Chapter 10

The last night meeting with the group members had inspired Larry. Soon after the sun had risen, he carefully collected all his comments for the rehearsal, looked through the notes and put them into one folder. Then he decided to visit Sandra, as he had promised.

“You keep your promises,” Sandra was happy, when she opened the door.

“I did not make any promises. I just have a few spare minutes.”

“So, it means you have found some free time, haven‘t you?” she teased.

Larry did not reply her question. He wanted that his visit would be informal. “Is Thomas at home?” he asked.

“Have you come to see me or him?” Sandra teased him openly. She was a very self-confident person and did not hide it. “I knew you would come,” she admitted.

“Since I‘m such a wished guest, perhaps, you would invite me inside,” Larry said ironically, because they were still standing in the doorway.

When Larry entered, he looked around. Only then did he realize that the flat was very spacious. Soon there was an aroma of coffee spreading all over the flat. For a while they were sipping coffee silently. They did not feel like talking.

Sandra was the first to break the silence. “I wander, why you haven’t seemed so shy before. And what do we have now? Just look at you in the mirror. You’re artificial smile, your eyes – I doubt, if they can see anything… You are just sitting here, as if you have sold your own homeland. Come on now!”

“You used to be so maidenly too, all sweetness and light, and now,” Larry paid back.

“I’ve decided to change,” Sandra assured.

“I can see that, Larry thought, but he swallowed the words. The girl shuffled around indeed and in an hour she pulled Larry out for a walk.

Sandra was walking a little ahead – Larry could see her summer shoes show white and a flowered dress. Her bare legs had a nice sun tan. She did not use to turn around at Larry. She went forward rather quickly and lightly. Larry could hardly catch up with her. He could not understand the reason of his giddiness. Perhaps it was due to tension, sleepless night or hangovers. Larry had no inclinations to stroll like that with no purpose at all. His steps were rather shakily and cursed on the sharp rocks, which like curved teeth stuck up in the weather-beaten red soil. Fortunately, the path went down very soon. A flowery glade opened in front of their eyes. Sandra turned to Larry for a second and ran down the hill. She was running down, waving her hands, and only then Larry realized, how far that glade was, since Sandra was getting smaller and smaller in his view. For a moment, she seemed to just disappear like a blue cloud in the sky. When Larry finally got down there, she was sitting at the stream, which scarcely gushed though the weeds. The water was crystal clear, so that white stones could be seen on the bottom. She had a few of them in her palms and watched at them as if she had found some pearls.

“Beautiful, aren’t they?” she exclaimed stretching her palm to Larry.

“Beautiful,” Larry repeated without great enthusiasm. He felt very tired and dull after that long walk.

“Don’t you like them?”

Larry realized that he was disappointing the girl and tried not to look just like a senseless lubber any more. “Come on, I do,” he flattered, “they are very nice indeed… Will you give them as a present for me?”

Sandra herself bundled the stones into his pocket. “If you loose them, you will loose your fortune as well,” she assured.

“How do you know?” Larry asked, pretending that he got surprised.

“I know, because I’m a soothsayer,” she chattered squinting. “These are magic stones! Don’t you believe me? You’ll see it! Have some rest here and I’m going to pick some flowers.”

He felt tired indeed, though he looked very strong. And Sandra was wading in the grass. Between times, she used to bend down to something invisible, but in fact, she was picking flowers, and soon she sprang up in front on him with a bunch of varicolored flowers.

She sat down and immediately tucked the flowers under his nose. Larry sneezed and carefully wiped out the yellow dust.

“I’ve picked one blossom of each kind. This, yellow one, is called Saint-John’s-wort. St. John’s wort- spell wort…Good thought, isn’t it?” Sandra looked at Larry and smiled. “It’s going to cast a spell on you.”

“Are you serious?” Larry was laughing.

“Of course, I am. I’m going to bewitch you. And this one is a celandine. Do you want to smell it? This is a forget-me-not.”

Larry looked at the blossom disappointed. “It is so tiny…”

“And I like it. All flowers are beautiful in their own way. Could you imagine our world without them?”

Of course, Larry could imagine it, but he did not dear to admit it. Sandra got on her feet and, having handed in the bunch to Larry, ran away down the path. Larry moved slowly after her. That young girl reminded him of Eva. Larry could feel some strange worry coming out from somewhere. There was some pulsation inside him. Sandra had vitalized the feeling of love, which he tried to suppress. He felt again that his love was still alive and he was still in love with Eva. The young girl in the field of flowers had just reminded him of the one that had disappeared and she was just a shadow of his lost love.

Having taken Sandra home, he walked slowly towards his home. It was not cool in the evening. He could not get the girl out of his mind and her picture used to bring back his thoughts about Eva. So, he came back home submerged in his dim and result-less contemplation. At home, he found his mother absorbed by TV set. Larry was not inclined to listen neither to her complaints, nor to her lectures. He knew everything beforehand. Larry had his own opinion and he was very much like his father – ambitious, stubborn and persistent. In order to avoid the needless argues with his mother, Larry collected his note folders and left for the rehearsal.

●○●

It had been for two weeks that Larry tried to avoid meeting Sandra. He visited Arnold’s wife and went to see the coach. On evenings, he used to rush to their rehearsals. The guy preferred no to get involved in feelings. The friendship was acceptable to him, but he was scared to get into any closer relationship.

However, he got tired of that forced peace rather soon, he was longing for uproar, so the very same evening he stopped by a coffee-shop, where he met head-on Thomas, Edgar and Sandra. He did not manage to escape their company.

“Why haven’t you called me?” Sandra attacked him. “You promised…”

“I’ve lost the telephone number,” Larry blurted out, unable to think of anything better.

Sandra leaned against Larry at once. Then it was the start.

“Guys,” she addressed everybody, “I’ll be right back.”

Soon she came up with a large crayfish in her hands, which was angrily threatening at Larry with its crayfish-like claws.

“It’s a stag-beetle,” she informed proudly.

“Come on, is it?” Larry was surprised, so he even forgot to thank her.

“Didn’t you forget about us?” Thomas got a little angry.

“Stop sniveling, the crayfish is a big one and it’ll be enough for everyone,” Sandra was not disheartened. “I think we could sit down outside as well.”

Everybody accepted her proposal. Sandra was charming indeed.

“Well, I guess, beer should go very well with the crayfish,” Edgar suggested. “Right, Larry?”

“Juice would be fine with me also,” Larry replied Larry and warned Sandra, “I suppose, you will not drink either, will you?”

“Whatever you say. Juice will be fine,” the girl obeyed.

Larry smiled. And she is a true coquette, he thought.

The company was enjoying the crayfish meat. Edgar and Thomas were sipping their beer, while Larry and Sandra were freshening up with juice. I guess, getting relaxed is much more pleasant then get to work, Larry thought, but in order to enjoy relaxation, you need to get tired first. In that moment, thoughts about Sandra were running in his head.

“Why don’t we have a schnitzel each,” Thomas suggested, “I feel a little hungry and this crayfish has just risen my appetite.”

“Are these schnitzels?” Sandra asked. “These are just some pieces of fried rubber.”

“Schnitzels are always schnitzels,” Edgar said.

Larry was silent. His eyes were directed towards a couple passing by. And he was nor mistaken. He recognized that girl who walked along with the guy. It was Eva.

She turned around and, having noticed Larry gave such a painful look at him that she seemed to be about to burst into tears. But instead of tears, she gave a speaking smile that appeared on her face and then she turned away. Where did she come from so unexpectedly plus with her boyfriend? It must be he… Why did she look at me like that? Did she notice Sandra? May be, it serves her right, Larry was a little angry. She is not a prude also. Perhaps my mother was right saying that she was after my wealth and why should she care about a cripple. Should I straighten everything up with her? But why should I grovel? I don‘t want to see her again!

“Larry, Larry, are you asleep?” Thomas‘s voice brought him back.

“What happened?” Larry could not understand it in the beginning.

“Nothing, we have just made up to go to the countryside this weekend. Will you join us?” Thomas suggested, almost sure that he would agree.

“Of course, you shouldn‘t ask about it,” Larry said and at the same time, he would take the change out of Eva, because she had appeared in public with another man… Was not he worse? “What are waiting for? The crayfish is finished, there is no beer left, so it‘s time to get out of here.”

“To the cinema,” Thomas was looking for new entertainment.

“Larry, will you go too?” the friends asked him.

“No, I don‘t want to go to the cinema…” Larry did not want to go anywhere at all then. He would have rather stayed there and sank down in a drink; just he did not want to disclose that. “I‘ve just remembered there is something I have to do. You go ahead and I‘ll join you later,” he tried to walk away from it.

“And what do you say, Sandra?” the brother asked and smiled.

“I‘ll keep a company for Larry. I have to get home by three o‘clock, so… Will you see me home, Larry?”

“This is exactly what I thought,” Thomas laughed. Everybody looked at him, then at Sandra. The girl blushed.

“What are you snorting at,” Sandra started as if being possessed, “Who do you think I am? Am I a small girl, which you can pull by tails of hair whenever you like? Can’t you sit still for a while?”

“Well, well,” Edgar cut in, “there you have started quarrelling again…”

“Nobody is quarrelling here…” Thomas replied. “One cannot just joke… She always flames up like a match.”

Larry was watching Sandra. He realized what Thomas had in mind. She flamed up not just for anything. I’ll better see her home, he thought. May be, she will calm down while spending some time with me. Why should I be distressed because of Eva’s betrayal? I’d rather make Sandra’s life happier.

“So, Sandra,” Larry started cheerfully, “are you coming with me or not? I’d like to set you free from your brother’s grip…”

Sandra got pleased. She proudly took Larry by his elbow, turned up her nose and simpered in front of her brother. Thomas and Edgar were left alone sitting with nothing.

Larry and Sandra walked along chatting silently and joking. Wide quay slabs were shining in the sun. Some music could be heard from the distance. Smells of sauces, stakes and other hot meals were floating around. And when a lady accompanied by a tail-coated gentleman used to pass by, then a heady and fresh aroma of her dress and body would spread all over. Both of them enjoyed their time. It seemed to the girl, that it was an exactly one of those days when she would be able and want to feel nearness of a person one loves… She took Larry along the central street. Shop flowers, books and jewelry, tempted her. Both of them carried away by their dreams stood on the old bridge of the town for rather a long time and enjoyed the worm weather flow.

Larry insensibly remembered about Eva, her betrayal. Life started to look so colorless to him. He looks at Sandra and he saw still a very young and naive girl who was very much like Eva. For a moment, he even thought that he would be so happy to have her instead of Sandra there. He imagined them going along the streets, hand in hand, and he would feel her nearness and heat of her body.

“Why are you so thoughtful and sad?”

“Me?” Larry came back to himself.

“What are you thinking about,” Sandra asked deeply, “if that’s not a secret?”

Larry understood what kind of answer she expected for and did not let her down. “Of course, it’s not a secret, about you!”

Sandra was pleased by Larry’s answer, but she did not show it. She squinted and gave him the glad eye. “Do you think I’ll believe you…”

And then Larry tried to convince her. He put his arms around the girl’s waist and pressed her slightly against the bridge handrails. He could feel her body trembling. “Do you believe now?”

“No,” she could hardly restrain her feelings and looked at him, “I don’t, think of a better proof!”

“What?”

“Kiss me!”

“Right here?”

“Yes, right here,” she answered with no blinking.

“And do you really want it?” he asked her again feeling embarrassed.

Sandra put her arms on Larry’s shoulders. Her eyes were asking for it. Larry did not know what to do. It would have been awkward not to kiss the girl and a chaste kiss should not change anything… Larry made up his mind. Their lips met. He wanted to get back, but he realized that he could not resist the temptation. He could not control himself any longer. Some inconceivable feeling took over his soul and body. Suddenly he seized Sandra in his arms and started kissing her passionately. She did not resist. The girl wanted that Larry would never let her go that he would never stop kissing her. Then she believed that Larry loved her. His kisses were full of passion, so wasn’t that love? She almost felt dizzy of happiness.

When Larry leaned back at last, Sandra felt some shame. She wanted to bury her face in her palms and to get disappeared.

“Let’s go, how long are we going to stay here?” Larry pretended as if nothing had happened.

They went further holding each other by hands, but they did not dear to start the conversation.

“It’s a pity, but I have to go now,” Sandra said.

“Already?” Larry was disappointed. He noticed that Sandra was not ready to leave him, and he himself would have rather stayed with her for a little longer. That kiss was really making him dizzy…

Sandra was very sad that she had to say goodbye, but she calmed down very soon. She was up to something. “Larry,” called she, “catch up with me!” And she started running, as if intending to take over something on the other side of the river.

He surged forward, but soon he changed his mind, since one cannot race with prosthesis. “Sandra, wait! There is something I want to tell you!”

She stopped. “What is it?”

“I think,” Larry came up and put his arms around Sandra’s waist, “why don’t we better have a walk, would you mind?”

Sandra did not suspect Larry’s trick; she just got the impression that he loved her more than she had thought. They walked in each other’s embrace without a word. Each one was taken away by their thoughts.

Having seen Sandra home, Larry was still considering if he would be able to love her. Yes, she does excite a passion, but… Larry thought, if it would possible to get in close relations with her. If she were Eva, he wouldn’t have any doubts and would pearl her with passionate kisses… He loved Eva. Larry thought that loves starts from ones dreams. Now, there were no dreams, just some physical excitement, something like body heat, which he wanted to put up. He did not realize that Eva was the reason of his trouble. She had never left his life for a short second, since he had been carrying her in his heart. And what about Sandra? Is this love? She attracts me so much. May be, she had bewitched me as she promised to, Larry thought.

Suddenly Larry cast a glance to the left and became speechless. There was Eva standing next to a nice brickwork house and talking to the guy he saw in the coffee bar. Larry felt that something had boiled up in his chest.

Eva had also noticed Larry and cast innocents glance at him, and ran inside the house without saying goodbye to her boyfriend. Larry could hardly control himself. He wanted to accost the guy, but somehow he managed to control himself… He wanted to follow Eva and wreak his fury, but he realized that it would have been useless to behave like that. He could not derogate from his reputation. I wouldn’t change anything, he thought, I wouldn’t force her to love me. He was totally disenchanted with Eva. He realized again that he had lost her forever.

Sandra could still feel passionate kisses and caressing of Larry. She was humming. She wished to run across a meadow and dance… She was happy. Life seemed to her much nicer than before. Right then, she started waiting for their next meeting.

Eva shut away in her bedroom and dropped down on her double sized wooden bed with a teddy bear in her arms. Unbearable pain was piercing her chest. She was sobbing. Her tears were running down her face. She hoped that she had forgotten all about Larry while in college, but that day she understood that she was still in love with him. He looked at me with such scorn and contempt… He might think that he saw me with my boyfriend, or he might not be able to forgive me that I have abandoned him in hospital… It’s too late to look for any explanations. He cast a speaking look and he was with his girlfriend. How could I tell him that I’m still in love with him, waiting for him and cannot imagine my life without him? Eva was crying.

After Larry came home, he could not calm down for a long while. He was oppressed by Eva’s betrayal. He felt so lonely… His hands could not get to any work. He was lying on the sofa and was taken away by considerations, why Eva had replaced him with someone else. Suddenly a thought strokes him that she ran into the house in the neighborhood. Is she almost my neighbor? Why haven’t I noticed this for all this time? Lots of questions twisted in his mind, but there were no answers to them.

….. bus daugiau…..

Tęsinys apie tikrą meilę

Chapter 9

Larry tried to come in very carefully. His prosthesis leg hurt terribly, but he tried not to wake up his mother. When he entered his bedroom, suddenly he stood still, as if having noticed a ghost. His mother was standing in front of him.

“What are you doing here near-nude?” Larry tried to attack first.

“Waiting for you!” mother did not give up. Her voice sounded angrily and fearfully.

“I‘m not a child…”

“Doesn‘t matter, there is no need to stroll around at night time!”

“I was at the cafe with my friends.”

“At the cafe? And come back only in the morning?”

“Well, it happened so… Don‘t be nasty, mama…”

“Nasty, nasty… Next time you better warn me that you are not coming home. I have checked all the hospitals…Go to your breakfast, you night-bird!” she raised her voice standing in the doorway.

From a few steps his mother looked very funny. She looked like a real clown from the circus. Her nightgown was too wide for her, belted with a silver-color belt and wearing red slippers. Larry burst out laughing.

“Why did you put this belt on?” he asked, almost choking with laughter.   

“Stop teasing me… You better go to your breakfast and you don‘t have to look at me, if you don‘t like the view!”

Larry went to the kitchen. All that Edgar told him last nigh at the restaurant was true, he thought. He – that guy – was the one that you wouldn‘t find at once. There is nothing to be added. Who could be his peer among his contemporaries? Of course, nobody. He would give his life for me. I should say … But for what? And Sandra?

“Are you so drunk,” Larry was awakened from his thoughts by his mother‘s voice, “look what you are eating.”

Larry realized that he was eating just dry bread. “It doesn‘t matter,” he said dryly.

“How come it doesn‘t matter?” she was surprised. “What are you up to again, since you are floating high in the skies?”

            Indeed, Larry‘s eyes were burning, but it was not his hangover. They were burning with some incomprehensible and mysterious fire that could be understood neither by her, nor by him.      

●○●

After lunch, Larry went for a ride. The weather was just perfect for that purpose. Larry never liked sunny days. The sunlight always impeded driving. And now the day was overcast. Larry felt the same in his heart. He pressed the accelerator like crazy. He tried to think of nothing, but the flow of thoughts did not let him to. Pointless race, Larry kept repeating. Why didn‘t I hold it back from it…? If not the race, if not that accident… Suddenly Larry pressed the breaks. He leaned back in his seat and closed the eyes. What is the way out of this marsh of tormenting? Though I feel good with my friends and, sometimes, I even manage to forget about it, but when I‘m all by myself, I cannot find peace. Nothing is stronger than my love to Eva. What is she doing to me? What if I wouldn‘t care a fig? Where could I find some comfort? If only Arnold could be here next to me at least. He always knew what to suggest. But, unfortunately… Suddenly Larry opened his eyes. He started the engine, turned around the car and scurried back at the same high speed. 

            He wandered around at the cemetery. There was no point in hurry and he even did not want to. He walked slowly, making a stop at each tomb and looking through the inscriptions. Why do people leave life being so young? Why do kids die? There were a lot of thoughts about death and life. Though, he knew where Arnold was buried, but he was taking his time to go there. The cemetery silence gave peace to him. 

From the distance, he spotted a woman with a little girl. Larry stopped. He recognized Edna. She was standing at the grave with her head down. How is she supposed to live on?  Arnold loved her so much… And she is all alone now… What could be a support for her? Where could he find some comfort?

At first, Larry did not dear to disturb her thoughts. Only a few minutes later did he came up. The girl could not stand still in one place. Sometimes she scratched something on the ground, sometimes jumped up and frisked around or tried to catch something floating in the air. Perhaps, a butterfly, Larry thought, which performs its own dance despite this sad location…

Arnold‘s daughter noticed Larry, dashed to her mother and fastened to her hand.  Edna squatted down to her daughter and gave her a hug. Only then did she notice Larry. Longing could be seen reflected on her face. Larry came up to Edna and gave her a manly hug.  

“You will make it,” Larry said silently. “You must, just for your daughter‘s sake…”

“I have no other choice, Larry…”

“My dad is buried here,” Barbara informed. “Are you my mother‘s friend?”

Larry let Edna go and squatted down to her. Arnold was right. She was very much like her father. She had black hair, black eyebrows. Her chin was very narrow and her eyes were blue-green… And just dimples on her cheeks she had inherited from her mother. 

“Yes, baby, I am a friend of your mother and father.”

“But mommy says that my father is in heaven now.”

“Of course, he is, but he can see and hear you. Don‘t forget that he loves you very much and wants you to be good girl.”

“I know,” Barbara curled her lower lip. “So says mommy as well.” 

“Yes, my angel,” Edna added, “see, the uncle says the same. And you,” she talked to Larry, “are you for the first time here?”

“No, but I miss him very much, especially now.”

“We were about to leave, but you can stay here with him, talk to him and you‘ll feel better. I often do so.”

“Mommy,” Barbara pulled her hand again, “is the uncle going with us?”

“No, darling.”

“I could take you both home.”

“Thanks, Larry, I don‘t want to trouble you…”

“No trouble at all, Edna. I haven‘t seen you for a long time.”

Larry stroke Barbara‘s hair and she raised up her head and smiled to him.

“You do remember my car, don‘t you, Edna? You go ahead and I‘ll be right with you.”

“Do you still drive the same car?”

“Yes, just its control is reconstructed, since I have lost my leg.”

“I know this. The coach mentioned. We are still keeping in touch.”

“I‘m happy to know that you are not all alone, Edna. Sorry I did not come to see you earlier. I‘ve just came back to myself. I paid a very high price for those self-pity lessons,” Larry looked at Barbara. She was already down to the ground exploring a huge bug. “Do you remember Eva?”

“Of course, I do. I liked her very much and she loves you very much indeed. If only you could have seen, what was going on in the pizzeria, while you had been discussing things with Laura.”

“We have split.”

“I can‘t believe it…”

“It‘s a long story, Edna… I‘ll tell you about it, if you let me take you home. Please, it won‘t take me long.”   

