Alte Liebe

Since retiring, Harry just complains, drinks wheat beer, and tends to his delphiniums. Or so Lore thinks. She clings to her job as a librarian, organizes awkward readings, and reveres her poets like prophets. Or so Harry thinks. For an old married couple, they talk an astonishing amount – yet usually mean something else entirely. When their daughter Julia announces she wants to marry for the third time, arguments are guaranteed, but they are just the tip of the iceberg. A lot accumulates over forty years of marriage. Under the surface, things are simmering: unspoken questions, old jealousy, arguments about Harry's lethargy and the purpose of a pressure washer. While Harry tends his garden, Lore dreams of a different life, of traveling, of leaving. She feels powerless and asks herself with increasing urgency: Is this it? What chances did she miss? Is it too late for a new beginning at over sixty? Harry drinks his beer, smokes, stays silent. But he notices her distress.