Boy from the Woods (9781311684776) (33 page)

After
polishing off their plates of lasagna, they both lay down on the
bed facing the screen in the corner. Michael switched on the
player. In the meantime, the sky outside had turned almost dark, so
they’d drawn the curtains. It felt cozy and safe in his room. Julia
scooted closer to Michael and closed her eyes, relishing the
intimacy she felt being near to him. It felt so different from the
first time she’d been in this room, lying on his bed, making
out.
That moment seemed ages ago.

She only
noticed she’d fallen asleep
during the
movie when Michael woke her up by softly stroking her forehead and
kissing her lips. “Hey, Sleeping Beauty,” he chuckled when she
opened her eyes. “I thought you said this was your favorite
movie!”

Julia lifted
her head and saw the credits roll.
“Oh, too
bad.
I just missed the ending,” she
yawned, then turned over to him and kissed him back. His hand
massaged her shoulders and neck, then slipped down her back to her
tailbone. She moved in closer, letting his warmth soothe her. His
breathing turned heavy when he kissed her more deeply and held her
in his arms without breaking away. Usually when they kissed, they
were somewhere outside or at her place. Now, they were in his
house, and they were all alone. There was no need to let
go.

She groaned
in protest when Michael pulled away eventually, pushing her back
and looking at her earnestly.
“Julia,” he said in a
ragged voice.

Breathlessly, she gazed up at
him. “Yes?”

“Should I...” His eyes
darted to the door and back to her.
“Shall I make you a bed in the guest room?”

She slowly exhaled and cupped his cheek with
her hand. “No,” she replied firmly.

A light grew
in his eyes, but he still looked at her attentively.
“Are you sure?” he whispered close to her mouth.

“Yes. Very sure.” She
blushed, but her voice didn’t waver.
This
was what she wanted.
He
was what she wanted – and this
time for real.

He pulled her
into him and rubbed his cheek against hers, then mumbled in her
ear.
“I love you.”

It was the
first time he
’d said those words. Julia’s
entire body was aglow with love and passion and emotion. “I love
you too,” she whispered back.
“You keep me
safe.”

After that, she said no more. Nothing more
needed to be said that night.

14
.

“O
h my
word
, look at that view!”
Florian exclaimed excitedly, pointing down from their capsule. Far
below, the Thames wound its way through the city like a glistening
ribbon of blue, Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament flanking the
river like miniature buildings.

“Yup. Great,”
Tamara deadpanned. She’d only found out she was afraid of heights
when they’d already boarded the Ferris wheel, so she was sitting on
the bench in the middle of the capsule holding Gaby’s hand in utter
terror.

“It really is
great,” Axel chimed in. He was
standing
next to Florian, filming the view with his camera. “Okay, so they
charge you an arm and a leg to get on the London Eye, but it’s
worth every dime.”

Julia was on
the opposite side of the bubble,
listening to Michael pointing out all kinds of sights to
her. He’d been to London several times already, so he knew where to
find the most famous sites from up here.

“Smile, you
lovebirds,”
Florian called out to them at
that instant. They looked sideways and he snapped a picture of them
with his phone.

“What kind of birds?” Julia called back with
a devious grin.

“Pigeons, of course,” Florian replied with a
wink. “Lots of those around here, right?”

Michael shot
him a sour look.
“Ha, ha.
Very funny.” Yesterday, he’d been fined by a bobby for
feeding the pigeons on Trafalgar Square. “How was I supposed to
know we’re not allowed to feed some birds? They’re not exactly
carrying banners saying ‘We Pigeons Are London’s Worst Pest’, are
they?”

Julia flung
her arms around him. “
Well, I thought it
was adorable you wanted to feed the pigeons,” she smiled. “You
looked so cute with your hands full of breadcrumbs and this flock
of eager birds surrounding you.”

He chuckled.
“
Yeah, if only the police thought the
same.”

“What? You being cute?” Axel
piped up.

Michael and
Julia both burst out laughing. This was their third day in London
and they were having
a good time so far.
Last night they’d attended Moritz’s concert. Today, they were
planning on having a picnic in Hyde Park in the afternoon. The
girls had hit Tesco’s this morning to do grocery shopping and
brought the stuff up to their room. “I can only hope the mice won’t
touch it,” Gaby had remarked sarcastically, since the youth hostel
wasn’t the cleanest place they had ever come across.

“Are we there yet?”
Tamara asked plaintively, getting up on shaky
legs to risk a glance outside the window. “Oh, good. Almost. I
can’t wait to get out of this thing.”

After a few
more minutes, the whole group exited the bubble and popped into the
gift shop opposite the Eye. Gaby, Julia
,
and Tamara walked in first, their arms linked, and the boys
followed behind. At the beginning of the trip, they’d all solemnly
sworn not to turn this into a couples’ trip, and so far, they had
all been good. Julia hadn’t even spent that much time with Michael
– he was mostly hanging with the guys and he slept in a different
room. Gaby and Axel were on their best behavior too.

Axel was
chatting animatedly to Mi
chael as they
entered the store. He seemed to finally have gotten over the fact
that Michael initially hadn’t treated his cousin so respectably.
Julia looked at the two of them with a smile. Axel
should
be
happy for her, because this entire summer had been one long,
jubilant string of happy occasions, just as she’d once imagined it
in her dreams. At the end of the summer, Michael would move to
Graz, though. She dreaded that moment – she was going to miss him
so much.

“Hey, man,
are you okay?” she suddenly heard Axel call
ing out behind her. Julia turned around and saw Michael
sitting down on a folding chair next to the entrance. Florian was
standing next to him, fanning him with a newspaper and offering him
a bottle of water.

