Max Morlock Strasse 51 (or Friend in Need)

Joseph finished his bottle of beer and went back to the pool table. He chalked his cue stick and studied the remaining three balls; it looked challenging knocking off the last two before going for the nine ball. The country-western music in the next room disturbed his concentration.
The pool table room was located in the back of the bar, situated on the Ludwig Maximillian Universität campus. The manager kept it locked and allowed only “serious players” to go in and play – for a small fee to cover any clean-up costs. Like the honky-tonk motif of the bar, the billiards room had dim lights on wooden wall panels, adorning pictures of cowboy movie stars. The best light hung over the pool table. Two leather sofas with horsehide blankets stood left and right of the room with the cue stick cabinet near the door. The room reeked of beer and cigarette smoke. A black light in one corner shined on Joseph’s heavy metal t-shirt that read, ‘Iron Maiden – Aces High,’ giving it an eerie glow.

The music blared. Without taking his eyes off the cue ball, Joseph bellowed, “Close the door, I can’t think!”
The door slammed and a voice said, “If you can’t think, then stop drinking.” Joseph looked up and smiled.
“Sorry, Daniel, I hardly recognized you,” he said, noticing that his best friend was wearing a fine polo shirt with slacks and polished shoes, his blonde hair perfectly combed in place – typical gentleman. They slapped hands in a high-five motion. “Want to play a few rounds with me?”
“You bet,” Daniel said. “I got good news for you.”
Joseph laid the stick down and looked straight at him. “What? You mean the job?”
Daniel held out his hands and smiled. “I’ve been offered an internship. I go back tomorrow to sign the papers. What more can a journalism student ask for?”
“Hey, way to go, man!” Joseph grabbed his shoulders and shook them hard.
“And out of all places, the Munich Mercury, the best newspaper in town. It’s a dream come true,” said Daniel.
“What exactly will you be doing?”
“Writing about engagements, deaths, even police arrests,” Daniel said and pulled out something resembling a i-pod from his pocket. “The even let me have their news wire blotter in advance.”
“Talk about college experience before graduation. Time to celebrate.” Joseph walked over to the mini bar to grab two bottles of beer. “I’ll make sure you won’t sign that contract sober, buddy. We’ll get rip-roaring drunk and suffer from a hangover so bad, that you’re gonna’ see double when you try to sign your name on the dotted line tomorrow.” Joseph finished his statement with a loud burp. The mobile phone vibrated in his pocket as he poured the drinks.
“Hi Mona,” Joseph said. Daniel, meanwhile, chalked a cue stick and studied the pool table carefully.
“No way … right now? Where are you?” Joseph covered the phone speaker and turned to Daniel. “Hey, buddy, where’s Max Morlock Strasse 51?”
“It’s just two blocks from here. Why?
Joseph whispered in Daniel’s ear, “A girl wants me to meet her at her place and I don’t know where she’s at.”
Daniel chuckled. “You poor bastard. You want me to escort you?”
Joseph looked embarrassed and said, “It looks stupid if I got lost.”
“Tell her you’ll be there and I’ll go with you.”
Joseph finished the call and put the phone away. “The shot looks too difficult for me. You can finish it.”
“Indeed I will,” Daniel answered. He bent low over the table; only the seven, eight and nine balls were left on the felt-green surface of the pool table, clustered around the right corner pocket opposite where Daniel stood. The white cue ball lay on the opposite side in a corner near him, in an awkward place for the cue stick to manipulate.
“Seven ball in right corner off the eight.” Daniel aimed and tapped the cue ball with enough force that the seven hit off the eight ball on its edge and rolled gently into the right corner pocket. Clack, it echoed as the seven impacted the previously pocketed balls. The cue ball bounced off the bumper and smacked into the eight ball, pushing it closer to the left side pocket.
“Eight ball on the left,” he said and made the shot, sinking the eight ball into the left side pocket. He casually chalked the cue stick. Only the nine ball remained. Daniel moved to the other side of the table, stooped low to judge the angle and pointed with the cue stick.
