by Dora Heldt
Dorothea pushed me toward the exit. She looked at me triumphantly. “Didn’t I do a good job?”
“So what’s wrong with me?”
“Serious menstrual problems. And it’s embarrassing for you because you’ve only just met Gisbert, so you don’t want to discuss things like that with him yet. Heinz could understand that. Look, here comes Nils.”
“So, Christine, are you sure you can still stand?” He looked at me sympathetically. “Our little scribe is currently recounting the tale of his school-leaving exams, and didn’t even notice me get up. Shall we take off?”
It was nine o’clock. I looked at my accomplices.
“You’re not coming with me, are you?”
“Of course not.” Dorothea slung her arm around Nils’s hips. “We’re going for a romantic walk on the beach. Maybe we’ll meet you there later.” She gave a lascivious smile. “You’d better get going; you’re going to be late as it is.”
I took a deep breath and set off.
A New Love
* * *
By the time I arrived at the Surf Café I had a stitch in my side. I stopped for a moment to catch my breath and had a quick sniff of my forearm. There was a faint scent of turpentine still, but at least my breathing was steady, even though I couldn’t get my pounding heart under control. I let my gaze wander over the bar terrace. Then I saw him. Johann, wearing jeans and a pink shirt, was seated at the third table from the left. I normally hated the color pink, but he looked incredible.
My knees weak, I walked shakily over to his table.
“Hi, I’m sorry I didn’t make it sooner.”
My vocal cords weren’t working properly either. Johann stood up slowly, clasped my elbow, leaned over, and kissed me on the cheek.
“Well, it’s lovely that you’re here now.”
I sank down into the chair opposite him, finding it hard to believe I’d managed to get there at all. I, Christine Schmidt, was sitting on the beach in Nordeney, half an hour before sunset, with the best-looking man I’d seen in the last twenty years—aside from in the movies and on TV, of course. And the man in question looked at me with his hazel-brown eyes and spoke to me in a voice that vibrated with eroticism.
“Red wine?”
I nodded, unable to speak. Perhaps I should bite myself on the knee again. I tried to pull myself together.
“So, how was your day?”
“I went for a bike ride and checked out the island a little. And I went for a swim on the way back. On the nudist beach. I’ve never seen such a wide beach. It was great.”
“Hmm. Yes, it is quite wide.”
God, where was my brain?
Johann gestured to the waitress, and then ordered two glasses of red wine. “What a great place to work,” he said as he watched the waitress go. “Sunsets every evening and happy vacationers. Not bad.”
At that moment the couple at the table next to us started to argue. It seemed that Hans-Günther was ordering his fourth beer, but Margot was against it.
“Only happy ones, you say? Oh well. So, is it your first time on the island?”
Johann nodded and waited as the waitress put our glasses down. “Yes. I really like it here. It’s beautiful.”
“What made you choose Nordeney?”
He shrugged and looked over my shoulder.
“I’m not really sure; I think a work colleague recommended it to me. Have you spent a lot of time here?”
“In recent years, yes, but I tend to go to Sylt more often because my parents live there. You said a work colleague, so what do you do?”
“Oh, pretty boring, really; I’m a banker. And you?”
“I work for a publishing company.”
Johann pulled a box of cigarettes out of his shirt pocket. He smoked the same brand as me.
“That sounds more interesting than a bank. Do you smoke?”
“Only when my father isn’t around. Thank you.” I took one. He lit it for me and laughed.
“That’s right, your father’s here, too. He seems really nice. He gave those two rather challenging ladies the brush-off very charmingly earlier. I was impressed.”
“Where was that?”
“He had just gotten off of a phone call and they ambushed him. He swept them aside with grandeur and said, ‘Ladies, there are important things I need to attend to right now, but I won’t forget about you.’ They let him pass and smiled.”
I was impressed too.
Johann stood up and moved over to sit in the chair next to me.
“I can see the sunset better from here.” His leg touched mine. “It’s lovely, isn’t it?”
