by S. L. Giger
‘Because I’m jealous.’ She snorted. ‘But jealousy is usually a good sign. It means that I care.’ She smiled.
‘Trust is also important if someone cares. But so, what are your plans during the next two weeks?’ I asked. ‘Because I would feel bad if I just dropped her aside until you are gone again, since she is here so many times when I need her and you aren’t here.’
Fiona’s shoulders sank. ‘I wanted to visit my grandparents and have to do some other errands. You will have some free time.’
Good, that was easily organized.
When it came to the day of departure, I brought Fiona to LaGuardia, where she’d meet Amanda and from where they took off to Barcelona.
Without Lucy, I think I’d have been pretty sad and jealous while saying goodbye at the airport. I got Fiona back for lousy two weeks and now she’d be off to the biggest adventure of her life without me. But thanks to Lucy, I didn’t feel that way. I knew I wouldn’t be left alone here.
Fiona’s first postcard arrived five days later. I treasured that piece of writing with personal words from her and locked myself into my room to not to be disturbed while reading it. It seemed as if she tried to make a competition out of squeezing as many letters as possible onto one postcard.
Hey Kevin,
The flight was uneventful and we arrived safely and on time here in Barcelona. I love this city already! We just quickly checked our bags into the hostel and then we were off to “La Boqueria” a market hall on Barcelona’s main street. There’s a market ‘till noon every day and since we got to it at about 11 o’clock, we only had about an hour left. It was unlike anything I had ever seen. So many colors, fruits and dead animals. They were carrying half corpses of pigs or cows through all the people on the market. If I hadn’t watched out, I’d have touched one of these disgusting things. I preferred the fruit stands. You can buy fresh juices of every fruit you can imagine. I had kiwi and this morning we went back again and I got a mango juice. It was delicious! We also visited Park Guell where you can find artwork from Antonio Gaudi. It was beautiful. And the fun thing was that they had outdoor escalators to get to the park. You think they built them for all the lazy American tourists :P ? I’m sad that our ship to Rome is leaving tonight already, I’d have liked to visit more places in this city… I already see that postcards won’t ever have enough space, so I’ll probably simply write letters to you and enclose the cards.
Beso
Fiona
To answer her, I wrote an e-mail.
Subject: Thank you for your postcard
Hey my dear
It’s good to hold this piece of paper from you in my hands, which tells me that you arrived in Europe safely. It’s kind of amazing to think that this letter has just been in an entirely different part of the world. How much I wish to be there with you, it all sounds so good. I would love to try their food and bring back a few recipes.
Here, life is the usual business. You are missing though. It was more fun with you around. I’m going outside to mow the lawn now.
Take care and take lots of pictures for me.
Hugs,
Kev
Afterward, her letters started coming in almost every day and sometimes two per day. I couldn’t complain about Fiona not making me a part of her travels.
Ciao Kevin!
This is our second day in Rome and I do like the old buildings and the Colosseum. I’m taking lots of pictures. I’ll show them to you when I get back. But I strongly dislike Italian drivers. They are crazy, as a pedestrian your life is quite in danger here.
The night on the ferry was alright. We didn’t have comfortable seats to sleep on. Everybody who didn’t book a cabin just lay down somewhere where it was warm and where there was still space. So, we woke up very early and witnessed a beautiful sunrise over the Mediterranean Sea. I really missed you then. It would have been so much better with you standing by my side.
At the hostel I had a bit of bad luck with the guy I had to sleep next to. The only two beds which still were available in the room were a single one next to the wall and one in the middle of two beds, touching one of them and separated from the other by a bed side table. I volunteered to sleep in the sandwich bed the first night and Amanda will take the second night. The bed with the bedside table is occupied by a nice German guy. He recommended a pizza place to us where we had dinner and I think it was the best pizza of my life. So, when we got back to the hostel at around 11 pm, an Asian couple was already sleeping and the guy was in the bed next to me. Unfortunately, it was rather a fat guy who liked to spread his arms and legs in every cardinal direction. I had to make myself extremely small and sleep on the brim of the bed in order not to accidentally get hit by him. When I think of it now, it was a bit like sleeping next to you =).
So, I’m looking forward to my single bed tonight and Amanda will have to see who her neighbor will be, for the Asian couple left early this morning.
I miss you
xoxoxo
Fiona
The postcard from Rome showed St. Peter’s Square and the Colosseum. On Barcelona’s card was a picture of the Olympic grounds.
It used to be my dream to walk into such a stadium carrying the burning torch for my country. Yet, I don’t think this is going to happen anymore since I’ll most likely never get back to my old strength and endurance.
I hung up the postcards on the wall above my bed. If it continued like this, I’d have filled the whole length of my room until Fiona got back.
I wasn’t too pleased to hear that she was sleeping next to random guys though. Aren’t there rooms for females only? For all I knew she could be flirting with some hot Italian macho. Let alone do more. Then again, that wasn’t in her nature.
