MELISSA'S STORY

East Berlin, February,1983

I recognised my contact at about nine o'clock in the night, and it was already dark. She was smoking a long cigarrette in a corner of the bar, and drinking a Martini. A slow tune was played on the piano.
-Melissa?-I asked.
-Talk lower, Spaniard- said she in a whispering.
-But this bar is sure, isn't it?
-Yes, and the tune is wonderfull- she replied, smiling.

At quarter to ten she led me to a dark, dirty room on the first floor of the bar and paid the waitress. She kissed me in the chin and said goodnight with her beautiful, addictive smile. I saw her going out of the bar alone, and she saw me watching her. Our looks crossed and she got in again. When she finally went out of my room it was half past one at night...

I thought I was in love with her until next morning, when a thin man with a strong Irish accent knocked at my door and said:
-Melissa is dead. At nine o'clock I'll be with my car in front of this dirty pub- and he was gone.
I was trying to assimilate what the Irish man said and hurried up. I was dazed and confused at how fast a romance can start and how fast it can end too.

At nine I found a black car at the door and I got into it. The man said:
-I'm your new contact, you can call me Peter. Yesterday a woman found Melissa -my heart sank when I heard the name- dead with a shot between her eyes. There will not be any funeral but you can buy flowers, if you want, her family will be so pleased. No, I'm joking, we don't know anything about her family, probably she's not even called Melissa, I think she was a Soviet spy. But well, who are you?

I got on very well with Peter, and after this mission in Russia we kept in contact, until he sadly died in the early nineties. But that's another story, what I really want to tell you is how I investigated the death of the woman who died wearing a dark dress, the woman I was in love with, the woman who got my child in her...

Written by Tarik Martin

MY FAVOURITE PRIVATE EYE

Do you like detective stories? Tell us something about your favourite detective and the author who created him/her.

IT'S A PARTY

[4th ESO] WRITE AN E-MAIL TO A FRIEND TELLING HIM/HER ABOUT A PARTY AND ASKING HIM/HER TO COME. DON'T FORGET TO INCLUDE:

- DATE
- TIME
- PLACE
- REASON OF THE PARTY
- WHAT YOU/PEOPLE ARE GOING TO WEAR

COMPARING PHOTOS

Two photographs of the same place. But obviously they are not alike. What would you say about them?

Here's an example, made up of two different comments of yours:

The pictures are very similar, they both show a city and it looks as if it is the same city but with a big difference, the pictures were taken in a different time, the first one nowadays while the second one may be from the late XIX century.

Because of that principal difference we can observe a lot more differences. The first picture is in colour and we can see that the city has a road for cars and a sidewalk for people walking. We can also notice that the picture was taken on a sunny day.

In the second picture we see an old city where there is a sidewalk and a "road" for carriages. As the people are walking with umbrellas we can tell that it was a rainy day. (Irene)

In picture A, people seem more nervous because life nowadays is more stressful, but in picture B it seems that people are more relaxed, as if they had no pressure for anything.

I think I'd raher live in picture A because I prefer life as it is nowadays. (Andrea)

BLOGS

Have you ever visited a blog? If so, which one(s)? What are they about?

Do you have one? Do you think blogs could be useful for schoolwork?

COMPUTER GAMES

Are you fond of computer games? Is it all fun? Write about their advantages and disadvantages (if any!).

PHOTOGRAPH DESCRIPTION

Perhaps you would like to practise your ability to describe a photograph. Try this one!