Alex stood at the window, his forehead pressed against the cool glass, Tobias’ bed now empty behind him just as it had been on that first morning after. He didn’t know whether he wanted to cry or smash his fist through the window pane today. He did neither, however, centering himself instead and taking a series of deep abdominal breaths, just as he did in his weekly Mindfulness sessions at the AIDS-Hilfe centre. Who would ever have believed that Alex would end up leading Mindfulness sessions in his spare time? It was stupid and irrational to be so angry after all. Each person has their time to die. And, as Tim had noted when they arrived, Tobias was so smooth that he managed to have everyone he had let down or betrayed over the years, or at least the ones who were still alive, now sitting in his living room weeping for him. Thomas Posimski had broken down during his speech at the service and Cosima had had to take over. Even that woman Alex had once waited for at the old East German Cultural Attaché looked a bit upset. Only Stamm, or whatever he was called these days, had refused to come.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/19882837
For me, Alex Edel is as important to Deutschland 83 and 86 as Martin Rauch/Stamm/Kolibri. The idea of the two sons of the divided nation, one from the East and one from the West; the way they travel, metaphorically, in opposite directions.