“You should have become a professional,” Joseph said.
“I didn’t want to. Nine ball in right corner.” The cue ball touched the nine on the left edge; it gently landed in the hole and the cue ball stopped spinning in the dead center of the table.
“I want to be a journalist. Let’s go.”

The two left the campus bar and walked down Gabelsbergerstrasse of the university section near downtown Munich. It was around 10:30 PM on a warm August evening; college students walked and rode around on bikes, slowing down the constant traffic of BMWs, Mercedes and Volkswagens. Dozens of patrons sat outside the numerous sidewalk cafes, music blared from a bar across the street, the drinking and chatting outside gave vibrant life to this part of town. Joseph explained to Daniel how he had met Mona on campus just a couple weeks earlier and how he suspected that she liked him.
Daniel turned into a side street. He loved how the older apartment buildings had colourful neo-art-deco facades. “This is the artist section of the city. Your friend Mona has good taste for apartments,” he said, impressed with the building with a blue address shield that read Max Morlock Str. 51, readable from a nearby streetlamp.
Joseph went up to the door and tried to find Mona’s name on the doorbell list. He shook his head and looked frustrated.
“What is it?” Daniel asked.
“Stupid me. I don’t have her last name and I don’t know which button to push.”
Before Daniel could respond, a female voice answered from above. “Just call me, Joseph and I’ll buzz the door for you!” Both men looked up and saw a young lady with stylish-cut red hair poking half her body out the window on the fourth floor.
“Hey, Mona. Your timing is perfect,” Joseph answered and waved to her.
“I’m in room 406. Who’s that with you?” she asked.
“My friend Daniel. We just came back from the bar.”
Mona nodded and waved. “Nice to meet you, Daniel. Sorry to tell you it’s a private audience.”
Daniel waved back and answered, “No problem. You two have a great evening.” His gaze at Joseph was the ‘You Lucky Bastard’ type of look, then turned and walked away. The door buzzer went off and Joseph disappeared inside.
Daniel made a slow pace away from the apartment without looking back. Joseph always got the girl and never him, although he was more handsome and suave then his friend. Seemed like girls in the city like slightly overweight Bavarians who drink too much beer. He felt sad; he had no time for a girlfriend; his studies as a journalist kept him away from any social event, except for an occasional round of pool – just to keep his skills sharp. Maybe he should have joined the pros after all. He figured when folks get sad they have a choice: they can do something constructive like play a musical instrument or jog, or something destructive like get drunk, do drugs or vandalize. His way of fighting the blues was two hours of billiards.
The i-pod blotter gave a loud signal in Daniel’s pocket. He took it out and noticed his first assignment to write up tomorrow. His eyes opened wide and stopped in his tracks.
“No way. This just can’t be!”

**********

Joseph noticed the sign on the elevator door, ‘out of order’, so took the long flight of creaky wooden stairs to the fourth floor. The heavy breathing and sweating overtook him by the time he made the third turn up the stairwell. ‘I hope this doesn’t turn her off,’ he thought to himself while puffing away on the final flight up. The red-headed Mona waited for Joseph at the open door of apartment 406. She wore torn jeans and a heavy-metal t-shirt – tight enough for Joseph to admire her round features. They at least had the same tastes in clothing.
“Welcome. I hope you’re not too tired,” she said and reached out to take his hand.
Joseph breathed hard. “No problem. Exercise is always good.” He almost tripped while going over the threshold.
“You’re cute, Joseph. That’s why I like you,” she said and led him into the living room. Joseph noticed the place looked dark and almost void of furniture, except for a small used couch and coffee table at one end of the room. Two artist’s easels stood in the middle with unfinished canvas paintings on them, drop cloths lay on the hardwood floor like twisted carpets. Long candle sticks lined up in another corner near the windows. Only two lit candles provided a soft, feeble light. The room smelled like fresh oil paints.
“I knew you were an artist. Is this your studio?”