“Okay, Larry, I agree,” she looked at Barbara and smiled. “Come, the uncle will take us home.” She again looked at Larry. “If not her, I‘m not sure, if I could have made through the entire nightmare. There are no words to describe this feeling, Larry. It seems that something has broken apart inside you…”

“Are we going with the uncle?”

“Yes.”

  “Will I be allowed to sing?”

Larry looked at Edna with a question in his eyes.

“Yes, Larry… When Arnold died in the accident, she started singing.”

Larry stayed alone. The tree rustle was singing a sad lament. For a moment Larry watched the gray and endless sky, then to the tops of high trees that were barely swinging due to the slight wind and then the label with Arnold‘s name talking to him in his mind. His soul lamented. “What should I do, Arnold?” Larry asked. “Should I stop bothering about Eva?” Larry felt pain in his heart. “No, I‘m not mad at her, I‘m just very disappointed. And on the other hand, Sandra has turned up in my life. Her feelings are so warm… And she isn’t indifferent to me! But I cannot use her love just like that; I cannot give groundless hopes. What should I do, Arnold?”

Insensibly, two butterflies drew Larry’s attention. They were flying together, making large circles around. Their dance had hypnotized Larry. Suddenly Larry was hit by a thought. Is this your answer, Arnold? Are you suggesting me fly carelessly through my life, like this butterfly? May be, it‘s worth trying. I wouldn‘t loose anything more. I cannot get Eva back. “Thanks, buddy,” he said in half voice. “I got it.” Larry gave a deep sigh. “You‘ll be my best friend and adviser forever. I‘ll be going now. Rest in peace.”   

●○●

Edna with her daughter was waiting for him on the bench. The little girl kept chattering about something and Edna was listening to her with love.  Larry wanted to talk to them for a little longer. 

“Have I kept you waiting for a long time? Why don‘t we go somewhere and have some ice-cream?” the second part of the offer was addressed to Barbara.  

The girl’s eyes sparkled. She looked at her mother asking this question with her eyes and then to Larry again. “With caramel, it‘s my favorite,” she declared. 

“That‘s my favorite taste too,” Larry said, “that means we can be friends!”

When they got in the car, Barbara started singing, as she had promised to. Larry did not know much of the kid’s repertoire, so he accompanied just with half of his voice, but the girl liked it anyway. They both sang songs all their way, just Edna was sitting sad and submerged in her thoughts. 

At the cafe, Barbara ate her ice cream with great relish.

“I can‘t understand, why has Eva disappeared? You know, if I were her, perhaps, I would have humbled and come to the hospital again,” Edna was considering. “She must be a very huffy person.”

“Perhaps, but it isn’t the worst part. We could have straightened it up, but she had moved out and did not let me know about it.”

“May be, she couldn‘t…”

“Or did not want to… I guess our friendship was just an illusion. There is nothing can be changed now. It’s the way, it is and you have to carry on. Could you change something? It was the most sacred wish of yours that Arnold would have been alive, wasn‘t it? But what can we do about it?”

Edna nodded. 

“But there is another news,” Larry continued, “much better one.”

“There is? Do you have good news also?”

“I‘m not sure that you‘ll like it, but I have an idea.”

Larry told her that the group was willing to start their activities again and that their first concert would be in the memory of Arnold. Edna did not show much of her admiration, but she agreed that to arrange a concert in Arnold‘s memory was an interesting idea. 

“I‘m so happy you are getting back to your feet, Larry. Now that we have seen each other again, I think you will not forget us. You might come to our place some time.”

“Yes, Edna, I promise. I like Barbara very much. She so sweet… May be, some time, when she will grow up into a young lady, she will become a member of our group. Arnold was a guitarist and his daughter would become a singer. What do you think?”

“Who can say what she will be,” Edna replied and looked at her daughter. Barbara had finished her ice cream, but she was still scratching her plate with a spoon trying to gather at least a small piece. Edna smiled. But she suddenly shivered. She shook, as if she had had a glass of whisky. “I hope there will no more races,” she said silently.

“Don‘t think about races any more… Don‘t make your heart suffer. You know that there is no way to turn back the clock and you have to live on…”

“You are right,” Edna nodded.

“And you, a small sparrow,” Larry addressed to Barbara, wondering at her appetite, “Do you want some more ice-cream?”

“I‘m not a sparrow,” Barbara replied seriously. “Don‘t you see that I‘m a girl?” Barbara was very much surprised by Larry being so unobservant. She wiggled her head and shrugged her shoulders, “Mommy, why the uncle cannot see it?”

“He is kidding, dear,” she answered and stroke her head. “We do not want more ice-cream, do we?” Edna turned to Larry. “Indeed, Larry, she will not eat supper then.”

“You are the mother here and you know better,” Larry said. 

“I guess so,” Edna finished her juice. “And now we should be going, because it‘s getting late.”

“Okay, Edna. You two make sure you are okay and don‘t be sad. I‘ll come and see you some time.”

Larry got a great influence by that unexpected meeting. Edna and Barbara gave him some new impulses. Larry got at work and was rising for his new life. He decided to agree with Kevin regarding a rehearsal. 

●○●

An hour later, he was on his way walking to Kevin. After the accident, he tried to use each opportunity and walk more. Though he used to get very tired because of walking with the prosthesis, but he was practicing his self-control and training his muscles. 

“Come on in, Larry, good you called me. I‘m free this evening, so we can talk over everything,” Kevin was talking, inviting his guest into the room. He took off a bottle of cognac and filled the glasses.

“Oh no, I won‘t have it,” Larry tried to reject, “I still have hangovers from yesterday.”

“One shot won‘t make any harm, you‘ll feel much better right away,” Kevin tempted, and Larry did not try to avoid it any longer. 

“I‘ll show you my plan in a moment. You‘ll tell me your opinion,” Kevin started talking business.

“Bring it all you‘ve got. Did you tell Mark about our plans?”

“Of course! By the way, he promised to drop by.”

The news about Mark scared Larry a little, since they have not seen each other for a long time. This time Larry himself asked for a drink. Insensibly, he recalled the last concert of their group again. He remembered Eva with roses in her hands; he recalled Arnold, their dance with Edna in the summerhouse, then the race, hospital… He felt pain in his heart. We had plans to get married, Larry thought and gave a deep sigh. I had to live through a lot of things that I even wouldn‘t wish it to my enemy.

“Why are you so sad?”

Larry even jumped, when he heard Kevin‘s voice unexpectedly. His friend had brought a pile of papers. “Nothing, just so. I remembered of something. But what have you brought here?”

“This is my project. I have written a few songs.”

“Texts?” Larry got surprised. “You‘ve never done it previously! Show them, quickly!”

Having scanned a few lines, Larry smiled. “What‘s wrong, old man?”

“Love… Here, take this. I want you to sing and I‘ll be accompanying.” He dashed to the piano and sat down comfortably on the chair. “Can we start?”

“Wait a second,” Larry stopped, “I have to get into the right emotions!”

Though with some deviations, the song sounded rather smoothly. When they finished the song, the guys were satisfied – their first try was okay. 

“And when a boss guitar and trap instruments would join…” both were making plans already.

There was a doorbell.

“This must be Mark. He will be so much surprised to see you.”

Larry tried again to sing the song, while Kevin was opening the door for his guest. 

“Hi, old buddy, I haven‘t seen you for ages,” Mark cheerfully chattered. “You have got quite carried away… The house is almost falling apart.”

“Hello, I did not expect to see you here.”

“Why not? We are going to get together, as far as I know. We’ll be seeing each other more frequently now!”

That evening they spent a lot of time there – they had enough of songs and talks.               

 …… bus daugiau……

Chapter 8

What shall I do? How shall I live on? Constant existential questions accompanied Larry home and did not stay behind in hospital. They became his permanent escort. How shall I live further, he thought, without a leg, without concerts, races, friends… without Arnold? How shall I live without Eva? Larry was ruined. He could not look at his reflection, because he felt inferior. He walked with his prosthesis only at home. He was afraid to show outside and to make a step in the town. Only at night he used to walk out in the balcony, look at the stars and curse himself, his mother and doctors. He could not remember of another autumn, so cold and rainy.

Time passed. Each new day more and more ruined Larry‘s self-confidence. Eight months had passed – long like eternity and tormenting like uncertainty. There must be a way out. I need do something about it… The very same thoughts did not leave him in peace. At last Larry got tired of feeling sorry for him and got tired of suffering.  May be that feeling was caused by the spring that broke into his life like a tornado? He did not realize that, but he could feel a rush of strength and willingness to start everything from the very beginning. His soul, all his body was glowing in a strange flame. He made that decision insensibly, but also at once. He was ready for essential changes in his life. I have to live with my head raised up. Arnold and Edna were right, Larry decided, saying that even it is the cabbage field, but still with pride… At last, Larry understood, why he was left alone, abandoned by everybody. Because he asked for sympathy while your own pain has to be suffered by yourself. 

I need to start somewhere! I cannot stay here like a wild animal in its cage. First of all, I have to get used to my artificial leg, I can‘t drag it to and from, I have to learn to control myself and handle everything on my own. What is about fear? It‘s dangerous. But I can cope with it. I have to. Doesn‘t matter, what people around and neighbors will think of it… Let them tease me, if they like. I‘ll simply try not t notice and hear it. Larry was examining himself in front of the mirror. Nobody would even tell that I have lost a leg.

Larry went to the living room. Mother was watching TV. Her face brightened up, when she saw Larry.  

“Son, did I get it right? You are going out…”

“Yes, mama, you did. Hopefully, people will not be pointing their fingers at me and won‘t whisper behind my back.” 

“Do you want me to go with you?”

“No… I want to go by myself.”

When he got outside, Larry looked around. At the neighboring house fence, he noticed Edgar, his neighbor, who was trimming bushes. He was slightly junior Larry, so they never communicated much. Of course, they always used to say hello to each other. Edgar was submerged in his work. I hope he wouldn‘t notice me, Larry expected. He made a sudden turn to the opposite direction.

“Larry, wait!”

Larry went cold all over and, when he turned around, he noticed the same neighbor hurrying towards him.

“Well, how are you,” he started right away, without giving a chance to Larry to open his mouth. “I heard about the accident…”

“Yes, it happened,” Larry answered reluctantly and often looked down at his legs.

“Why didn‘t you show up for such a long time? Almost six months have passed, I saw you coming back.”

I came back with prosthesis already, Larry thought, so, perhaps, he doesn‘t even know that I have lost my leg.

Edgar was so energetic, that he did not give Larry a chance to insert a word. “Thomas and I were waiting for you to come out. We wanted to take you somewhere… But Sandra was against that. You know? Sandra is always like that.  She always thinks that she might have looked to the wrong spot, or put her hand in the wrong place and asked he wrong question…”

“Wait, wait, Edgar, who is Sandra?”

“Thomas’s sister,” he replied in surprise. “You know Thomas, don‘t you? They live on the opposite side of the street,” Edgar pointed towards a pink two-story house with a small tower.

Larry could not understand it still. “There used to live a single old woman…”

Then Edgar got the point. “Oh, you don‘t know them yet, they moved in just recently.”

“I thought so, that there must be something wrong.” Larry smiled.

Edgar scratched his head. “You must have seen them. They moved in right before the accident,” he was insisting. 

“I don‘t remember them, for the life of me I can‘t…”

“Never mind, I will introduce you to each other. We are in good relations, Thomas is my age, and Sandra finished school just last year. You know,” he scratched again, “I think you should have noticed Sandra. Or you don‘t like young girls?” Edgar was happy about his quip.     “Sorry for not visiting you then, but now we will be able to keep in touch. Would you mind it?”

“No, not at all,” Larry said, shaking his neighbor‘s hand. 

In a few hours, Larry came back home. He was so happy that he even woke up his mother. He needed somebody to shear his impressions with.

“You know, mama, I there was no point worrying so…”

“Didn‘t I tell you so?”

“You were right, mama,” Larry was smiling, “everything will be different now.” 

“Did you notice any angry or offensive looks?”

“No, mama… Not one a single! Everybody treated me just as a singer… One young girl even approached me. She asked when would it be the next time that our group would give a concert, and asked for an autograph.”  

“Well, are you happy now?”

“Oh, mammy, I have almost forgotten this feeling!”

●○●

Gradually Larry got used to his disability. He stopped giving himself a hard time and threw himself into the life. During the days he used to go for training a lot: weight lifting, exercising in front of mirrors, walking and watching himself in them. After long, hard and painful training, he toughened up. Slowly, his self-confidence and confidence in his own power came back to him. Then he finally realized that it was possible to continue living! He started creating songs, playing the guitar and writing texts. His new friends – Edgar, Thomas and Sandra – were the key that unlocked Larry‘s soul again. Larry even started driving his red sports car again. There was one more step to do, which was the hardest one: he needed to see Eva. He had to rectify his mother‘s mistake.   

In the evening, Larry, Thomas and Sandra agreed to go to a wonderful cafe, which was attractive by one more fact that was located very close to their home. It was long before the evening, so Larry decided to visit Eva. He got into his red sports car and shot forward. He approached the door even without limping.  Nobody from a side would say that he was with prosthesis. He made a sign of the cross and pressed a button.  The door opened in a minute. Larry saw a young lady.

“Are you looking for someone?” she was surprised. 

“Excuse me,” Larry said excited, “I have come to see Eva. Could you please call her up?”

“Eva?” the woman replied in surprise. “She doesn‘t live here any longer.”

“How come that she doesn‘t? She used to live here before…”

“Might be, but we purchased this flat before the New Year and it is even beyond the Ester now…”

It can‘t be true, Larry thought. He was in a hot sweat. Did they move out? What shall I do now? ”Do you happen to know,” he asked again, “where the previous dwellers have moved out?”

“No, I don‘t know indeed. Ask the neighbors,” the woman suggested. “May be they know something about it.”

Hardly making steps Larry returned to his car. He waited for a long time hoping for a miracle. He was expecting to see Eva suddenly show up from somewhere. He was afraid even of the thought that he might never see her again…He thought he was dreaming…  

Having returned home, Larry closed himself in his room. His friends could hardly talk him into going out to the cafe. This time all of them got drunk very quickly, since each of them were oppressed by theirs own problems. They drank white wine with bites of cutlets, and then switched to cognac. Perhaps, it was too much. Edgar, who had been silent all the time, suddenly expressed his wish to say a toast, since he saw Larry‘s sad face.  

“Go ahead,” Thomas agreed. “Just do it distinctly, don‘t mumble.”

From the beginning, Edgar mumbled something, even slightly, stammering, but leisurely his voice became stronger. “Larry is a little senior us, but it doesn‘t matter, since it does not interfere with our friendship,” he talked. “I want Larry to know that he is wrong, if he thinks that we do not understand his pain. We are friends and we are together! We‘ll support him as much as we can, and in a particular case,” he cast a look around, “I don‘t know how about you, but I would even give my life for him. If this would be necessary… Therefore, I propose to raise our glasses to friendship and that it…” He stuck. “What was it that I wanted to say more?”

“Yes. I guess, you forgot the most important point,” Sandra added joking.

“He‘ll remember it tomorrow…” Thomas noted.

“Well, thank you for your attention, as well-mannered and steady people say,” Edgar bitterly finished his talk.  

Most probably, that toast was supposed to wrap up the party, but Edgar was willing to talk everybody to a bar. 

“Who is going to let us in being in such a condition?” Larry questioned.

“Let‘s go to the cellar then. They will have enough space there,” Sandra‘s friend Brenda, who had also been invited to the party, suggested.

“Sure!” Sandra agreed, “It is so dark there, that you might come naked there.” Sandra laughed so catching, that Brenda burst into laugh as well. Both girls were laughing like crazy.

“No,” Edgar said slowly, “I want to the bar which gives an entertainment program…”

“We‘ll go there, when we are properly dressed,” Sandra cut it with no mercy at all.

Larry did not mind it. It‘s better to get totally drunk, he was thinking. May be, it will help to forget everything. “Sure, Edgar,” Larry said. “We are the majority, so you will have to accept it…”

Small lamps with red bonnets illuminated the cellar. There were a few tables. Big cactuses stood stubby in the corners.  There were very few people.   

“The place is not so bad,” Larry mumbled. 

“Yes, indeed,” Sandra enjoyed it. “I like it…”

“You like it everywhere, unless it‘s dark,” Thomas said. “You know, my sister must have been born at night…”

“Don‘t be so smart,” Sandra shot back.

“Stop quarrelling, on earth,” Edgar calmed down the heat. “You are welcome to fight at home and this is a public place… Here they come, brother and sister.” He turned to Larry. “I always have to stand in between them.”

“I noticed that…”

The company ordered a bottle of whisky with soda and ice. At least, they would know what they would be drinking.  Otherwise, they might be giving customers anything you like in such a dark place.  When they finished the bottle, the little Brenda had been having sweet dreams for a while right at the table and Sandra was dancing without any music. Larry‘s look was wandering around the hall. It was very dark, however, his eyes stopped at one table – Larry recognized Kevin at once. 

“Hello, old buddy,” Kevin shook Larry‘s hand and patted on his shoulder. “Are you walking already?”

“As you can see it…”

“I was planning to visit you… Both, Mark and myself, wanted to come to your place, but we didn‘t want to disturb you … We felt somehow uneasy.”

“I didn’t want myself to see anybody, but it‘s over now,” Larry‘s smile vanished, “I miss Arnold…”

“Our group has fallen apart…”

“Good you reminded me. I have an idea.”

“Do you want to gig again?”

“Of course! I have written quite a number of texts, a couple of melodies. We could arrange a gig in the memory of Arnold.”

“Good idea,” Kevin agreed, “and I have found a guitarist.”

“Is he that guy?”

“Yes, he is. He is quite good, I have already checked.”

“Do you know him for a long time?”

“He is my girlfriend‘s brother. I have talked to him about the company. What do you think, Larry?”

Kevin stood in front of Larry and waited for an answer. Larry looked at Kevin‘s friend, then at Sandra, who was still dancing, and Edgar was squirming together with her. Thomas was gawking at girls, who were entertaining a foreigner with moustache. Brenda, her head on the table, was not making a movement. The view had cheered up Larry.    

“What are you smiling at? I guess, you do agree?”

“Of course, I do, because that was my idea. Why don‘t we meet some time to discuss this matter, I don‘t want to take more of your time now…”

“You are not taking my time, but aren‘t they missing you?”

“I don‘ think so, our party is over.”

“Come to my place tomorrow and we will discuss everything.”

“My pleasure. See you tomorrow.”

Edgar and Sandra were waiting for him at the table already.

“Well, I guess, we should take another one,” Edgar proposed, having made quite merry.

“Let‘s take it,” Thomas agreed. 

“Don‘t you feel enough yet?” Larry teased him, “go ahead and try to get on your feet. I think you can hardly keep your legs.”

“Come on,” Thomas was a little angry. 

“Even your tongue twists in your mouth,” Larry did not leave him alone.

Suddenly Thomas jumped on his feet. Probably, he wanted to prove it to everybody that he was still strong enough. But he did not succeed in that, since he wobbled and was about to fall down on his back, but a waiter supported him and seated back in his place.  

“Not a drop more,” Larry got angry, “you‘d better learn how to drink first!”

“All right, all right,” Thomas said. “I have had too much.”

It was rather warm in the street. Though rain was refreshing their faces, the company was hardly dragging along. Larry was the strongest of all them, but Sandra clawed hold of his elbow. Thomas and Edgar pulled along Brenda by her arms. Thomas could hardly walk. His pace was funny.  

“Aren‘t you going to accompany me home?” Sandra proposed simpering.

Larry noticed that Sandra is looking at him with her flattering eyes. Oh, boy, Larry thought. Does she expect anything from me? “I don‘t have another choice,” Larry said annoyed.

He gave a sigh and dragged her along on dark sideways. With each cross road, the girl‘s legs were twisting more and more and she was almost leaning against Larry‘s shoulder.  The prosthesis on his stump was giving him a gyp, so that Larry himself was hardly making his way. Moreover, Sandra stumbled over something and stretched full-length on the pavement like a rubber boat.  Larry had ‘a pleasure’ to lift her up. Sandra was quite openly licking his ear and cuddling around like a cat in heat. When they had finally reached the house, Larry was heated like a match. Larry leaned Sandra against the wall and unlocked the outside door with her key.  

“Won’t you come up for a short while?” the girl offered without any scruples.

“What’s for? What will your parents say?”

“My parents are out.”

Larry was not pushing forward to go inside, he wanted just a hot bath, but since the girl was inviting… “It‘s late already…”

“Just for a minute… You will play the piano or the guitar. I will play something for you as well.”

“How do you know that I can play?” he asked and immediately realized that he made a fool of himself, because he used to play and sing in a popular group. 

“These days everybody could…”

She is quite funny, Larry thought. That‘s nonsense! Of course, not everybody… Probably, he‘ll have to go with her. I‘d like to show her, how one is supposed not just to play, but to sing also.

“Don‘t worry, I‘m not going to fall down,” the girl smiled, “but if you want to support me, I won‘t mind.”

Larry let her go at once. Actually, she was keeping her legs quite well.

“We have a good piano,” she mumbled, “and I got the guitar recently. But you will have to set them.”

While both of them were tuning the piano, Larry perked up before long. Sandra, as it turned out, was very sweet. She was very simple and it was buying. They both were joking, discussing things and argued. They had worked till five in the morning. Thomas saw Brenda home and went straight to bed, because after a good ‘sitting’ at the bar he felt very weak. Next was the guitar‘s turn. Over that time, they both sobered down and felt disgustingly.  Sandra went to make some coffee and Larry tried to play one of his favorite melodies. Sandra listened to him standing in the doorway like hypnotized and was afraid to spill out the coffee.  

