It wasn’t until she began to apply her mascara that she became aware of how much her hands were trembling. She could barely contain herself. It was only seven-twenty. The next two hours until they met at the church would seem like two days. Two years. Two lifetimes. She had to get out of this closed-in apartment and collect her thoughts.
Slipping into the kitchen, Shelly found Jana in her robe making coffee. A pan of boiling water gently tumbled four brown eggs.
“Good morning,” Shelly said. “I hope I didn’t wake you guys by getting into the shower so early.”
“No. I’m glad you found everything okay. You look bright and ready for the day,” Jana said. “Did you sleep well?”
“Pretty good. Meri’s in the shower. I was thinking of going for a little morning walk. Do you have any suggestions?”
“You should go to the Floh Markt. It’s a lot of fun, especially this early in the morning. When you go out the main door of our building, turn left and walk to the end of the block. Then turn left again for two more blocks. The outdoor market starts there on the right side of the street and goes on for almost three blocks. The first part is all vegetables and fruits, but keep going and you’ll hit the flowers and other fun stuff.”
“Sounds perfect,” Shelly said.
“You might want to take this shopping sack with you,” Jana said, reaching for a canvas bag with two long shoulder straps that was hanging on a peg behind the kitchen door. “Do you want some breakfast before you go?”
“I think I’ll grab something there.” Shelly looped the canvas bag over her shoulder. “This is going to be fun. Where should I meet you at nine?”
“At nine?”
“Yes, didn’t you say your staff meeting is this morning at the church? I was going to stop by to say hi to Jonathan.” Shelly tried to make it sound casual, yet all the while she was thinking, Say hi, take his handsome face in my hands, kiss his lips … Oh, man! Don’t get me started thinking about his lips!
“Oh, that’s right,” Jana said. “You guys wanted to come over this morning. The church is easy to find. You can see it from the end of the Floh Markt. Go all the way to the last stall, and the church is across the street on the right.”
“Perfect,” Shelly said, checking her watch. “Tell Meri I was eager to go exploring and I’ll see her at the church at nine.”
“I’ll tell her.”
Just then the phone rang, and Jana shook her head. “It’ll be like this the whole time the staff are in town.”
“ ’Bye,” Shelly said with a smile and a wave. She stepped out of the apartment and then through the large double doors into the wide, wonderful world. Right on cue, some birds twittered in the tree across the way. She felt as if she had stepped into a fairy tale.
The early-morning light was kind to the old, yellow building, causing it to look like a fine duchess of regal standing. Any lady who could stand for so many years, unwavering on these worn gray, rust, and brown cobblestones, had to be a fine lady, indeed.
At the end of the road, a round woman wearing a white apron over her dark blue dress and a pair of black, overly sensible shoes, stood on her doorstep, shaking out a braided rug. “Morgen,” the woman said cheerfully as Shelly strolled past.
Shelly smiled and nodded. “Guten Morgen,” she said. She quickly tried to pull to the forefront of her memory all the mental files she had retained of her high school German. There wasn’t a lot to draw from. Fortunately, that was all the neighbor woman said.
Continuing along the course Jana had described to her, Shelly was delighted to find that the streets were a merry maze all connected by the flecked cobblestone arteries. The rising sun was at her back as she turned the last corner. Her figure cast a long shadow. She felt every bit that tall.
Browsing through the fruit stands, Shelly found each vendor eager to strike up a conversation with her. “Nein, Danke,” became her standard answer accompanied with a bright smile. Not because she wasn’t interested in buying their wares, but because she couldn’t figure out what they were saying. She stopped at one stand and pointed to the bosc pears. “Einen Dissen, bitte,” she said, hoping she had just asked for one pear.
“Eine Kilo?” the vendor in the wool cap asked.
“Nein,” Shelly said. She didn’t want a whole kilo, only one pear.
“English?” the man asked, squinting his eyes as the sun poured over his deeply wrinkled face.
