The impersonal trial suddenly becomes that much more personal for him. Michael doesn’t get to go until the third day when after almost six years, he sees Hanna again she is one of the accused. A rotation is worked out where every student in the group gets to spend a day in court, experiencing the proceedings for themselves. During this time, one of his professors forms a group of students who are to observe, record, and discuss the trial of Nazi camp guards who have been captured after all this while. It becomes a way of shielding himself even as he moves from school to college, where he studies law. His personality changes too he is more aloof from his peers, a little jaded. It takes a while for Michael to get used to the idea that Hanna is gone, and even then, she never truly fades from his memory. He further learns she is moving to another city but has given no forwarding address. The landlord tells him she vacated the apartment, and even the manager of the tram company knows nothing of her whereabouts she resigned even as he was going to promote her to a supervisory position. And then one day, when he arrives at her apartment, she is no longer there. Conversely, her bouts of anger increase and she lashes out at him often. As Michael’s school year begins, he finds himself spending more and more time with his classmates, and his trysts with Hanna reduce in frequency. Something changes after they return from the trip. The fight follows its usual route, with Michael falling over himself to apologize, and Hanna returning to her old charming self after a while. It is an idyllic time for both – cycling during the day, stopping at inns in the evening and staying together and of course reading out to Hanna – marred only by one incident where they fight when Hanna can’t find him one morning, despite the note he leaves for her. Michael convinces his parents he is going with friends, and Hanna acquiesces on the condition that he plan everything, which he readily does. The only time the rule of meeting only in Hanna’s apartment is broken is when they go for a cycling trip into the countryside during Michael’s summer vacation. He slowly becomes part of a group of his classmates but is careful to keep both his worlds separate first as a precaution, and then because it is too late to reveal news of that import. The relationship too serves as an education for him, putting him at ease while talking to girls in his class, at a time when most of the other boys are too awkward or shy to do so. They go through numerous books, and Hanna’s opinions and verbal reviews of them are well thought of and deep, something that helps Michael with his studies and in perceiving the tales from the perspective of another person. After their lovemaking, she has him read out to her from the books he is learning from, and some he knows of by himself. Their trysts follow a pattern until Hanna learns that Michael is studying the classics in school a new ritual is then introduced. Despite all this, he continues meeting her almost every day after school. Michael learns early that questions about her past, or indeed any questions, are to be avoided if he doesn’t want her to get angry with him. Hanna dominates the relationship, playful and joking at times, haughty and angry at others. They only meet in Hanna’s apartment and nowhere else the one time Michael tries interacting with her on the tram where she works as a conductor does not go well for him. It is a strange relationship from the beginning, and not because of the age difference. Thus begins their intensely physical relationship, where Michael finds himself a willing student to all that Hanna has to teach. She heats water for him to bathe while she dusts off his clothes when she returns with a towel to dry him off, he discovers she has discarded her own clothes too, and they make love. She gives Michael the task of collecting coal from the building’s basement a task which results in the inexperienced Michael returning with a full scuttle but covered in coal dust, much to Hanna’s amusement. She isn’t at home but arrives soon with a coal scuttle. It is a sight that stays with him long after he returns home, prompting him to visit her again. Hanna offers to walk him down to the street, and as she wears her shoes, he catches a glimpse of her stockinged leg. Arriving with flowers and a few rehearsed lines, the socially awkward Michael mumbles his thanks and turns to leave. Diagnosed with hepatitis, he spends a couple of months bedridden, and when he is well enough, his mother directs him to go thank the unknown woman who helped him. Unwell for a while, he collapses in the street where Hanna stays, and she brings him home to rest until he can go home again. Michael Berg is 15 years old when he first meets 36-year-old Hanna Schmidt in the late 1950s.
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