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10 FOUR SEASONS BREEZE | SEPTEMBER 2021 RESIDENT SPOTLIGHT He's not James Bond, but he did find himself embroiled in a frightening, shady, international deal in East Berlin during the Cold War. While supplementing his college life in Berlin with jobs as an interpreter for the British Military Mission, James Cloud was paired up, for one day, with a British company to be a German interpreter for a trade deal with North Korea. After passing through Check Point Charlie and reporting to the North Korean embassy in East Berlin, Cloud was ordered to follow two large black Mercedes driven by a North Korean security detail, and drove deep into East Berlin. "I thought we'd be staying at the embassy, but instead we were taken 30 miles behind the Iron Curtain to a warehouse." It didn't take long during the negotiations for him to realize that the surveillance equipment being purchased by North Korea would be used on fishing boats to monitor foreign activity in the sea near North Korea. When the negotiation became heated and started to dissolve, despite the efforts of the interpreters, Cloud became alarmed. "I pictured myself in the basement of the warehouse being worked over by men with rubber hoses," he said. The deal finally went through and he hurriedly left East Berlin vowing, "never, never to accept a job with that company again." Cloud is not the only adventurous person in his family. He had an uncle who survived Pearl Harbor and the Normandy invasion, and a family lineage that traces its roots back to the Mayflower and to people who came to this country with William Penn in 1682. He spent his early years growing up in New Mexico, where he describes himself as a "lively" child. Living in a desert area, he was not to venture outside until his mom had checked for rattlesnakes and tumbleweeds, both common around their home. He and his pals found an "old hotel nearby and decided to remove the weeds and old wood at its base. We were able to crawl underneath and climb through the old floor." It was a great place for curious boys to play. His mom kept a piece of lath handy for reminders to obey each time he didn't follow her rules. During WWII, his first-grade teacher Miss Kohn left an indelible mark on his elementary experience. He loved and respected her. She was a remarkable Jewish lady who would, "button our coats and give us a kiss when we left each day. We had a school bell, and we each got a turn at ringing the bell," he said. Cloud's community had several ethnic groups including a substantial German and Jewish contingent. With good friends of both backgrounds, he found it difficult as a child of WWII to "understand why the Germans and Jews were fighting when I got along so well with both groups," he said. Admiration for the Jewish community grew in Cloud. Living in Boston during his 20s, he found the German and Jewish communities to be extremely hospitable and inclusive. "My three friends included me in their Shabbat dinners and I was even given a yarmulka," he said. The Germans and Jews he knew worked together to support each other as well. Cloud did not go to college to become a writer. Instead, he majored in industrial design. During the Cold War, he learned that university was free for foreign students in Resident author draws on real-life experience to tell stories colored by 20th century cultural conflicts By Andi Henderson

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