I, on the other hand, should have felt guiltier for my behavior. Lucy had become such an important person in my life. And with her fragile body and thin arms, I think she awoke a protective instinct for her inside me. And in all Fiona’s absence, it sometimes became hard to picture her as vividly as she would be in person.
Chapter 19
Subject: Rome
My dear Fiona
Well, at least I don’t snore. Can’t have everything... But why do you have to sleep in shared dorms anyway? I’m not sure that’s safe.
Today was Friday and my new comic appeared in the newspaper. I’ve received some good feedback already.
Eat some pizza for me!
Kev
Another card arrived. This one was from Venice. It showed a few gondolas which were tied to the typical blue and white striped poles and in the background a big church or Venetian building. Everything had a slight red-orange hue for the picture was probably taken at sunset.
Dear Kevin
Thanks for your e-mails. It was nice to hear from you. I can’t get online every day but we try to find free Wi-Fi from time to time.
The first impression of Venice is quite as we would have expected it; cute, old, narrow houses surrounded by the canals & lots of bridges. The funny thing about the bridges is that the walkway of the bridges consists of stairs and not of a flat bow. Well, there are no cars in Venice but imagine the poor people who have to carry everything they want to move from one place to another!
On our way to famous San Marco Square we got lost a little (for about an hour) and simply walked through one narrow alley after another. Some of the pillars started to look oddly familiar… Eventually, it got dark and we sat down to have some dinner. This time I had pasta “Frutti di Mare”. It was delicious!! Then, we finally found San Marco. It looked nice with all the lights that illuminated the buildings but we decided to come back the next day and have a look at all the pigeons which were supposed to be there. We took a taxi boat, which was fun. The gondolas unfortunately, are too expensive for us students. So, the next day, we returned to the square. The buildings around it truly are beautiful! And, yes, there are millions of pigeons and oh, how I hate them! Useless, disease carrying, spoiled animals! One of them pooped on my hea
d. It was so bad, that we had to return to the hostel so that I could wash my hair again…
Mhh, but I did have the best coconut ice cream ever here!
Now we’re off on the train to Florence. I’ll write again tomorrow.
Love,
Fiona
On a picture perfect day in July, I met up with Lucy at the beach. She was there first, lying on a green towel, with her elbows propped under her back, so that she could overlook the ocean. She wore a purple bandana, a gray sweater and a long purple skirt. A normal person would have sweated to death.
‘Lucy, how long have you been here for?’ I yelled when I approached her.
She didn’t turn to face me but when I arrived next to her she started speaking in a quiet voice. ‘I love the sound of the waves and how a white crown of bubbles travels over the dark blue ocean. I always wanted to surf. I thought I would start that when I’m too old for the dancing. I felt so comfortable with my body. I wasn’t fat and you could even see some muscles. The boys liked me too, you know.’ She kept starring at the waves. ‘Now, I look like an anorexic who to top it off made a bad hair-do choice. What good is it to have a body that doesn’t support you in anything you want to do anymore?’
I eyed her for a moment, not sure where this sudden downswing of her mood came from. Both our egos hurt from not being as sportive as before anymore, that wasn’t anything new. I lay on the sand beside her and also looked out onto the ocean.
‘You don’t look like an anorexic. You are thin, yes, but whenever I am so lucky to see you in something less than all these sweaters, I think that you shouldn’t hide your perfect collar bones. You could easily be a model for underwear.’ I teased.
‘Ah, is that so. You’d just want me to be a model so that you could profit from all the money I would make.’ The slightest smile played around her lips.
‘In addition, some woman would kill to have such a fair skin as you do. You’d be the perfect cast for Snow White. And who could not love your shiny blue eyes. Actually, you should stop wearing these towels because they take away some of the attention from your pretty face.’
She laughed slightly. ‘These are probably the first compliments I received in years. Be careful or you’ll make me blush.’ She turned her head towards me, reached over to my chin and drew my head closer to hers. It was the most sensitive kiss on my cheek I had ever received. Her lips and skin were even softer than those of Fiona because she had lost even the smallest facial hair.
This kiss brought another idea to my mind. I wanted to do something for Lucy that would make her really happy. She shouldn’t have one reason to be depressed about. I only didn't know what exactly yet. It would have been awesome to get her on a surfboard. But the current state of her health undoubtedly didn't permit this.
It was Fiona who then gave me the vital spark.
My dearest Kevin
Florence is a magnificent old town. There are hundreds of pretty statues spread in the city.
Here we’re staying with our first Couchsurfer. She is 26 and works as a primary school teacher, so unfortunately during the weekdays, she is busy. So then we just wandered around town a bit and relaxed in the parks. But in the evening Isabella showed us a nice pizza place and we climbed on a church tower (368 steps!!) from where we had a beautiful view over Florence. Especially the river which cuts through Florence, with all its small bridges looked nice from up there.
Amanda and I could sleep on a pull-out couch in the living room for free.
I don’t have more time to write now as we’re arriving in Milan soon.
Hope you are well.
