Strangers in Vienna

by Angela L.

  “Well, it worked.” I laughed and kissed him again. This time, I gave in and held onto him for all that I was worth. His hands clung to my waist, and I knew I was in heaven. Our lips moved to the sound of our synced heartbeats that came in waves of desperation for the other’s touch.

  Even though the night was cold, I felt warmth spread through my bones while our bodies pressed together as if we were made for each other.

  And the entire time I couldn’t help but think, what if time had stopped now?

  ****

  I woke up and realized he was already gone. It was like he was never here to begin with. All that was left were my memories of him, and the hints of him on my lips from last night. In that one moment, my entire world crashed down, and I was alone back in the dark. In that one moment, not only did he vanish, but he also took away a part of me. In that one moment, he took away Skyler and left me with little old Demi.

  Chapter Twelve

  (August 1, 1992, in Missouri)

  The sticky summer air clung to the back of my shirt for what seemed like hours as I waited for Raya to pick me up from the airport.

  Maybe there was traffic. Maybe there was an accident.

  This entire time traveling from Vienna to Missouri, my mind had been filled with haunting, yet bewitching, images of Alaric. It irritated me how his presence lingered in between the nerves of my body and all I wanted, more than anything, was for time to tick back.

  After waiting for another hour, I called Noelle to come pick me up and, like always, she arrived with the radio blasting on full volume. The civilians around us took a quick glance at her car then continued on with their daily lives, ignoring the heavy noise.

  “Hey, Demi, get in.” She unlocked the car doors. I shoved my luggage in her back seat and joined her in the front where I turned the radio down a notch.

  “Wow. Your mom still hasn't figured out you’ve been taking the car?” I said.

  “Yep. She’s too distracted with men,” she bitterly joked. “So? What did you do in Australia, huh? You lucky girl. I would have given anything to get out of this town.”

  “First of all, it’s Austria. Second of all, you can,” I said.

  “Technically, I can. But let’s face it, man—I’m broke, and by the time I get to Austria I would be living life as a hobo. This town, it’s our home.” Noelle turned the music up to full blast again once we left the airport. “And Austria? Where is that?”

  “Europe,” I said. I watched the signs pass as we exited out of the city and onto a vacant road back home.

  “Wait. You went to Europe? I’ve always wanted to go to Paris and, like, sleep in those high-class hotels with the view of the Eiffel Tower while eating those fancy macaroons,” she said.

  “Dream on, dude. I didn’t even go to Paris,” I said and sadly looked at her. Like most kids in this town, everyone fantasized about another home. A paradise. It was depressing knowing that about ninety-nine percent of us were never going to go anywhere.

  We passed many vacant stores, most of them bankrupt and empty. The familiar buildings started to flash in front of the car windows.

  I dreadfully wanted to go back. To tell Noelle to drive back to the airport so that I could hop onto a flight back to Austria. Even though I knew in the back of my head that Alaric wasn’t going to be there, there was still a naïve and foolish part of me that hoped he’d be waiting for me at that very street where I first saw him play his violin.

  “How was staying with Raya’s brother? Is he nice?”

  “He was okay. Only hung out with him for a few days,” I said. “Nothing happened. I stayed home most of the time, and now and then I went out to eat at this café down the street,” I lied. Technically, the café was down the street, but I didn’t want to go into detail about Alaric, the kiss, the clock tower. When I thought back, it was all just heaven, a bittersweet adventure that tore every piece of my sanity apart. It was an escape to paradise that had ended too quickly and a dream that was hard to believe.

  “Wait, so you’re telling me that the whole time you were in Austria, you sat at home and went to a lame café down the street?”

  “Well, Marcel took me to some Austrian palaces and tourist places.”

  “Who’s Marcel?”

  “Raya’s brother.”

  “Marcel. That’s a sexy name.”

  “Don’t even go there. He’s Raya’s brother, for heaven’s sake,” I said.

