The Story Begins (14 page)

Maybe the cab driver was right, after all. There just might be a method behind the seeming madness, he thought.

III

13

The Water Tower

“The time draws
nigh,” a resonant voice said to Lydia, who found herself alone atop a mountain summit, mystified as to why she was there.

“Hello?” she called out.

“He comes.”

“Who comes? And who and where are you?” she asked, unsure as to where the voice was coming from.

“The child from a distant land,” it said.

“Who are you?” she asked again.

“Mine is to watch over you, and though it answers not your question, such is my answer.”

“Are you a guardian angel?”

“After a fashion, though I am not as you imagine angels to be,” the voice explained.

“Why can’t I see you?”

“It is my wish that you do not.”

“Why not?”

“In time.”

“When?”

“In time,” it repeated.

“Where are you from?”

“Not from your world, dear child.”

“Then where?”

“Existence abounds with life. You’ve traveled the universe, have you not?” it asked. “And also know that there isn’t but one universe, do you not?”

“Yes.”

“I shall only say that I am from beyond your realm.”

“Shia, is that you?” she asked excitedly. She couldn’t imagine who else it might be, yet she did feel that there was a difference.

“What makes you think that I am he, the companion of thy childhood?”

“Because he is magical and can speak without being seen, just as you are doing.”

“He comes,” it repeated.

LYDIA
woke up in extraordinarily high spirits. When last she had felt so chipper, she had seen Shia.

She hopped out of bed, readied herself then skipped downstairs in a mood most delightful. Her parents were already at the breakfast table, her father engrossed in the morning paper while her mother poured her a cup of orange juice. Skipping around the kitchen, she kissed them then helped herself to the scrambled eggs and bacon that was being kept warm atop the stove.

“You’re quite the chipper one this morning, sweetie. Must be the new apartment you’re soon to move into.”

“Not sure, but whatever it is, I feel like I’m on top of the word!”

“Good for you, sweetheart. Do you have any of that cheerfulness to go around? I have some co-workers who could really use some,” her mom joked.

“I feel like I have enough for the world over, several times,” she said as she took her seat.

That was an unusual dream, she thought as she sipped her juice. It reminded her of Shia and how much she missed him. She often wondered where he was and why it was that he no longer came to her. She had never forgotten his words, “
Makes me wonder if the next time we see each other after today will be years from now.”
Might he have been trying to tell her what was to be, or had matters simply unfolded as they had? It had now neared just about four years since they were last together.

After a long enough time had passed and Shia had not returned, she had had a most difficult time coping, and was often so sad and depressed that she had hardly said much to anyone, including her parents and Cassandra. However, neither her parents nor Cassandra had ever noticed for cast over their eyes was a veil; if ever they had noticed her somberness surely would they have asked why, and most assuredly they would have found Lydia’s explanation fantastically implausible. Gradually her solemn moods had subsided and she had felt better. Today, though, she felt as though she had never known a day of sadness in her life. She was exuberant as if one who felt alive for the very first time. Contagious was her exuberance for Cassandra, awaiting her best friend outside the apartment door, was all smiles even before Lydia had stepped out.

At school the professors in almost every class, believing that Lydia had not been paying attention to her lessons for she was all smiles such as one preoccupied with daydreams, sought to get her attention by directing questions at her only to find that she, indeed, was very much focused on all the topics of discussion.

After classes Lydia and Cassandra stopped by the grocery store on their way home to pick up some groceries.

“Are you helping Dad cook tonight?” Cassandra asked.

“No, it’s Mom tonight.”

“I might come over for dinner. I wish my parents cooked as well as yours do… especially, my mom. Would you believe that she still says that she’s taking a stance against the stereotypical roles men have placed on women? Yeah, right! It’s more like poor Mom just can’t cook,” Cassandra said, giggling.

Lydia smiled. “We grew up together, sweetie, remember? I know your mom all too well. If you do come over, will you be spending the night?”

“I don’t know. Maybe… maybe not… really not sure,” Cassandra said.

