Upon arrival, Brian soon realized there were practically a million different places Sally could be... and this was just if she still lived within city limits! Much to his dismay, Berlin was a very different place than when he'd left it. Even with his surroundings being so different, he managed to find his way around well enough - he still remembered enough German to get by. Even if he did get lost, he figured the ensuing adventure could make for a great new novel.
His first stop lead him to a dead-end. The street on which the little inn Sally used to rent a room in was now completely filled with large shops and hotels. Where was Frauline Khost? Frauline Myer? Frauline Schneider? Along with all the other colorful characters that used to co-habitate those halls? They couldn't ALL be gone...could they?
He entered the large, looming hotel that stood where the old inn used to live. The once modest sitting room/communal area was now a grand lobby, completely with tall stone pillars stretching skyward, looking almost as though they had been plucked straight from the Roman ruins. Most of the room echoed a vision of mahogany: mahogany walls, mahogany chairs, a mahogany desk... Accents of gold and silver glimmered in the late afternoon sun's glow, peeking in as if to say hello from the heavens, and illuminating all it touched in a celestial fashion.
Brian approached the front desk, as there was no line to wait through, and tapped the little silver bell on the desk. A man in an emerald green suit with shimmery gold buttons down the front approached.
"May I help you, sir?" he asked in a heavy German accent. This man looked vaguely familiar to Brian, but he couldn't place where from. A past lover, perhaps? He studied his features closely.
"You knew I was English?" Brian asked, perplexed by how he could possibly know this without him even opening his mouth.
"Your passport, sir."
"Hm?" He clutched it a little tighter, unsure of why he'd be asked to show his passport just to ask for lodging.
"Your passport, sir," the man repeated. "Your passport is English."
"Oh...oh!" Brian chuckled, just now catching on to what he'd meant. "Yes it is, very good for noticing."
"May I offer you lodging for your stay in Berlin, good sir?" the man asked with a smile. Brian really couldn't shake the feeling that he KNEW this man...
"No...well, yes, I mean...I had a question I wanted to ask you first--"
"I'm married," the man kidded.
"What? Oh... haha, no, nothing like that..." He felt his cheeks grow hot; was his sexuality really that obvious? "No, what I wanted to ask was, what's happened to Frauline Schneider's old establishment that used to be here?"
The man sighed. "It must have been a long time since your last stay here, sir."
"Yes it has, about 6 years actually."
"All of the old buildings that used to be here have been bought out."
"Bought out? By who, if you don't mind my asking?"
"By a Maxemillion Reinhardt."
Maxemillion Reinhardt...MAX REINHARDT! Finally, a name he knew! "And what of Frauline, did he kick her to the curb?"
"Frauline Schneider married a Jew..."
"Oh no..." Brian's heart sank. He knew where this story was headed, and he didn't really want to hear the rest of it. "And all the others?" He figured he shouldn't mention anyone else by name, for fear of looking like he was asking for too much information.
"Different fates for different peoples," he replied. He tried to sway the conversation back in a professional direction. "May I assign you to a room, sir?"
Although feeling a little defeated, he agreed, and let a bellboy take his suitcase up to his room. As he got his key from the man at the desk, he couldn't help but notice that the small golden name tag at his chest was only engraved with the letters M.C. "You only use initials for your staff?
"Discretion is of the utmost importance to us, sir." And without another word, Brian was sent on his way.