Or is Henry sitting alone, smoking? Is the weather too cool for anyone but smokers to be sitting outside? Are Conrad and his mother off shopping somewhere? For clothes, or for candy?
What are they doing? What do they look like?
Is Bertha a slim 26-year old, with an elegant ponytail, chic jeans, and double breasted yellow leather jacket over a cashmere sweater? Does a tiny jeweled cross dance lightly on her otherwise bare throat?
Is Conrad a shy three-year old boy, clinging to his mothers hand? Does he wear a Juventus FC jersey that hangs down to his knees?
Is Henry a tallish, bearded, 27-year old man, wearing a black leather motorcycle jacket, an "Unheilig" t-shirt, scruffy designer jeans and black army boots?
Do they have their luggage with them in the cafe? Or back at the Hotel?
Does Bruno crouch down in the wayback seat of the minivan, afraid that Henry will see him? Does Henry even recognize the chronicler?
Are Henry and Bertha speaking to each other? Why is she making this journey with him? Why does she stay with him at all? Why is she bringing Conrad?
Does Henry load his wife and kid in the minivan, give me directions to the Hotel to pick up their luggage, and then tell me that he'll meet us in Canossa?
Do I react with surprise? Why won't he get in? Is it the Opel Zafira? Did I rent the wrong vehicle? Is Henry the sort of guy who refuses to ride in a minivan?
Does Henry tell me to give him two hundred euros? Calmly, matter-of-factly, not asking for a loan, but as it were the natural order of things that he should need some cash and I should give it to him?
How would I react to his demand? Would I tell him that I am not his vassal, that I am a twenty-first century American, a Democrat, an empiricist, a blogger?
Would Henry respond that without him, the excommunicated Holy Roman Emperor, what would I have to blog about? My breakfast? My moods? The latest comment from Rush Limbaugh?
Would I break down and give him the cash? Would I have enough cash in my wallet? Did I stop at an ATM in the Mannheim City Airport, just to be sure, even though I planned to use plastic for nearly everything on this trip, to get the best exchange rates?
Does Henry count the 200 euros, and then give me back twenty, and tell me to take Conrad to the Technik Museum--we'll pass it on the way to the autobahn? Does Henry tell me to make sure the kid knows it's a present from his father?
What's going on inside the minivan while I talk to Henry outside?
Is Bertha sitting quietly by herself in the middle seat, reading a fashion magazine? Or is it a Catholic woman's lifestyle magazine? Has Conrad climbed into the front passenger seat? Is he pretending to drive? Am I worried about letting a three-year old ride in the front seat? What are the laws in Germany? Are Bruno and Lambert sitting in the back seat, whispering gossip about the Council of Worms?
Do I ask Henry how he's going to get to Canossa? Does he shrug his shoulders and glance down a side street? Do his eyes settle on a BMW FG50 S motorbike? Do I follow his glance and think that's a nice bike, smaller and sportier than the BMW bikes we see in the U.S.?
Do I ask him if it's his? Does he say, it will be, very soon?
Next in Main Story:
Matilda Leaves Her Mother's Sickbed to Care for Her Dying Husband
Next in the Blogger's Tale:
Speyer: Technik Museum
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