“This is a beautiful song,” Sandra said, when Larry had finished singing. “I haven‘t heard it before.”

Why didn‘t she say that I sing nice, Larry thought. “It‘s my song,” he boasted.

“Do you create songs?” Sandra was surprised.

“Seems like that…”

“So, do you play with some group?”

Larry got tong-tied. How could it be that she doesn‘t know? I thought that everybody knows us… “I used to,” Larry replied.

“How should understand this ‘used to’? Did you stop playing at all?”

“I did, for the time being.”

“Why?”

Suddenly Larry felt that he wanted to tell her about everything, but he stopped in the right spot realizing that he was not willing to disclose the true reason. He did not want to tell her that he lost his leg. He did not want to get sympathy any more. 

“Cross-purposes,” he said and sipped some coffee. 

“For money or for the girls?”

“Neither one, nor the other…

“May be, I look too curious, I‘m sorry,” she started, “but are so full of mysteries and I know nothing about you.”

“So, what is it that you want to know?”

Sandra smiled. “You know, Larry, there is one question that it doesn‘t leave me in peace. I wanted to ask Edgar this question, because he knows you better, but I‘d better ask yourself now…”

Larry got riveted at the spot. It‘s interesting, he thought, what would she ask about? Why she is smiling so mysteriously…

“You know, we spent quite some time together… Well, I mean, not just two of us,” she blushed a little, “but I get the impression that you don‘t have a girlfriend. Am I right?”

Larry went cold all over. He was not sure himself, if Eva still was his girl friend. She was simply gone. “Yes and no,” Larry said slowly and emptied his cup of coffee by half at once.

“How come? I don‘t get it.”

Larry did not want to give any commitments, since Sandra could be a nice girlfriend as well. But his love… Larry felt that Eva was the only precious person for him.

“Then let‘s say yes,” he replied. He was about to leave; the interrogation was becoming unpleasant and questions were breaking his hear. Sandra understood his mood and no more questions were asked. 

“Play something more, please,” Sandra asked after a long pause.  

She did not like my answer, Larry thought. Sure, she would feel much better, if I had said that I had been looking for a girl friend. He went closer to the window. Swallows were diving down at the very ground. “Next time, I promise.” Larry turned to Sandra and smiled. “I have to go now.”

“But we will meet again and continue our discussion, won‘t we?” the girl asked hopefully.

“I‘ll see…”

“I‘ll be waiting…”

Having closed the outside door behind him, Larry thought for a long while. If only I could change my destiny, if only Eva would be next to me… She disappeared… Sandra showed up… Is it a fortune’s smile or just a trial? Larry took a deep breath.

The weather was not cold, just the morning light was still cold. The sun was hanging up the first rays on the walls of houses. One way or the other, Larry thought, shouldn‘t Eva moved out, he wouldn‘t have to think what to do now. I would have stayed together with her. Probably, we would get married soon. Larry was pierced by sharp and unbearable pain. But why, Eva? Why did you through this lightening to my heart, which keeps burning forever?

……. bus daugiau…..

Chapter 7

Larry opened his eyes and did not understand where he was: white bed, curtains, night lamp and a girl wearing a white robe and a hat. Larry was about to get up, but stinging pain nailed him to the bed. Then he recalled of the race and the crash.

“My leg,” Larry said in a strangled voice, “my leg hurts…”

The nurse turned around and cast a look at him. “Oh, our handsome man has woken up already. Well,” she stood up and came closer to Larry, “what is it?” 

“How is my leg? Is it very bad? How soon can I get up?”

The nurse was a little upset. “I’ll call up the doctor. He wanted to examine you, so will be able to ask him this question.”

“Thanks, nurse. I can wait.” Larry smiled. “I feel quite well. I just want to know, when I will be able to get out here.”

He did not have to wait long. A minute later, a tall and stout man entered the room. He wore serious expression of his face, one hand in the pocket of his robe while he was twiddling with a pencil in the other. He was obviously bothered with something.     

“Well, how is my patient doing?” he asked in a heavy and rasp voice. 

“I feel a terrible pain in my left leg, I must have got it wounded very heavily today.”

“You have got injured, but not today. A week ago,” the doctor corrected. 

“How could it be a week ago? I remember it very well that I have been brought here straight from the track today.”

“Don’t worry, it’s very natural after getting such a heavy trauma and narcosis.”  

“What trauma? What are you talking about? I just broke my leg and that’s it,” Larry did not give up. 

The doctor took off his glasses, wiped them out, put on again and fitted behind the ears. “You see,” he obviously did not know what to start from, “as far as understand, you have not been informed yet…”

“Informed of what?” Larry got even more surprised.

“The thing that…”

The doctor fell silent. Larry understood that he had temporized over something. 

“What is this ‘The thing that’…” Larry got angry, “come on, say it quickly…”

“We had to amputate your left leg.”

“What?“ Larry threw away the blanket and screamed, “What have you done to me? I just broke my leg and now… Get out of here, all of you,” the guy‘s eyes filled with tears. “What am I going to do now?”

The doctor stayed. So did the nurse.

“Please, take it easy,” the doctor said kindly, “We had no chances to save your leg. You are lucky that you survived. You will have a prosthetic appliance and no one even notice this. You can be proud of your faithful and beautiful girlfriend, who keeps coming every day. You have your mother too, so don‘t give up. Sometimes there are much worse outcomes. For instance, you friend was a total misfortune.”

Larry was so upset that he was almost skipping the doctor‘s words, but he did fix the last ones. “What‘s wrong with him? Where is he?” Larry got worried.

“He is buried already. He died straight away.”

“Is Arnold dead!” The news about his friend’s death had struck him dumb. In a moment a glimpse of Arnold face and the sound of his said words passed through in front of Larry… Larry turned, his eyes narrowed. All of a sudden, he started smiling, but there was chaos seen in his eyes. “No, it can‘t be true… You must have made a mistake…”

The doctor nodded to the nurse giving a sign to prepare some stuff for him. Then Larry fixed his frightened look on the doctor‘s eyes. “I was told that everything was fine… You are kidding me! This is impossible…”

“The doctor doesn‘t lie, young man,” the nurse interfered and cleaned a spot on his arm with disinfect, “You‘ll get better after I make this injection.”

“No, please, don‘t… I will make it … Simply, I can‘t believe so far that Arnold is dead.”

The doctor tried to comfort Larry. “Such is life,” he said. “We have to put up with everything and go through life with our heads erect, take it or leave it…”

Larry recalled Arnold’s words, when he said that a man must go with his head erect even through a cabbage field… He sighed. Arnold was my best friend, Larry thought, and even could not be at his funeral… And Edna was left alone with her daughter. Oh Lord, why did it have to happen? Arnold is gone… I have lost my leg. What would Eva say to this? Does she now about it already?

The doctor was satisfied that his patient calmed down without any medicine. He was about to leave, when the door opened and Eva came in.

“Come on in,” the doctor encouraged her. “Your friend is very sensitive, I think, he needs you very much. Here is your girlfriend,” the doctor said to Larry. “I‘m handing you over to good hands and leaving for now.”

Larry set his look on Eva. She was so beautiful and unrepeatable like on that day in the concert; just she had a small bundle in her hands instead of roses. She came up and sat down on the chair. She took out some fruits and placed them on the hutch. She had so much to tell him that she did not know where to start.  

“This is for you,” she slightly opened her mouth trying to give a smile. 

“Thanks, you shouldn‘t have bothered… The food here is good,” Larry tried to joke.  

“Vitamins will make no harm to you.”

“You see, what has happened. We have agreed to meet at the cafe right after the race, and actually, we met in the hospital. A week later…”  

“Stop it, don‘t say so,” the girl said, hardly keeping her tears away.

Larry looked down and paused. “I doubt if you are going to stay with me…”

“Of course, I will,” Eva did not let Larry to finish the sentence. “I know that you have lost your leg and it doesn‘t matter to me. I love you very much.”  

“I love you too, Eva, but I am a handicap now and who knows how I can live on.”

“First, we‘ll get married as we have agreed and then we‘ll see, okay?”

“Really? Do you really want this?”

“Yes, Larry, I do. Do you agree?”

Oh, Lord, Larry thought. She is so brave. Not every girl could do this. She is an angel… “I do, but if you do this just because of a pity… I don’t need any sacrifices.”

“Do you doubt me?”

“No, but I am sorry. I will have a prosthesis, which is not a leg.”

“Don‘t get upset, Larry, we will make it. I want to be with you and I love you very much. In three days, I will bring a notary public with me. You can inform your mother, if you like.” Eva leaned over and gave Larry a kiss.

“What would I do without you, Eva”

“I don‘t know what I would do without you too. I guess, I wouldn‘t make it…”

The door opened. Eva turned back and saw the same women with who they had stayed in the waiting room.

“This is your mother,” she said “if I am right. I better go and leave you both alone.” She stood up and gave him a smile. “Take care.”

The mother cast a look at Eva on her way. “Who is she?” mother asked in discontent. 

“Mama, don‘t be afraid, she is my girlfriend and we will get married in three days.”

“Are you nuts?” his mother got angry. “Don‘t even think of it! Just over my dead body! Some upstart has set her heart on our wealth!” Mother was furious. She got on her feet.

“Come on, mama, I don‘t feel well and you want to finish me off…”

“I mean only well for you. I‘ll have a word with this bird,” she threatened, leaving the ward.

“Mama, wait,” Larry called, but he could not stop her. She did not turn around and closed the door behind her quickly.

Larry could hear his mother‘s fierce words in the corridor. The voices fell silent. He felt such a pain, that he could hardly press the signaling button with his shaking hands. The doctor and the nurse ran down in a second. Larry was pale and shaking. 

“The ampoule,” the doctor ordered, counting the pulse. 

Larry could not calm down. Mother will ruin my life, he kept repeating in his mind. Mama, why are you doing this?

“You cannot worry so much,” the doctor was trying to calm him down. “You are doing harm to you. You gave to take it easy, everything will e fine. Try to get some sleep now. You need some rest. No more visitors, Karen, at all!” 

When the doctor left, the nurse sat at the table and started taking some notes. Though the medicine had reduced some pain, his soul still hurt. Larry knew that he was powerless to change anything.  He tried to get asleep, as the doctor recommended, but he could not. Even sedatives did not help. Of course, he had stopped shaking and started feeling better, but his mother’s attach against Eva gave him a hard time. He sods with anger and wanted to bawl her out for her mean behavior. Larry was looking through the window, watching the nurse’s face lit up by the night lamp and was deep in his thoughts. Why is the mother so cruel? Doesn’t she understand that it’s so hard for me now and I need a close friend? Eva is exactly the right person. My mother doesn’t know her at all, then how can she make so unreasonable and non-weighed decisions.  She is torturing not Eva, but me… Doesn’t she understand that? What has happened to her and why is she like that? Or she has always been like this, just I haven’t noticed? Larry was still in his considerations. He had a lot of questions and he wanted to have them all answered at once. But he had to wait till the next day.

●○●

Eva returned home hardly taking her breath back, as if she had been running trying to escape something. She did not cry, just was biting on her lips till it hurt. 

“What happened?” her mother got scared, when she opened the door and saw her daughter‘s appearance. “Why are you so pale?”

“She turned me away…”

“Who is? Where from?”

“Larry‘s mother has turned me away from the hospital. She said she wouldn‘t like to see me again. She strongly demanded to leave her son alone.”

Eva‘s mother got almost tumbled down due to the amount of information she had received. “What son? What mother?”

“You don‘t know anything about it… She wants to get me apart from Larry!”

“Would you, please, explain what you are talking about?” she strongly required after she got back to her feelings. “I don‘t understand here anything at all…” 

Eva gave the whole story in full details. She spoke silently and evenly. Her eyes were feverish. When telling the story, she did not look up at her mother, just took back her breath from time to time, as if climbing a steep scarp. That time Eva did not hide anything away from her mother and told everything in a row. She did describe Larry‘s mother like a witch, but from her words, it was clear that the woman was cool tigress, which cared just about her home and wealth. 

Eva‘s mother listened to the story saying not a word. He face did not reveal her feelings. She knew that it was important to stay calm and not to show any worry to Eva. Finally, she stood up. “Nothing serious has happened! Wait a second, I‘ll wash my hands and we‘ll have a talk.”

How come nothing happened, Eva thought. Why does she say so? Doesn‘t she know what it means to love somebody and that I‘m in an invidious situation? The mother of the man I‘m in love with hates me. Why does my mother say that nothing serious has happened? Only then did Eva come back to her feelings. That was the first time she mentioned about Larry… She told everything she had been hiding away all the year. Eva got scared.  

Mother came back and sat down on the sofa.

“Come, Eva,” she kindly invited, “Sit next to me.”

Eva obeyed and got next to her mother. She looked straight in the eyes. “What should I do, mama? I love him so much…”

“I understand, sweetheart,” mother comforted her. “But I still say that nothing terrible happened! Don’t look at me like this. The main point now is to give think correctly in order to avoid doing something irrecoverable. Do you understand?”

“I don‘t know how I should behave now…”

“May be entering a college would be the best solution now.”

“Do you think it‘s the way out?”

“You don‘t like my ides, do you? Let‘s think you would forget all this over this time. For now, you could spend some of your holidays at you aunts. That‘s a lovely place.  You‘ll be alone there and have a chance to think all over. You need time daughter. This is your life. My biggest desire of all is to see you happy.”

“I know, mom.”

“Very well, Eva,” mother said, having got easy a little. “And in the meantime, it would be good for you to get some sleep.”

“But I’m not tired…”  

“It‘s all right, you need to get some rest,” mother stroke Eva‘s hair. “Take a pill of my sedatives.”

Eva went to her room. Her mood was so terrible, but, anyway, she felt some relief, since she told everything to her mother. Life did not seem so tragic. Mother can be kind and high-minded.

●○●

In the morning, Larry‘s mother turned out in the ward and stood trembling at the doorway. Her son in bed looked so tine and helpless. Just his eyes were shining distinctly in his lean and pale face. His eyes contained it all: hope and love, waiting and despair. And fear was overwhelming everything. Mother came closer to Larry‘s bed and sat down on a stool. Then she took her son‘s bloodless hand – cold, with exposed veins – caressed it, and felt the whole body trembling. It seemed that she had never experienced that many of contradicting feelings that filled her heart. They even were strangling her. The woman tried to give a smile, but it was just an unsuccessful grimace. She wanted to say something, but the words stuck in her throat. She kissed his warm and manly palm and cried, shedding her salty repentant tears on Larry‘s hands.

The guy was silent. He could still feel spite somewhere down in his heart, but his anger was scattering away. Larry understood that there was nothing what he could change and he needed to live on. 

“Did you come here to shed your tears?” Larry said in disappointment. “I have enough of my own. First of all, you have to think twice in order not to be sorry for your deeds later on.” 

“I‘m sorry, son, I didn‘t mean it.”

“If you did not mean it, why did you do it then?”

“I don‘t know her at all, and I thought,” she hurried to explain herself, “that she needs your money more than you… And what would you think if a girl you don‘t know at all wants to get married to your son who is fighting for his life? Wouldn‘t it raise any suspicion?”

“Mother, but it‘s already a year that we are friends and I know her very well…”

“How could I know about it?”

“How, how… You could have asked me. But you rushed out like out of the fire and ruined my life, which is far away from being sweet.”

“Don‘t feel sore about it, she will come again.”

“No, mama, I know her better. She‘ll never set a foot in here again.”

“Then you will see each other when you are back from hospital…”

“Who knows, mama, who knows,” Larry questioned that

“I will help you. You‘ll see, you will get her back.” 

“All right, enough of it. Did you talk to the doctor? When are they going to let me out?”

“Yes, I did,” mother confirmed being happy that Larry had changed the subject, “if everything goes all right, you will leave this place in a month…with prosthesis.”

“Excuse me for disturbing you,” the doctor joined their conversation having just entered the ward. “We have to take this young man to the procedural cabinet. I‘ll check the healing. If everything goes fine,” he addressed to Larry, “you‘ll go home in a month.”

“Thank you, doctor,” Larry said disillusioned, “if only it would mattered to me…”

Mother felt uncomfortably. She understood that her son had been crushed. Since he is telling this to the doctor, she thought, this means that he is in great suffer indeed. “I‘ll go now,” she said sadly, “I‘ll come to see you tomorrow.”

Larry did not respond. He was indifferent to everything. 

●○●

Eva‘s mother sat closer to the phone. There was no doubt that Rita would take a good care of Eva like of a little kitten. She loved her niece. Eva would change the environment and would be able to prepare for the entrance examinations and, hopefully, she would forget about that unlucky love story.

“I‘ll come to your place around eight o‘clock,” her sister promised. “You just look after her that she would not disappear.”

“There is no need to worry. She doesn‘t want to go anywhere.”

Rita was there not at eight, but at six o‘clock, as if she wanted to catch over the aircraft’s. Eva‘s mother had not yet been back from shopping. Eva opened the door. The aunt entered the flat as if she had been invited to the wedding celebration.

“Come, I need your help,” the aunt said, having set free Eva from her embrace.

“What help?” Eva automatically asked, though she knew that her aunt would never come without fairing.

This time she had brought half of a ham and two liters of wine, this was so firmly corked that they had hard time opening it.

“The lamb was straight from the oven, when I packed, and the wine comes from Nora. Would you like to try it?”

Eva did not want to, but she couldn‘t refuse to her aunt. The aunt was already running the kitchen.

“Then let‘s have a snack!” her aunt suggested. “This is not a lamb. This is a true honey! I almost fainted on my way to here – it smelled so good and I was so hungry…”

“I‘m not hungry, Eva said calmly.”

“Then watch me eating.” And Rita got to the lamb with such an appetite that she seemed to leave nothing over in half an hour. “When lamb is cooled then it‘s the best,” the aunt said. “Juicy skin is the best part.”

In a few minutes, Eva was gnawing the crispy skin. The aunt was right, Eva thought. It‘s very good indeed. This is much better than the chuck lamb that mom used to prepare sometimes.

“I didn‘t notice how the time flew on the way to here,” the aunt said. “The way is beautiful! Have you been to the rose valley?”

“Yes, sure, together with you…”

“And have you seen the roses blooming?”

“No, I haven‘t ever!”

“It‘s worth going there before the dawn, at sunrise.”

“Let‘s go then,” Eva suggested. 

“Just on one condition – I need more of a smile and I don‘t like sour faces!”

“I don‘t promise, but I‘ll try…”

The next morning both of them got ready and Eva‘s mother saw them to the car.

“Rita, drive safely,” Ada silently asked her sister.

“Don‘t worry, you can trust me.”

The sisters took an opportunity to exchange a few words, when Eva was loading things to the trunk. 

“My poor girl… She is so young and her pain is so big. I hope she will be able to forget about all this when she stays with you. It would be very good, if she could pass the exams.”

“I think she will be a success, Ada. She is a smart girl.”

“She is, but love has taken over her mind. It‘s good that Robert doesn‘t know about it. He is so proud of his daughter…”  

Eva set comfortably in the car. She was ready for the trip. “Quickly, aunt,” she urged, “otherwise I can change my mind.”

“Okay, Ada, I‘m in a rush. See? Eva is champing. I promise to scatter away all miserable thoughts from Eva‘s head.”

“I hope so, Rita. Take care of her.”

Rita did not need to be hurried up again. Both waved farewell to Ada and the car finally moved. 

Despite the early morning, the road leading out of the town was packed with cars, mostly trucks smoking pother. But it became empty right behind the crossroad, where the road branched to the suburbs. The morning shined with all its shimmer straight though the windows.

“Hey, girl, head up!” the aunt encouraged.

“Why?” Eva asked, getting awake from her oppressive thoughts. “I‘m all right,”

“There is no chance for you to cheat me… Get that Larry out of your head… There is no sense to think about him!”

“I‘m trying,” Eva answered, but tears had flooded her eyes already.

“Listen to my advice. Its all your fault.”

“Me?” Eva was surprised.

“May be not you, but…” Rita‘s face got convulsed.

“His mother is a true egoist,” Eva said darkly.

“There are all sorts and conditions of men in the world! There is no way you could reorganize it,” Rita lectured.

The car whizzed along the serpentine road. The summer greenery was still very fresh. Eva kept silent, but her long face betrayed her thoughts. The aunt was nervously pressing the levers. The car climbed a steep hillside and then was getting downhill. It seemed they had got into a different world. There were endless green hills stretching on the right side.

“Eva, darling, cheer up! Don‘t you be so sad…”

“All right, all right,” Eva promised and started looking around, however, thoughts about Larry did not leave her in peace. If not Larry‘s mother, we would be together now…

“It is beautiful, isn‘t it?”

“Yes, aunt, the views are just perfect…”

May be I shouldn‘t have run away, Eva was considering. Larry cannot be blamed that his mother is such a person. My Lord, what I have done? He is probably waiting for me, and I‘m going away and leaving him alone. Eva put her head in her hands. Her cheeks were so hot, as if she had sit at the fireplace.

“What is it, Eva? Enjoying the view?”

“Uh-huh,” Eva turned away to the window and she could hardly hold back her tears.