  Noelle ignored me. “If I had the chance to go to Europe, I wouldn’t waste a minute of it. I can already imagine getting hit on by hot European guys and sunbathing with an amazing view.”

  “Noelle, you have a boyfriend,” I reminded her.

  “Oh, right. I forgot to tell you. Derek and I broke up like…three days ago.” Her voice was calm and casual as if her past year with him meant absolutely nothing.

  “What happened?” I asked her.

  “We decided to…take a break. We kept on getting into these stupid little arguments over the past month,” she said and steered onto our street.

  “Who called it?”

  “I guess…we both did? I called him and said we needed to talk. And as the conversation continued, we fought, then made up and…we both decided a break would be the best,” she said, emotionlessly.

  Take a break: most of the time, those three words were just used for sugarcoating the words let’s end this relationship forever. I knew. And Noelle knew.

  I didn’t know whether I should ask if she was okay or not. I couldn’t remember the last time we asked each other if we were “okay.” The truth was, we were never “okay”; we just sucked it up and lived another day in ignorance. I think, for us, the question “are you okay?” basically meant “are you going to have a mental breakdown and commit suicide?”

  Noelle pulled into my driveway and the engine suddenly stopped roaring.

  The front lawn was dead. If you had a bird’s eye view of our neighborhood, you could see a row of green front lawns with a dead one in the middle filled with yellow, dried-up weeds.

  You know how some people say home, sweet home after a long journey? Well, for me, it’s more like I’m back to this dump again. The only good part was that I had Noelle, Jacob, and the rest of the gang.

  “Hey, Jacob wants us to all meet up behind the grill before school starts again,” Noelle said.

  Jacob. I had missed that idiot. “Sure. When, though?”

  “You free tomorrow?”

  “Yeah, it’s still summer so I’ve got nothing planned.”

  “Seven after dinner. Be there,” she said and drove off with her loud, blasting music echoing behind her.

  I looked at my front door with dread. I was truly home: sad, sad, depressing home. The cracked flower pots with dirt pooling out of them looked like they hadn’t been watered for days, and something must have died in one of them because a weird smell clung to the air.

  I took my keys out, trying to figure out which was which, and opened the front door and was greeted with complete silence. Usually Raya had the television on. She said she liked the noise.

  She must be out.

  “Raya?” I called.

  Nobody answered.

  No wonder she didn’t pick me up. Probably forgot or something.

  The minute I dropped my luggage on the kitchen floor, I felt a sudden rush of dolefulness. I wanted nothing but to just turn back time. I wanted to go back to Austria. I wanted Alaric to be here.

  I quickly walked toward the fridge after hearing my stomach growl like a pack of wolves. There were a few leftovers and half a sandwich. The expired milk was still there and the grapes had mold in them.

  Not much had changed.

  I turned around and noticed there were still cards from my dad’s funeral, along with flowers that were now dried up, lying on the kitchen counter.

  I realized I had never read any of the cards that were given to us. A bunch of them had flowers painted on them. One was handmade and you could tell the person tried
drawing a version of heaven even though it just looked like a bunch of clouds with some light shining on top and a weird-looking Jesus in the middle. A short message was displayed underneath in messy handwriting.

  Dear Raya and Demi,

  I’m sorry for your loss. Max will be remembered as an honorable coworker. I remember when the business was still a startup, Max would bring out brilliant ideas that benefited both the staff and the good of the company. We’ve had many sleepless nights that should have been for going over contracts and agreements, but instead, we spent those nights getting some good laughs with a couple of beers. He wasn’t just my coworker, but also my best friend. May he rest in peace.

  Terrence

  There were many things that I questioned about what was written in that card.

  For one, I didn’t remember Terrence at all. My dad had quit his job almost ten years ago, and I didn’t recall a single moment when the name Terrence was mentioned.

  Funerals and weddings: the only two dates where people you sort of know will act like they’ve known you since the minute you came out of your mother’s womb.

