A BRIDGE AMONG TWO NATIONS (1/?)
Title: A Bridge Among Two Nations
Rating: NC-17
Pairing: Schnidal (Bernd Schneider/Arturo Vidal); Bruno Labbadia/Arturo Vidal.
Character crew: Bernd Schneider, Arturo Vidal, Bruno Labbadia, Gonzalo Castro, Tranquillo Barnetta,Joachim Löw and Die Deutsche Nationalmannschaft.
Disclaimer: F.I.C.T.I.O.N
Warning: Threesomes, some foursomes, non-con.Some slang and swearing.RE-TRANSLATED.
Summary: Sometimes love is a bridge for communication among two totally different nations. In this part - Bernd comes back after losing EM 2008 despite of his injury and his feelings for Arturo had changed...for better.
"Dear Diary:
I wouldn't recover or coming back if it wasn't for Arturo. He's the real reason why am I going forward with my comeback.I felt guilty and dissapointed when I wasn't there, where my partners were all the time.
The real problem is the language. We gaze each other. He just says "Hallo". Is that the only phrase he learnt in ONE YEAR in Leverkusen? I bet not. Surely he's afraid of speaking it..."
Bernd Schneider wrote these statements in his MacBook. He tries to hide the real feelings for Arturo in that computer. He flips down the laptop when Joachim Löw appears.
"Everything's fine, Bernd?"
"Well, yep."
"Happy comeback,Bernd!!"
"Thanks, Herr Löw... by the way... do you know Arturo Vidal?"
"Well...some...why?"
"No, just for asking."
"He was an U-20 player in 2007... now he's in the main team... for a long time ago. Well.Gotta go.Good night."
"Good night"
But a sound was heard.
"What is that?"
"No, nothing sir."
"Don't lie to me."
"It's the MacBook logging out"
"O.K. See you!"
But Bernd couldn't sleep almost the entire night. He falls sleep just at 5 AM.
Suddenly, he feels a body climbing to his back. Schweinskiesque. A Spanish spoken particular voice was heard:
"Levántate, hueón.Levántate, levántate." (Wake up, jerk. Wake up, wake up)
"Arturo!!!!!! Leave me alone!!" he says in German.
"Te 'tai quedando dormido...ya son las siete..." (You're falling sleep...it's seven (o'clock) )
"Sh...!"
He turns around. It was just a dream. The alarm rings at half past six.
"Shit, mother fucker! Man...I'm fucked up."
He looked at the mirror and slapped with water himself.
"Huevón...huevón... a la concha de tu madre...blaaaaaaargh!" he tries to say in Spanish.
Putting his earrings on. Getting dressed. Going out for breakfast with his partners.
He was in bad mood.
"Vidal...huh?"
"Gonzo!"
"It's Vidal...huh?"
"Yeah. I thought that it was seven o'clock"
"Why, man?"
"Uhm. I mean. I felt something in my back, like pressing me up... it was exactly the same thing as Schweinski in "Sommermaerchen"...dude...I mean...
Arturo never watched the movie---"
"Dude, you were dreaming. Or like Arturo would say...Huevón. Tai soñando"
"Sh...."
"And he was speaking German or Spanish?"
"Get the fuck out of here, Gonzalo Castro... you're the guy who messed it up all... you're his goddamn interpreter!!!!!!"
Bernd punches Castro.
Silence.Then,Gonzalo's nose bleeds.
Miroslav looked at him with skepticism... Bernd always had the fame of being a conflictive person and fighting all the time.
But he was more than just angry. He's pissed off.
"Hey... Schnix!? Don't do that!"
"Fuck off, Klose!"
"Say what?"
The breakfast was a disaster.
Gonzalo and his broken nose.The center of attention.
Joachim realised about it and had a small-private-talk with Bernd.
"Hey, Schneider. Are you mad? You knocked someone just for the fact of speaking Spanish... "
"No... it isn't that"
"What then?"
"It's not... you know... racism..."
"You don't have any reason of punching him like that.Talk to me, what's the big deal here?"
"I dream with someone who wakes me up just like Basti did once with Luke [Podolski]... then that person talks to me. Gonzalo told me that's just a dream..."
"¿Hablas español?"
"I don't speak Spanish very well as I wish.Sorry"
"That's the reason you're angry. You don't speak his language so much... what the person says to you... can you at least say me... the translation or something."
Bernd concentrates and then in his accent he tries to reproduce the vocabulary.
"Levántate, las siete...huevón"
"Ahhh! It's a typical Chilean expression. Sort of bad word. He said 'wake up! It's seven o'clock' !"
"I've just learn how to swear, not to speak!! Aw, man...wait a minute... sorry. It's just that Gonzalo it's behind all this stuff"
"Why? You're paranoid, Schneider. I was supposed you'll have a happy comeback, but seems you have lack of form in every sense. Seems you're nervous."
"I mean... I'm older than him. It doesn't fit in my mind this kind of feeling"
"Are you repressed?"
"Sorta." the man from Jena answered.
"Well---" Löw sighs "how much older than him are you?"
"I don't know... maybe ten, twenty.I don't know"
"Are you thirty four?"
"Yep."
"How old is he?"
"Well... when the team introduced him. He came back from a U-20 tournament in Canada."
"Awwwwww!! The U-20 World Cup! Third place, I know...yeah... nineteen? But that was in 2007. Now's 2008. Do you know his birthday?"