Soon Rita made a turn to a narrow country side road. The car submerged into the sea of roses. Eva watched the view without daring to make a slightest movement. She did not like roses, but this glamorous beauty of them had charmed her…

“Isn’t it wonderful?”

“There are such a lot of them,” Eva whispered, “awful lot…”

“Are you okay? You are so pale,” the aunt got worried.

Eva spontaneously touched her cheek. “I feel a little giddy.”

“May be you are allergic?”

“I wouldn’t think so…”

“Anyway, we’d better get out of here.”

Rita sprightly turned around the car and pulled out of the rose cloud.

“What is wrong, Eva? It was your own decision to go with me,” the aunt was still asking, since Eva’s mood worried her very much. 

“I imagined I would be able to leave all the problems behind, but you cannot escape yourself.”

“And you don’t try to escape, you life is just starting, and you are mourning for yourself already. Everything will be all right. Now you have to get ready for entrance examinations.” 

The car made a turn back to the highway again and was flying at such a speed, as if devils had been chasing it. In an hour, they got off in the aunt’s yard and Eva could catch her breath.

Thoughts about Larry were chasing her for more than one day. She was not able to forget about him and even more, she realized that she did not want to get apart with him. Eva understood that after she had learned the tasks and prepared for the exams, only then would she be able to return home. She made her decision. She got herself free out of all the thoughts that had troubled her and got down to the studies. Each day she used to start from reading, then at lunch she used to enjoy dainties prepared by her aunt, and then hurried back to her quiet room. 

●○●

Larry was sad. Eva never showed up at the hospital not just the next day, but also the next week and the week after that one… Why does she torment me like this? Was our love just a game? Had my mother insult her so much? Larry had a lot of questions that he could not find answers to. Why did my friends never visit me? Are there none of his friends left? May be they don’t feel comfortable to come here? Perhaps it’s even better that they don’t come, because this sympathy hurts so much. But Eva… She was the only one that he was waiting for. There were so many memories that bind them together… Recently they spent the most of their time together … Was everything lost?

Dark thoughts had left him in peace neither during days, nor at nights. It was so short before that life had smiled at him: friends, concerts, admirers… Emptiness and uncertainty were the only things left for him. Larry could not understand why the destiny had punished him so ferociously.  Those were his days wistfully passing by and he wanted to escape the four walls of his ward as soon as possible… He was willing to find Eva and to apologize for his mother. 

●○●

On that Saturday morning, Eva had started studying, when her aunt showed up on the doorway.

“Look at you! You are all buried in the books!” Rita was surprised. “I haven’t realized that you are working so hard.”

            Eva rose her head. She was satisfied.

“I thought you were just dreaming all days long hiding here by yourself,” Rita continued.

“What are you talking about, aunt,” – Eva discomfited, but soon she understood Rita‘s trick and boasted, “Few more day and I‘ll have repeated everything twice!”

“So, does this mean that you have definitely made up your mind?”

            Eva did not expect that question. She was studying and did not think of anything else but that.

“You may not answer… I can see all this myself. Just you can‘t study so hard! You need to take some rest also. You spend all your day inside breathing dust… You need some fresh air.”

“I don‘t…”

“What does it mean „don‘t“? Don‘t argue with me, go outside right now!” Rita said that in such a tone that it was senseless to keep on arguing.  

Eva reluctantly left the house. Right away, she submerged in thicket of flowers and greenery. Summer scents pleasantly exited her nose and whisper of many-colored blossoms was sad, homesick, but still pleasing.  Eva was diving among the flowers and remembered of Larry… She was thinking the only man that she missed. Blossoming fields and dark forests separated her from him. Lying on the grassland she watched the blue sky, floating gray clouds, she pressed scenting leaves to her lips, thirsty of and longing for love, and whispered love words to them. She recalled those hours when Larry hold her in his arms, touched her lips, face; she could hear his heart beating and him breathing. She thought of herself then flowering and radiant with joy… The aunt‘s voice brought her back to senses; she was called for lunch. That day Eva could not find strength to continue studying.

Next day, her aunt almost forced Eva to accompany her and to visit a Russian Orthodox Church.  Lingering duskiness and piercing silence prevailed there, so that Eva could hear her own breathing. There was not a single person in the church. A couple of thin candles were burning in a dark brass candlestick. Somebody has lit them on, but we‘ll never find out, what was the intention. Eva kept looking at the pale flames for a long while and their reflection was shivering on her face and in pupils, as if whispering something in their magic language. She listened to the silence. Her face was getting more and more sorrowful. When the aunt had finally cast a look at her, Eva‘s face seemed to her tormented all to pieces and stressful.

Eva shivered and raised her red eyes. “Where do they sell candles?” she asked unexpectedly.

“At the entrance,” the aunt asked surprisingly. “Why?”

“But there is nobody there…”

“Doesn‘t matter,” her aunt said and tried to explain, “people leave some money there and take the candles.”

Eva went there and returned nervously pressing a nice white candle in her hand. Rita was so surprised that it even took her breath away. There were no believers in their family. Neither their mother not grand parents believed in God. She herself used to light up a candle just at funerals or celebrations. The girl lit up a candle and carefully attached it to the candlestick. Then there were three flames already fluttering in the church dusk. In the candlelight, Eva‘s face became softer, pleasant and peaceful. Soon they left the church. 

“Why did you light the candle?” the aunt could not wait longer, “This means an application to the God.”

“I do believe in God.”

“Are you sure?”

“No doubt!”

Eva was striding away along the shady path. The aunt was not in a hurry to catch up with her. Let the girl calm down, she thought. When the two reached the street, Eva burst into tears. What is it that makes her heart ache? Rita thought.

“Come on, don‘t cry,” the aunt gave a hug to her and pressed against herself, “or I would not hold back my tears… Come, we‘d rather have something for a snack and have a talk.”

They went to the closest cook shop. Eva calmed down a little. She even ate with an appetite. 

“I am going back tomorrow,” she informed unexpectedly, “My poor mother must be missing me.”

“I‘ll take you home.”

“I could go by train as well…”

“Don‘t even think of it,” her aunt objected, “I have to deliver you to your mother, otherwise she would never talk to me again.”  

●○●

The next day Eva returned home. Eva’s parents could see that their daughter was fresher than before. Though, it was not true in fact. Thoughts about Larry did not let her in peace day and night. Each day she looked through her window hoping to see Larry‘s car. She was waiting for Larry to show up. Eva was expecting for a miracle, but the phone was not giving a sound and there was no knocking on the door. She had lost the slightest hope and she had almost resigned the thought that Larry would never call and never show up.

I shouldn‘t have left, Eva decided. Larry must have got angry to death at me, since he is not looking for me. Did he forget about everything that has been between us? We got along very well… We could understand each other…

Suddenly Eva turned pale. Saving idea had come to her mind and brought her back to life. Yes, yes, she was comforting herself, Larry must be still in hospital, and I am waiting for him to show up here! What am I thinking about? It‘s not everything that is lost! I will see him right away! Eva immediately got dressed. 

There were a lot of people at the reception. Eva was searching with her eyes for the same pleasant doctor, who took care of Larry. 

“Good day,” Eva heard a pleasant and familiar voice and turned around. The very same doctor stood in front of her. “Who are you visiting this time?”

“Good day, doctor, I was looking for you.”

“Did you? I haven‘t seen you for some time… You never came up since the day I let you to talk with your friend…”

“I came now. Is he in the same ward? Have you applied prosthesis for him?”

Eva surprised the doctor, and he answered them not on the spot. “We have made a prosthetic appliance for him; just he was walking with difficulty, when he was still here. But everything needs time, as well as some effort and support. I hope, you can understand, can‘t you?”

Eva understood. The thought pierced her mind. Larry is at home already… And he did not try to find me… “When did you let him go home, doctor?”

„Two weeks ago, if I remember correctly.” The doctor thought it over and confirmed, “Yes, tomorrow will be two weeks.”

Eva could hardly hold her emotions. Why has he behaved like this? Why has he pushed me away?

“Lady,” the doctor cut off her thoughts, “he has missed you very much. I guess, he would very happy, if you pay him a visit…”

“Thank you, doctor,” Eva stretched her hand to say goodbye, “I will do this. Thanks for your care. Goodbye.” 

“Good luck for you both.”

After she left the hospital, Eva was gasping for air. It‘s been two weeks that he is back… I myself came back home a week ago, but Larry did not give any news about himself… How come? Eva walked her head down watching shoes of by-passers splashing pools away. Rain was soaking her hair, face… She kept thinking about Larry all the time. When Eva came back home, she was still waiting for his call, looking through the window still hoping to see Larry‘s car. He will not call me, Eva made a sad conclusion towards the evening.  Probably, Larry got under his mother‘s influence letting her step over our love. Still and all, I will have to forget about him and all that we have had in common.

Eva had lost all and any hope and had almost resigned herself to this loss, however, there was a tiny hope still smoldering on the bottom of her heart.  For one more week, she had been expecting for a miracle, but since Larry had not given any message, she left for the entrance exams. She entered the college and did not return to the town. 

…… bus daugiau…… 

……. tęsinys……

Chapter 6

Larry looked at the clock. It was ten in the morning. He was sitting in the kitchen at the breakfast table and was sipping apple juice. Externally he looked totally calm, though he was boiling inside. That weird feeling of trouble and some evil was floating around, but Larry could not identify the cause of such feelings.  He seemed about to start howling like a wolf in the forest outskirts because of pain and desperation, which had overtaken him from no quarter. Oh, he said in his mind, if only there would be someone who could understand what I feel… Where could I find comfort? If only I could get a hint, fins the reason of my despair…

Larry put his head in his arms. He was sitting like this for rather a long time. At last he got up on his feet and started walking around in the kitchen. While in the kitchen, he cast a glance at the food products. Why don’t I stiff my face? he thought. No, I can’t… I wouldn’t swallow at least bite. May be, singing would help? Larry paused. Of course, he spoke in his mind. Singing would finally make this terrible despair to disappear!

He poured another glass of juice and took it in one gulp. He went to his room, sat down on the sofa and played a few accords. The guitar did not require any adjustment, but the words stuck in his throat and he obviously could not sing. Still, that was all due to ill-fated despair.

It won’t work, he said to himself. Larry lay down on the sofa. He kept his ears open. Silence was reigning all over the room. If I get rid of this terrible feeling, I would be the happiest man in the world! Yes… Some time ago I said the same, when I wanted to meet Eva, and now… He gave a deep sigh. There is never too much of happiness for a man. Larry’s eyes were jumping on things in the room. Suddenly, his glimpse hit against the curtains. The guy stirred up and even sat up. Yesterday I saw and heard something in this place! What if it’s not a hallucination? What if it’s an inscription on the wall? What if it’s a portent? It seems I was told not to try to reduce the pain of my soul. And I cannot do it! Whatever I do, I cannot make this feeling disappear. Nothing is helpful… Even singing causes me despair…  A doorbell cut off his thoughts.

There was Arnold, standing in the doorway with a wide smile on his face. “Hi, are you ready?”

Only then did Larry remember. Today, he thought, is the race… I’ve totally forgotten about it!

“Larry,” his friend started again on tiptoe. “I’m talking to you… Hey…”

What, if this despair is due to the race, Larry was hit by an idea. What, if this is the reason? What if decide not take part in it, and I don’t think the world would get apart because of this…

“Hey, are you all right?” Arnold could not get back. 

Larry wanted to tell the truth, that he felt uneasy. He was about to tell this to his friend, but Arnold got ahead of him.

“I see, does that mean that you are starting the same story again?” Arnold teased him. 

Larry was upset. His friend looked so cheerful and overwhelmed by self-confidence. Do I have a right, Larry was thinking, to spoil his day? He is so willing to go there and become a winner, but without me… So is it, we have to win and we will, Larry finished his tirade of internal considerations.

“Yes, Arnold, I’m ready!” Larry strongly stated. When he said those words, a horrible pain pierced his chest, but Larry just set his teeth and confirmed again, “we will win this time!” 

“So, what are waiting for?” Arnold was enjoying it. “Let’s go!”

“Yes, Arnold, I have to move on,” Larry was looking for his shoes. “Aren’t we late yet?”

“We have heaps of time, old buddy, we are racers, aren’t we?”

But Larry did not feel relaxed, he preferred to be in a hurry. He was getting dressed hastily, put on his shoes. So, he was ready to go. He told his mother that he was going out, and then they hurried out discussing about the race. The mother did not ask and Lay did not detailed on where they were going. He did not want to cause any troubles for her. He preferred to tell her afterwards, when he would come back with laurels.

●○●

The coach was already waiting for them. The car was ready. 

Larry insensibly searched the viewing stands. He was looking for Eva. He expected her to comfort him a little before he start.

“Watch it, guys,” the coach said, getting into a stew. “No surprises. Everything has to go as we have agreed on. Don’t smile at me, Arnold. I’m serious. You have half an hour left.” 

“Okay, okay,” Larry champed. He had noticed Eva on the stands and he wanted to rush there. “I’ll be right back, just a couple of words with Eva…”  

“Why do you shuffle so much?” Arnold teased him, “Okay, okay, go ahead…”

“I’ll be right back,” Larry waved to Eva and ran down to her. He could fee tension all over his body likes before an exam. Despair had overwhelmed the whole of his body and sole. When he reached the girl, he embraced her and kissed. Still holding her tight, he looked up in her eyes. He wanted to burst into tears, but he held himself under control as much as he could. “I missed you so much, sweetheart. It’s so good to see you again!”  

“What’s wrong with you, Larry?” Eva could not understand his behavior. “Cut it out, people are watching us.”

Larry leaned back. He looked scared. He did not expect to receive such a reaction from Eva. “Darling, are you afraid of something?” he asked sadly. 

“No, Larry, I feel uneasy somehow…”

“Eva, please, wait for me. We’ll go somewhere after the race. May be, we’ll go to the sea or to the cafe. In other words, wherever you say… Please, wit for me, Eva.”

“All right, I will,” she answered looking around. 

“I don’t want to talk much now. I’ll see you later, because I have to go now. Everything will be okay, I promise,” Larry said after he noticed a shade of fear in Eva’s eyes and gave her one more kiss. “I’m sorry, Eva, it’s stronger than me.” Then he turned away and jogs jogging towards Arnold.

●○●

The guys were ready. Start. The coach waved a flag. The car shot forward.

“Take care,” Larry suggested to Arnold at the steering wheel, “Don’t overdo.”

“Yes, sir,” Arnold mumbled.

A glimpse of the viewers’ stands passed by, and then there was a road, a blinding blue sky and a path in the horizon.  

Arnold and Larry had the eighth position. The car marked with number two was flying ahead of them. They were strong competitors. After a few kilometers, they climbed up to the sixth position, and then near the tunnel Arnold took over the sixth car, which started releasing smoke. Later the guys had overtaken a few more competitors.

When there was seven hundred kilometers left, only fourteen racers continued the competition, because six cars had to leave the route due to breakdowns. The coach gave signals not to hurry up forward. The strongest competitor had left the race already because of his smoking engine, therefore, Arnold and Larry had a great potential to win the race, as their coach thought.

Eva saw the cue of cars racing by the stands. She also spotted the car with Arnold and Larry inside.  The roar of engines was not pleasant. The girl was waiting for the race to finish and wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. She did not care who would become a winner – she loved him anyway, be him a winner or a looser.   

After one hour, the guys were in the third position already. Now they were catching up with the car marked by the number seven, which was in the second position.  They did not want to take over that car. They waited for a more convenient moment. They did not want to take a risk and expected the competitors to start getting nervous and make a mistake. The cars were driving at a high speed next to each other side by side. The competitors blocked the way. It was a very dangerous maneuver and the coach tried to give warning signs to the guys, but nothing helped. They have decided to become winners of that race at any cost. On such moments, a man becomes higher than his own body and sole, his senses become tensed and the mind maintained calm and sober. 

The race was going on. Arnold and Larry stopped to refill of fuel. When they returned to the race circuit, they noticed car number seven with two more cars behind it. In a while, that car started turning around like a whirligig and blocked the road. A sound of breaking metal could be heard and there was an oil pool spilled on the paving. The other two cars coming from behind smashed into that car, which due to the impact got up and made several turns in the air. Arnold was in fever trying to find a slightest gap and to be able to avoid the impact.  Suddenly, the road became incredibly narrow. The guys did not feel any fear, just they tried to avoid hitting another car in a vertical angle, and get at it at a tangent. They had to twist around the wheel, but it was too much for Arnold… Then there was a bang… The car got in the air. They had enough time to notice the supervisor’s horror-struck face, then the front part of the car got curled up and there was a shower of glass pieces from all sides.  At the same moment, the guys felt a powerful impact followed by absolute silence after that.

Larry’s and Arnold’s car was thrown away on the protection strip made of sand sacks. Their car made a hole in the car mix, so the other racers, which were lagging behind, passed by received the last impact whish. Their cars grated the scattered metal and it seemed that the smashed cars were groaning aloud.

The race was going on. The race participants got out from their smashed cars with almost no injuries. Larry’s and Arnold car was still standing on the sand sacks. Arnold‘s body, all covered in blood, was dropped on the steering wheel and did not move.  Larry was not seen through the car window, his body was somewhere on the car bottom. 

The crowed had surrounded the crash place like flies around a piece of bloody meat. They watched the medical personnel and mechanics, which were about to get the men from the car. One of the cars was on fire. Luckily, its fuel tank was in holes, so there was no threat of explosion. The works were impeded by the passing cars, since the race had not been stopped.  At last, the medical people hurried up to Larry.  

“I can do it myself,” the guy groaned.

“Don‘t act and don‘t try to get up! Your leg looks very bad!”

Larry‘s left leg was covered in blood; his pants were soaking wet with blood.

“Where is Arnold! What happened to him?” Larry cried out after he finally realized the situation. 

“He is fine, don‘t move. Soon the ambulance will pick you up.”

The car moved. Larry was lying down and watching the environment: metals box, side windows of the ambulance, though which some light could get inside. He did not feel any pain. His thoughts were scattered. Suddenly, he started feeling very weak and lack of air. 

“I‘m sick,” he complained to the doctor in the ambulance, “I‘m choking…”

Larry waited to be comforted, but the doctor kept silent. Am I really going to die? he got very scared. That thought seemed so unexpected. His eyes were running around madly, and there was the only thought hammering in his mind, Oh, Lord, is it so that I‘ll never see Eva again, that this is the last time I can see this world… Please, just not this… I don‘t want to die… I‘m too young… Eva and I, we want to be happy… We want to get married… Dear Lord, don‘t leave me alone… Don‘t let me to die… Please…

“Don‘t worry, you‘ll not die,” Larry‘s thoughts were cut by some voice. It sounded just like yesterday evening. After he heard the words, the guy came back to his feelings. Instinctively, he trusted the voice at one and relaxed. His breath became more even. He did not feel lack of air any more. Larry was definitely sure he would not die.  He had a promise.

In half an hour, he was undergoing an operation. 

●○●

It was not at once, that Eva realized what had happened. An excited commentator was holding the mike too close to his lips; therefore, his voice could not be heard distinctly. She clearly heard just a few phrases about car crash. Her heart was pierced by fear that it might have been Larry, but she tried to dismiss those troubled thoughts.  

She was waiting for the car cue to pass by. Her heart was beating so wild that she herself got scared. No need to worry, she was thinking. The race would have been stopped, if should something happen. I have to stay calm… She relaxed a little, when she saw the first car racers. This means, that nothing serious has happened! Her eyes searched for Larry’s and Arnold‘s car. Eva could not see the car. No, it can‘t be true! I must have missed it? She could feel weakness in her legs. Her heart seemed to jump out of her chest… They could pass by earlier, she continued her thinking, still observing the circle. I should have not left for that coffee…

Not the announcement was a little more distinct and it said that several cars got crashed and several people were injured. Details would be announced further on.  

All in tension, Eva watched the racing cars passing by at high speed, she expected to spot Larry and Arnold‘s car bearing number one. Suddenly, her mind was hit by the commentator‘s words. “Car number one got in an accident. The crew has been taken to hospital.” 

It can‘t be true! This must be a mistake, the girl tried to comfort herself, but her hopes scattered away. Larry got injured? She could not even remember how she got up and went towards the start line. I have to find out, what has happened to Larry. I have to… That was her only thought.

“Larry is in hospital,” that was all the coach told her turning his eyes away from the girl.  

“But what has happened,” she cried out in terrified voice.

She did not receive any answer. Both, the coach, and mechanics, which were handling spare parts, tried to avoid the conversation with her. They did not even try to comfort or calm her down. Eva felt so lonely. She stood like a dry tree among strong and green trees…

At last, the coach came up to her again. “Larry was immediately taken to the hospital. I think…”

“Why hasn’t somebody from your staff gone together with him! You should have helped him…”

The coach looked at her with surprise. “How could we help him? Now it‘s the doctor‘s call…”

Eva was upset. “What happened to him?” she asked silently. 

“I don’t know, I haven’t seen him,” the coach could explain anything, “I was on the track…”

“And why is the race going on?”

“There is nothing can be done,” the coach explained. “These are the rules. Go and see him, I’ll try to finish things here soon.” 

The coach fetched a chart and went to the trace, where the race was still on. Eva slowly turned towards the exit. It seemed to her that the whole eternity had passed till she reached the hospital. During that time, she made a promise to herself. She was sure that she would keep that promise and marry Larry, whatever would have happened. She gave that promise without any considerations, just on the spot.

●○●

The reception was empty. Eva rushed to a nurse in the duty post.