Mona still held his hand and brought him to the sofa. She turned and looked at him. “I’ve been wanting to do something with you for quite a while, Joseph,” she said in a soft, seductive voice.
“Anything you want, baby,” he answered back in an almost whisper.
She let go of his hand and took a step back. “Stay right there and close your eyes.”
“Ok,” he said. He heard her walk a couple of steps and open a door.
“Keep ‘em closed,” she continued.
“Sure, but I can gladly watch you undress, baby.”
“Don’t open, I want to surprise you with something.”
Joseph smiled, his mind raced with a thousand fantasies. He never did anything like this before with a girl. “I can barely stand the suspense, Mona. I’m counting to three and opening my eyes.” He took a deep breath and started counting.
“One, two …”
Something like a solid fist punched deep and hard into Joseph’s stomach. He fell to the floor with a crash and writhed in pain, he couldn’t breathe.
“Three!” said a man standing above Joseph with a clenched fist. He had a bald-shaven head and wore only shorts and a muscle shirt revealing a well-built body.
Joseph looked at the man but couldn’t recognize him. The pain was too much for him. He covered his stomach with his arms and opened his mouth – no air came in. Mona walked up to the man and placed her hand on his shoulder, making a sexy pose.
“You really didn’t think I brought you here so you could play out your fantasies, Joseph,” Mona said with a wicked smile. “My boyfriend wants a word with you.”
“You don’t know me, do you?” the man asked. Joseph shook his head while trying to inhale oxygen in his lungs. The man answered, “I’m Max, and you raped my little sister, Louise, last month.”
Joseph’s eyes opened wide. Trying to remember what happened only yesterday, not to mention last month. Why didn’t air go into his lungs? Tears welled up in his eyes from the pain.
“What’s the matter? Cat got your tongue, asshole?” Max asked. “My sister told me everything. You went out with her to the Englischer Garten, behind a lake, near the Chinese Tower, thinking it would be a perfect ‘make out spot’ with nobody around.”
Joseph gritted his teeth and forced whatever air he could get into his lungs. He needed to defend himself and listen to his assailant.
“Please don’t think I’m some over-protective brother, but didn’t you know, shit-for-brains, that she’s only fifteen years old?”
“Fif, fifteen?” Joseph finally moaned words out of his mouth, like air escaping from an old squeeze-box, his voice sounding like he had breathed into a helium balloon. “I thought she was seventeen.” The speaking brought more pain to Joseph’s abdomen.
“Oh, no. You’re mistaken, and my buddy and I will teach you a lesson you’ll never forget.” Max turned his shoulder to face the door to another room and cried out, “Wotan!” The door opened and out came a man taller than Max, wearing shorts and a tank top, revealing the biceps, chest and legs of a weightlifter. He wore a biker bandana and had a long goatee beard. In his hands he carried a baseball bat.
Joseph got a full breath of air, just in time to feel the shock of seeing Wotan and what was about to happen to him.
Joseph again forced words out of his mouth. “Louise is lying. I’ve never raped anybody in my life. This is bullshit.”
“You’re the one who’s full of bullshit. Let the police decide for themselves what’s true. This IF they find you alive,” Max said and snickered.
Joseph looked at the coffee table and tried to think, then got on his knees.
Max spoke to Mona. “You better leave, sweetheart. This isn’t going to look good.”
Mona walked toward the front door and asked Max, “You’re not going to kill him, are you?”
Max turned to look at Mona and answered, “Not really. We’re first going to break his knee caps. Then Wotan is going to use his buck knife and castrate him, so he won’t rape anyone ever again …”
Joseph sucked in a breath of air. As if in slow motion he grabbed the wobbly legs of the coffee table, lifted himself up to his feet and threw the table across the room. As the table made a cart wheeling arc, Joseph’s fist rammed into Max’s nose and fell backwards on the floor. Wotan threw his arms up to deflect the flying coffee table and pushed it aside, it crashed into the corner with two broken legs. The delay tactic won Joseph enough time to flee from the living room and lock the bathroom door from the inside.