"May 22nd"
"He's twenty-one now. But...he's an adult now. So, what's the problem?? It's just mathematics"
"He's so young and full of energy. He looks like a blooming flower. Excuse me, but I've never felt like this before... if I'm thirty four... and he's twenty one... no...
just less than twenty years. Not so much as I thought...hey...wait a sec"
The dialogue was developed in the exercising room, which featured a mirror.
Bernd went to the mirror and looked at himself, sighing.
Then he blows some air to the mirror and makes some steam. And he draws "87-73" in vertical.
Then he begins to solve it, the steam fades away as soon he blows it...
"Daayum!"
Blowing air once more at the mirror. He writes the numbers once again. "Drei, vier,fünf,sechs, sieben"...
"Aw! Four...let's go to the other side...aw, damn!"
He blows air once more.
The writing was already fading away, but he could see the number four written.
"Sieben,acht...one... fourteen...aww!"
He erase it with his jacket's sleeve .
"Herr Löw!! It's fourteen...it's fourteen...!!!!!!! Herr Löw...?? Herr Löw!!"
The bundestrainer left the place.
"Heeey! Dayum! He left me alone all over the place..." Schnix purrs.
"Hey tú, Bernd Schneider...¿qué haces aquí? Si estás ahí...¿me puedes escuchar?" (Hey tú, Bernd Schneider...what you're doing here? If you're there... can you hear me?)
"I already understand you"
"Eso es lo más importante. Deberás hacerte entender. Sé que tu español no es bueno, pero al menos entiendes."
"I already do" Bernd answers in German.
"Me gusta cuando hablas alemán y yo hablo español" (I like when you speak German and I speak Spanish)
"And why? Can you tell me?"
"Porque dos lados construyen un puente. Al final, los constructores se van a encontrar y se darán cuenta que están en el mismo lugar"
(Because in two places are building a bridge. At the end, the builders finds one with each other and they realize they're in the same place)
the voice said with perfection in his accent.
"Who are you? You aren't Timo. And Metze doesn't speak Spanish like that.Very good pronounciation by the way" Bernd said.
Then someone held his back saying:
"¿Acaso no me reconoces la voz?" (Can't you recognize my voice?)
Schnix gets scared and punches the man with his elbow.When he turns back he realizes it was Jogi.
"Aw, damn... so sorry...so sorry. You sound very different while speaking Spanish."
"It's o.k. It's all o.k... I put to the test. Did you calculated the age difference?"
"It's fourteen. I'm fourteen years older than him.So?"
"So."
"So?"
"Fourteen years are nothing, Bernd!! And also is twice seven. Seven is the number of perfection..."
But then Bernd cries.
"What happened? Hey... what happened?"
"Arturo would be ashamed of me if he see me like this. I wish I could tell him how so much in love I am. As you spoke to me..."
"You can build a bridge among two different cultures. Don't build the bridge for your own. Leave him his turn. One day you build a block, the next day he'll do it.
It's the best way he can learn German. "
"I love him much more than before my injury and lose the EM. Seems I'm coming back... but I cannot tell that I'm coming back if I cannot tell him the way I feel.
I had experience in all aspects. It's just I'm sick and tired of prejudice, racism and all stuff... he isn't so dark as some people describe. Well... brown hair and eyes.
And his skin isn't so dark..."
"Awwwwwwww! I understand! It's the man which has the nickname of 'Celia Punk'?"
"Well...yeah...that's the man I'm talkin' 'bout!"
"Aw! He plays well... and he's already cool. A lot of bling-bling by the way" Löw express.
Bernd chuckles. At last for the first time, he could smile.
"He looks nice with those earrings. His eyes wide open and his eyebrows... he's so special. By the way, I have a wallpaper in my Macbook..."
"Can I see it...?"
"Sure. After the match."
"Ok.Are you feeling better now?"
"I feel much better than before. Thanks for understanding me."
"No way. Thank you" Löw emphazises. "Because I've never heard of a case like this.
A German falling in love with a Chilean without knowing the reason why... love is blind and deaf... even in race and language."
The breakfast incident was forgotten. Castro almost couldn't play for his broken nose.
It was a friendly match... it was a surprise for Bernd. Only Löw knows who's the rival.
When the national anthems were heard, Bernd thought that Germany would perform it first, but another overture was heard and all the Mannschaft
had a face like "Oh, oh!", but the smile couldn't get erased from his face. He knew from ear where the National Anthem came from.
The overture belongs to the other team.
Then using this mistake (or beautiful accident) he tried to lipsync:
"Puro Chile es tu cielo azulado
puras brisas se cruzan también..."
Matías Fernández made the first goal against Germany.
But then Bernd made the tie with a penalty shoot. Arturo was astonished... Bernd even copied his celebration.
But after the match, all was happiness...
Bernd was looking for Arturo.
"Hey du..."
He took off his jersey and gave it to Arturo.
With almost no words, the Chilean gives his jersey to Bernd.
When he looked at it, he saw the number. 14.
While putting it on, he remembered just a few hours ago he made the calculation and concluded he was fourteen years older... "Fourteen years are nothing"
"Arturo!!" he cries while hugging.
"¡Volviste, Bernd, volviste!" (You're back, Bernd, you're back!) Arturo exclaims "Aw, Bernd!"
"Arturo!"
He took Arturo by the hand and the audience cheered up.
Then the net crashed up, 'cause the frontal angle picture of them took by the hand was downloaded several times in a day.
It was true. As a commentator from German TV said during post-match: "Germany and Chile are like two people trying to understand each other.
Franz Beckenbauer began the project. Bernd Schneider is already building it."
10.05.2008. tbc.