Unexpected Surprises

Klaus Kirchhoff

Description

An American couple in their seventies begin a four-week long vacation to Italy and Germany with their adult grandson Brian. They have a well-planned schedule about where to visit including friends in Germany. While in Florence, Brian sees a gorgeous girl leaving a gelato parlor.
Under curious circumstances their paths cross again. She serves breakfast at the hotel where they are staying. Her name is Gina, she is a German journalism student from Munich. Brian asks her our for dinner and they like each other.
Seeing Brian’s grandfather, he reminds her of somebody and she soon realizes who this is. She now becomes curious and attempts to find out the person’s background. When she does, it becomes an incredible revelation that leads eventually to a surprising meeting between the grandfather and her mother. This changes the planned vacation drastically to everyone’s delight. Brian and Gina fall in love as the story ends.

Sujets

• American Dad
• Klaus
• Fiction

Informations

• Publié par: AuthorHouse
• Date de parution: 20 janvier 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781665579865
• Langue: English

Extrait

UNEXPECTED SURPRISES
 
 
 
 
 
 
KLAUS KIRCHHOFF
 
 

 
 
AuthorHouse™
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.authorhouse.com
Phone: [phone]
 
 
 
 
 
© 2023 Klaus Kirchhoff. All rights reserved.
 
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.
 
Published by AuthorHouse 01/19/2023
 
ISBN: 978-1-6655-7987-2 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6655-7985-8 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-6655-7986-5 (e)
 
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2023900674
 
 
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
 
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
Contents
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
About the Author
 
 
 
 
 