“Yes,” Shelly said and nodded, trying to hide her embarrassment at not being able to speak German well enough.
“You wish one kilo?” he said with a deep accent.
“Nein!” Shelly spouted.
The man scratched his head. “You wish nine kilos?”
Shelly waved both her hands in front of the man as if her action could erase all her language goof-ups. “I only want one,” she said slowly, holding up one finger.
“Ja, ja,” the man said, nodding and reaching for the pears.
Shelly breathed a little easier and glanced around, hoping no one had been watching her little cultural faux pas. When she looked back, the vendor was speaking to her in rapid German and motioning for her to open her canvas shopping bag. He had weighed out one kilo of pears on his scale and was prepared to pour them into her bag. She was about to stop him and then decided it wasn’t worth it. One pear, nine pears, five pears. It didn’t matter. She opened her bag.
He rattled off the price, and she tried to figure out what he had said. Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out some money and held out to him one of the bills. With all her heart she wished she knew what she was doing. This guy could rip her off, and she would never know it. She could just see herself relating this story to Mike and Jana and having them tell her she had spent thirty-five dollars on five pears.
The man nodded, said, “Ja, ja,” a few more times. He handed her two bills and eight coins on a tiny tray that looked like a square coaster.
“Danke,” Shelly said.
“You welcome,” he said.
She grinned as she walked away. How pathetic. I took two years of German, and I can’t even buy myself a single pear. And he speaks English to boot!
Rubbing one of the pears carefully on the side of the canvas bag, Shelly hoped it would have the same effect as rinsing it would. Then she took a bite. It was a wonderful pear, sweet and firm. Actually, it was the best pear she had ever eaten, simply because it was a German pear.
She made her way down the row as the crowd of early-morning shoppers thickened. Everyone carried a tote bag, Shelly noticed. And all the Germans seemed to be speaking so loudly. Or maybe it was the tone of their language that sounded gruff. More than once she turned to look at what had sounded like a threat or a command only to see two friends greeting each other warmly or a vendor greeting a customer.
The other thing Shelly became aware of was the way people looked at her. They stared. She checked her skirt more than once, ran her tongue over her teeth in case any pear skin had stuck between them. She even checked her scarf headband to make sure it wasn’t sticking up. Nothing seemed out of place. Maybe it was a cultural thing. These people simply felt comfortable staring unashamedly at foreigners.
And that’s how she felt, like a self-conscious foreigner who couldn’t even order a pear for herself.
To lift her spirits, Shelly stopped at a flower stand. Under a striped umbrella, bunches of fresh flowers waited in big white buckets, showing off their upturned faces to the shoppers. Shelly decided to buy a bunch of bright yellow daisies for Jana and Mike as a thank-you gift. She lifted a bouquet from the bucket, and a large woman wearing a pink knit sweater over her dress and an apron over that, rose to her feet and began to speak rapidly in German. It sounded to Shelly as if the woman was scolding her.
“I’m sorry,” Shelly said. “I just wanted to buy these.”
“Ja, sehr gut,” the woman said, extending her pudgy hand. She rattled off some words that sounded like numbers to Shelly.
“Oh, yes. Here,” Shelly sa
id, fumbling for the money in her pocket. “Here you go.” She handed the woman a bill.
The woman looked at it, then held it back out to Shelly and barked a few more words, shaking her head.
Stumped, Shelly asked, “You need more?”
The woman spoke again, this time louder.
Shelly pulled a few more bills from her pocket, and the woman snatched the small bill and put the larger one back in Shelly’s hand.
“Oh,” Shelly mumbled. “You didn’t have change to break a fifty. Why didn’t you say so?”
The flower vendor returned Shelly’s change on the same kind of tiny tray the fruit vendor had used. Then the vendor spoke loudly again, pointing to something down by Shelly’s foot. She looked down. She hadn’t dropped anything. Was the woman criticizing her shoes? Then Shelly noticed the roll of plastic bags to wrap the wet flowers in. “Oh, yes. I see,” Shelly said. “Thank you. I mean, danke.”