I nodded, the sheer intensity of the moment making my throat feel dry.
“So how does a girl from Sylt, who lives in Hamburg, end up in Nordeney?” He paused for a moment and sniffed the air. “Hey, I can smell turpentine. Do you think that’s coming from the sea?”
His knee pressed more strongly against mine, so I did the same. “It must be. So, how did I end up on Nordeney? Through Marleen. We’ve known each other for a long time, so whenever she needs a hand and I have some free time, I come here.”
Johann laid his arm on the backrest of my chair, his hand grazing my shoulder for a moment. I wasn’t sure if it was accidental. I hoped not.
“I’m very happy I met you. The recommendation of Nordeney was worth it. Do you think we could see each other more often?” He stroked his thumb across my shoulder, giving me goose bumps.
“I would love to spend some time with you, but we still have quite a lot of work to do. The restaurant’s opening this weekend. Well, it’s going to be a proper lounge bar really, in addition to a restaurant—very sophisticated. And my father already fired two of the helpers, so now we all have to pitch in, and I…well, my father sometimes forgets how old I am and still tries to do the parent thing, which means no cigarettes, no alcohol, no boys…”
When I fall for someone, I have a tendency to talk nonsense. Johann interrupted me before my torrent of words got out of hand.
“Christine, can I ask you something?”
Anything, I thought, and the answer will always be yes.
“Is Marleen de Vries an employee of the guesthouse?”
That wasn’t the question I’d expected.
“Why?”
“I just wanted to know what she does there. Who’s her boss?”
I stared at him and wondered if I’d missed something. What did he want with Marleen? My answer was hesitant.
“She’s the boss. It’s her guesthouse.”
He seemed shocked for a moment. Then he smiled at me. “Oh, right. And how old is she?”
The sunset was starting without me. “She’s fifty-one. Any other questions?”
Now he really did look shocked. “Don’t get me wrong.” He reached for my hand. “Do you know if she’s seeing anyone?”
I pulled my hand away. “Why don’t you ask her yourself? If you ask nicely, I’m sure she’ll tell you everything in detail.”
Johann took my hand back. “You’re getting the wrong end of the stick, Christine. I’m not interested in Marleen de Vries. A friend of mine wanted to know. He stayed here once and it seems he fell for her a little. It has nothing to do with me. Otherwise I wouldn’t be so excited about sitting here with you.”
He smiled. I felt myself melt and looked at how far the sun had gone down. Johann pressed his thigh against mine and stroked his finger over my neck. For minutes on end I just concentrated on his caresses and felt myself falling head over heels for him.
“Do you live alone?” he asked, moving closer to me.
I nodded. It was getting more serious.
“Yes, I have for the last three years. And you?”
“Me too. Well, I’m actually moving into an apartment in Bremen. At the moment I’m still living—”
His cell phone stopped him from saying where. I gave a start and so did he. But he answered it anyway. “Yes, hello?”
I hate it when people don’
t say their names when they answer the phone. He looked strained. As he listened, he sat up straight and took his arm from the back of my chair.
“Hey, I told you I’d ring when I know more. I can’t say anything yet; give me a bit of time. It’s not like I do this kind of thing every day.”
It was a woman’s voice speaking at the other end, and so loudly that I could hear snippets of the sentences: “depend on you” and “you have a family, after all.”
Johann seemed to notice I was listening and stood up. “Anyway, it’s not a good time,” he said into the phone. “I’ll call tomorrow…don’t act so hurt. Okay, until soon.”
He sat back down just as I was beckoning to the waitress.
“I’d like to pay,” I said.
“Christine, stay. I think that may have been a bit misleading. Every time I see you, my aunt phones.”
Of course, I thought, Aunt Pookie, trying to bring my confused waves of emotion to a halt. “Of course, Johann, I understand. And besides, you can speak to whoever you want. But I have to be on my way. I’ll be working again tomorrow, and you know…my father.”
The waitress stood in front of us. “Are you paying together?”