  I read through most of the other cards. About ninety percent of them started off with “I’m sorry for your loss,” probably because it was the least awkward way to start a funeral card. Don’t get me wrong, though. I know the statements for showing one’s condolences, but when you hear it five thousand times within a day, each time it sounds a little less meaningful.

  I looked behind me after I heard the sound of the front door lock click.

  Raya entered, her stomach almost twice the size as before. It looked like someone had pumped air into it. I had a sudden urge to pop it.

  “Demi!” She looked at me confused for a second, and then continued to stare at me in deep thought. “Oh, right!” Her mouth gaped open, and she gently slapped herself on the forehead. “I was supposed to pick you up today. I’m sorry, I had an appointment with the doctor to check on the baby. I totally forgot about you.”

  “It’s all right,” I said.

  “How did you get home?”

  “Noelle picked me up.”

  “Who?” Raya knew nothing about my life. Nothing. I had brought Noelle and Jacob over at least a dozen times over the past year. Either Raya had a horrible memory or she just didn’t bother.

  “A friend,” I said. Of course, it didn’t annoy me that much. My dad’s past girlfriends and I usually weren’t that close. My dad and I weren’t even that close.

  ****

  Even though I had only been gone for a week, it felt like I had been gone for an entire year. The time with Alaric flew by so fast, yet it felt like a lifetime. If that week in Austria were my entire lifespan, it would be enough.

  The grill was located three blocks from my house. There wasn’t much in this town: a grocery store, a few restaurants, and a pet shop. Anything more, and I’d have to go into the city.

  “Demi!” Jacob yelled the minute I appeared behind the grill. He was sitting on the ground beside the dumpster. A dozen flies buzzed around him and Noelle, but they didn’t seem to mind.

  “Hey, guys,” I greeted them.

  “What took you so long?” Noelle asked and sat next to Jacob, accidentally bumping into a pile of cardboard pizza boxes.

  “Sorry. I overslept. I’m so jetlagged,” I said.

  “Noelle told me you did absolutely nothing in Europe,” Jacob said. I could feel him judging me.

  “That isn’t true,” was all that I said. “Where’s Donna and Benji?” Jacob and Noelle had been my best friends since preschool. Donna and Benji came along the beginning of middle school and by the end of sixth grade, we five had created our own little family.

  “Donna’s working and I have no idea where Benji is,” Noelle said.

  “I don’t think any of us knows where Benji is most of the time.” Jacob laughed.

  “Remember the time when he disappeared for two days, and he randomly came back with that weird, goofy smile, and he wouldn’t even tell us where he went?” I said. It had been the summer of tenth grade. We were all worried, thinking that he got kidnapped or that he might have wandered into a nearby forest by accident. But it turned out, he just went on his own little hippie trip.

  Chapter Thirteen

  (August 3, 1992, in Missouri)

  It was the first day of my senior year.

  It was also the last year until my graduation.

  And after that?

  Well, I’d figure it out sooner or later.

  I walked through the halls of my tiny high school to my first class, biology. Usually, Noelle, Jacob, Donna, Benji, and I would meet up in the cafeteria thirty minutes before class started on the first day of school, but I was running late and when I went to check the cafeteria, they were already gone.

  Like any first day of school, the teachers smiled and played nice until the second day, when they somehow turned strict all the way until the end of the school year. I’d always wondered what teachers must think on the last day of school. Maybe it was “Thank God I don’t have to teach these dumb kids anymore.”

  I sat in a seat and listened as Hillman introduced the unit that we would be studying, and every minute that passed, my eyelids got heavier until I could hardly keep them open anymore. I had to pinch myself so that I wouldn’t doze off.

  “I know school has only just begun, but I’m assigning a project maybe in a week that will allow you to demonstrate your previous knowledge of the basics of a cell structure, just for review. You will be assigned one partner and will present to me individually,” Hillman announced and started to hand out a packet that was as thick as the sandwich that I was going to have for lunch.

