The alarm rang at four in the morning and tore Bruni from a deep slumber. She barely managed to open her eyes, because once again she’d returned home from the cabaret less than two hours earlier.
Her overtired body protested and her exhausted mind pleaded with her to go to sleep again. But that would mean missing the two hours of electricity her borough was granted.
With the blockade going into its second month, living under duress had become normalcy. The Americans and British kept shuttling food and coal into Berlin and, with the little means available, kept up a minimal power service.
Bruni had never given much thought to household chores before, but now she, like every other housewife in Berlin, adjusted her schedule and slept around the times when power was available.
Leaden with