“Yes.” Johann took his wallet from his jeans and held a note out to her. I let him pay. After all, our date had cost me enough already.
We had the same route back, so it would have been silly to go separately. We walked along in silence. I could feel him glancing at me, but didn’t feel like asking questions, the answers to which I probably didn’t want to hear. When we were almost back at the guesthouse he stopped and took my arm.
“Wait.”
“Yes?”
“We shouldn’t run into your father, right?”
“What’s the problem, are you scared?”
He gave me a baffled look. “Of your father? No. I just thought it might lead to him having words with you, you know, about no cigarettes—and no boys.” He laughed. I didn’t. I felt sad. He seemed to notice and put his arm around my shoulders.
“Listen. I have to sort out a few things that I don’t really want to talk about right now. But independently of all that I can feel myself falling for you, and I’d really like to get to know you better. The one has nothing to do with the other. Can you understand that?”
I didn’t, of course, but he had those hazel-brown eyes, that erotic voice, that beautiful mouth, and he smelled so good. So I leaned against him.
“It’s fine,” I said. “Maybe we can go swimming together tomorrow evening.”
He kissed me on the mouth, softly at first, then more intensely. Up close, I could see golden flecks in his brown eyes.
On the way back to the apartment I consoled myself with the thought that maybe the lovely Nils had a dark secret too. And so what? It was summer vacation after all.
I was relieved to discover I was the first one back in the apartment. My date with Johann hadn’t lasted long. It wasn’t even eleven. As I brushed my teeth I tried to push away the bad thoughts and concentrate on the memory of the golden flecks in his eyes…and his kiss. I was so tired that I succeeded, then went to bed.
I was walking hand in hand with Johann along the beach. The water glistened with the light of the setting sun, the waves roared softly, and we talked about whether we wanted to live in Nordeney, Sylt, Hamburg, or the Maldives. Johann knelt down to pick up a particularly beautiful cockle, and I walked slowly on. I suddenly heard the ring of a bicycle bell. I turned around and watched in horror as Gisbert ran over my lover, wrenching the cockle from his hand. He held it out to me. “You almost made a big mistake,” he called out in his squeaky voice. “But I’ve come to save you.”
I woke up drenched in sweat just as my father came into the living room whistling. I even recognized the lyrics from a song by Marianne Rosenberg: “Marleen, one of us has to go…”
I carefully opened my father’s bedroom door at seven the next morning. He was lying on his back, the pillow over his face, snoring softly. The night before, he had come back into the living room one more time. I pretended to be sleeping and guiltily felt him stroke my cheek. I’d lied to him. No matter your age and no matter how unreasonable he is, it feels lousy to lie to your dad. So to make myself feel better, I let him sleep in. He didn’t need to be in the restaurant at eight every day. He was allowed to enjoy his vacation, too.
Dorothea’s bed hadn’t been slept in, so either she’d spent the night with Nils on the beach or in his old bedroom at his parents’ house. Either way, I’m sure her night had been more exciting than mine, and certainly without nightmares about Gisbert.
Marleen stood in the guesthouse kitchen, filling a basket with rolls. She turned around to me.
“Good morning. You took off quickly last night. Are you feeling better now? Heinz was dropping such strange hints.”
I poured myself a coffee and sat down on a stool. “Dorothea told him I had severe ‘women’s problems.’ It was all made up, though. I had a date and didn’t want him to know about it.”
“Who with?” Marleen put the bag of rolls down for a second and looked at me curiously. “Tell me.”
“With your guest. Johann Thiess.”
“Oh…and?”
I stretched out my legs and leaned against the wall.
“Oh Marleen, he’s great!” I said, and meant it, despite my nagging misgivings. I’d trust my inner optimist and go with the romance of it all. “We met at the Surf Café; it was lovely. And I think it might really develop into something.”
Marleen’s skeptical look suddenly reminded me of his questions about her, of the ominous call from Pookie-whoever-she-was, and of his mysterious comments as we said good-bye. I tried to reassure her, and myself for that matter.
