Stars

"Stop being so capricious, Franz," Marlene said with a glare. She was angry with her husband. He was like this so often nowadays. Undecided, bitter, and, worst of all, unpredictable. One moment, he was flirting with her or engaging in light conversation, and the next, he was spaced out and sunken deep in thought, his chin resting on his knuckles. 

"I'm not." He snapped. "I have a lot going on, Marlene."

"You're unemployed, Franz." She countered, her eyebrows raised. As much as she loved her husband, she couldn't help but pester him about his professional situation. He'd been at home for months, unwilling to look for an open position in politics or academia. She was afraid of the day the money would go out.

"I'm thinking, " he answered simply. "I'm going to have to go to the Front anyway; you'll be rid of me then."

"Don't you dare say such a thing!" She banged the plate she'd been drying down onto the table. "I don't want to be rid of you; I love having you around. But not when you're insufferable as you've been this week." She sniffed the air disapprovingly and shot him another frustrated look. "You smell, Franz; it's time you took a bath." 

"I'm too tired."

She opened her mouth to scold him but closed it when he finally looked at her. His eyes were bleak and empty, and she recognized the pained expression immediately. He was thinking about the war. And about how he'd have to go again soon. She stepped closer to him. "Drinking isn't going to help, neither is sulking around. Go to the children, help them get ready for bed."

He shook his head. "No." He said, "I'm not going to the children like this."

"Alright. Then stand up."

"What?"

"Get your arse off of that chair and get ready to go out. You don't need to shower; grab a coat and a hat. I don't want the neighbors to see your greasy hair." She shot him a last look of disdain and ushered him out of the dining room. "I'll be right back once I've tucked the children in." 

Her voice had left no room for arguments. Franz wearily searched for the right coat and shrugged it over his shoulders, tying the sash in the front. He grabbed a hat from the top shelf and plopped it onto his head. He might have looked alright if his face hadn't been full of stubble and his eyes hadn't been so red and puffy. How Marlene could even deal with him wondered him sometimes, she was nowhere near as complicated as he was. He leaned against the doorframe and waited for his wife to return.

After running down the stairs, grabbing a coat off of the hanger and a hat to match, she strode past him and into the night, ordering him to close and lock the door. 

"Where are we going?"

"Just come."

She led him around the back of the house and up the hill that led to a smallish forest. "Remember the first two months of our marriage?" She asked him. 

"Yes?"

"Remember when I said I was going out with Luise almost every night?"

"Yes?"

"There was never a Luise."

"What?" Franz stopped dead in his tracks. She grabbed his coat sleeve and dragged him further up the hill.

"There was never a Luise," she repeated, barely panting even though she was practically jogging up the slope, "I was afraid of being your wife. I knew it would be to you if I got married, but I would have rather waited another year or two." 

"What?" This time, Franz said it with a laugh. 

"So I pretended to be out with Luise when I was just going up here." 

"But how did you...? You always dressed nicely; how did the clothes not get wrecked?"

"I'm a woman, Franz; I can be dainty if I wish." He looked her up and down. She was right: none of her clothes had the slightest smudge. His clothes were already muddy, especially the bottom of his trousers and the tops of his shoes. "Once I got used to being your wife, I stopped coming."

"That's when Luise moved to Dresden?"

"Exactly." 

"Oh, Marlene, you could have talked to me? I wouldn't have minded waiting a year!"

"The pressure wasn't just from you. My parents wanted me to get married. And you know how long it took my sister to get married after she turned Alfred down."

"Fair enough."

"And my other suitor...I only met him after you and I got married."

"What?" Franz's voice turned almost shrill. He'd never head of this 'other suitor' and by the sound of Marlene's voice, she'd liked him.

"Don't worry, darling, since I'd already married you, I never did anything with the man. But I met him when I was up here. He was a hunter, still is, probably." 

"And you never cared to tell me that another man was falling for you?"

"We were newlywed, Franz; everyone has their doubts. You were so solemn back then, and we didn't have children yet. There was nothing I could distract myself with."

"But-."

"I don't even remember his name, Franz. We only saw each other six times or so. I told him that he should leave me be if he saw me up here again."

"Marlene-." But his complaint was cut off when she pulled him through the last few trees and onto the clearing. 

The little circular clearing was situated right on top of the hill, and the heavens' face, dotted with stars, looked down on them.

Franz tilted his head up and gazed at the stars. He forgot about what Marlene had confessed just seconds before, about his worries for the future and the pain of the past.

The stars winked at him. Marlene reached for Framz's hand and intertwined her fingers with his. 

He smiled. He was still able to recognize most of the constellations. He'd learned them years ago before he'd served in the World War, but they were one of the only things he hadn't forgotten. The rest of his school studies had long fled his mind. 

After a while, he raised her hand to his mouth and kissed the back of it. "I'm alright with it, Marlene." He was referring to the hunter and to her lying about Luise. "But I will have to do one thing about it."

"What?"

"I will build you a bench right here for you to sit on whenever you like. Therefore, when you're at this beautiful place, you will think of me, not some hunter." He said it with a chuckle. Marlene giggled and pecked him on the cheek.

"Thank you, Franz. I promise I'll forget him."

"No need to, Fräulein. Just think of me more often."