“Oh that reminds me! You forgot your key in my room,” said Lydia.

“I did?”

“Yep! Last night when you left, you forgot it on my dresser.”

“Good thing you noticed it. I hate when I’m locked out of your apartment and no one is home to let me in, or when I come down a little too late and have to go back upstairs to call you to open up so as not to wake up your mom and dad.”

“I wish we could have built a staircase between our rooms. Kind of like a maisonette. We have keys to each other’s apartment, clothes and tooth brushes in each other’s apartment. We even have beds in each other’s apartment, so why not a staircase?” Lydia said.

“Now that would have been really nice,” Cassandra said as she imagined what it might have been like.

“But it’s just as well. We did manage just fine all these years. Wow! Can you believe that in a few weeks I’ll be moving into my own apartment? I wish I had found one that I liked before we actually started college; the move would have been over and done with by now… but all’s well that ends well, I suppose, so I guess I shouldn’t complain.”

Cassandra didn’t like it when Lydia broached the topic. She feared that because Lydia had decided to find herself an apartment that perhaps at some point they might begin to grow apart. “I don’t want you to move!” she protested.

“Cassandra, it won’t be any different than it is now. You’ll have a key to the place and probably spend as much time there as we do in each other’s apartment now. Besides, your mom and dad are talking about buying a house in Laudenbach so you’ll be moving anyway. Don’t worry about it. Nothing will ever change.”

“I know. It’s just that the thought of not being in the same building after we’ve always been our entire lives scares me.”

Having picked up everything they needed, they headed to the cashier.

“Things will be no different, sweetie,” Lydia reassured her.

“Okay.”

THAT
EVENING: After dinner Cassandra returned upstairs to her family’s apartment, wishing she had done her home assignments earlier rather than foolishly procrastinating. She had a lot to do so she wouldn’t be sleeping over, nor would they sit at the window as they had done almost every night since their childhood.

Lydia lay in bed looking out the window to the starry heavens, marveling at the immensity of the universe. Had she not witnessed the boundlessness of existence, she couldn’t be certain that she would not have found it inconceivable that our universe was but just one of a number as countless as infinity, with each of the ones she’d visited possessing life forms repeated not elsewhere. Turning her gaze to the full moon for an instant, she thought she saw Shia’s face looking down upon her. “Just my imagination,” she said. Before long she had fallen asleep.

*

Jaden
still didn’t much care for when people unknown to him started conversations with him, especially when he had no choice but be forced by circumstances to endure their company. To that end he had begged the universe not to sit him next to a chatterbox on his flight to Germany. The universe, however, evidently showed no regard for his wishes. Not only had he found himself seated next to an individual who, perhaps, just might have been the most garrulous person on the planet, she also somewhat lacked in manners; to a very great extent actually.

Jaden could neither enjoy the featured films nor take a nap in peace as the young woman that sat beside him, Mindy, though sweet, obviously wasn’t raised in a home with parents that instilled mannerisms and consideration for others in their children, at least not in her. Often she tapped him on the shoulder seeking to get his attention though he had his earphones on, trying to concentrate on the movie; or she’d nudge him to wake up when he dosed off, telling him that he was missing the best bits of the movie even when it was abundantly clear that he wished to nap instead. Was it at all conceivable that the human mind was truly capable of being so utterly oblivious? He failed to comprehend just exactly how Mindy could not have gotten a clue that he’d prefer sleeping when he had taken off his headphones, fluffed up his pillow then said to her, “I’m going to sleep now.” Precisely how she could have mistaken those words for anything other than that which they mean left him nonplused.

The universe conspired to punish him, he thought. It certainly made no sense to him whatsoever that when he was watching the movie, Mindy interrupted him enough times with meaningless banter that he’d miss a good bit of it, yet she’d wake him up because she didn’t want him missing out on parts of it. He had actually tried to switch seats a couple of times during the flight but unfortunately the flight was booked to capacity, and the couple of random individuals he had tried to exchange seats with during a couple of trips to the lavatory weren’t inclined to do so after he’d admitted his reason for requesting so. Reluctantly he resigned himself to his fate and prayed that the plane landed ahead of schedule.