Much love,
Fiona
Couchsurfing. I found out that there was a huge amount of people offering their place to stay for free in New York State alone. I had to see Lucy to tell her about my plan of going Couchsurfing somewhere around here. Thus, I dropped by at her house. Her parents were quite acquainted with me by then for all the times I had been at her place. Unfortunately, “acquainted” didn't equal “like”. At least that’s how I perceived it. I mean, Lucy's parents were polite but I always felt like this was only some kind of facade. At that point I thought they were a little too overprotective of their daughter. She was 19 already, for crying out loud. That's not the age to sit in hospital gardens or in your room to read love stories all day long.
‘Lucy, let me guess, “The Notebook”?’ I blurred out when I walked into her room.
‘No, I finished that two days ago, now it's “The Time Traveler’s Wife.”’ Lucy smiled and waved with the book in her hands and then got right back to her page.
‘Well, what an honor that you put it aside just to give me a hug.’
‘One second, let me finish that page quickly.’ She said as if she was in a hurry.
So, all I did was stand there like an idiot for a moment. After at least half a minute had passed she finally lay her book aside and gave me my well-earned hug.
‘Sorry, but I'm at such a good part right now, it's hard to take my eyes off it.’
‘Isn’t my cover pretty neat and hard to leave your eyes off it, too?’ I flexed my muscles.
Lucy laughed. ‘Sure. So, what was that plan you had in mind for today?’ She looked at me expectantly.
‘It's actually not only for today. In addition, I have something for you.’ I grinned.
‘Ah, seriously? What is it?’ She eagerly raised her head.
‘Close your eyes.’ She obeyed and I stepped behind her and just as I wanted to take her head towel off she jumped up and around. I had never seen her move that quickly. I managed to hide my hands with the surprise behind my back just in time.
‘What are you doing?’ She yelled.
‘Calm down, Lucy, I wasn’t going to hurt you.’
‘Yeah, but you wanted to take off my bandana and I don't want you to see my head.’ Her eyes were wide with fear.
‘I’m sorry. I didn’t know you still felt so self-conscious about it around me.’ I took a step back a little offended that she didn’t seem to trust me after all the time we had spent together.
She didn't budge.
‘I know pretty well what a bald head looks like. There’s nothing ugly about it.’ I pulled her closer and sat her down again, slightly massaging her bony shoulders.
‘Can I give you my present now?’ I asked.
She sighed. ‘Okay.’
'So, close your eyes.'
And when she did, I started this whole operation again. I pulled her purple bandana off her head, which was covered with silky fluff, like the head of a baby.
I took the bandana I had hid in my pockets and wrapped it around her head. I wasn't so skilled with that knot tying business, so when I was finished, she looked like a gypsy.
‘Okay, done.’
She got up and walked to the mirror. When she saw the reflection of herself, she started to laugh.
‘Oh, cool, where did you find that?’
I had given her an orange towel with sunsets, palm trees and surfboards on it. ‘I walked into it by chance on a flea market. You better keep wearing that to be in style, we're going surfing!’
‘I like it, it's so colorful. Thank you.’ She hugged me again. ‘So are we going to Hawaii?’ She joked.
‘Would be cool but I rather thought about something around here. You have the choice between somewhere in the Adirondacks, Lake George or Cape Cod and we're staying one night as Couchsurfers.’
‘And you think, somebody would let us stay with them?’ She pointed at herself and me.
‘Yes, why not? The only problem I see is with your parents. You might have to invent a different story for them because I have a feeling that they wouldn't let you leave with me.’
‘I guess so.’ She stated.
‘So, are you in?’
‘I don't know what to say.’ She was quiet for a moment.
‘Let’s have a look on the website.’ I suggested and we sat down at the laptop. Although Lucy
was a bit skeptic at first, afterward she was all for it. She decided that she wanted to go to Lake George. To play it safe that somebody would host us, we picked three people and I took the task upon me to write them.
Eric was finally back from college and I accompanied him to the mall for some errands he had to run.
‘Working for Bullers isn’t the same without you.’ Eric referred to my former boss at the construction site.
‘We can still hang out afterward. I do feel better now actually but due to the medication I still tire pretty quickly.’
‘And believe me, I’m happy for you that you are going on a small holiday but is Fiona okay with it that you are going on vacation with a girl?’ He looked at me as if I had lost my mind.
‘I don’t know. I haven’t told her yet. There haven’t been any letters from her in a few days.’ I pursed my lips. I felt this inner tension I imagine a smoker would feel that longs for his next cigarette. I needed Fiona’s daily words. I wanted to know that she was safe and it let me know that we were still on the right track if she dedicated so much effort to writing to me during her vacations.
‘I don’t think she’ll like it.’ Eric shook his head.
‘But it’s the same as if I’d go away with you. She’s a good friend.’
‘But she is a girl.’ He stated.
‘In whom I don’t have a deeper interest.’
‘How will you convince Fiona of that if you spend so much time with Lucy?’
‘Ugh.’ I sighed. ‘How come you have such an insight into girls?’ I said defeated. ‘Now that you aren’t even in a proper relationship.’