Joseph breathed hard as he double-checked that the door was locked. He turned to look at the simple bathroom to see his options. Not much: a toilet, a bathtub, mirror cabinet, small window that could open up. He pulled out his mobile and pressed a number saved in memory.
“Get him!” Max yelled from the other side.
The door knob moved up and down a couple times, followed by someone pounding, then the sound of kicking the door hard; the wood near the lock was cracking. Joseph pushed his body halfway out the bathroom window, still holding the phone to his ear.

**********

Daniel eyes remained glued on the i-pod screen. The vibration of his mobile distracted him.
“Hello?`”
“Daniel, get the f*** back here. Someone is trying to kill me!”
Daniel jammed both devices in his pockets and sprinted back toward Max Morlock Strass 51. By the time he reached the building his heart was beating like crazy, he thought his chest would explode. He stopped to take in breaths as he pressed every button on the tenant list, hoping that at least one person would buzz the main door to open. It opened and he dashed into the stairwell section like a racehorse charging out of a track gate.
‘Lift out of order, Damn.’. He turned one bend after another while going up each flight; his feet wore him down like lead. At the third flight he stopped to catch his breath or collapse. Pool players and journalists were not athletes. He heard the sound of a door opening and slamming upstairs, then looked up and saw three people coming downstairs toward him: a woman and two men, with the woman looking like Mona. Daniel stood up straight and approached them. “Where’s Joseph!”
One of the men in a muscle shirt got to Daniel first, with a fist ready. “Piss off, asshole!” He slugged Daniel in the face and knocked him on the stairs. Mona walked over him whereas the bigger man deliberately stepped on Daniel’s chest while passing by. As the three disappeared down the stairwell, an elderly lady from a nearby apartment came out and saw Daniel laying on the steps near her.
“Call the police,” she called out to her husband in the apartment. “Someone’s been attacked.” She bent down and looked at Daniel, who was just now opening his eyes. “Sir, are you all right?”
Daniel moaned and shook his head. His ears were ringing and he felt dizzy; pain ached from his ribs and his cheek. He tried to get up but stumbled, his ankle felt sprained. The woman helped him to his feet. “We’ve called the police. Can I get you a doctor?”
Daniel breathed hard and shook his head again. “No ma’am and thank you for helping.” The pain in his face, ribs and foot remained, but his senses returned. “Joseph, I got to find him.”
Up the last flight he climbed, like a crippled man, holding the handrail to keep balance. The old lady followed him from a safe distance. He felt something wet on his face and wiped a handful of blood from his nose, then without knowing wiped his hand on his torn slacks.
‘Room 406 wasn’t it?’ He thought as he saw the door. It was unlocked.
“Joseph!” Daniel called in the dark apartment; he smelled oil paint and a snuffed out candle. He found the light switch and went into the bedroom, then the kitchen, then the bathroom. “Joseph!”
“Daniel?” He heard his friend’s weak voice from a distance.
“Where are you?”
“Outside the bathroom window.”
Daniel poked his head out and looked down to the street below, as if somehow Joseph might have survived a deadly fall.
“I don’t see you,” he said confused.
“I’m on a ledge.”
Daniel noticed something like a catwalk directly under the window, lining the front façade of the building. ‘Was he serious?’ he thought. When would his heartbeat ever slow down?
“I don’t see you,” he called out.
“I’m behind a column,” Joseph answered. He looked to his right and saw the column about five metres away with the ledge going around it.
“You can’t get back to the window?” Daniel asked.
“No.”
He took a deep breath and said, “Ok, don’t move. I’m coming out to get you.” Then slowly crawled out of the window and rested his hands and knees on the precarious ledge. It was just enough room for an adult man to move without falling off the side. He crept forward toward the column when he heard the old lady’s voice call out from the bathroom window.
“What are you doing out there!?”
“Trying to save my friend’s life.”
“I’m calling the fire department. We got a crazy person on the ledge.”