Dedicated to my wife Brigitte in loving memory

1
O n the last Friday in June, Chuck Kirby was driving his in-laws, Peter and Christa Sommer, as well as his son Brian to the Los Angeles International airport and dropped them off at the Tom Bradley Terminal from where the three would fly via ALITALIA airline to Rome in Italy. He said, “I will catch up with you just as soon as I park the car.”
Peter Sommer replied, “We will check in our suitcases and wait for you before we go through the security checkpoints.”
Peter and his wife Christa were in their mid-seventies and while Peter’s hair had turned white, he still looked younger than his age. He was less than six feet tall and had developed a slight pouch. His face was oval in shape, he had blue eyes under thick brown eyebrows. His nose was long, his thin lips seemed to always smile showing his white teeth. He was an attractive man for his age and he expressed a positive image of himself. His wife Christa was a few inches shorter, she had curly blond hair complimenting her pleasant face. Her eyes were a light blue, she had a short nose over full lips and brilliant white teeth. Her face was oval and friendly. She was a beautiful woman and had kept a slim figure. Their grandson Brian was about six feet tall, had a trim and muscular figure. His eyes were a dark blue under bushy eyebrows. His hair was light brown and short. His face was long in shape and his nose and mouth were well formed. He was a handsome young man and he appeared to be a friendly person always ready to smile, showing his bright teeth.
When Chuck caught up with them fifteen minutes later, they had waited for him and it was now time to say goodbye. He hugged the three of them and said, “Have a great trip and let us know when you get to Rome so we know you arrived safely.”
Brian said, “Yes, Dad, I will text you since you will be in bed by the time we land in Rome. I will also keep you posted every couple of days how things are and what we are doing.”
“I appreciate it, you know your Mom always worries about you when she cannot see you.” Chuck smiled and Peter replied, “You’ve got that right. Linda is like her mother when it comes to worrying.”
“I know. Anyway, have a great flight and a super time over there, enjoy yourselves, take lots of pictures for us to look at when you get back.” With that he began walking out of the terminal; turning around once and waved at the three travelers.
Peter, Christa and Brian now processed through the security checkpoints and went to the lounge ALITALIA shared with three other airlines. Since their tickets were for seats in business class, it entitled them to wait in the lounge and enjoy some food and drinks. It took another hour before their flight was called and they could board the 747 which would take them first to New York for a brief stopover before they would continue on to fly to Rome.
Once seated, Peter ordered Mimosas for them and said to his grandson, “I have been waiting for this and I want to reflect on how it all started when you visited us in Chandler exactly four weeks today. Quite a bit happened, right?”
Brian answered, “You can say that again. When I had called you a few days earlier and asked if I could visit you over the Memorial Day weekend, I was down and you might say even depressed. I did not like what was happening in my life and decided to talk things over with you. That was probably one of the best decisions I ever made. I will be forever grateful to both of you.”
Christa said, “I remember the afternoon you called and asked if you could visit us since you wanted to talk about issues. When I asked you about your girlfriend Ashley, you told me you had broken up with her and I really felt sorry for you. But there were other things that bothered you even more.”
Peter stated, “I cannot tell you, Brian, how happy you made me when you turned to us to talk things over. Seeing you when you arrived, I could tell you were emotionally in bad shape and needed advice. Just think, how things turned around. That was four weeks ago and now we are flying for a month long vacation to Italy and Germany and I am certain we will have a great time over there. And when we get back home, you are starting a week later a new job in Chandler for the City as Deputy Director for the Parks and Recreation Department instead of relocating with your former employer to Chicago.”
Brian smiled and responded, “Yeah, instead of living, working and most likely hating to be in Chicago, I can now look forward to starting a truly challenging job in Chandler in August with a higher salary and even better benefit package. And I have to thank you for it. I will never forget that and will be forever grateful to you, Grandpa. I will make you proud when I start my new job; that I promise.”
“I cannot ask for anything more and if Grandma can get you hooked up with a nice Catholic girl and you get married, you will make her very happy as well,” he looked at his wife and asked, “Right, sweetheart?”
While Brian began to laugh, Christa was serious and answered, “Why do you make it sound as if this is something bad. Brian knows I love him and I will do my best to find him a very nice girl.”
About an hour later, they were served dinner and drank wine with it. They continued to talk about the places they had planned to visit in Italy. It would be for Brian the first time to be in that country. He told his grandparents he had tried to learn some Italian words and short sentences and was very much looking forward to all the sights and different places. He once again thanked them for taking him along on this trip.
Arriving in New York, the layover was just an hours and they walked to the airport lounge to wait for the connecting flight. Just before midnight in New York, their trip continued, a six-hour flight to their destination Rome. They were served a light meal and then agreed to try and catch some sleep. Christa and Brian were able to do so rather quickly but Peter had a difficult time of it because he had to think about events from his past. And not just the past four weeks but his life since coming to America fifty years earlier. He had arrived in California as an immigrant. A cousin of his had sponsored him and Peter had intended to spend only a few years in America before returning to Germany.
But five months later, he had met a German girl called Christa at a dance in a German Club in Orange County and they fell in love. Christa wanted to remain in America since her sister and her family was living nearby and she was very close to them. Realizing this, it was relatively easy for Peter to agree to stay in America as well. They got married nine months later. Within a year, they became parents of a beautiful girl they called Linda and two years after that, they added a son called Mark and now were a four-person family.
Peter had studied and received a bachelor’s degree in Germany in electrical engineering and worked for a few years as electrical project engineer on several projects before coming to America. While he had not planned to necessarily work in that particular field, it changed when he decided to stay in the United States. He applied for and soon got a job in his profession with a major engineering-construction company working on projects around the world. On some of those overseas assignments, he had been able to take his family with him while others were single-status projects and he still regretted having spent those years away from his family. Fortunately, he had never been away for more than six months at a time, yet he had missed some important dates in his children’s lives. Things like graduations and birthdays. But those days were a thing of the distant past. When Linda, who turned out to be the younger version of her mother in looks and appearance, was twenty-five years old, she married Chuck Kirby and they soon thereafter adopted Brian.
Peter and Christa had been able to be there and share in the joy of being grandparents. They had never missed a birthday or other special events of all of their loved ones.
From the day he first laid eyes on Brian as a three-week old infant, he had loved this child. While some people did not warm up fast to someone who was not a blood relative, Peter never had t