  The bell’s normally annoying cackle became a sound of sweet bliss as the students rose up from their desks and continued on towards their next class.

  When lunch time came, I proceeded to our usual table that stood beside a tree that shed more leaves during the autumn than that dog I found when I was little. It was the only table that was far away from the trashcans that smelled like piss, but close enough to the counter with the bowls of fruit so that we could grab an apple, which was probably the only fresh thing in this cafeteria.

  “Yo! My li’l rascals!” Benji jumped out of nowhere and placed his new school bag on the wooden table. It’d been a long time since I’d heard Benji’s loud, annoying voice. I didn’t miss it at all, but at the end of the day, Benji was Benji, and he was family.

  “First of all, we’re not your rascals. Don’t ever say that. Second of all, what happened to your hair?” Noelle looked at him in disgust. “You look like you got a haircut from a four-year-old who just learned how to use scissors,” she said and flicked his head.

  Noelle was right. Benji’s hair did look like it was cut by a four-year-old but surprisingly, he actually pulled it off.

  “Guys, quiet down,” Donna murmured and sat down at the table. She was wearing her usual black hoodie with black shorts, matched with her signature black converse with the words Don’t talk to me written on both sides with a Screw you at the top.

  “Migraine?” I asked her. Her long black hair was tied into a messy ponytail and it made her look intensely hungover.

  “Yeah. Slept at five a.m. this morning. The neighbor’s dog wouldn’t stop barking.”

  “Hey,” Jacob said from behind me and sat down between Noelle and Benji. “I missed you guys.”

  “The gang’s together,” Benji said and attempted to hug all of us at once.

  He failed.

  Donna punched him, Noelle sort of just stood there awkwardly, and I slipped away because the thought of four people crushing against me was suffocating.

  “Hey, Demi, what happened in Australia?” Benji said and bit into an apple that he got out of his bag. I would never eat anything that came out of his bag. Once, I found a half-eaten bagel with dried-up yogurt stuck on it.

  “It’s not Australia—it’s Austria. It’s in Europe,” I explained again. We had never been good at
geography, particularly Benji. Once, that idiot placed China on top of Russia back in middle school.

  “Still, pretty awesome,” Donna said with her head down on the table.

  “Well, I didn’t do much,” I said. “Raya’s brother just took me to some tourist places for me to check out. Austria’s pretty.”

  “European food? Men? View?” Donna lifted her head up from the table. “You went for almost an entire week, and all you have to say is ‘Austria’s pretty’?”

  “Yep.”

  “Borrrriiinnnggg,” Benji said.

  “What about you guys, huh?” I asked them, changing the topic. It was painful thinking about what could have been. Alaric had left a stain on my mind and no matter what I did, I just couldn’t wash that stain off.

  “High, super high.” Benji smirked. I rolled my eyes. Of course he had been high.

  “I had to work full time at the grill,” Donna complained. “It sucked.”

  “Dude, it’s summer. Relax a bit,” Noelle said.

  “Well, I had nothing to do at home, so I thought might as well get some extra cash since I’m basically free twenty-four seven,” Donna pointed out.

  “Can you guys believe that Donna canceled out on us—specifically on a Dead Beat Vegas concert—just because she had to fill in for an extra shift?” Noelle said.

  “Wait, you canceled on a Dead Beat Vegas concert?” I was stunned. Donna loved that band.

  “I drastically needed the money,” Donna explained. “You have no idea how badly I wanted to go to that concert.”

  “Hey, at least you weren’t forced to babysit two annoying little brothers for two weeks. I couldn’t go anywhere without leaving them unsupervised,” Jacob continued. “Those two little brats are like a destructive tornado that will both mentally and physically destroy you.”

  As everyone complained about how boring their summer was, I couldn’t help but think that this would probably be the last time we’d all sit at this lunch table to talk about how summer went. It was sad, relieving, yet freeing, all at the same time.