“Yeah, you do that.” He heard the footsteps of the lady run away while edging around the plastered column with carved motifs of grapes. On the other side was Joseph, also on his hands and knees in a fetal position.
“Joseph, it’s me. Are you all right?”
Joseph peeked from behind his arms, covering his eyes “Daniel, look at you. Your face is all busted up. You can’t sign a contract tomorrow looking like that, can you?”
“I don’t care. Let’s get out of here.”
Joseph saw the streets below and again covered his face. “I can’t move, Daniel. I’m scared. I have acrophobia.”
“You climbed out here anyway, didn’t you?”
“I had to flee for my life.”
“What happened to your hot date?”
“Not funny. It was a trap. Mona’s boyfriend wants to kill me … or at least do irreparable damage to certain parts to my body.”
“Because you picked up on Mona?”
“No,” Joseph answered then paused to confess. “Because … he’s accusing me of raping his little sister, Louise, last month in the Englischer Garten.” Daniel thought he heard Joseph cry.
“Joseph, get a hold of yourself …”
“Leave me alone. If I fall off, then I fall off.”
“Are you saying you want to fall off?”
“Don’t waste your time with me … I’m a loser with no future.”
Daniel crawled closer and placed his hand on Joseph’s shoulder. “You’re not a loser, Joseph. You’re my best friend. Anywhere you go I go.” He saw Joseph shiver from the sobbing. “I know you too well, buddy. You would never do such a thing. Tell me exactly what happened between you and Louise.”

By now, several passersby noticed the two men crawling outside on the fourth-floor ledge on Max Morlock Strasse 51. A crowd assembled below. The streetlights illuminated the spectacle for all to see
“Spinnt ihr!” said many of the people and pointed their index fingers to their foreheads, meaning that the two men were crazy
“Somebody call the police or fire department,” said a few others.
“I already did,” answered another with a mobile phone in his hand. In the distance the crowd heard the German police and fire sirens tooting away and coming closer.

“Think, Joseph. You’re an engineering student. You got a brain. Don’t you remember anything?”
Joseph mumbled something with his head behind his arms. “I thought I did murphdghl …”
“I can’t hear you. Look at me.”
“If I look up, I’ll get dizzy.”
“Look at me, not at the street.”
Joseph finally looked at Daniel and said to him, “Louise and I went out on a date last July. I took her to the Englischer Garten for the Summer Festival. She liked me, I liked her. I found a remote place on a lakeshore, away from the crowds. She had a picnic blanket and we laid down on it. We were necking, and then …” Joseph lost his concentration with the blinking blue police lights from below and the blaring noise of a fire truck arriving on the scene. Daniel noticed the street was filling up fast with gawkers.
“Then what?” Daniel asked.
“I’m trying to remember.”
“Time isn’t on your side, Joseph.”
“Then … I recall … I fell asleep.”
“You fell asleep? That’s it?”
“Yes, that’s exactly what happened.”
“So there was no sex and no rape.”
“Exactly.”
The voice of someone speaking through a bullhorn on the street below interrupted Joseph and Daniel. “Do not move - we are coming to get you!” Daniel gave the Ok sign with his hand to a police officer below.
“When did you wake up?” Daniel asked.
“About an hour later. Louise was gone so I called her to ask what happened. She called a friend to pick her up who took her home. She got really bitchy at me and said she heard me snore. She said that I was an embarrassment to her and didn’t want to see me anymore.”
Daniel still looked puzzled. “If it’s the truth, then why is her older brother accusing you of rape.”
“Don’t you believe me?”
“Are you coming clean with me?”
“You don’t sound convinced, do you?” Daniel didn’t answer and stared at him. “Damn it, Daniel. Are you playing games with me because I always get the girl and you don’t? Can’t you see a thousand people are watching us?” Joseph paused to take a look at the crowd and shivered.
“Don’t look below, look at me.” Daniel noticed a ladder truck with an aerial platform slowly telescoping towards them.
