Chapter 7 Grandma leaves in anger

The two family members Bruno misses most are his grandfather and grandmother.They lived in a small bungalow near the fruit and vegetable store, and when Bruno came to "hang out together", his grandfather was almost 73 years old, the oldest person in the world that Bruno knew.One afternoon, Bruno calculated that if he had lived his grandfather's life according to his own life, he would have lived it eight times, and he would be one year younger than his grandfather. The grandfather spent his whole life running a restaurant in the city, and one of his employees was the father of Bruno's good friend Martin, who worked as a cook in the restaurant.Although my grandfather no longer cooks or serves tables, he is still in the store almost all day, sitting at the bar in the afternoon chatting with customers, eating in the store at night, and laughing with friends until closing time.

Compared with other children's grandmothers, Bruno's grandmother never looked old.When Bruno found out her age -- 62 -- Bruno was amazed.When she was young, at one of her music concerts, she met her grandfather, who proposed to her despite his many faults.She has long red hair, strikingly similar to her daughter-in-law, and green eyes, which she says are due to her family's Irish heritage.Bruno had always believed in family gatherings that climaxed whenever someone sat at the piano and invited his grandmother to sing a song. "What for?" she always cried, one hand pressed to her chest, as if the idea would kill her. "Do you want me to sing? Why? I'm dying. I'm scared, young man. My singing days are over."

"One! Come one!" everyone at the party would yell, and then after a brief pause -- sometimes ten or twelve seconds -- she surrendered, turned to the young man at the piano, With quick and humorous emphasis: "La Vie en Rose, in E minor. I'll try to keep up with you." The parties at Bruno's were always driven by the singing of my grandmother, and I don't know why, at this time, my mother always walked from the party to the kitchen with her friends.Father was always listening intently, and so was Bruno, who enjoyed nothing more than hearing his grandmother sing.She completely let go of her vocal range and won warm applause from the guests.In addition, "La Vie en Rose" also inspired him, and the hairs on his back could stand on end.

Grandmother hopes that Bruno or Gretel can inherit her stage career. Every Christmas or birthday party, she always arranges a three-person play for mother, father and grandfather.She wrote her own scripts, Bruno felt, and she always kept the best lines for herself, which Bruno didn't mind much, of course.There's usually a song interspersed with it -- "Are you guys waiting for this one?" she asks before she starts -- and there's always a chance that Bruno will perform a little trick and Gretel will do a dance.At the end of the play, Bruno usually recited a great poem. He felt that the words and sentences of those poems were really obscure, but as he continued to recite them, he himself felt more and more beautiful and beautiful poems.

However, these are not the best parts of the little creation.The best part is the props and costumes that my grandmother made for Bruno and Gretel.Whatever the role, and no matter how little Bruno's lines are compared to his grandmother and sister, Bruno is always dressed as a prince, or an Arab leader, or even a Roman gladiator at one point.Bruno would wear a crown, a spear if not a crown, a whip or a turban if not a longhair.No one knows what new tricks Grandma will come up with next time, but Bruno and Gretel will be called to rehearse every day in the week before Christmas. But the last play was a disaster, which Bruno still remembers sadly, though he doesn't quite know why the quarrel broke out.

About a week ago, there was a lot of excitement in the house, probably because the father was called "Commander" by Maria, the cook and Les the housekeeper, and all the soldiers who came and went in and out of his house-in Bruno's opinion- - It's as if they became commanders instead of fathers.It was a very exciting few weeks for everyone.First, the head of state and the beautiful blonde came to the house for dinner, which made everyone really nervous, and then the father became the "commander".His mother asked Bruno to congratulate his father, and he did as his grandmother told him to, and to be honest (he tried to be honest) he didn't quite know what to congratulate his father for.

On Christmas Day, Dad wore his brand new uniform, which he now wears every day, clean and pressed, and when he showed up, everyone applauded immediately.It's really special.Dad stood out from the rest of the soldiers who came in and out of the house, and they respected him more than ever.Mother stood up and walked over, kissed father on the cheek, and put her hand on father's military uniform, as if to praise how good the fabric was.Bruno was deeply attracted by the dazzling medals on the military uniform.He was allowed to wear his father's hat for a little while, provided, of course, his hands were clean.