“Could you tell me,” she started talking, “if you have received a sportsman recently injured at the race?”

“Yes,” the nurse answered calmly, hardly rising her head from papers. “He is undergoing a surgery operation.”

“What is wrong with him?”

“Are you a relative?”

“No, but does it make any difference?”

“Only relatives are allowed to patients after the surgery,” she sounded indifferently.

The nurse returned to taking some notes down. Eva stared her in the face. May be, I should tell her that we are engaged? No, I don’t it will change her mind. Eva decided to inquire again, “Does he need an operation?”

“Obviously… Otherwise he would not have been taken to the surgery.”

The way she is, perhaps, cannot stand me, Eva thought in upset. “Can I wait here?” she asked in a hollow voice.

“Yes, there is a bench in the corridor,” the nurse answered without any jumps. She was still taking some notes in a case-record.

“Don’t you have a waiting room here?” 

The nurse extended her hand and showed towards the door and added, “But it is for relatives only, to be frank.”

Eva could hardly hold her in the hands. She wanted to cry out that at certain moments all people should feel relatives to each other.  And medical people should know that so well as no one else. Eva went to the waiting room. She tried to list through old magazines, but she could not concentrate. It seemed to her that an hour spent waiting there for any news about Larry had been extending for eternity and will never end.

After some time, the door of the waiting room opened. Eva automatically got on her feet, since she expected to hear some news about Larry, but there was a woman standing in the doorway. Perhaps, she is Larry’s mother, she thought. If that’s so, it will be two of us waiting here. We can comfort each other.

The woman looked around. Although there were just two of them in the waiting room, although there were a lot of free chairs, she picked up a seat close to Eva. Should I give it a try? Should I approach her? Eva was thinking. I guess she also needs some support. But what, if this is not her? What if I’m wrong? What will I say to her than? No.  I’d rather wait for a while. May be, she herself will start the talking.

For some time, they both sat silently. The nurse showed up in a few minutes. Eva’s heart started trembling. She jumped on her feet; however, the nurse did not take her into notice. She nodded to the woman inviting her out. Eva returned to her seat.

Is somebody going to tell me something about Larry? she thought in despair. How long more should I wait for it? What kind of operation is it? How long do I have to be in uncertainty?

Eva thought that she heard somebody mentioning Larry’s name behind the door. She kept her ears open. Suddenly, she rushed towards the door. She wanted to open it, but she changed her mind. She leaned against the door and stood still trying to listen to the conversation.

“We had to amputate his leg,” she heard somebody saying.

Eva could feel that it made her blood curdle. It can’t be true, she kept repeating. Eva leaned against the door with her back. She felt that could faint at any moment. What will Larry feel like?

“Doctor,” Eva heard the woman’s voice, “wasn’t they’re another way out?”

“We chose to save his life…”

Eva closed her eyes. Tears welled up in her eyes and ran down her face. I have to stay calm, she said to herself after she managed to get together. I have to find out more. She forced herself to concentrate.  

“Now he is under good supervision,” the doctor continued. “If everything goes fine, you’ll be able to see him in a week time.”

“And now what? Couldn’t I do this now?”

“No, it’s impossible now, because he is in the intensive care ward.”

“Larry might die? Dear Lord,” Eva whispered, “I won’t take it… I cannot stay here any longer, I have to find it out myself.” She listened again, but the voices had fallen silent. The girl could not hold it any longer. She opened the door right away and hurried out into the corridor: the doctor had taken that woman to his office. Eva did not know what to do. She suddenly stood stock-still. Eva saw Larry being taken out of the surgery. His face was pale and eyes were closed. He looked like dead, but his chest was slightly moving up and down. Larry, my darling, she spoke in her mind, keep on fighting! Don’t give up! You have to take over… I won’t make it without you… Hold on, my love… Hold your own… Eva saw Larry’s mother say goodbye to the doctor. The doctor gave her his telephone number and she left. 

Eva could not take it any longer and she approached him. “I need to see Larry! Please, doctor… It’s very important for me…”

“Who are you? Are you a relative?”

“No, I’m just a close acquaintance.”

“Acquaintance,” the doctor said slowly. “I am sorry, I have to disappoint you. It’s impossible now. If everything goes well, you are welcome in a week time. Of course, if his relatives do not mind it. I have to go now, I’m sorry.”

Eva stood there alone. She remembered Larry’s kiss right before the race, about their premarital trip and their dream to get married secretly. She felt such a pain in her heart, such emptiness in her sole, that she did not want anything in the world. It hurt. The girl was sobbing. It seemed that all her dreams had been smashed into smithereens. 

“Why are you crying? Do you know how is Larry? What happened to him? Speak to me…” the coach, who had suddenly emerged from somewhere, kept asking.   

Eva wiped her nose and tears.

“Tell me quicker, how bad he is…” the coach begged, shaking her by the shoulders. 

“He’s alive, but he is very weak, and his left leg… his left leg was amputated,” her answer was hardly heard.

The coach let Eva free. The shade of fear had faded away. There was some hope.

“He will be fine, he will make it,” the coach was comforting may be himself, or Eva. “He is sportive, you’ll see, he’ll make it. In terms of leg, he’ll put on a prosthetic appliance and will be dancing at his wedding party… When I saw you crying I thought of the worst that might have happened… This is not a big deal. Edna is in much worse situation…”

“What’s happened to Edna?” Eva did not get it.

“Arnold died, when Larry was on the way to hospital.” 

“Dead?” Eva could not believe it. 

“Yes, he didn’t make it…” there were tears in the coach’s eyes, “poor Arnold…”

“Oh my God,” Eva said in a frightful voice, “what a misfortune… Does Larry know about it? He would not be able to take it…”

“I don’t think he does. And there is no need for him to know this for some time. Let him get out of it first,” the coach fatherly put his hand on Eva’s shoulder. “So, it’s not so bad in this case. Larry has to make it… And now, let’s go and see how he is doing.”

“We’ll be not let in there,” Eva sighed. “The doctor said, that we would be able to visit him in a week, if everything goes well.”

“Let’s hope it will exactly like this,” the coach paused and corrected himself. “Everything must be all right. Waiting is the only thing that remains for us.”

Yes… Eva thought. She could not properly orient in the situation. Arnold is gone, Larry is badly wounded… so many tragedies at the very instant… What a terrible day! And what about Edna? What shall she do? She loved Arnold do much… Eva stood motionless and stared into space. She had no more tears. There were just thoughts and a great pain in her heart.

“Listen here,” Eva heard the coach’s voice. “If you like, I can give you a ride home. Since we are not allowed to see Larry, there is no need for us to stay here.”

“Yes… Thanks for your kind thought of me.”

In an hour, Eva was lying in her bed already. Different sounds were coming inside through the window: tree rustle reminded of her neighbors’ gloating whisper, a cheerful laugh echoed somewhere in the distance and a familiar melody could be heard. Eva got startled. That was the most popular Larry’s song! Again, she was flooded by wave of memories. She remembered his tender smile, his unrepeatable look on the first day they met. It was the fate that brought us together, she thought, we couldn’t loose each other like this… I have to go and see Larry right away and tell that I love him, that my love has become even stronger. It doesn’t matter that he has lost his leg. The most important thing is that he survives. Eva’s decision even added strength to her. Definitely, I am going to see him tomorrow. It doesn’t matter, if it’s permitted or not. I’ll find a way to get there. I must do this.

……bus daugiau…. 

…..Tęsinys….

After he left Eva, Larry went home. Just now, when himself left him, he realized how worn he was. I could hardly have a sleep last night, he thought. He yawned and rubbed his eyes. How did I make it till now? This is thank to Eva, I don‘t care of anything when we are together. Love is a wonderful thing… He yawned again. His eyes were dewy of yawning. I‘ll drop down to bed, he decided. The weather is just right for this… It‘s going to rain shortly. What else one could do in such weather? Just to sleep. I have to take a rest, because Eva reminded me to be charming.

When laying in a warm bath, he had a nice cup of coffee and dreamed about Eva. He had soaked until the water-cooled up. Only then did he realize that it was time get off. He immediately went to bed and fell asleep soon.  

When Larry opened his eyes, he had to think hard in order to understand, why he was in the bed. He looked at the clock.  Slowly he recalled everything. He felt fresh and full of strength, no dizziness at all. The sky was cleared up, clouds had gone and the air seemed fresh. “I should go out for a walk,” he said himself. “May be to see Eva…” Larry was making his plans and was preparing an afternoon tea for himself.  

He was in a perfect mood. He walked with a smile on his face. It was good to feel the life rhythm. Larry was slowly walking along the old streets, watching houses that had turned yellow in the course of time and that remembered a lot of good and bad. He saw sagged down street lamps and mossy stone stairs. Larry was getting up those stairs, and the further he went, the narrower streets he found. He had never been in that remote part of the town. Why don‘t I go to Eva‘s house, Larry thought, but he changed his mind. He went to some exhibition hall without having any particular aim. The fusty air that lingered there did not match the pictures, which were watched by nobody. Larry did not have any interest in the art either. He decided to go back home.

As soon as he opened the door, he could hear a telephone ringing. He rushed to the phone at full tear.

“Hello? Who is this?”

“It’s Arnold.”

“Ah, it‘s you, Arnold? What happened?”

“I‘ve got some news.”

“What news? You’ve hooked me.”

“When we separated, I received a call from our coach.”

“The coach? What happened? What did he want?”

“What did he want?” Arnold was surprised. “Have you dropped from the clouds? Don‘t you remember we wanted to take part in the race? Get ready. The race will be on this week. We are included in the team!”

“Really? I didn‘t expected…”

“And I did, Larry. We will show them what we are capable of! And one more thing – give my regards to Eva.”

“Thanks.”

 ●○●

The next day Larry was in a hurry to see Eva. And she could not make up her mind that dress to put on. She spread over all her new dresses on the bed. She was stoking them, touching the fabric. All the three dresses were equally beautiful, and Eva wanted to select the one that would charm Larry the most. At last she picked up the violet one, walked in that dress around looking at the mirror and keeping on eye on the window.  Larry’s car was supposed to show up on the agreed spot. Then she was supposed to come out. I wonder if he likes my dress, she thought. But why should I worry so much, as if it is my first date? I need to relax, she decided. Nothing special has happened. I’m just wearing a new dress. Eva cast an eye through the window again. Her heart was beating with unappeasable excitement. Come on, Eva, calm down, she told to herself. Well yes, he has come, of course… There is no need to be worried. May be, he will not even notice my new dress? May be, he doesn’t care what I put on? He’d better not to notice this.

Before leaving, she looked at her in the mirror one more time. She looked great. Oh no, she said in her mind, head up, Eva, you look just stunning! Larry will loose his mind. She gave a last comb stroke, spray of perfume and hurried out.    

Larry could not drive his eyes from the girl for a long while. She is so beautiful…

“Well?” Eva asked embarrassed.

“Fantastic!” Larry confessed in astonishment. “You are a true spring flower today, a princess from a fairy tale… Come here, Eva.”

“Come on, you make me blush… Where are we going?” she asked timidly.

“Anywhere you’d like!” he replied joyfully, gave her a eyewink and added, “This will be our premarital trip. What do you think?”

 Eva took a free breath. Her eyes sparkled with happiness. Only then, she managed to forget about her new dress. “Oh, Larry, what would I do without you? Your mind is full of ideas and all of them are so sweet! Well, I agree! Let this day be the most momentous one.”

 “And it will be… You’ll see…”

They visited the most beautiful places in the town and its suburbs. They went to the Youth Garden located at the end of the town. They walked holding by hands, not letting away each other even for a second… They were running around on lawns and fields. Then they climbed the highest hill of the town to watch the panorama… They went to the lake, went by boat, fed swans and watched the sun set on the see shore, holding each other by hands. They were happy… 

It was already dark, when Larry pulled over at Eva’s house. It was a beautiful night… The glittering stars on the sky were like new-year garlands and the moonlight was very bright …

 “It’s a pity, but we have arrived already,” Larry said. He looked sadly at her and gave a deep sigh. “It’s so sad, that we have to part now. I feel so good together with you. I don’t want to be left alone in darkness… Eva,” he was still whispering and stroking her hair. “What shall I do? What’s wrong with me? I think, I’m driving mad, baby… I’m sitting here and I can’t let you go.  Simply, I want you to be next to me all the time… I don’t want to be apart! I want to stay with you day and night…”

 Eva was looking at Larry and smiling without a word. She also was reluctant to separate but she could nothing to change now. They were not married yet. Day and night together… What else could be better? She looked at him and smiled although her heart was crying. Eva did not know what to say and how to calm down not only him, but her as well.

“Why are you silent and don’t say a word? Say something,” Larry talked.

“What is it that you want to hear?”

“Well, at least, tell me, if you have liked the trip?” 

 “Of course, I have, silly boy, you don’t have to ask…” Eva was smiling.

“Shall we go somewhere tomorrow as well?”

“I don’t thing I’ll be able to meet with you tomorrow.” Eva got serious.

“Why is it so?”

“Don’t you get it? Every day I come back late in the evening, I need to spend some time at home too.”

“Are your parents so strict to you?”

“No, they are not so strict, just they are in a worry for me.” 

“I understand, but to keep you at home… I, think it’s too harsh a punishment.” 

“This is not a punishment, Larry. This is my attitude towards this in order to avoid any self-explanations.”

“It’s a pity,” Larry saddened. “We are not meeting today, and the race will take place the day after tomorrow…”

“The day after tomorrow? What a coincidence! My birthday is on the same day. Why didn’t you tell me earlier?” 

“I myself got to know that only yesterday. And today we didn’t have time for this discussion.” Larry was disappointed. He looked at Eva hoping that she would make up her mind and agree to meet him tomorrow, but Eva did not give an inch.

“Larry,” she tried to comfort him, “the race is going to end up some time. We can meet right after it… What would you say?” 

“I cannot choose,” Larry grumbled in after a short while. “It’s inhumanly sad that we cannot meet tomorrow, but there’s nothing can be done. I’ll try to survive tomorrow. Let’s go now, I’ll see you to the door.”

 After he took Eva home, Larry got into his car. He waited till the light in her window was turned on. He felt very miserable. There was only one comfort – they were going to get married soon and then… Larry smiled. He wanted that week to pass quicker… It seems not a long time to wait, but how to make it? And the whole day tomorrow without Eva… He took a deep breath. You have to hold you in your arms, Larry, he told loudly. Relax and go home.

He comes back home very quietly, trying not to wake up his mother. He undressed and got into bed. He could not fall asleep because of some inconceivable worry. In order to get relaxed he started thinking of Eva. The first love…What a wonderful feeling this is… Larry smiled. This is what love looks like, the one they talk about in old books. Larry tried to recall if he had ever experienced something like that. Of course, he had a lot of adventures before he met Eva. Long ago, when at school, a young teacher attracted him, later – a girl from his class, but it was not the true love. Laura… Larry gave a deep sigh. He could not give any explanations about his feeling to that girl. He even did not want to think about her. He tried to fall asleep.

●○●

Larry heard a strange sound. There was a dogfight somewhere outside. He did not want to get up yet, and he tried to return to the world of dreams. The morning sun was up in the sky, but reality did not exist to the guy, the night romantics attracted him.  

“Eva, darling,” Larry was repeating holding tight the blanket. “Eva, where are you? I want to talk to you… I am in a rush to you…”

Sweet dreams leisurely relaxed his body… Larry and Eva were on the meadow. A waterfall roared somewhere, the flowers smelt beautiful… The sun caressed their bodies denuded of clothes. They were holding each other’s hand and watched white round clouds on the sky. 

“Larry, darling…”

“Sweetheart, isn’t it a wonderful place?”

“Yes, it is, my love…”

“Eva, there are just two of us in this Eden… Just you and me… Do you hear me?”

She did not respond.    

“Eva, darling, can I, will you let me… I cannot wait any longer… I want to love you… I want us to be one body…”

Eva kept silent. Perhaps she agrees, Larry thought. When the two bodies joined, Larry looked at her sweet eyes again. “Eva, do you really want this?”

Suddenly, there was a raven’s caw. There was no sign of a bird, but his persistent caw sounded right behind his back: cow, cow, cow… Damn it, where did these ravens get here, Larry thought. He wanted to swing around and look for it, but he suddenly heard an angry voice, “Get up! Get up, at last! I say, get up!”

Larry was still lying with his eyes closed. He was lying on his stomach, hugging his pillow and he was in disgruntled mood… “Ah, mother…” he mumbled under his nose, “It was such a sweet dream, I was about…”

“Larry, move on quickly, how long can it take you!”

At last he opened his eyes and looked at his mother. Her expression did not make any good promises. 

“You hang around during the whole night and then rot about in the bed till the lunchtime. Get up, your breakfast is ready,” the mother lectured. 

It took Larry some time to fully wake up. He was still trying to recall those wonderful visions of his dream – to remember what he was talking about with Eva; he wanted to feel her close again. Unfortunately, all his efforts ended up in vain and the dream scattered away. He got up from the bend and went to the kitchen, clean, though, shabby. Mother had washed the floor recently, so linoleum was shining a little in the morning light. The products were served already and waited for him on the table. On his toes, in order to leave no footprints, Larry reached the table and sat down on the chair. He loved having breakfast. That was one of the sweets of his life. He sliced two pieces of bread, put some butter on them and topped with ham. As soon as he finished his first sandwich, his mother showed up. She had dressed up. 

“I’ll do no cooking today,” she informed and went to the cupboard and fetched a small box out of it. “Take care of you, I’ll be back late in the evening. I’m invited to the party.”

“All right,” Larry said, still working on his sandwich, “I’ll have to have fun on my own, since you are not taking me with you.” 

Larry’s mother seldom cooked and he was used to it already.

“When did you go out with me for the last time?” his mother replied resentfully. “I have not even proposed…” 

“I’m just kidding, mama…”

She cast a look at Larry. “You are always kidding, you live just for yourself and care just about you, and the main thing is that no one would disturb you!”

“All right, all right, go ahead and enough of lecturing,” Larry snarled out.     

The mother did not say a word more. Larry heard the outside door slammed, which meant that she had already left. Neither Larry did stay at home for long.  He was wandering around the town expecting to meet some of his friends and have fun. He did not feel comfortable alone  – there was an inconceivable worry hiding deep in his heart. May be, it was due to those plans of their secret marriage, or due to being away from Eva. Larry tried to calm down. After hanging around in the streets, visiting a few coffeehouses, Larry finally took the direction towards home.

Now he was looking around and was surprised by the glory of nature pictures. He even seemed as if going that way for the first time – all looked new and unseen. When he spotted his house, only then he realized that as if something had brought him back to the reality. To the troubled reality, which something greater tried as if to protect him from, to hold him backs and show another direction. What is wrong with me?” Larry could not understand that. “Perhaps, I’m overtired.

Leaning back on the sofa, he was listening to the music. He tried to relax and forget about everything, like he used to before, but it did not work. It seemed as if some worm was gnawing himself from inside. Larry was sitting with his face awry with pain. He did not know what to do, in order that pain would disappear. Suddenly, he spotted a white silhouette of a man standing close to the window. Larry stiffened.  He could not even wink the view as if had hypnotized him.

“Don‘t try to reduce the pain of your soul,” he heard the voice as if it sounded in his ears.

Though Larry could not make a move, he was so delighted to see that whitish light. He did not feel any pain in his soul any longer. In a few seconds the silhouette moved back, vanished and scattered until all of it was gone, while there was not a slightest spot left.

Larry strained his eyes, but he could see just the curtains swinging. What is going on with me? I must have started seeing things, or this was vision caused by my overwork, Larry could not find an explanation for what he had seen. His sight stopped on the lamp. Lamps were peacefully spreading the light. It was so calm in the flat. Everything would be okay, if not that bad feeling. Is it due to the stuffy air? Larry tried to find out the reason. Yes, of course! How could I sit inside with windows shut down? Perhaps, this is the reason why I do feel this tension. He blew open the window. Fresh air of the night mixed with familiar town smells whooshed inside. Larry tried to get relaxed. He stared at the evening emptiness catching up sounds of the night. There was music coming out of the dark square. He took a closer look and could spot a few dark figures sitting on the bench. He could see cigarette lights on, sometimes a laugh could be heard. A sad melody was on the player. He had caught a glimpse of an oblong thing of glass in the dim light. The noise went down for a while. They must be drinking straight from the bottle, Larry thought in discontent. There it is a free restaurant for you. Having opened the window, he returned on the sofa. The worry was still with him. Larry tried to take a turn of work, but he was not a success. He opened a book that he had started a few days ago, but the lines were running on each other. He had never experienced such tension before. He tried to get a nap, but his heart was beating wild. At last Larry got up and aimlessly started walking around the room. He kept on this until a saving idea hit his mind – to give Arnold a call.

“Hi, Arnold, this is Larry.”

“Hi, it‘s you buddy,” Arnold was obviously not surprised. “I expected you to call.”

“How come?”

“I know you very well. You are crystal-clear – you always get into panic, when you are in for any important event, and we are having races tomorrow!”

Arnold was in a perfect mood. And of course, he was right. The problem is, Larry thought, that he doesn‘t have an idea, how dreadfully I feel. Larry wanted to tell him about his trouble, but he questioned that idea. He did not want to spoil his friend‘s mood.

“No,” Larry slowly said, “I’ve just decided to give you a call. I’m just a little worried.” 