“He has some things he needs to sort out to do with work. He’s a banker, by the way. Maybe he’s trying to track down some corruption; he told me he can’t talk about it. And he said he’s falling for me. And he’s a good kisser, too. Anyway, it was great.”
I drank the rest of my coffee, put the cup in the sink, and reached for the plate of cold cuts. “I’ll make a start. Is there anything in particular you need me to do?”
Marleen shook her head. I was relieved that she hadn’t said anything about my rendezvous. I didn’t want to hear any criticism right now.
The Bergs were the first guests to come to breakfast. The twins sat down next to one another. Emily pouted, and Lena nodded to me cheerfully.
“Hi, Christine, can you make us some cocoa again?”
“Of course. Emily, would you like one, too?”
“No, I’m not eating or drinking anything today.” She looked like she was in a terrible mood.
“Emily had a fight with Dad,” Lena explained. “So now she’s not talking to him.” She looked over at her parents, who were standing by the breakfast buffet. “Dad said that Emily’s a stubborn chicken.”
Emily looked at me reproachfully. “Chickens aren’t stubborn. And Dad started it.”
I empathized with her. “I know what you mean. My dad always starts it, too. But you know what? It’s the smart one who gives in. That’s what my mother always says. So now, if I have an argument with my father, I always act as if nothing happened. I’m really nice to him, and then he forgets it all. Try that sometime.”
Emily thought for a moment. “But your dad always wears funny hats. So he must be nicer than mine.”
“Oh, I don’t believe that for a second. Yours is nice too.”
Anna and Dirk Berg sat down and smiled at me. Emily glanced over at me, then took a roll from the basket, put it on her plate, and looked at her father.
“Good morning, Dad. Did you sleep well?”
Stunned, Dirk Berg stared at his daughter. I went back into the kitchen, congratulating myself on my outstanding teaching talents.
Marleen was making tea. She turned around to me.
“So did you get back before your father?”
“Long before; you guys must have stayed out for a long time.
Was it fun?”
Marleen laughed. “Fun? Well, Gisbert really got going. He and Heinz don’t just share a passion for HSV, but for German folk singers too. I thought the boy was going to explode when he was sat there, his face bright red, singing his favorite song by Andrea Berg, whoever she is.”
“Well, his voice must have a similar pitch.”
“As Heinz?”
“No, as Andrea Berg’s.”
“I have no idea who she is.”
“She sings just like Gisbert speaks. Poor Gesa, did she survive all this?”
“Just about. She was definitely struggling to keep a straight face. We weren’t there that much longer really, we left an hour after you.”
“Good morning.” Onno appeared in the kitchen door, looking a little embarrassed. “The restaurant’s still locked. Am I too early?”
“Oh, I completely forgot. My father’s still asleep. Does he have the key?”
Onno was immediately concerned. “What? He’s still sleeping? Is he ill?”
“No, I don’t think so; he just looked so tired that I didn’t wake him.”
Marleen took the keys down from a hook on the wall and pulled one of them off. “Here you go, Onno. Heinz has the other one, and I’m sure he’ll get up at some point. You can give me my key back later.”
Onno nodded. “That’s fine, Heinz can come along when he’s ready; I’ll make a start by myself. And there’s Kalli arriving now. See you later.”
Through the kitchen window, we watched Kalli making a big fuss of locking up his bike while Onno waited for him. We didn’t have time to warn him, but it wouldn’t have done much good anyway. As soon as he stood up, he found himself confronted by Hannelore Klüppersberg, clad in fleecy yellow-and-black stripes. We couldn’t hear what she said to him, but Kalli went red and Onno took a step back to try to stay out of her line of sight. That didn’t help much either, because dear old Mechthild was approaching from the rear.
“Good morning, look at you both gawking out of the window like a pair of old gossips.” Dorothea had come into the kitchen and was standing behind us. “Ha, she looks like a big bumblebee! And Frau Weidemann-Zapek’s wearing a dressing gown, how sweet. Where on earth do they get their clothes from?”