The bong of the clock and the conductor's watch disappeared into a pocket signalling the train's imminent departparture. Darkness shrouded the platform as the passengers a mystery. Night was the only departure time to the City Behind the Wall. 'The darkness kept the former German capital, now the capital of East Germany hidden, a secret. That's how the Soviets seemed to like it, want it. The Wall was an impentrable barrier keeping Berlin isolated and separated from its homeland and the world. The Wall restricted access to the truth and reality of Berlin. Only the Soviets had knowledge and information of the reality and truth of the City Behind the Wall. It was in the Soviet's control, their territory, their jurisdication and their responsibility; therefore, Berlin was no one else's concern or business. 
    Billows of smoke dissolved simultaneously in the night sky as the train sped away from the station next to a tavern in a small rural Bavarian town. With the speed and the night, there wasn't any point looking out the window at the farms, vineyards, castles, rivers and countryside that zoomed past. It would be the perfect time to sleep and wake up in Berlin at midnight. 
     His thoughts were distracted by his job, his assignment, his mission to report on Berlin. The blue passport in his hand with the eagle gripping arrows in its talons rested on his lap. His ankles crossed, his tennis shoes propped up on his green duffel bag with his uniforms in it. He'd have to wear his uniform tomorrow. The military required him to travel in his civies, his jeans, polo and tennis shoes which he was more comfortable in anyway.  In the black bags next to his duffel bag, he fiddled with the camera. It was his camera, not the military's. He loved taking pictures, but the military wouldn't just lake picture. He had to be a journalist too. The military was a necessary evil, so he could continue his true passion in college acting.
   The Soviets were only going to let him take pictures of and talk to certain people in Berlin. He wondered what the Soviets didn't want him to see and didn't want him to know. Maybe the Soviets kept secrets on purpose, maybe they wanted things hidden, isolated, separated behind the wall. Maybe he was a real journalist because he wanted to investigate, reveal the truth. The truth, the reality of Berlin was restricted, blocked by the Soviets. They distrusted and avoided the evil American capitalist pigs whose idealogies and philosophies were corrupt, distorted, manipulative and insane. After all, he was an American and a soldier and while he had top secret clearance, the Soviets hadn't given him the same clearance.
   All the secrets, the mysteries, the hiden, the restrictions and limitations of Berlin made him distrust the Soviets. What were they hiding in Berlin? Why were they hiding? What was the big secret? Why so many restrictions, so many limits? He felt sorry for the Berliners. The Wall prevented them from being free, having freedom. He despised the Sofiets because they restricted freedom. Maybe that's why the Soviets hated Americans and its military because they were the warriors of freedom,of which they had too much.
     All of this rhetoric sounded like bull shit. As an actor, he knew there were costumes, masks and sets in a reality existing only on stage. After the performance when the actor shed his character and steps off the stage into reality, the real world. This analogy rang true for Berlin. That was reality, life as it was in the Cold War of the late 1980s. President Reagant and Gorbachev talked politics promising the Wall would come down and Germany would be reunited. But the Wall remained and everyone was frozen thinking their beliefs and stance were right. Even if it smacked like shit, he was merely young, filled with hubris and not so knowledgeable or experienced in the ways of the world or politics. For he was merely a college student, an Army private. His youthful exuberance and his hubris made him think he was clever, tricky and sneaky enough to get shots of things on his camera. Shots the Soviets had threatened to break his camera or expose his film if he took them.
     Fast forward 10 years. He was back on the same train going to the same destination, Berlin. This time he was a civilian and older. He was no longer a student but an actor even though he was not internationally known or famous. He was married here on vacation. His wife had lived in Germany in her teen years but unlike him it was her first trip to Berlin. It was daylight with breathtaking views of country side, farms, castles and rivers. Shots he would get pictures of.here and in Berlin. Germany was reunited and Berlin was once again its capital. There were no more secrets, no more mysteries, no more barriers, no more hiding, no more limits. Even the Cold War was no more and The Soviets, well, they were America's friends now. There was freedom. Or was there, his cynical mind mused. 
   But yet the maskes, costumes, trappings and the like remained with its secrets, its mysteries. The reality and truth remained hidden, never to be completely discovered or revealed. Perhaps that's how it should be because it wasn't important to know the truth or absolute reality because we probably couldn't handle that anyway.