“Why are you just like that, I cannot understand it,” Arnold could not get calm. Larry could hear Arnold whispering something aside. Probably he told his wife who was on the phone, Larry thought. “Don’t take it to your heart,” the friend continued, “We are going to win this time! Just think of it, is it worth while getting so excited without any reason? You always worry without any reason…” 

“But Arnold, I don’t feel well, I can not find peace, as if something bad might happen. That’s why I’m calling you. Why don’t we skip the race tomorrow?”

“Stop talking nonsense,” he cut it off. “For instance, I feel very well! Everything will be all right. Go to bed and stop racking your brains.”

Larry understood that he would not succeed in talking his friend out of that idea, so did not trouble any longer. He switched the topic, “What were you doing when I called? Didn’t I wake up?”

“No, no, we were just getting ready. You too go to bed.”

“I cannot get asleep…”

“Come on, Larry…”

“Okay, okay,” Larry said. “I’m not going to annoy you any more.”

“See you tomorrow, Larry. Have a good rest, and I will drop by tomorrow.”

Having stayed on the same spot for a while and having thought over the conversation with Arnold, Larry shrugged off and went to the bar. He poured in some cognac for himself. He looked at the drink against the light. Crystal-clear, he thought. He looked at his hands. It was not shaking. Whatever, I’ll drink it up, just for sake of holy peace! Hopefully, it will be helpful, Larry thought, taking his first sip. He turned on the music and lay down on the sofa. Soft music was supposed to get him asleep, but his dream had not knocked on the door for a long while yet.

…… bus daugiau…..

….TĘSINYS….

            She was a little scared. It‘s all right, I‘ll persuade her to relax, Larry thought. We are planning to get married, after all… I don‘t think we are going to sleep even without embracing each other…

            „Sure, Eva,” he said, “take your time, I‘ll come back in ten minutes.”

 ●○●

            Eva was lying on the edge, with her blanket drawn up high. Larry turned off the light and slipped under the blanket. He moved closer to the girl, but Eva did not wiggle. 

           „Are you asleep?”

           She did not answer. It‘s a pity, Larry thought, she fell asleep before I came… He gave a deep sigh. It‘s a shame that will not be able to hug you so tight.

           He backed up and lied down on his back comfortably, put his arms under his head. Let her take a rest, he thought. Perhaps she will wake up later? And then… She will definitely not get away from my arms… I‘ll give it a hard try. What is she afraid of? Just think of it… He smiled. The further it goes, the more her special trays are evident. She is just a piece of gold.

          He rested and listened to crepitating grasshoppers. That night was full of sounds. His friends were in deep dreams and Larry stayed silently in bed and could not fall asleep yet. How can you sleep peacefully when the girl you love so much is next to you? That black-haired beauty…She so simple and exiting at the same time… Larry did not even give it a try to fall asleep. Eva lay on her back; her nice face turned to Larry. He gloated over Eva in her sweet sleep; he wanted to touch her, kiss her red lips, but he did not want to wake her up.

          May be I could cuddle to her somehow, he was thinking. I am not going to torture myself like this for the whole night, am I? He gave it a try. He put aside his blanket and carefully, so not to disturb her, got closer. She did not move. Good, he thought, I‘m half way through. And what is now? Yes… Now I should try to place my arm above her head and wait for her to turn. 

          Larry waited for a good while, but finally he attained his aim – when she turned on another side she got in his embrace. She mumbled something and dropped her arm on Larry‘s body. She was in deep sleep.  Larry carefully straightened up and relaxed.   

           It was worth waiting, he thought. Now I can have a nap. It’s high time for a sleep now. Larry closed his eyes. He could feel Eva‘s even and light breathing at his chest. It gave a soothing effect. Thoughts were scattering away… Then Larry felt that was falling asleep.

           Something stirred in his arms. Still sleeping the guy understood that it was Eva.

          “Are you awake?” he asked still drowsing. Larry did not expect to hear a reply, he intended to have some more sleep.

           “Yes,” she answered. “You are not asleep, are you?”

            Then he was fully awakened. He opened his eyes and looked up to Eva. She was looking straight in his eyes. The look was shameful. Larry smiled. “How can I be asleep when I‘ve got you in my arms?”

           “But how did I get…”

           “I know how to get what I want, and now you owe me a kiss.”

           “I was waiting for you last night, but my weariness took over me. Sorry.”

            “Never mind, perhaps, it had to be like this. I love you…”

            She kept silent. She looked thoughtful, and her face was clouded with sadness.

            “What is it?” Larry inquired. “What does upset you?”

             “I remembered of my mother… She thinks that I am with Paula and if only she knew…”

              “Cheer up, Eva… You gave her a call and she bought Edna’s story.”

             “That‘s what bothers me. Not all of fairy tales have happy ends…”

              “Please, don‘t worry,” Larry stroke through her hair, “I hope you will get away with it this time as well. Let‘s not spoil this first morning of ours. Your kiss is my greatest desire now, Eva. Give me a smile, darling… You are not mad at me that you woke up in my embrace this morning, are you?”

              “No, I‘m not! Not at all… Perhaps, I didn‘t have to let you get close to me last night. But I‘m not angry now. You know what,” her eyes sparkled with happiness, “it‘s so wonderful to get up in the arms of your sweetheart.”

              “See? Didn‘t I tell you that? Let‘s enjoy this, Eva. I hope everything will be all right with your mother.”

             Her face became cloudy again. She loosened herself from Larry‘s arms. “I feel worried, Larry.”

            Larry realized that she felt sore about it. “What is bothering you,” Larry became disappointed. “I have got a feeling that you are not going to give me a kiss.”

            Eva looked at Larry and frowned. “You are, in a way,” she replied. 

            “Eva, darling,” Larry sat up and fixed his look at her without a clue what she was talking about. “Me? What have I done wrong?”

            “Nothing, but I cannot forget Arnold‘s jokes about somebody called Laura. Who is she?”

            Larry almost got in shock. Here it is again, he thought. We cleared everything up yesterday and she… “Come on, Eva, stop kidding,” Larry got a little angry and dropped back to his side of bed. He stared at the lamp. “I don‘t know any Laura…”

            “But Larry, since Arnold has mentioned her, it means there must be something,” she nodded her head. “He never speaks without any reason, even if he jokes.”

            Larry did not know what to do. Should he tell her all the truth, or keep silent. It’s all Arnold‘s big mouth. I have to do something about making her to forget this. Laura cannot shade our future. 

             “Sweetheart,” he said softly. His face was so close that Eva even got rattled. Larry was stroking her hair. “There is nothing else I can think of, just you. I want you to marry me. Don‘t you believe me? I want to grow old together with you, dear. I want to have a flock of kids. If not a flock of them, then a little Eva and a little Larry at least. Eva, the only thing I can think of is just we and just we. My little tiger, I burn with love to you, trust me…” 

             Right away, he decided to prove his love to her. He wanted to kiss her. His lips were looking for hers, though Eva tried to escape it. When their lips met, she still tried to get away, but the passion took over her. The girl twined around his neck and sucked into his lips, stroking his hair.  

             There was a door opened on the second floor. Steps and voices of Arnold with Edna could be heard.

             “I do love you, Eva. Do you understand? If Arnold‘s words about Laura bothers you, this means that you love me too.” In a short moment, he found his blanked and slipped under it. “Pretend that you are asleep,” Larry gave her a wink, “before they spotted us.”

               It took them a moment to get to the different sides of their sofa and closed their eyes. 

               “Good morning, sleepyheads,” Edna greeted them. “Are you still in bed?”

              “We have not agreed on the time when to get up,” Larry answered, still dizzy of the passionate kiss.

              “Then hurry up, I could eat a horse,” Arnold urged on yawning. “Just have a look at this beautiful morning…”

               “Eva, you look indefinite somehow,” Edna said, “Didn‘t you play Romeo and Juliet last night?”

                “Are you kidding,” Eva got embarrassed, “we slept the sleep of the just.”

               “Well, well, I doubt it, since they are still in bed,” Arnold cut in, “you can never be sure…”

              “We are good kids,” Larry objected to it and looked at Eva. She looked tempting. She was hot, and her eyes shined… If Edna and Arnold were not here, he automatically found himself thinking, who knows if it would have ended just with kisses…?

              “Enough of suspicions!” Eva cut it down.

               Everybody stared at her with surprise, but Eva could not keep it up any longer. She burst out into a loud laugh.

              “What are you staring at? Do you think I‘ve got angry? I‘m just kidding.” She looked at Larry. “See, what kind of humorless friend you‘ve got… He does not understand jokes…”

              Larry understood that it was a stone cast at Arnold.

             “What an actress,” Arnold wondered. “I truly believed that you had got angry… You should star in movies…”

              “We both could do this,” Eva shot back.

              “Come on,” Edna cut in, “we are going outside and you can get dressed.”

               “And hurry up,” Arnold tried to say it in an ordering tone, still recovering after Eva‘s trick. He gave a hug to Edna. “She is a good actress, I really believed in her anger…See, Edna, even I can get cheated… I cannot believe it…”

              Larry and Eva were left alone.  

             “Well, Larry, what do you say?”

              “It was very assuredly, did you pretended indeed?”

            “I was kind of angry at first, but then I applied his own method… Didn‘t you get it too?”

            “I‘m proud of you. One has to fight for his love, and not to listen to somebody‘s abuses.”

            “That‘s exactly what I did, Larry.”

●○●

              The yard was swimming in the morning light. The sky was shining like illuminated. It seemed that only that spot of the sky had that wonderful shine of porcelain. The four got in the red sports car and in an hour, they were driving along the central street of the town.  

             “So, when is the christening taking place?” Eva recalled yesterday’s topic. 

            “Indeed, we totally forgot about it for all that merry-making,” Larry added. “Moreover, we haven’t seen the little…”

           “Barbara,” Arnold refreshed his memory.

           “I miss my baby,” Edna got exited. “This is the first time I left her behind.”           

           “Really?” Eva could not believe it. “Do you spend all the days together?”

             “Yes, I do, and Arnold has other things to do: rehearsals, training.”

            “Barbara is my pride,” Arnold gave a proud statement, “she’s daddy’s picture. When you see her, Larry, you will make sure. She is with my parents now.”

           “Where do your parents live, Edna?”

           There was a silence. Edna did not answer it.

           “They are gone,” Arnold said. “They died in a car accident when Edna was eleven.”  

            “Oh, I’m sorry, Edna,” Eva apologized, “I didn’t know…” 

            “Neither did I. Arnold did never mention about it,” Larry tried to explain. “We apologize for our flub.”  

             “Listen here,” Arnold started, “if you are not in a hurry, and we could stop somewhere for a bite. Then we could discuss things.” 

              “I’m not in a hurry,” Larry replied. “How about you, Eva?”

              “I don’t thing something would happen, if my stay at my cousin’s place takes a little longer. I can go with my cousin shopping, can’t I?”

            “Aren’t you afraid that your parents may call Paula and get things straightened up?” Edna warned.

            “Sometimes mother tries to give me a fright, but she never takes over any actions.”

            “Then she trusts you, doesn’t she?”

            “I guess so…”

            “Very well, Larry,” Arnold cut in. “Turn to the right. They have good pizzas here.”

            Larry knew the pizzeria very well. He used to go there with Laura very often. Just nobody knew about it. He had never met any friends there, not even Arnold.    

            “Do you often come here?” Larry asked.

            “I’ve never been here before, but I‘ve heard they have good pizzas here and they offer quite a selection of them. Moreover, it’s not so expensive.”

            Larry did not want to go there. He was afraid of meeting Laura there; therefore, he tried to talk his friends out of their intention. “But there may be quite a lot of people,” he said, “at this time of the day.”

             “Then we would go to some other place.” Edna was optimistic. “It’s worth while going there, we wouldn’t refuse to give a try to a good pizza, would we?” 

            There were only three cars were parked at the pizzeria. Larry parked next to them. Damn it, he thought. Since the parking is empty, the same will be inside pizzeria. We have come here needlessly. There are many other nice places. Damn it!

             “Larry, hurry up,” Arnold urged.

            “Go ahead, I’ll catch up with you.”

            Larry wanted to enter the pizzeria alone. If Laura would be there, he would avoid unnecessary talking. She herself had brought Larry to this place. A few girls that he knew had been working there. Larry’s heart was beating wild. Damn it, damn it… I can feel she is here. If that’s really so, I’m not going inside. I’ll simply kind of vanish.

           “Larry, I’m waiting,” he heard a soft voice. “What are you looking for?” 

            He was riveted to the spot as if having set an eye on a ghost.

          “Larry, come on, hurry up. How long should they wait for us?”

           Only then did he realize that it was Eva’s voice. Is it her waiting for me? Thank God! I thought it was Laura. No, its no go, Larry thought, I have to relax! He stepped off the car and looked straight into Eva’s eyes.

            “Eva, what would I do without you,” he started flattering.

            “What? What’s wrong with you, Larry?” Eva could not understand Larry’s excitement. 

            “I don’t know. I guess I was looking for something, but I’m not sure what. Perhaps, it’s because I’m in love with you that I don’t know what I’m doing. I hope it will pass off and now we should catch up with them. What do you think?”

            Eva looked at him with her eyes wide open, still unable to understand his behavior. Larry took her by hand and pulled slightly. 

            “Eva, do you hear me? Let’s overtake them!”

            “Overtake?” She finally came back to reality. “Ah… Yes, of course, Larry, let’s run!”

            They ran like two lovers. Larry stopped at the door. “Wait, Eva, I want to kiss you.”

            “Go ahead,” the girl closed her eyes and exposed her lips playfully.

            Larry smacked her on her snub nose and then gave her a kiss holding her tight in his arms. “Now we can go in, darling.”

            When he got inside, Larry searched over the tables. He could not spot Laura anywhere. Some tables were occupied, one by Arnold and his wife among them.

             “Well, you don’t seem wasting your time,“ Arnold was teasing. “I bet you were smooching round the corner”.

            Eva blushed. She did not say a word.

            “Arnold, stop terrorizing them,” Edna interfered in discontent. “Leave them alone!” 

             “All right, all right, I was just kidding,” he was excusing himself. “Eva can understand jokes… Get seated comfortably, the pizza is on the way – with ham and cheese. Will it be okay for you?”

            “Very good choice,” Larry agreed, rubbing his hands. “We’ll get to the job right now!”  

            The pizza was very delicious. Everybody liked it. While they were eating food, the girls chatted like two foxes, just rarely joining the friends’ conversation. Arnold was telling Larry about his daughter. Now, when the secret was disclosed, he wanted to tell more about it. Obviously, he was very proud of his little daughter.  

            “You know, Larry, when Barbara will be eighteen, I’m going to be forty-one and her mammy is going to be thirty-five.”

            Edna heard Arnold’s words. “It’s very good. We will go to dancing together,” she added smiling. “Nobody will tell the difference, which one is the daughter and which one is the mother.”

            “Don’t worry, she won’t bother about dancing,” Arnold replied, “she will be an artist. She cannot live a day without a pencil and a piece of paper.”

           “That’s true,” Edna confirmed, “but may be we should be going, or are we going to order anything else?”

             “Let’s move,” Larry stirred up. He looked around when he remembered of his fear. 

             Almost all of the tables were occupied. Suddenly shivers went down his back. He stopped his attentive look at the girl sitting in the distant corner. No, it‘s not her, he thought. Larry felt a relief and got up from his place. Larry wanted to leave that place as soon as possible, because the environment raised unpleasant recollections about Laura. Perhaps Eva would never forgive him, if she would make sure that Laura existed in reality.   

●○●

            Overcast midday was floating above the houses. Smiling, all four left the pizzeria. Larry grabbed Eva and put his arms around her after he had kissed her. Chatting cheerfully, they went towards the car. Arnold and Edna were going in front.

             Suddenly Arnold stopped and turned around. “Listen, Larry,” a question flashed on his face.

            “What is it? You‘ve turned pale.”

            “Listen,” he came up closer and took Larry further from the girls, who had started discussing something. “Who is sitting in your car there?”

            Larry suddenly turned back to check. “I thought so, that this had to happen some time,” he said facing his friend. He seemed to be very scared. “Damn it, what on earth brought us here? What am I supposed to tell Eva now?” Larry got into panic. He was squeezing his fingers. He seemed to be about to burst into tears.   

            “But who is sitting there?”

            “Laura,“ Larry mumbled angrily, “I must have left the door unlocked and she made use of it. I guess she wanted to make a surprise for me. Damn her…”

            “Trust me,” Arnold said in his patter, “I‘ll take the girls somewhere and you get rid of that Laura at last.” Having explained the plan quickly, Arnold called out. “Girls!“  

             “What happened, Arnold?” Edna asked.

             “Have you got any new ideas?” Eva cheered up.

            “Yes, dear,” Larry squeezed a humble smile.

              “You know, I‘ve got something for you,” Arnold burst out into talking with inspiration. “Let‘s go quicker.” Arnold took both girls by their waists and hurried back to the pizzeria. 

            “Larry, come,” Eva called and waved to Larry without turning her face to him. Probably Arnold was holding her so tight that she even couldn‘t turn around. 

             “Coming, coming,” Larry called out, but he stayed on the same spot until they disappeared behind the door. Everything goes well, he thought. Soon I‘ll get rid of this pretender for ever. Larry was furious. 

            “Laura, get lost from here right now,” Larry snapped out with anger as soon as he opened the driver‘s door.

             “You want to get rid of me,” she said in a depressed voice. “I saw you… You have another girlfriend. Why, Larry?”

              He was shocked by Laura‘s words. I won‘t let you sneer at me, he thought. I never want of excuses. He got in to the car. “Listen to me,” he started in a vicious voice.

            But Laura did not let him do the talking. “Why did you leave me?”

            She was looking at him with her tearful eyes without a movement. Now, here it starts again, Larry thought. She is going to burst into tears and lie again.

            “Who is this girl, Larry?”

            “What is your concern about this?” he asked roughly in his turn.

             “Why do you say so? I saw you… One could think you are in love with her.”

              “Mind your own business, damn it. Why are you spying me?”

               “Larry, you promised to come and see me, remember? But you never showed up. I‘ve been waiting for you for days, weeks, months…”

              Larry started laughing. She is so weird, he thought. She was waiting for me… Obviously, all her suitors must have abandoned her already, so she decided to come back to me. I guess I was the one she nose-led for the longest time, since she remembered me again. He shook his head, because it was still impossible for him to realize that he once had been so played off. Larry’s face clouded over. It’ll never work, he said to himself. You’ll never succeed in splitting us apart. “It was just a promise. Didn’t you understand that?”

             “But why, Larry? I thought you love me?”

            Larry was silent. What does she understand about love? She looked into my eyes and talked about love, but the next moment she gave herself to another man. It‘s a game, a chess game. Why did she try to make a scene? Larry thought. “I did love you, I‘m not going to hide it away…”

             “So, you did love me?” she cheered up. Her face brightened up. “What has changed? Larry, I don‘t want to loose you.”

             No, Larry thought. You don‘t. I wonder, why?

             “Why are you keeping silent, Larry?”

             “You don‘t want to loose me?” Larry smiled. But the smile was too far away from a joyful one. “You have, already,” he snapped out scornfully. “You have lost me long ago… I grasped you. You are not created for a stable life…”

            She gave a look of despair again. “Who is she? Who is that girl?”

            Curious, he thought. At last… You‘ve become worried only after you have suspected of some alert… “She is mine,” he stressed it with his greatest boast and glee, “and soon we‘ll get married.”

            “So soon…” She turned away to the window. She took her time.

             Larry got the impression that she waited for him to comfort her. No, Larry decided, no way. I‘d better wait for a while.

              Finally Laura turned back her face and put her hand on his knee. She looked at him with a scared sight. “I‘ve been thinking a lot about us,” she went on. “You had never wanted to have me all. I failed to understand you, though I tried very hard…” 

             You are saying truth, Larry thought. You wanted to have me under your thumb. And you almost succeeded. Thank Arnold, he prevented me from this and opened my eyes. “There‘s no need to lie, Laura. Do you thing I‘m a fool?”

             “What are you talking about?”

              “Never mind,” he answered in short. “We‘d better leave it as it is. Please understand once and forever – it‘s all over… Be reasonable, Laura. Nothing is going to work out between us. You go your own way. You will be okay. You will manage.”

             “But I cannot forget about our love…”

            Larry lost his temper. He could no longer stand all of her twaddle. “And could you forget about other lovers?”

            “What are you talking about here?”

             Larry noticed her surprise. She is a good actress, he thought. Now I‘m going to tell her something She asked for this herself… “Laura,” he started, “I know a lot about you, but I don‘t want to stir up trouble. Get this into your pretty head that nobody can change my mind. Do you understand? I have made a decision. You are free since long ago, Laura. Find another one for yourself, if that one has abandoned you, and don‘t try to get me tangled back in your traps.” Larry told her all he wanted to. He got off the car and opened the door on Laura‘s side. “Please, Laura,” he said in a strict tone. “Get off and get away from here. My feelings to you died long ago. Leave us in peace, Eva and me.”

            Laura got off. She was upset. She couldn‘t look at Larry. She was still there and waited for something… He was also patient waiting for her to go away. Suddenly the girl turned to him and looked up in Larry‘s eyes.  She did not seem to be angry. May be more oppressed. Lie and truth oppressed her.

             “Good bye, Larry,” she said silently. Then she turned away her sight. She was still waiting. Larry didn‘t say a word.  And then she left, without a look cast at him. She never turned around.

