — ”

“Gereon.”

“Gereon… returns,” Charlotte saw Adam putting the gun back into his drawer.

“I apologize. You would think someone my age wouldn’t yearn for survival any longer,” Adam said.

“No please, I understand. You don’t have to explain.”

“Well, okay dear, you have the floor. What can I do for you?”

Adam sat down.

“Listen. What I have to say… to you personally,” Charlotte said, while glimpsing at his tattoos.

One forearm, a flamingo, the other, the numbers that applied at the concentration camp, both light and faded.

“Okay,” Adam already knew something was odd.

There was always something strange about Charlotte, and he sat back and just listened.

“First, I want to say that I admire you. I think what you do for your community is admirable — ”

“Dear, please get straight to it. I’ve heard enough praises today.”

“You killed my great-grandmother.”

Adam froze. He didn’t know what to make of it until she went on.

“My mother heard stories from my grandmother, and I heard from both, ‘that author, he wrote the book.’ They called you the ‘Flamingo Man’ who killed my grandmother. The story you told in your book sounded different than the way they told me,” she said.

“And how did they tell it?”

“That Jewish people back then were greedy rats, and had different behavior than how they were now. That was my grandmother’s gun. The one I just saw you put back. I heard amazing stories about her.”

“Child, I didn’t kill her — ”

“She died of a heart attack after your interaction when she went home. She died in her bed, rewinding how you took potshots around her. You put her in so much stress that her heart couldn’t take it anymore. You’re old, you understand,” she said.

“Of course I understand, I take medicine for my blood pressure. At the time, I needed to survive — ”

“Not everything is about you!”

Adam was taken aback.

“My grandmother saw you burying something, someone, your friend, Levi. She returned to see what you were doing. When she went home before her death, she told her brother and her cousins — men — to dig up the body. My grandmother thought it was suspicious and couldn’t make out what the Jew was planting. Something dangerous? A bomb? Who knew — and it was investigated to the obvious.”

Adam jumped out of his seat, “Where is the body? Where’s Levi’s body?! What did they do to him!?”

Charlotte pulled a small pistol out of her handbag, gesturing for Adam to sit down. She walked to the cabinet and pulled open the drawer, taking her great grandmother’s gun.

“Her name was, Anni — and I am going to kill you with her gun. This is not an act of discrimination — I don’t care that you’re Jewish. I can’t get rid — rid — of — ” Charlotte cried.

“Charlotte, please,” Adam said.

“I don’t even care about her, to be honest. I didn’t even know her. I never met her. I want what you have!”

“Success takes time dear.”

“No! It’s your pride I want! I can’t be proud of my heritage! Anni — she wasn’t a Nazi but she was a loyalist. Reading your book, and hearing you talk, I feel so guilty for being who I am — and hearing the stories — of everything.”

Charlotte put the gun under her chin.

“Charlotte! No! Please. You’re not your grandmother. Please listen! When I saw you today at the school, I recognized you. You do have Anni’s face; you look like her. Same eyes, of sadness and hate, especially how I see you now. You’re not her though. She would never feel like this. It was a different time, dear. She was not a bad person. The Germans are a great people — with culture — everything. Be proud of who you are, but do not be proud of all of it — the history so to speak. We cannot afford to have any groups of people feeling lesser than others. That was the motivation of the Holocaust. It also sounds to me that your parents are proud in the wrong way, but there is such a thing to do it in the right way. You understand? Please give me the guns. Please. Let me help you.”

Charlotte returned the guns to Adam’s hands.

The relief felt like Heaven to Adam at this point.

“You know how I know you will be a great public speaker one day? You speak up. You speak honestly. If we had people like you years ago, I wouldn’t have suffered so much. Auschwitz, concentration camps, the horrors,” Adam said.

He sat next to Charlotte, placed the guns at the coffee table, and he let her cry on his breast.

“Charlotte, I promise I won’t mention a word to anyone about this. On one condition — you will visit me here, every day when you’re done with your classes. We will have sessions, and I won’t charge you, okay?”

Charlotte nodded.

“I’m sorry, I’m so… sorry,” she said.

“Another thing, please tell me what your mother said about Levi. What happened to him,” he said.

Charlotte leaned out away from him and looked into his eyes. Adam’s heart was beating in a steady rhythm, through his anxiousness.

“She told me that my grandmother’s family didn’t know what to do with the body and couldn’t afford a burial. They thought about throwing it into the sea where sharks were — ”

“Oh, Jesus!” Adam covered his mouth.

“But — instead, they cremated him, and threw his ashes in the mountains. They didn’t know what else to do with him and didn’t want his body defiling their land,” she said.

Adam couldn’t contain his excitement, joy, and happiness. Adam held Charlotte so tightly and cried with her.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” Adam said.

Gereon entered and was puzzled with the situation, especially when he saw guns on the table.

“Adam? Charlotte? I wasn’t expecting company. Is everything okay? What happened?”

Adam got up off the couch and burst into laughter, making Charlotte laugh and Gereon smile while still wondering.

“How about we all have some fish! This flamingo is hungry!”

← Catch up with the first chapters