“If you’re innocent, then why do you think this jerk accuses you of raping his sister?”
“Maybe she wants to get back at me for falling asleep. Maybe she’s a nymphomaniac.”
“Then why are you going out with horny young teenagers that can get you in trouble?”
“Oh, go lick my ass, Daniel!”
“Do you want me to help you or not?”
“Yes, but what can we do?”
“Do you remember what the brother looked like?”
“Of course, he and his friend were big and wore muscle shirts. The brother was bald, his name’s Max.”
Daniel nodded. “He must have been the guy who belted me as I came upstairs to save you.”
Joseph took a closer look at Daniel. “Man, your nose is still bleeding. I’m sorry this happened to you.”
“Look, when we get down we’re telling the police everything. We have names and descriptions. The police can track them down.”
“You’ll help me? Really?”
“On one condition: that you get help. You’re living a reckless life and something needs to be worked on. Agreed?”
He nodded and wiped tears away from his face. “Ok, agreed.”
The fire fighter in the ladder platform arrived at the ledge and looked at the two. “Are you all right?”
“Yes,” Daniel answered. “We need to talk to the police. My friend had to flee for his life. I saw the men who attacked him.”
“Okay, okay,” said the fire fighter. “Get your friend in the basket. Can he move?”
“Of course I can move,” answered Joseph and slowly moved his legs off the ledge and onto the platform.
Daniel made his move toward the basket when a piece of plaster broke off from the edge and his hand slipped; the sudden jerk made his body move away from the building – he was falling off!
A pairs of hands violently grabbed his arms, another his shirt collar. He hung between the basket and the ledge. The crowd gasped – women screamed from below. Joseph and the fire fighter struggled to pull Daniel into the basket head first; only his feet were dangling outside the platform. The fire fighter moved a lever and lowered the ladder.
Joseph bent down to help Daniel to his feet again and said, “You sure live dangerously.”
“Thanks, Joseph,” Daniel said, his heart racing once again. “You saved my life.”
He smiled back. “That’s what friends are for, man.”

The crane completed its descent to the street and the crowds below. The firefighter opened the door of the basket to let Daniel and Joseph step out, only to receive a reception from the police.
“What the hell is going on here? Why were you on that ledge?” asked an older officer, flanked by three younger men in uniform. None of them looked friendly.
Joseph spoke, “Officer, I was attacked by two men and I had to escape by crawling outside on the ledge. My friend came to help me.”
The senior officer looked at both of them and asked Joseph, “What’s your name, young man?”
“Joseph Steidler, sir.”
“We have a warrant for your arrest, Herr Steidler. You’re accused of having sex with a minor. I’m afraid you have to come with us.” The unit commander stepped aside and a junior officer placed handcuffs on Joseph.
Daniel spoke up, “Officers, I’m convinced that my friend is being set up by the accuser, these charges are not true.”
“And who are you?” asked the commander.
“Daniel Preis, sir … your new press contact person for the Mercury.”
“You really go out on a limb for a story, Herr Preis,” the commander laughed. “Nevertheless we still have to take your friend in for printing and questioning.” The commander gave a head notion and the officers took Joseph into the back of a squad car. Daniel tried to get in too, but an officer stopped him and closed the car door. “I’m afraid you can’t come in the same car.”
Joseph gave one last glance at Daniel through the closed window; he noticed Joseph’s lip trembling, as if he was saying, ‘you don’t believe me, do you?’
Firefighters kept the crowds at bay, making room for the police car to slowly drive off.
Another officer escorted Daniel to an ambulance where a medic checked his cut face and wiped the blood away. The officer asked, “Sir, can you give me a description of the men who attacked you? Were they the same who forced your friend to hide on the ledge?”
Daniel didn’t answer him - he only looked down, watching the flashing blue lights reflect off the pavement.
“Don’t you want to help your friend?”
Daniel sighed and looked up. “I just saw my friend’s arrest order on my press blotter. I can only tell you what I know …”