 ●○●

              Larry locked the door and returned to the pizzeria.  When he saw his friends, he insensibly felt a thrill of cold. He stopped. Eva was sitting face to him, but she was holding her head down. Something is wrong, he thought. His heart was pierced with a bad pain.

             “What happened, Eva?”

            She looked at him with her eyes full of scare and got up sprightly. “Larry,” she cried out and put her arms around his neck.

            Larry was holding her tight. He looked at Arnold misunderstanding the situation. He just shrugged his shoulders and swayed his head. He looked very serious. So did Edna.

             “Larry, where is she? Why didn’t you tell me about that?”

            Then Larry realized that Arnold did not have another choice but to disclose everything. He did not notice it, but he turned pale of scare. Obviously, it took me too long to talk to Laura, he thought. Eva will never forgive me for the lie.

            “So, you know everything,” Larry could hardly say a word. 

            “Yes, darling, Arnold told me everything.”

            “Everything is all right now, she will never disturb me,” Larry was stroking her head. “I didn’t want to cause you any pain, so I preferred not to tell you about it. I’m sorry.”

            She leaned back from Larry’s shoulder and kissed him on the lips. She looked at him with her eyes full of hope. “You thought, I would not understand it, didn’t you?”

             “Yes, Eva, I had that thought. I thought you would become and at me and leave me alone. I didn’t want to loose you. What would I have done without you?” Larry noticed her upset.

            “There was no need to, Larry,” she said in discontent and gave a deep breath. “I never thought you might doubt my love to you. I see, that I was wrong…” 

             “No, Eva, you are getting it wrong…I never doubted your love,” Larry hurried up to explain, “but I was afraid you might get doubts about my feelings… Do you understand?”

              “But…“ Eva suddenly stopped. She was in tension for a second and then relaxed again. “Indeed…When Arnold said that you have left to see her, I was just praying for you to come back.”

              “You see, Eva,” he said in a better mood, “you have also doubted my love. It is obvious that it is love and not doubts…“ He slightly touched her chin. “What would you say to it, Eva?”

              “Well, let’s get out of here,” Arnold decisively cut off their gibbering. “It takes you too long to stand hugging each other in public. You don’t need us, I guess. You’ll be able to talk on your own.” 

●○●

            Having delivered his friend with his wife to their home, Larry drove off with Eva. He stopped a little further away, so that her parents would not see them. “Now you know everything, Eva.”

             “Yes… That Laura has a double face. But how could you miss those weak points of her?”

              “I don’t know, baby…” Larry paused upon it. Laura was very pretty, but strange. Her feelings were strange… You would never know what was on her mind… “And why do we talking about her? She is not worth it. We’d better talk about us.”

               “I agree, Larry,” the girl smiled, “go ahead, and strew you compliments.”

              “What?”

            “Do you want to tell me that you don’t know how it is done?”

            “No, Eva, you know that I’m not this kind of person. You have really charmed me. I’m so glad that we’ve met. It wouldn’t be worth wile living without you. Now I’m the happiest man of all! Can you believe this?”

            “Really, Larry?”

            “I’d like to do something to please you, but I don’t know what.”

              “Well, I hope you are not going to jump down from a scarp, are you?” Eva was in a cheerful mood.

            “And to loose you? Come on, sweetheart, I want you to be happy all the time.” 

            “I am happy, indeed. Am very happy to have you with me, though, I did not have much trust in your words when we met for the first time.”

            “Trust in my words or in me?”

            “In you…” Eva whispered and crouched expecting for a trick from Larry. 

            “Come here, you, naughty girl…Where is my sweet neck,” Larry reached out for Eva’s neck softly searching for the sensible spot. “Yes, here it is… It’s so tiny…”

            “Ah, stop it, Larry, I’ve got chills all over my body already,” Eva was screaming.

            “I don’t want to stop,” Larry was purring, “I’m a gentle cat… I’m looking for my little neck…”

            “Okay, okay, I give up… I never doubted in you… Just, please, stop, tormenting me…”

            “Am I tormenting you?” he asked and finally withdrew from Eva’s neck. “I know you like it.”

             “Yes, but not for too long,” she answered breathless and stretched out her arm, “See this? I didn’t lie. You gave me a goose skin all over.”

               “I’ve got an idea,” he said taking out his wallet, “here, take it. Buy to yourself anything you like. It’s going to be my present for your birthday.”

              “But it’s too early, Larry. My birthday will be just in three days,” Eva tried to joke, but she was upset at the same time. This was for the first time that she received a present from her boyfriend. 

            “It doesn’t matter. I want to congratulate you now. Make me happy, Eva.”

            “Well, okay,” she said silently and gave Larry a kiss. “Thanks, Larry. You are so sweet.” She looked at the money and considered what she could spend it on. At last, her eyes sparkled with joy. “I’ll get a few dresses for myself.”

            “Why don’t I take you to a shop?”

            “Right now? May be, I should get home first?”

             “What if you are not able to get out? Let’s go now… We’ll stay together a little longer, I don’t want to part with you.”

            It did not take long for Eva to make a decision, and there was nothing to consider. There were just a few fashionable dresses in her wardrobe. Therefore, the girl could not refuse such a tentative proposal. She smiled. “Okay, Larry, let’s go,” she said cheerfully and shook her finger, “but I’m going to try them on by myself…”

            She is so shy, Larry thought, but he did not ask her why.  He understood that she felt uncomfortable. Larry pouted his lips playfully. “Nobody likes me…”

               “Cut it out, Larry,” Eva laughed, “you behave like a small kid.”

               “I learned it from you…”

              “I know…” Now she became serious. “So, do you promise to stay in your car?”

               “All right, you win. I will have to meet your fancies. I promise to wait in the car.”

               Eva asked Larry to take her to a small store, where she always used to shop. She never liked super markets. She could feel at home in her favorite store. 

             The store was almost empty, so Eva was able to choose whatever she liked. What a variety of colors they had! A few dresses attracted her eye at once, which she selected to try for size. She put on the one she liked most and was walking to and from in the fit room, turning to one side or the other, enjoying it very much. Eva watched herself in the mirror. The new dress pointed out her figure and distinctiveness of her face.  She noted herself that she was very beautiful in that dress and even more attractive. She could not resist the temptation and she stepped out of the cabin and walked around in the store hall. There were no customers, so she felt brave.  

              “That‘s a good choice,” the shop assistant complimented. “It‘s exactly your size. Many people buy clothes, which they like, and you pick up what fits you.”   

              “Do you think so?” Eva asked, still circling around, throwing a glimpse to the mirrors and enjoying the view. Eva was very happy. Her face was shining with joy. The fashions show just started. She whirled around the hall with other dresses she had picked up. The shop lady praised her good taste and Eva enjoyed posing. “I‘ll take all of them,” she stated finally and went to change.

              She paid for the purchase, left that wonderful world of clothes and returned to Larry. Her tiny face was decorated with a wide smile. Eva was as if radiating with happiness and she could not wait till she could make boost of her purchase.  

              “Well, as far as I can tell you are a success, aren‘t you?” Larry inquired.

            “How do you know?”

              “It‘s written on your face…”

              “Thank you, Larry… Thank you very much for your present.”

               Larry was very pleased that Eva enjoyed her purchase so much. He could feel the way that he would be able to buy a hundred of such dresses. 

              “When we’ll meet tomorrow, I‘ll be wearing one of these dresses.”

              “Oh, Eva…”

              “What is it, darling?”

              “As soon as you said ‘tomorrow’, I drooped at once. I don‘t want to be apart from you!” Larry gave her a hug and caressed her shoulders trying to get relaxed.

              “I have to go back home now,” Eva tried to persuade him still reluctant to leave Larry‘s shoulder. “Otherwise my parents would become suspicious indeed… Really, they may call Paula and ask me to return… And she would not even have an idea what they would be talking about. Larry, I become nervous when I start thinking of it. Let’s not delay.”

            “I‘ll have to let you go…”

            “It‘s not for long, Larry… We‘ll meet tomorrow again.”

            Larry kissed her strongly on her puffy lips. The kiss was rather long.

           When they getting free, Eva joked, “It seems that we have met for the last time. You still don‘t want to let me go.”

            “No, I don‘t,” he said. “I love you so much…”

            “Just don‘t get reduced by love,” Eva was kidding. “Tomorrow I want you to be the same charming and loving Larry like you are today! Promise?”

            At last, he started the engine. “I‘ll try my best, Eva,” he said sincerely.

          Soon Larry‘s car disappeared in the horizon.

… bus daugiau …

Chapter 5

           It was a little after lunchtime, when Larry met with Eva. 

           “Guess it, where we are going today?”

            “Wherever you want to, Larry. You know…” She smiled like an angel. “I don’t care where to, what matters to me is just to be with you.”

             “You know, Eva, I have arranged for a date today.”

            “Come on,” she teased him, but soon became serious, “Are you taking me home, Larry?”

            Larry suspected that Eva was scared. The idea to tease her came up very suddenly. “Well,” he smiled, “what is it? Are you afraid, or something?”

           “No, I am just excited…”

            “All right, let’s go,” he was still teasing, “It’s not nice to be late.”

            Larry started the engine and switched on the gear. He was driving slowly. He used to cast a glance at her and considered if the trial of her patience was not taking too long. Though they were being refreshed airs, coming through the open windows and the sun was pleasantly heating, Eva was disappointed and deep in her thoughts. 

           “All right, all right,” Larry caressed her head, gently took her closer to himself and kissed on the cheek, “you will meet my mother some other time.”  

            “Oh, you good-for-nothing, you wanted to pull my leg…”

            Larry adored her when she used to get mad on him: she used to look like a small child –lower lip protruded, head bent down. “Well, baby, how long are you going to be cross at me?”

            Her face started shining again. “Come on, Larry, we are kidding like children from a kindergarten. Seriously, what are you up to? Where are we going?”

           “I gave a call to Arnold and now we are going to see him. We decided to spend this evening together.”

            “Why do you want to meet him?”

            “We are planning to get married, so let’s see how married couples get along.”

            “I think of it every day. I can imagine our family life…”

            “Okay, we’ll have time for this. We will get there in a moment, and you don’t even know, why we are going to the restaurant.”

            “Why? Tell me!”

            “We will need to have witnesses, won’t we…”

            “Indeed, Larry, I haven’t thought of it…”

            “I’m sure that we will not find a better candidate than Arnold.” Larry was serious in his explanations. “He is just the man we need. He has been married for three years already, and moreover, he is my best friend. One day he has to show us his wife! How long more can he hide her from us?”

            “Is she also going to be there?”

            “How can it is otherwise? Of course!”

            “But, Larry, haven’t you seen her before? Not at least once over all this time when they have been married?”

            “It’s strange for me too, that Arnold has not introduced her to us, but now we both are going to see and meet her. We are almost there. Their house is right around the corner.”

            “Well, this is going to be an interesting meeting.”

            “Let’s wait and see.”

            Larry turned into Mills Street. From the distance, he spotted his friend and his wife is waiting for them at the entrance door. “They are here, Eva. Are you nervous?”

            “A little.”

                                                                ●○●

            “Good day, I am Larry,” he introduced himself to Arnold’s wife.

She extended her delicate hand and smiled. “I’m Edna, Arnold’s wife. Nice to meet you.”

            She was very charming. And she looked very young. Her large blue eyes were very expressive; she had little nose and small dimples on the cheeks.  She had long blond hair. She was straight like a reed and tall like a lime-tree.   

            “Well, Eva, we have met before, I guess,” Arnold said and he whispered something into her ear, “you’ve taken my advice, as I can see.” 

            “Yes, Arnold, thank you for the lesson. I have taken it and here you have the result – we are getting married soon!”

            “Okay, enough of whispering, you’ll have enough time for this,” Larry interrupted their conversation. “Let’s get going.” 

            “Here you girls, get seated comfortably. What restaurant are you inviting us to?”

            “I would suggest the „Summer”. They have a perfect service and, also, in the menu they offer the whole range of meals…”

            “Or, may be, you have selected this restaurant because,” Arnold jumped in smiling, “it is located almost at the town edge?” He blinked an eye.  

            Good shot, Larry thought but he did not give himself away. “Well, yes, this is the reason also. There would be fewer eyes around.” He looked at the girls and blinked his eye, “Isn’t this right, girls?”

            Soon they reached the place. Having parked at the Student Hostel, all of them went towards the restaurant. The Freedom Square was unusually empty; just few wanderers were searching shop-windows of the museum. Suddenly, a friendly dog popped out from nowhere, sniffed around and accompanied them straight to the restaurant door.

            There were many free tables in the restaurant. They did not notice any acquaintances at the occupied tables. The piano player was not too hard working on its interpretations. The company got at the table and tried to get started celebrating, but it did not work much. The girls were strain like dolls, and the guys even did not try to cheer them up. Arnold was looking around slightly drumming on the table with his hands. They needed something to start with, and most often at the restaurant that something used to be food.   

            “So, what will we order? May be dry wine and juice?”

             “Whatever,” Arnold said, still looking around.

              “Okay, then white wine, some ham…”

             “What ham? We have had dinner already. I thought we came here to celebrate your future wedding?”

              “Come on, stop kidding, if you have had your dinner, you would have stayed at home. Since we are here, I think we should order some food. Isn’t it right?” Larry looked at Eva. “Besides, there is one favor that Eva and I would like to ask you to do.”

             “Oh, really?” Arnold tried to become serious. “As I can see, the evening is going to be long. Then we can have something to eat.”

            The company ordered some white wine, juice and veal stakes with mushrooms. The waiter placed their meals on the table examining them with great interest, lit up the candle, then bowed very politely and left them alone.

            “To you, Larry and Eva,” Arnold raised his glass. They were clinked their glasses together and had a sip. “So, what’s the problem?” Arnold could not wait. “You were about to ask for something? Will you tell us the reason why we have gathered here?”

             “And by the way, how big the wedding is going to be?” Edna asked straight, not waiting for her husband to finish his talking.

            “There will be no wedding,” Larry replied calmly and put his arm around Eva’s shoulders. “We don’t need them. Isn’t it so, darling?” 

            “Yes Larry, you are all I need.”

            Arnold and Edna opened their eyes widely in surprise.

            “Surprised?” Larry asked. “We are going to get married without parent’s being aware of it.  We both know, that our folks won’t approve our decision.”

            “I see,” Arnold finished pouring wine from the bottle. “So, you would like us to be your witnesses? See, sweet heart, how it happens sometimes. Shall we help them?”

            “Of course, Arnold.”

            “I knew it, that you would help us.” Larry smiled. “That‘s the friends are for. I think, we have to drink to this.”

            Soon another bottle was ordered. A real feast had started at the table. It seemed that everybody had lost his or her senses of proportion. Only Larry was drinking juice. When the fourth bottle was brought, Arnold had been substantially drunk. Even the stake was of no help. 

            “Well, I have been considering it for some time, and I decided that I would not find anybody better that you. Truly.”

            “Who will you not find?” Larry did not get it.

           “Godparents!”

            “Is Edna pregnant?” Eva was very surprised. “Why does she drink then?”

            Arnold thought for a second. He seemed to be gone back to his memories, but soon he turned back.  He licked his lips around. “And you, Eva, keep it in mind! When you will be expecting a baby – no strong drinks, no poison! And you, Larry, will have to keep her safe from any stresses and love her. Understood?”

            “Yes, Arnold. But what is the relation here with christening? What was it you mentioned here?”

            “It‘s time for christening of our daughter! She is three years old.”

            “What! What are you talking about? You better have some food…”

           “Stop it, Larry. Do you think I am drunk?”

           “I would not say so, but the subject you are talking…”

            Arnold realized that they need more explanations. “Edna and I, we met four years ago,” he started.

            “I was only sixteen then,” Edna continued, “but I‘m very happy now, when once Arnold took me to his parents‘ summer house.”

            “I loved her very much,” Arnold added. “I was not experienced and she got pregnant. Clear?”

            Larry and Eva were listening to him motionless.

           “I corrected my mistake,” Arnold continued, “I married her, but without any celebrations.”

           “It doesn‘t matter. This is not priority. The main point was that you loved me,” Edna did not give way to despair, “and still do. Just we are three of us now.”

             “And Barbara has to be christened. It is time,” Arnold wrapped up. 

            Larry tried to perceive everything he had heard. He had never expected to discover this much secrecy from his friend. He understood, why Arnold had not introduced his wife to him, but could have talked to him about it at least…

           “Why have you been hiding away all this?” Larry finally asked. “You could have at least given a hint to your best friend. How did you make it?”

           “And you! Did you tell much about it, when you and Laura were dating? You were also a friend…”

            “What are you talking about?” Larry was lost in surprise. “What Laura?”

            Arnold felt himself like a real hero. He rose his hand, just like one of the famous politicians, and delivered an original speech. “With the one, who wanted to screw you up,” he said straight and unblinking. “What? Don‘t you remember any more?”

            Larry felt how his body was getting hot. It seemed that he would go under the table in shame. His friend was talking about this in Eva‘s presence… Arnold expressively supported his chin on his arms. His is going to ruin me now, Larry thought afraid.   

           “It‘s good that I rescued you,” the friend finished proudly. “You should at least thank me.”

             “What Laura?” Eva got her word in looking angrily at Larry and requested, “Go ahead and explain it!”

            Only then did Arnold come back to his feelings. It seemed that he got sober at once. He gave a snappy laugh. “See, how jealous you girlfriend is,” he gave Larry a poke with his elbow, “you cannot even make a joke.”

           “Bad jokes!” Eva was upset.

          “Okay, let‘s finish up these talks,” Arnold suggested. “Let‘s better have a drink to friendship!”

          “Sure,” Larry agreed. He raised his glass of wine.

           “But, Larry, what was he talking about here? Who is Laura?” Eva insisted. “You have to tell me about it…”

           “Nothing, sweet heart,” Larry whispered and embraced the girl, “he is drunk and decided to make a joke of us… Strange jokes, aren‘t they? Perhaps, he just wanted to check your reaction. Don‘t be jealous, or we will make him laugh even more. And don‘t be sad, your smile is so great. Let‘s better have fun! This is our evening, isn‘t it? Is it worth while spoiling our mood?” Larry got closer to Eva and sucked into her lips.  

            “That‘s another deal,” Arnold joyfully exclaimed.

            Realizing that Eva was embarrassed to kiss in the friends‘ presence, so Larry stopped it. “Will you be cheerful, promise?” he whispered.

            “Now I do understand, what love must be like,” Arnold was still doing the talking, “and I was almost sure that I had almost got you unsettled!” He looked at Larry and smiled from ear to ear. “That was a good joke, wasn‘t it?”

            “Yes,” Larry replied slowly, “you like kidding as far as can see. I could get mad at you, but let‘s forget about it… Friends have to be forgiven.” He smiled and looked at Eva. “What would we do without him? 

            “It would be boring, I guess,” Eva replied and raised her glass. “You are forgiven, Arnold.”

             “Thank you,” Arnold gave a sigh of relief, “and I have an idea. Let‘s drink to this wonderful couple! They make a good match to each other.”

            When the heat cooled off, all had their drinks and continued their discussions. After the midnight, the restaurant was flooded with people and a calm place became a true ruckus.

            A bunch of messy dressed men with shaggy hair and wearing rubbed jeans and harsh leather jackets burst inside. A blond beautiful girl with perfect legs was distinct in their company. They passed their table lively talking in unfamiliar language and disappeared in the next nook of the restaurant. 

            Arnold gave a deep sigh and licked his lips. “What are these doing here?”

           “What else they might be doing – dropped by for adventures, I guess,” Larry replied and added, “but our waiter has totally forgot about us!”

            Indeed, they both were calling him in vain by swinging their arms; he did not see them. Only when Arnold started scolding at him angrily, the waiter apparently heard something and came up to them.

            “One more bottle of dry wine,” Arnold said to him. He licked his lips. “Chilled in ice, of course.”

           “We don‘t have ice!” the waiter replied indifferently and left.

            The wine was warm and not tasty. Eva and Edna were not drinking any more; Larry could hardly empty half of his glass.

            “If so, let‘s go out here,” Larry said. “There is too much noise here.”

             “And to leave the bottle for this jerk?” Arnold grumbled well drunk already. “No way! I’m not going to move from this place until I reach the bottom!”

             “That’s right, why should we leave it,” Edna supported Arnold. “We’d better finish it up!”

             “We’ll manage somehow,” Eva inserted her word.

             “Guess what,” Edna suggested, “let’s go for a dance. Then the wine will be finished sooner.”

             “I don’t dance at all… My legs will get tangled…” Larry mumbled.

              “Don’t start making things up,” Edna cut Larry and hopefully looked at Arnold. “Shall we? I can feel itch under my feet!”

              “Why don’t we better go to the summerhouse and dance there…” Arnold suggested. “And more, we have got some good cognac there…”

              “Good idea, Arnold,” Edna said joyfully. “Let’s go! We will have a real fun there! It starts getting boring here already.”

              “There is enough of fun here as well,” Larry tried to refuse.

              “Come on, we have just started,” Arnold insisted. “We have come to have fun! Look at Eva smiling, she would like this party to be going on.”

            Larry looked at the girl. She smiled watching a man taking spoons of caviar from another’s plate. 

            “Eva, Arnold says that you would like to get to the summer house.”

            “It would be fun, but…”

            “No ‘but’, Eva,” Arnold stopped her, “you would come together with Larry.”