She quickly
made her way over to him. “Is the heat bothering you?” she asked,
touching his forehead. It felt cold as ice, despite the hot
temperatures today.

Michael shook his head.
“I’m just dizzy,” he mumbled.
“Just let
me sit down here for a bit.”

“You think it
might be his ride on the Ferris wheel?” Tamara wondered
aloud.

“Possibly,”
Julia replied absently. She crouched down
and stayed next to Michael until the others had paid for
their souvenirs at the checkout. His spells of dizziness were
starting to worry her. He looked just as pale as when he’d left
work one week ago when he was feeling sick.
What was
the matter with him?

“I’m taking Michael back to the hotel,” she
said decidedly once they’d left the gift shop. “Let’s meet up in
Hyde Park late afternoon, on the green near the Peter Pan
statue.”

“Are you sure?” Gaby
asked.
“You don’t want us to come with
you?”

“What, and ruin your last afternoon in
London? No way.”

Tomorrow
morning they’d fly back to Salzburg, and Julia knew Gaby was dying
to go to a few Goth shops in Soho they’d passed
yesterday.

“Okay, whatever you say.”
Axel slapped Michael on the back.
“Take
it easy, man. We’ll see you guys later.”

Julia’s fingers tightened around Michael’s
hand as they started to make their way back to the tube station.
She hoped there’d also be buses outside the station – taking
Michael home in a hot and busy underground train didn’t seem like
the best plan right now. Apparently, he was thinking the same
thing, because he pointed at a cab waiting at the taxi stand near
the station. “Come on, let’s take a taxi home,” he said
tiredly.

“Are you out
of your mind?” Julia gaped at him. “That’s going to cost a ton! Do
you know how
far
it is to the youth hostel?”

He shot her a feeble grin. “Oh well. Aren’t
you happy you have a rich boyfriend now?”

Julia
shrugged and didn’t respond. Michael was right – he could easily
afford it. It just made her insecure whenever he threw around money
like that. He wasn’t trying to show off consciously, but she was
simply used to a very different lifestyle.

She exhaled
deeply when they crawled into the back seat of the cab. “Hyde Park
Hostel, please,” she said in her best British accent. The driver
nodded, turned on the meter and drove off. After a thirty-minute
ride to the hotel, Michael paid the driver a
shocking amount of money, but Julia was actually relieved
they got there so fast. Michael still looked very pale. He probably
wanted to lie down in his room.

“Shall we go upstairs?” she proposed as the
taxi disappeared around the corner.

He shook his head. “I want
to go to the park.
Sit under the trees.
It’ll do me good.”

That’s what
he had done last time too. It had worked really well last week, so
why not?
“Okay.
I’ll just
quickly run upstairs to get some drinks and my book,” she
said.
“I’ll be right back.”

As she made
her way up the stairs huffing and puffing – the cheap hostel didn’t
have a functioning elevator, and of course their rooms had to be on
the fourth floor – she thought about which book to bring.
She and Michael had been reading poems from her
Daniil Charms collection just before they boarded the plane a few
days ago, so she’d bring that.

“All righty,
let’s go,” she tried as cheerfully as she could when she stepped
outside. Michael still looked as white as a sheet, but he probably
wouldn’t feel better if she kept fussing over him all the time. It
was a better idea to ‘send him some sun’, as he sometimes called
it. Whenever she shared her stories with him and couldn’t stop
talking and beaming at him, he called her his sun, just like he’d
done in his poem to her. She
knew
it was cheesy, but she
didn’t care – she was still way too much in love to consider
anything
related to her and Michael too sappy.

As they
picked their way down
the path leading
into the park, up to the green where they’d agreed to meet with the
others, Julia whistled a happy tune. After a few minutes, Michael
veered off the path, pulling her along to a large, gnarly chestnut
tree in the middle of the green.
“Shall we sit down
here? In the shade?”

The two of
them picked a shady spot. Michael observed Julia with a smile as
she rummaged around in her bag to get cans of soda and
bags of potato chips. “You’re gonna read to me?”
he asked eagerly when she pulled out the Charms poetry book
next.

She
nodded.
“That’s the plan! Why don’t you
lie down with your eyes closed and a drink within
reach?”

Obediently,
he grabbed a can and settled against the trunk of the chestnut, his
eyes shut. Julia leafed through the pocket book. It had once
belonged to her grandfather, who had always been fascinated by
Russian literature, leaving her his collection of translated poetry
when he died. She’d read this book countless times, but this was
the first time she was sharing it with someone dear to
her.

She softly read out some of her favorites. ‘A
Romance’, ‘Petrov and Kamarov’, ‘A Song’. Every once in a while,
she peeked at Michael to check whether he was still awake. Every
time she did, she saw a faint smile playing around his lips. He was
still sitting with his eyes closed, but the color had returned to
his face.

Presently she turned the last page and read
out the very last poem in the book.

“A man left
his house

with a club and a sack;

set off

down the road

and never looked back.

He walked ever onward,

he walked ever straight.

Never slept,

never drank,

never drank, slept, or ate.

At dusk, he entered a forest

as dark as the night.

And since

that time

he has vanished from sight.

But if you ever happen

to come across this man…

then please

let us know,

as fast as
you can.’

With a sigh,
Julia closed the book. But when she looked up, she started. The
smile had disapp
eared from Michael’s
face. He looked at her so mournfully, so solemnly, that she
couldn’t help but come over and sit down in front of him.
“What’s wrong?” she mumbled, caressing his face.

He extended
his arms toward her
and she disappeared
in the circle of his arms. “I don’t want to leave,” he replied
almost inaudibly.