“WE’LL
be landing in about 15 minutes,” announced a flight attendant.

Finally, Jaden thought. Mindy had hardly stopped talking through the duration of the flight. He found it inconceivable that a person could have so much to say yet still not be done over an eight-hour flight. During the course of the flight, and the mostly one-sided conversation, Jaden had learned that Mindy was also in the Service and was to be stationed somewhere in the Frankfurt area. As much as he felt sorry for those with whom she’d be working, he felt the same for her as well. He knew her only as much as one could another over the course of a flight, and though she certainly seemed to be a very good-natured and kind-hearted person, he couldn’t help but think to what extent others would endure her love for chatter, and poking, and nudging, and pulling out one’s earphones for attention. God help your roommate, sweetie, he thought as the plane began its final descent.

It
was just past eight in the morning when the plane landed. “Good heavens! Thank God this flight is finally over,” he muttered as he deplaned. As he headed towards Baggage Claim and heard German being spoken all around him, it began to dawn on him that he was no longer in the States. “Wow! I’m actually in a different country…” he started to say right before smelling something familiar. Then something very familiar he did see. “Ah, fat food, of course… the age of globalization and unhealthy eating. I just hope that there still is genuine German cuisine I can enjoy,” he said as he walked past the fast food restaurant. Looking back at it, he remarked, “A more apt name would be, ‘We Make You Fat and Unhealthy.’”

He arrived at the baggage carousel just as the conveyor belt had jerked and begun to move. With nothing better to contemplate, he wondered if his luggage would be among the first that came out. He wasn’t sure if there was a method to how luggage was placed on board flights but always hated that his own always came out among the very last whenever he traveled. Would this trip be the one to break the trend? Folding his arms across his chest, he waited. One appeared and the others he had to wait for.

While waiting for what remained of his luggage, an elderly couple, also standing at Baggage Claim, greeted him. The elderly lady smiled at him lovingly.

“Welcome to Germany!” the elderly gentleman said.

“Thank you. You lovely couple visiting, or is this home to you?” asked Jaden.

“I came here from the States quite a while ago and did live here for some time. My wife, though born here, is actually of Spanish and Portuguese descent and we now live in Spain though we still do visit Germany. You’ll like it here, young man.”

“I’m definitely looking forward to my tour. I’m sure there’ll be plenty of things to enjoy.”

“Absolutely!” said the lady, still smiling. “My husband and I love traveling and we’ve done quite a bit of it. We still do.”

“Waiting on your luggage as well?” Jaden asked.

“In a manner of speaking,” said her husband.

That might have sounded cryptic to Jaden had he not been distracted by spotting his remaining luggage coming around. “Please excuse me, I’ve got to get those,” he said.

“Certainly,” said the lady, still all smiles.

Jaden walked over, reached over the belt and managed to pull off one of his suitcases but couldn’t get to the other in time so he opted to wait for it to circle round again. After retrieving his last suitcase, he brought them back to where he had been standing with the couple; however, they were no longer there. He assumed they had picked out their luggage and left.

Placing his suitcases on a cart, he followed the signs directing him to the US Army station within the airport. Once there he presented his orders to the sergeant who was charged with transportation coordination for all incoming personnel between the airport and their respective duty locations.

Within the hour he found himself on a bus traveling to Mannheim. As he enjoyed the scenery, he pondered what, if anything, his expectations of life in Germany ought to be. He remembered the elderly couple. They were an interracial couple and the elderly man had made mention of his wife being German only by birth. He speculated as to their age, deciding on mid, maybe late, eighties. Though he remembered that ethnically she was Spaniard and Portuguese, he thought that maybe Germany was not as racist a country as his friend had been led to believe; if not then the lady must be of resolute will indeed to have married a man of African descent during days such as those.