“Bitte,” the woman immediately replied.
Shelly wrapped her daisies and carefully tucked them into her tote. With a last-ditch effort, she smiled warmly at the woman and then turned to move on, eager to be out of this embarrassing situation.
When she turned toward the flow of people, her eyes caught on a figure striding toward the flower stand. She couldn’t move. She couldn’t breathe. This tall, muscular man brushed his light brown hair off his forehead and wove his way through the crowd. He wore a denim work shirt that matched his stormy, gray eyes. His face was fuller than she remembered. His stature taller and more broad shouldered. And that handsome face was wearing a tight but determined smile.
Her Jonathan had turned into a man. Shelly drew on all her strength not to topple over. He came closer, scanning the buckets of flowers as he approached. Then he stopped less than two feet away from Shelly and greeted the flower vendor with a friendly, “Morgen.”
The sound of his voice took all the breath she had left. Shelly faced him, staring at his profile as he examined a bouquet of irises. Her lips formed the word Jonathan, but no sound came from inside her. She felt like a ghost that he couldn’t see.
Stretching out her quivering hand, Shelly touched her true love’s shoulder ever so slightly. Jonathan turned. The instant he saw her face, all the color drained from his. He froze.
“Shelly?” It was barely a whisper.
Her voice suddenly returned and came rushing up through her throat to her lips. In a wild exclamation, she breathed out, “Jonathan.”
Chapter Twelve
With all the joy she had been storing up in her heart, Shelly flew into his arms, hugging him tightly. He felt solid, strong, and almost like a statue. Shelly pulled away and blinked the tears from her eyes. Jonathan was still frozen, unable to respond.
“I’m sorry,” were the first words Shelly heard herself say. “I should have called you. Meredith and I just arrived yesterday. We’re staying at Jana and Mike’s. I found out you were going to be here, and I should have called instead of shocking you like this. I’m sorry.”
“Shel?” Jonathan repeated, the color slowly returning to his face. She didn’t know if he had heard any of her explanation. Why hadn’t she remembered that Jonathan had never been one for surprises? He liked things orderly and planned out. She never should have surprised him like this. It would have been worse at the staff meeting in front of all his friends.
The woman at the flower stand called out something to them. Shelly ignored her. Her eyes were locked onto Jonathan’s, and her heart was still pounding wildly. They stood there, each silently drinking in the sight of the other.
“Hi,” Jonathan finally said when his voice returned.
“Hi,” Shelly said with a giggle. “How are you? You look … you look great.”
“So do you,” he said.
“I’m so glad to see you,” Shelly began.
The flower vendor spoke again. This time Jonathan reluctantly turned his head to respond. His eyes were the last part of him to turn away from Shelly. He said something to the woman at the stand, and she spoke back using large hand motions.
“What’s she saying?” Shelly asked, moving closer to Jonathan.
His smile returned, and his gaze moved back to Shelly’s face. “She says she has a special today on roses for, well, for people like us.”
“She said Liebespaar, didn’t she? I remember that word. Isn’t it ‘sweethearts’?”
Jonathan nodded and continued to take in a full view of Shelly.
The woman heckled him once again. Whatever she said made him laugh. He suddenly wrapped his right arm around Shelly’s shoulder and drew her close.
“Meine gutten Freundin,” Jonathan answered the woman. Then, for Shelly’s benefit she was sure, he stated, “We’re just good friends.”
She stood and, with a tease in her voice, threw a handful of long-stemmed pink and red roses at their feet.
Shelly laughed at the gesture, even though she didn’t know exactly what was going on. Jonathan released his warm grip on her shoulder and bent to pick up the mixed bouquet of roses, speaking his confident German phrases, saying something that made the woman laugh. He then handed her some money.
“Would you like to get some coffee?” Jonathan asked as he gently took Shelly by the elbow and steered her away from the flower woman. He held the bouquet of roses and didn’t offer it to Shelly.
