After spending the morning trying to get some decent prints of flower pictures done so my mom can make a greeting card set for a friend's birthday we took of around midday to visit a friend of theirs in a small Swiss lakeside town. What sounded like a boring outing to me turned out to be a melodramatic, "Heimatfilm" worthy story or even a multipart soap which enfolded right in front of my very eyes. Here is the setting (I changed the names, as all "real writers" seem to do that and found that it isn't at all easy to come up with fitting names for everybody):
Actors:
Patriach of the family: Fritz, 90 years old and still very much with it but somewhat handicapped due to a recent stroke. Former profession: fisherman.
His son Hans, also fisherman, rugged, early fifties, married with 4 (grown-up) kids
Hans' wife: generally considered being "not so nice", rough, tough, greedy, etc.
Older brother: very successful, rich doing "something important" living right next door in a huge house with his Asian wife (scandal!), also considered being "not so nice".
Emilia: Joseph's caretake, 25 year old blondie from Slovakia with very little interest in ever returning there and all the more interest in Hans.
Hildegard: Fritz's "girl-friend", a youthful 80 years old, from northern Germany who speaks immaculate German among all the Swiss and fits into the setting - as we say in Germany - like a "fist in your face".
Location: little village near Arbon, Switzerland, old large house with shed and boat landing right by the lake as in: if you set out the front door too energetically you'll fall into the lake.
The story:
Fritz, being as stuborn as only 90 year-olds can be, wants to remain in his house but can't manage by himself anymore. Emilia enters the scene like a fresh breath of air to take care of Fritz. With the recklesness of the youth and the nonchalance of diction of those who speak a language well enough to be dangerous but aren't fluent, she mixes things up for everybody. Soon she falls for Hans and he, well, quite apparently has a bit of a crush on her, too, despite the fact that she is probably younger than some of his kids. Hans's wife, quite obviously, isn't pleased with the development especially the part where Emilia - quite openly - suggests to Hans to leave his wife and marry her. Hans's wife starts to make life difficult for Emilia at every turn in a quiet, conniving kind of way. Mind you, if I was the wife I would have thrown her out of the house in three seconds flat, but that would evoke too much of a scandal. Eventually Emilia, who really doesn't want to return to her home country and seems to really want to stay close to Hans, suggests that Fritz, who is a bit too old to be her grandfather, marries her so she can stay - and take care of him and be close to Hans. Hildegard isn't please but is lady enough not to take such foolheartedness (is that a word?) serious. Hans's wife now goes about to kill two birds with one stone: Fritz has to go to the old-folks home, ideally a bit further away so he can't come visit all the time, Emilia - superfluous now - will have to leave the country never to return, and the old big house is finally available for Hans and his wife to move in and live according to their rank and status in a house, not an apartment. Fritz isn't fond of the plan, obviously, and I hope he will fight it a bit longer, but his chances are slim. Emilia will have to leave in August, unless she finds someone in a hurry who will marry her. I think she has already started proposing to Fritz's friends from the local old-folks home. Hans is keeping quiet and isn't taking sides overtly, his wife has been bickering for 20 years that she wants to have the big old house and has been making his life difficult over Emilia (with whom, I am pretty sure from the look of it, he didn't have anything serious going on, and I am good at spoting that kind of stuff, if I do say so myself). Being the quiet type he just wants to avoid confrontation, especially with his wife, and keep on fishing and enjoying the modest pleasures of life - whatever that may be in his case.
So this whole little melodrama enfolded and we were watching and sometimes drawn into it on the periphery. Hans's wife was trying to pump my mom for information about what Fritz was saying about being pushed off into the old-folks home. My father and I were chaperones when we went out with Hans - and Emilia-to bring out the fishing nets. Normally Emilia isn't allowed to go on the boat with Hans anymore - something untoward could happen there on the lake but with the two of us joining Hans's wife couldn't object without making a scene. Emilia used the opportunity to flirt with Hans who wasn't too annoyed by it. I took pictures, as I always do, some out on the lake with Emilia and Hans posing, Emilia with her arms thrown around Hans. After looking at them at home in the evening my mom decided that they could not be send "regulalry" but had to be send, in a sealed envelop to Fritz who would then, secretly give them to Emilia - and Hans, in order to avoid more upheaval and scenes.
I am eagerly awaiting the resolution of this story but am afraid their won't be a dramatic last minute turn of events like any good old shmaltzy movie would have. Dramatic turn of events aren't for the rational, reasonable and somewhat unimaginative country people of germanic stock.
All of this played out against the backdrop of blue Lake Konstanz with towering, billowing white clouds in the background, little pituresque inlets, villages with ancient houses and churches and a nearing thunderstorm.
It was immensly entertaining. The only thing I feel bad about is Fritz and the old-folks home. That won't be fun for him and we all know what happens to 90 year olds when they are pulled out of their comfortable environs and are put in a place where they don't want to be. The whole little love triangle I just can't take serious. I remember more than one (many more) super-serious, melodramatic, live-or-die scenarios when I was Emilia's age (and older) which all turned out to be, well, minor, in the big scheme of things and would have long been forgotten if it wasn't for my excellent memeory when it comes to unimportant things.
I am thinking about my professional future when I am back in the US. Maybe soap writer wouldn't be such a bad choice now that I have gotten all that real life inspiration.
The actors shall remain faceless but here is the setting:
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