Karl arrived in Midnight in 1975.\u00c2\u00a0 He knew nothing of style then, and never learned, but he knew how to poach an egg and had his own spatula.\u00c2\u00a0 He spoke enough German and English to get by.<\/p>\n
He missed Prague.\u00c2\u00a0 Said so every day.\u00c2\u00a0 He missed the Charles Bridge, and the astronomical clock, and his dark mistress, the Vltava.\u00c2\u00a0 But he met a girl, Midnight-born, who called herself Star though her parents called her Yvette.<\/p>\n
They married in \u201882.\u00c2\u00a0 She washed laundry at the Midnight Towers.\u00c2\u00a0 He worked a grill.\u00c2\u00a0 Karl mastered burgers–and I mean really mastered, with the most exquisite seasonings and the perfect thickness and exactly the right temperature.<\/p>\n
Karl learned more English.\u00c2\u00a0 It was the only language Star\u2019s parents spoke.\u00c2\u00a0 He taught Star enough Czech and Hebrew to pass secrets in front of them.<\/p>\n
They lived in an apartment in the mountain.\u00c2\u00a0 It was a cramped place in a crowd of cramped places.\u00c2\u00a0 They heard their neighbors argue.\u00c2\u00a0 The neighbors heard them in bed.<\/p>\n
Little Karl arrived in early \u201884.\u00c2\u00a0 He knew nine different words for pancakes by the time he was three.<\/p>\n
Karl and Star and Little Karl strolled through the park, visited museums, and went to the Fairgrounds every year for the carnival.\u00c2\u00a0 Little Karl, who would always be Little Karl, started playing piano before he started school.<\/p>\n
Karl added pork chops to the menu when he decided they were just right.\u00c2\u00a0 Star graduated from laundress to hostess and worked the front desk overnight.<\/p>\n
In five months between 91 and 92, on either side of Christmas, both Star\u2019s parents died.\u00c2\u00a0 They moved into her parents\u2019 flat.\u00c2\u00a0 It was larger, and outside, and smelled of lavender no matter how much they scrubbed.\u00c2\u00a0 They used the small inheritance to buy Little Karl as real piano, a baby grand.\u00c2\u00a0 It was badly out of tune and needed a polish; three keys wouldn\u2019t strike; another dozen liked to stick.\u00c2\u00a0 Little Karl had it next to perfect inside a month.<\/p>\n
Karl discovered a sauce that was neither Italian nor French, but was impossible to ignore or forget.<\/p>\n
On a Monday in \u201896, Star took the day shift at the Midnight Towers.\u00c2\u00a0 A madman with a pair of .44 Oliveri\u2019s and unfocused rage shot Star in the chest on Tuesday.\u00c2\u00a0 Karl and Little Karl visited her every day in the hospital until she was able to come home again.\u00c2\u00a0 She became quieter, and moved a little more slowly, and never truly escaped every shadow of pain, but she was happy.<\/p>\n
One day, an envelope arrived in the mail.\u00c2\u00a0 It contained cash, quite a bit of it, and a slip of paper that read, \u201cWe take care of our own, Your Uncle.\u201d<\/p>\n
Star didn\u2019t think she had an uncle.\u00c2\u00a0 But now she didn\u2019t have to go right back to work.<\/p>\n
Karl and Star and Little Karl went to shows at the Palais Royal and the State Theatre and the Opera House.\u00c2\u00a0 Then Little Karl, when he got home, would mimic what he\u2019d heard.\u00c2\u00a0 His voice was atrocious.<\/p>\n
In \u201802, the year Karl became owner of The Midnight Grill, Little Karl met the girl of his dreams: Unna.\u00c2\u00a0 She\u2019d just arrived from Berlin, so they could laugh together in both German and English.\u00c2\u00a0 She dreamed of cabarets and smoky nightclubs and the long blue dresses she could wear while singing.<\/p>\n
And damn, Unna could sing.<\/p>\n
Little Karl happened to be the man of her dreams.\u00c2\u00a0 They married within a year.\u00c2\u00a0 Karl cooked a feast, lamb and duck and rare vegetables, everything but the cake.\u00c2\u00a0 Mrs. Fleet baked the wedding cake.<\/p>\n
They got a regular gig at the Palais Royal for a while, and then one of the bigger concert halls, and played shows across the entire city until Unna\u2019s pregnancy became difficult.\u00c2\u00a0 She was condemned to bed for most of five months, during which time Karl the Third arrived.<\/p>\n
Sometimes at twilight, Karl and his grandson sat on rockers on Karl\u2019s stoop.\u00c2\u00a0 \u201cI miss the Vltava,\u201d Karl said.\u00c2\u00a0 \u201cI miss the Old Town, my golden city.\u201d\u00c2\u00a0 He smiled, because he repeated these things now by rote.\u00c2\u00a0 Karl the Third giggled.\u00c2\u00a0 \u201cWhen I left it,\u201d Karl said, \u201cI had nothing but a spatula.\u00c2\u00a0 I didn\u2019t know anything but how to poach an egg.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"