The grandfather was very proud to see his son in his new uniform, but the grandmother was the only one present who was unmoved.After dinner and the last play with Gretel and Bruno, she sat sadly in an armchair, looking at her father, shaking her head as if he had let her down. "I was wondering—did I teach you something wrong, Leif?" she said. "I worked so hard to raise you to make you look like this? Dressed like a marionette." "Now, Mother," said Father in a forgiving tone, "you know this is not the time to talk about this." "Wearing your new uniform," continued the grandmother, "like it makes you special. You don't even care what it means. What this uniform stands for."

"Nasari, we'll talk about this later," the grandfather said, although everyone knew that whenever my grandmother had something to say, she was bound to speak up, popular or not. "Only you, Mathis," said the grandmother, "you never listen to me. Same as ever." "Now we're at a party, Mother," my father sighed. "It's Christmas, let's not spoil the atmosphere." "I remember when the world war broke out," said my grandfather proudly, shaking his head as he stared at the flames in the stove. "I remember when you came home and told us you were in the army. I thought you were going to get hurt."

"He's hurt, Mathis," insisted the grandmother, "just take a good look at him." "Now I look at you," continued the grandfather, ignoring the grandmother, "and it makes me very proud of you that you have been raised to such an important position. After so much injustice in our country, you want to Fight for her honor. Punish well--" "Oh, listen to what you say!" cried the grandmother, "Which of you is the stupidest, I was thinking?" "But, Nasari," the mother tried to calm the storm, "don't you think Leif looks handsome in this uniform?"

"Handsome?" asked the grandmother, leaning forward slightly and staring at her daughter-in-law as if she had lost her mind. "You mean handsome? You silly boy! You think that's the most important thing in the world? Handsome?" "Do I look good in the Lord of the Rings costume?" Bruno asked, because at the party that day he was wearing that dress - the Lord of the Rings red and black suit - and Bruno was very proud of it.However, as soon as he said this, he immediately regretted it, and the adults all looked in the direction of him and Gretel, as if they had forgotten the existence of these two children. "Children, go upstairs," said the mother at once, "and go back to your rooms." "But we don't want to go," protested Gretel, "can we play here?" "No, children," insisted the mother. "Go upstairs and close the door." "That's what you soldiers are interested in," the grandmother continued, ignoring the two children. "Wearing a handsome military uniform and committing all kinds of atrocities. I'm ashamed, but for myself, not for you, Leif." "Children, go upstairs, now!" the mother urged with high fives.This time, they had no choice but to follow their mother's orders and go upstairs. Instead of going straight back to the room, however, they closed the door, sat on the stairs, and eavesdropped on the conversation downstairs.However, it is difficult to hear the words of the parents, the voice of the grandfather cannot be heard, and only the words of the grandmother can be heard intermittently and vaguely.Finally, after a few minutes, the door slammed open and Gretel and Bruno scurried up the stairs, while the grandmother took off the coat from the coat rack in the hallway. "Shame!" she cried before she went away. "My son is a—" "Patriot!" cried the father, who probably didn't know that no one could interrupt his mother's etiquette. "What a patriot!" she yelled, "Patriots who eat in this house, why does it make me sick. Seeing you in this uniform makes me want to gouge my eyes out!" she said He rushed out of the room and slammed the door hard. Bruno doesn't see his grandmother very often, and he doesn't even get to say goodbye to her before he sets out to "hang out together."But he missed her very much and decided to write to her. One day he sat down with pen and paper to tell his grandmother how unhappy he was here and how much he wanted to go back to Berlin.He described to her the houses, gardens, benches with nameplates, wire fences, wooden poles, wire balls, and tents, small houses, chimneys, and soldiers in the distance, but mainly he wanted to tell her One of his discoveries, the people who lived here and the striped hats they wore, he told his grandmother how much he missed her, and he ended up signing the letter "Your dearest grandson, Bruno".