“Sure. I know you have your meeting at nine.”
“That’s okay. There’s so much we need to talk about.”
“You’re right,” Shelly said. “I … I …” The words wouldn’t come.
“Let’s find a place to sit down,” Jonathan suggested.
They were winding their way through the crowds, away from the church. Jonathan’s touch on her elbow felt marvelous. That was the only way she could describe it. In years past she had resented it whenever he tried to lead her or direct her. Now she welcomed his confident and tender touch.
They had just reached the end of the row of fruit stands when Jana and Meredith appeared from around the corner and spotted them.
“Jonathan!” Meredith called out with a squeal. She came running to meet him and gave him a hug. “We were going to surprise you at the staff meeting,” she said. “How did you find Shelly?”
“I … I …” Jonathan was now at a loss for words. “We just …”
“It was at the flower stand,” Shelly said, enjoying all the romantic insinuations that came with that admission. “I turned around, and there he was. Oh, and these are for you, Jana. Thanks for letting us stay at your home.”
“Thanks,” Jana said, taking the bouquet of daisies from her.
“Were you surprised?” Meredith asked Jonathan eagerly.
“Surprised?” Jonathan put his hand over his heart. In the other hand he still held the roses. “I think I’m still in shock.”
“We’re on our way to the church,” Jana said. “Were you guys coming to get us?”
“No, we were …” Jonathan fumbled again. “I mean, it’s …” He looked at his watch.
“We were going to grab a cup of coffee,” Shelly explained.
“We have coffee and pastry waiting for us at the church,” Jana said. “Why don’t you guys come with us? If you two start to catch up on old times now, Jonathan will never make it to the staff meeting.”
“Ah …” He still seemed completely flustered.
“Mike’s already there,” Jana continued. “We should try to get there a little early. Come on. You three friends can catch up at dinner tonight.”
It seemed they had no choice but to go along. Shelly thought it might be for the best. Jonathan seemed so rattled. A couple of hours to let the shock subside might be good. The evening could then be all theirs.
Shelly had made note of a charming restaurant the day before when she and Meredith had done some browsing. If Jonathan didn’t have a suggestion for dinner, Shelly would take him there. They would sit at a small, round table once again, with their knees touching. In the glow of the candlelig
ht she would be able to explain everything to him, and he would readily forgive her. Their love would finally be free to breathe again, and they could pick up where they had left off. Already she was wondering what it would be like to feel his lips pressed against hers. It had been so long.
They followed Jana through the crowds. Shelly wanted to reach over and take Jonathan’s hand. But she knew Jonathan. He wouldn’t want to show affection toward Shelly around Jana until it had been defined that Shelly was more than just an old neighbor.
All in good time.
They entered through the side door of the church and walked down a long hallway to a meeting room at the end. Meredith had been chattering all the way over and was now in her element, meeting new people and observing all the details of their surroundings.
Shelly was usually like that, too. However, only one detail interested her today. And she was standing next to him. It was then that she noticed he had on aftershave. Not his dad’s spicy stuff he had worn that night they first walked around the block together hand in hand. This morning Jonathan smelled like a cedar tree after the rain. He smelled like Jonathan, he looked like Jonathan, and in every way he was Jonathan. Shelly could hardly believe this was happening.
“So, are you two going to see the sights?” Jonathan asked Shelly.
“That’s the plan. As soon as I can get the little social butterfly out of here. Jana invited us to have dinner with the whole group, but if you want to meet separately or something …”
Tiny beads of perspiration broke out on Jonathan’s forehead. Shelly imagined it was from the vigorous pace they had been walking.
“Look,” he said, gently taking hold of her wrist, “we need to talk.”
“I know,” Shelly agreed. Even though they were in a room filled with staff workers, Shelly had a strong urge to place her hand on his cheek and run her thumb across his lips to silence them. She wanted him to know everything was going to be okay. But she held back, giving him only a smile.
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