Read Online Cafe Babanussa by Karen Hill - Free Book Online Page B

tangible exposure to Black people beyond books and discussions. She had always related more to the Black side of her “split identity.” Yet here she was, out of sync with her raciality, slowly fading and subverting itself as she steeped herself in the Berliner culture and her relationship with Werner.
    One day when he caught her humming a Marvin Gaye tune, he shrieked: “Oh my god, you don’t like that Motown stuff, do you? It’s not the real thing!”
    â€œWhat on earth is, then, the real thing?”
    â€œMore obscure stuff than that. Like Stax. Motown was all just commercial trash.”
    Ruby wondered why there couldn’t be a lot of “real things,” and knew at the same time that he was expecting her to know about all other artists out there. He seemed to have studied Black music and literature, but when Ruby asked him if he knew any actual Black people besides her, he shook his head uncomfortably. Ruby stopped singing Marvin Gaye, Tammi Terrell or the Four Tops in front of him, but carried on just the same when she was on her own.
    She regularly met with the Brits, and Werner went along with her from time to time. But while he enjoyed their company, he wasn’t willing to stay out late partying, even when Ruby decided to remain with her friends rather than return home with him.
    â€œI don’t like you staying late on your own,” he said sternly.
    â€œWhy not? What’s the harm?”
    â€œI’d hate to see you start up smoking dope, or anything else, god forbid.”
    â€œWhat’s wrong with dope?”
    â€œIt will make you paranoid and make your mind lazy so that you can’t do anything else.”
    â€œJeez, Werner, you should have been in Reefer Madness —you’d be a good propagandist for the government. How does that sit with your anarchist ideals?”
    â€œHow can you possibly mix these things up?” he blustered. “They don’t have anything to do with each other.”
    â€œWell, I think it’s a major contradiction, but you’ll have to figure that one out. Just go on home. I’ll be along later.”
    When she got home later that night, Werner was pacingrestlessly. But rather than say anything more, he just hugged her like a bear and they went to bed.
    The next day, Ruby went to the Beate Uhse sex shop near Bahnhof Zoo. It was time to spice things up with Werner. She stood outside to look in the windows for a long while. Once in, she was like a kid in a candy store. There were a couple of men in the store, but mostly it was women oohing and aahing over all the goodies. She herself was looking for handcuffs and anything else that might catch her interest. She found a few hanging on the far wall, but they were all furry and fluffy. She went to the counter, her voice shaking just a little. “Ich suche . . . Hand . . .” Ruby made a gesture, interlocking her hands.
    â€œMöchten Sie die Handschellen sehen?”
    â€œ Ja , handcuffs,” said Ruby.
    The clerk, a young brunette with long, silky hair, nodded with a smile and took her back to the same wall.
    â€œDa sind sie.”
    â€œ Nein . No fur . . . Metall ,” said Ruby.
    The clerk was unsure of what she meant. Ruby tried to pronounce the word metal like she imagined it would sound in German. It worked.
    â€œAch, vielleicht meinen Sie diese?” Maybe you mean these? A little farther along the wall, below Ruby’s sightline, hung some plain metal handcuffs.
    Ruby grabbed a pair and smiled at the clerk. “Ja, diese. Danke sehr!”
    She kept poking around in the store. She heard twowomen guffawing and she followed their voices so she could see what was so funny. The young women were comparing different types of Thai balls to put in your vagina. They came in several different sizes and materials. The women were holding a set of wooden balls. Ruby thought she understood one saying to the other, “These would get lost