            Arnold is very good at persuading, Larry thought. He was also taken over by the idea to go to the summerhouse. “Well, Eva, shall we go there?” he flattered.

           “What shall I tell my parents, Larry? You know them.”

            “Indeed…”

            “Think something up,” Arnold suggested, “it’s not difficult.”

            “Yes, Eva, call them and lie something up,” Edna took it up. “Do you have any relatives in this town?”

           “My distant cousin with her parents lives close to this place.”

            “Very good, you could tell your parents that you would stay with your cousin over the night, since her parents are away. What’s her name, by the way?”

            “Whose? My cousin’s?”

            “Yes.”

            “Paula.”

            “And what are your parents’ names?”

            “Ada and Robert.”

            “Aha,” having rising her eyeballs, Edna was mumbling something under her nose until her eyes started sparkling with joy. “Wonderful! We can make a call. I’ll do the talking for your cousin.”

            “How?”

            “Well, just imagine, that I’m your cousin and I’ll ask my uncle or aunt to let you stay with me over the night, because my parents are away tonight. Clear?”

            “I guess, yes.”

            “Okay, boys, we’ll be right back and you go ahead and settle the account.”

             Edna dialed the number.

             “Aunt Ada? Yes, it’s me, Paula. Please let Eva stay with me over this night. Mom and dad are in the summer house, so I don’t feel cozy at home alone.”

            There was a silence on the other end.

           “Give the phone to Eva,” the voice requested.

           Eva swallowed her saliva and took the phone. “This is me, mom.”

          “Is it true, what Paula said?”

          “Yes, mom,” Eva answered.

           “Where are you calling from?”

           “From telephone booth… We are on our way to Paula’s place.”

           “Is it truth?”

            “Of course, it is,” Eva assured a little embarrassed, but still in strong voice.

           “Okay, Eva, good night.”

           “Goodnight, mother,” Eva hung up and gave a deep sigh. “Now I’ll be feeling like a wild animal in a cage all the night long.”

            “How come? Don’t you want to go to the summer house?”

            “Of course, I do,” Eva replied sadly, “but not at such a cost…”

            Edna tried to sooth her as she could best until they reached the table. From the distance, Larry and Arnold looked like two winged storks, because they were waving their hands very ignorantly. Those silly gestures were intended to attract the waiter’s attention.    

           “I’ll take care of it,” Arnold said and having cast an eye on the receipt paid it.

            Larry stared at him. “This guy has cheated you for sure! Why haven’t you checked the receipt?”    

           “I did it deliberately!” Arnold replied witty. “The one, who checks receipts, always miscalculates! That’s what my grandpa, now he is on eternal rest, used to say.”

                                                                    ●○●

             Trying to escape the meeting with police, the company got into Larry’s red car. There came a smell of an adventure. Edna was singing silently. The car roared furiously. It took them fifteen minutes to escape the invisible persecutor and finally they were out of the town, where Larry reduced the speed.

              Eva’s good mood had come back to her. Where are they going, she thought. It’s pitch-dark, not a single light around. “Is it far away yet?” she asked.

             Arnold was sitting holding his wife in his arms and he looked like a satiated cat. “We’ll be there in twenty minutes. Why?”

            “Is there a phone?” Eva could not calm down.

            “Take it easy,” Arnold encouraged her, “you’d better shoe your feet!”

            “Eva, there is no need to be sorry. This is your life,” Edna tried to smooth things realizing Eva’s discomfort because of her lie to her mother. “You have to go through life with your head raised up and just forward…”

            Arnold gave a sincere laugh and added, “Forward, like through a cabbage field…”

            “Well, even through a cabbage field, if there is a need!” Edna snapped out. “As if there would be something to laugh at…”

           Arnold held his tongue. They went on in a silence for a while. The car’s headlights were tearing the dark apart.

             Eva started worrying again. “Listen, Arnold, you have not answered my question, if there is a phone in the summer house?”

             “You are just like a cuckoo calling,” Arnold joked, licking his lips. “Are you going to wake somebody up in the midnight, so that he would enjoy your voice?”

            “Please, take it easy,” Larry interfered. “There is a telephone and perfect rooms, even a fireplace… You’ll see it yourself that the house is beautiful. I don’t understand your worry?” The guy gave her a hug. “We will spend there our first night…”

            Eva cast a researching eye on Larry.

           “What? What is it?” Larry asked.

            “I’m thinking,” she replied silently and smiled at last. “Indeed, there is no need to worry, I guess.  Simply, I forgot that you are next to me here.”

             “That’s right,” Larry became joyful, “that’s another talk.” 

              Soon tree branches started thrashing on the car windows at both sides. Arnold opened the gate and the car drove into the yard buried in the tree shadows. Having closed the gate, Arnold rushed to Larry.

             “Switch on the long head lights,” he said silently.

            “What for?”

            “You’ll see, go ahead.”

            “Good Lord, a true summer house,” Eva was very surprised to see a large white house.

            “See,” Arnold was very proud, “didn’t I tell you that you shouldn’t have worried? Here you are… I’d like you to learn one more rule! I know, you are a smart student…”

            Eva picked up her ears.

            “Remember, Eva: wherever is Arnold, always and everything goes okay! Can you believe this?” 

            “Sure, Arnold.”

            When they took their seats at a small table, everybody’s mood got improved. The cognac had a remarkable aroma. The environment was very pleasant. After they finished several glasses, the music was turned on. It was Thomas Jones. Arnold and Edna started dancing.

            “Shall we try too?” Eva suggested.

            “No…”

            “Please, nobody will see you dancing.”

             Larry hesitated for a while and said a little embarrassed. “I’d better tell you about our jokes that we used to make when we were kids. Then we were in the third form, I guess.”

            Eva was smiling. Perhaps she imagined what he looked like at that time. 

            “There was a New Year party at school, and we were to play surfs. We both had perfect make-ups, adequately dressed, but we forgot our shovels.” Larry started smiling bit by bit, “I don’t remember now, who’s idea that was, but we went to the warehouse and brought large shovels from there. And what do you think? Everybody laughed to death.”

            “And didn’t you get punished for that?”

            “We just wanted to look like real surfs, we even did not suppose that it would be so funny. We were just small kids ten.” Larry paused for a minute and then went on, “Once, before the mathematics control work, Arnold and I closed into the wardrobe…”

            “What were you up to…”

            “We were so afraid of that control work, so we hid away, as if were absent at the lesson. Arnold got settled on the lower shelf, and I stretched on the upper one. When the teacher was putting down tasks on the blackboard, it was still bearable…I enjoyed the thought that we would not have to solve the tasks…When everything calmed down and the class got to work, apparently, I fell asleep… Just imagine it yourself, Eva. It was pitching dark in the wardrobe. I don’t know myself, but I guess, I just wanted to roll on another side…”

            Eva burst into laugh.

           “What are you laughing at?”

            “Nothing,” she could hardly get her breath back, “I suppose you fell on the ground…”

            “Well, I did and that was something…”

             Larry himself started howling with laughter, so that Arnold got interested, what they had been discussing so cheerfully. He cast a glance at the couple, but did not leave Edna alone. They kept on dancing.  Eva was howling with laughter, holding up her stomach. Larry tuned into his role of a storyteller even more.

               “Just imagine, Eva… It is silent, calm… All of them are concentrated on their tasks… Who knows what the teacher is busy with, and here I am falling down like a sack of potatoes…The whole class roared with laughter like crazy.”

               “Cut it off, Larry,” Eva asked him, hardly uttering a word, “I cannot take it any more…My stomach hurts already.”

               “And when I fell down, there was a painful bang. I did not realize where I was and cried out: Mother…”

             “What!” Eva was screaming in convulsions of laugh. 

             Holding her stomach and wiping out tears, she rose from the sofa and ran out through the door. Larry found her in the bathroom.

             “I would never have suspected you being so comic,” Eva said after a while, when she calmed down, and sat on the bath edge. “And what was the end of that story?”

              “Apparently, it was a success, since each of us had earned ‘a two’”.

             “How come?”

              “Well, the teacher simply called me up to the board to solve the first tasks…”

              “So you failed?”

              “Yes, I did,” Larry smiled, “and the same destiny stroke Arnold.”

              “Yes, Larry, I have had laughed to my hart‘s content. You have been true comedians. And now, let‘s go and join them. I don‘t want them to miss us.”

               “We did not intend to be jokers, but we were a success… I could tell you stories and stories, it would take me months. Well, let‘s go now, but give me one kiss before that. Okay?”

              “Just a small one, Larry… It‘s not nice.”

            Larry kissed her. His heart was beating because of the sweet kiss. He could kiss her on and on, but he controlled himself. He wanted to keep his word.

            Thomas Jones was trying so hard screaming his guts out in the turning disc, that even cactuses there got the jitters. Arnold was sitting back in the armchair and watched his wife dance.  

           “Look, Eva, what Edna is doing?” Larry was surprised by her ‘number’”.

            Edna, barefooted, was dancing by herself like a crazy. Her face was burning and nice naked legs were rise so high, as if she had tried to reach the lighting fixture. She had beautiful legs, and the girl appeared to be flexible, plastic.

             Larry and Eva got down on the sofa. “Let‘s have a small drink.” Larry suggested. Now everybody watched Edna.

             When the music stopped, Edna declared breathlessly, “You are true stuffed dummy, you don’t have any understanding, how to get relaxed!”

             “I got so relaxed, that I can hardly stand on my feet,” Arnold replied and licked his lips.

             “Me too,” Larry added.

             “So, what do we do now?” Arnold waved as if challenging to the fight. “There is nothing left to drink, it‘s messy all around, just like after a war.”

             “Nothing to get exited about,” Larry added hiccupping.

             “Why don‘t we get split then,” Edna suggested.

             “And where am I going to sleep?”

              Arnold winced. “I don‘t want to sleep,” he said annoyingly. “Let‘s talk a little more.” He seemed to gain new strengths. His eyes went on sparkles again. “And what were you laughing at so much?” he asked.

              “Larry was telling about your tricks,” Eva told.

              “Really?” Arnold asked in surprise. “Did he tell you about our simple tests we carried out during the chemistry lesson?”

               “You have to tell us, Arnold,” Eva asked, getting interested and turned to Edna, “Okay?”

            They were telling different stories from their school times to each other until four o‘clock in the morning. That topic was very attractive to them all. When they started drawing straws, they decided to go to bed.  Edna gave nightclothes to Eva. 

              “You will sleep on the sofa,” Arnold said, “and we will go upstairs, there is a double bed…”

               “All right, Arnold, let‘s leave them in peace,” Edna said, “and stop boasting.” She grabbed him by the shirtsleeve and dragged up the stairs. “Well, you two, behave yourself,” Edna warned.

               Larry did not answer her. He could not help smiling. Arnold could hardly make his way up the stairs, and still was thinking of the bed.

               Edna noticed his smile. She shook her finger against him. “Mind it, blonde,” she said smiling, “don‘t let me down.”

               When they closed the door behind them, Larry sighed with relief. He looked at Eva. She was sitting on the bed with a pillow in her arms and was thinking of something.

               “At last we are all by ourselves.” Larry had an impression that Eva did not listen to him. He came up and sat down next to her on the sofa. “Well, baby,” he said gently, cuddled her by shoulders and kissed on her cheek. “Tired, aren’t you?”

              “Yes, a little.” She sighed, threw away the pillow and put her head on his shoulder. “I‘ll drop down into bed and flow away into the dreamland. I am so sleepy…”

              “And will you leave me alone?”

              “Why? We are going to sleep in one bed.”

               “Are we? Then it is different.  When you are asleep, you don‘t belong to each other. When sleep gets between us, each of us will get to his own Eden or nightmare…”

              “Don‘t fantasize, Larry… A man needs to sleep, otherwise we would get very weak.” She gave a deep sigh. “We need to make the bed.”

            Larry got up obediently and started making the bed.  Eva helped him.

            “Yes, I know,” he continued hopelessly, “I expected that we would lie cuddled to each other tonight and enjoy the happiness to be together… I am not sleepy. I want to kiss you, caress you, I want to talk to you at last, and I desire to dream together with you…”

            Eva came close to him and cuddled to him. “I‘ll try to stay awake, but I don‘t promise.”

            When the bed was ready, Larry quickly took off his shirt. Eva was still standing there and was not even intending to undress.

            “Eva, I can see that you are already sleeping. Take your clothes off,” he urged, “you are sleepy.”

             “Would you go out for a while, Larry,” she asked gingerly when he was about to take off his pants, “I‘d like to be first to get into the bed.”

              “Why?” He was surprised. “Are you afraid of me?”

              “Please, Larry,” she said gently,” try to understand me. I have come here not for the purpose that you would see me half naked.”

            Larry was dazed. She is true chastity, he thought. She is so different, if compared to Laura, who took her clothes off herself, when she wanted to seduce him. Larry was not so much dazed, that charmed by strength of her spirit and willpower. He kissed Eva on the forehead. “Don’t ease,” he said softly, “and get into bed. I‘ll be back in five minutes.”

            “In ten…” 

                                                             ….bus daugiau….

Chapter 4

Though Larry and Eva were seeing each other freely, nobody even suspected, or even thought of, that they were a couple. Neither their friends, nor parents. Since that evening, when Eva declared her love to Larry, she could not understand what was going on in her world. Time, things and people stopped existing to her. There was just Larry. He was the only one, on earth and in heaven, whom she loved. Her eyes could see only him, her thoughts were just about him, and there were no physical sufferings, that might have influence upon her body, which was under the reign of love. No moral sufferings could have an influence upon her soul that was full of happiness. At every chance, Eva tried to escape her parents and rushed to meet with him. Larry used to be waiting. That was an agreement. If Eva did not turn up, he new, she would not make it that day.

●○●

“Eva, I‘ll take you to my Eden today,” Larry promised joyfully. 

“What Eden?” the girl was surprised.

“I won‘t tell you…That‘s a secret,” he said. “You‘ll see it yourself, wait till I get you there!” 

His Eden was a private spot in the Youth Park.  It was on top of the hill and a steep path extending through a small grove lead to it. They had a lot of time, so they were not in a hurry. Larry was gently supporting the girl at her waist and so they were climbing up. The higher they got, the colder wind refreshed them. When they reached the destination, the smell of pine-tree resin was so refreshing like a sea breath.

As soon as Eva saw it, she exclaimed, “That‘s wonderful, all the tiredness has gone!”

“Do you like it?”

“Of course, Larry… That‘s true Eden! Look it here, I can see the sea!”

  She took Larry‘s hand, “I want to run!”

“Let‘s fly together!”

These words suspended on the lips spontaneously, because they in the best way could reflect the implacable desire of the two hearts. Everything around was inciting that desire of the soul: the light air and the blue and vast horizon, towards which they were so eager to run. They wanted to get up over the gray routine and flap away to the unexplored distances of the unknown, so they would not have to come back. Where to fly? They did not know. But that was such a sweet dream!

They stopped at the stone fencing. Eva looked down the slope of the steep hill. 

“It‘s so beautiful here…” She was so glad. “There all pine trees around… Widely branched pine trees…”

“Centuries-old pine trees,” Larry corrected her.

“Yes, yes, very beautiful… See, the branches are swinging in the wind?”

“And I can not only see, Eva… I can hear their swish mingle with unrest roar of waves…”

“Yes,” she said slowly,  “that‘s truly nice place… Pines, sea, fresh air and peacefulness…”

“Your all thoughts are just about trees, and what about me? You have totally forgotten about me… If so, I’m going to drop myself down this slope,” he was joking.

“No! Don’t speak like this! Never!” He put his arms around the girl. Her head leaned on Larry‘s shoulder. “Don‘t talk likes this ever… Even if you are kidding,” she asked and looked into his eyes. Her lips were trembling. “Promise me…”

“But Eva,” he said, “are you really so afraid of it?”

“Yes, darling, it‘s more that being afraid…”

Larry again got the proof that it was love. He gave her a hug again. He was holding her tight in his arms. “I‘ll never make such jokes,” he made a promise. “Will you forgive me?”

“Sure, Larry.”

“And now let‘s have a seat down. Let‘s forget about it and let‘s settle comfortably.”

They sat down under the trees: she got down on the hump of grass, he got down at her feet.  Tree branches were swinging in the wind, singing the pine song like a jeremiad, and smoky, edgeless and undistinguished distances, like a vast ocean, were caressing their eyes. They were joking and childishly flattered like two youngsters. That was the expression of their love.

Larry kneeled down. He put his elbows on her knees and he gave her a glad eye like a cat.  

“What? What are you up to, Larry?”

“Eva, look at me,” he whispered. “Look straight into my eyes…”

“And what, if I don‘t want to?”

“Please, look at me. I want to see, what‘s in your soul.”

And they were looking at each other, keeping their eyes fixed to each other. They were breathing each other’s breath they were looking for reflections of their love on each other’s soul.

“Eva, your ayes like a sky! They are so blue, radiant and bright! It seems I could see swallows in them. These are your thoughts, aren‘t they?”

“These are your thoughts, you silly…”

“Don‘t laugh, keep looking…”

They were looking to each other for a long time, and then they cuddled together and were kissing each other so gently, scarcely touching with their lips. Each kiss was followed by a long look into the eyes.  Having laid Eva down on the lawn and kissing her lips, Larry was whispering childish sweet words. Nothing existed for them in the world, just love. Lips were burning of kisses. They were whispering each other’s names, saw each other’s faces, and heard words of love. Only dusk did make them come back to reality and leave this spot from fairy tales, the Eden hidden in the greenery.

When they got back to the car, Eva looked seriously at Larry.

“Where is your car keys?” she asked.

Larry browsed in his pocket. “Here they are. Why?”

Eva grabbed the keys and slipped in the car laughing. She started up the car and moved on slowly. Larry caught up in a cold sweat and hardly managed to get into the car. 

“What has happened to you? What are you after? Pull it over, Eva,” Larry said, catching his breath. 

Eva stepped on the breaks. The tires screamed and the car stopped. Larry rolled over the windscreen like a bull, totally unaware what was going on. When he came back to himself, he was about to switch to the driver‘s seat but Eva pressed on the accelerator again. The car roaring jumped forward like a panther. Larry fell back with his feet in the air, like a moose on the ice.

“Stop the car, you are going to kill us both!” Larry roared, frantic with horror.

But Eva did not hear. The car swept out to the high way and roared along the illuminated road.

“Eva, please, it is not a play,” Larry was asking, all pale. He saw that Eva was scared no less than he was, but she was, to his great surprise, a good driver. Suddenly Larry noticed a police car catching up with them. “Eva! The police are after us!”

Eva was silent like stabbed. Larry carefully slipped into the driver‘s seat and took over the wheel.

“Let‘s switch!” he said insistently.

Eva quickly obeyed and fulfilled all his instructions without a word. Larry speeded up, loading the engine up to the maximum and gradually started receding until they pulled away from the chase. Only after Larry did get into her yard, he could take back his breath, though he could not control his trembling body.   Eva also was not feeling like in the wrong place. Only after a while did he smile.

“That was a pretty joke, I can still feel my knees shaking.”

Eva burst into laugh, when she heard those words.

“It‘s funny for you, and I was fear-ridden… I could loose my driver‘s license and could get a fine. What happened to you? Thirsty for adventures, aren’t you?”

Eva burst into loud laugh. She wanted to say something, but she could not stop laughing and she could not say a word. Larry wanted to calm her down, but there was no use of words.  

“Calm down, Eva,” Larry said silently, shaking her by hand. “Look, here‘s you mother…”

She stopped. Her face changed suddenly. She became serious. She looked frightened.

“Eva, go home quickly!”

Now she could hear her mother‘s angry voice. She looked at her. Mother stood on the doorway and waited. Eva waved to her and turned to Larry.  

“I‘ll be going now. See, she is waiting for me.”

“Okay, but tell me, why did you do this? And when are we meeting tomorrow?”

“I cannot tell you anything about our meeting, and speaking about the joke –I don‘t know it myself.” She opened the car door. “Perhaps, I wanted to see you different, that I haven‘t seen you before and I did…you chicken.”

●○●

Next day Larry was walking around the familiar place at the usual time, searchingly looking faces of the passers-by. Each of his steps to one side or another increased his concern. Anyone looking at him could be wrong saying that he was waiting for someone. Indeed, Larry was waiting for Eva, hoping that she would come. But seconds and minutes passed over… One hour passed another one. Sun rays hid behind green curls of trees, and there was no sign of her.

Things are in a bad way, he thought. May be, her folks did not let her go? I wouldn‘t bear this… I have to do something. Should I go straight to her home and explain everything to them? But I can‘t… What would they think, when they see me? Perhaps, it would be the worst thing? Or, may be, she simply cannot come? This has happened before… It used to be not every day that she came… I should not give it too much prominence. I have to be patient.

Larry returned home. Next day he waited in the agreed place, and she did not show up. Having not seen her in the third evening, Larry started worrying. What happened? he thought. Eva did not come to see him for three days in a row… Perhaps, her parents do not let her go. May be, I should go and see them? What if they will become even angrier then? How should I see her again?

It passed a week full of expectations. Larry could not wait longer. Next day he was looking for Eva at her home. He was walking around her windows trying to see her face, and even gave a few whistles impatiently. He did not have to wait long. Curtains of one window were moved apart and a beloved face showed up. Larry was flooded with joy. He waved with his hand pointing with his finger to her and t himself. Eva understood his request. She opened the window. 

“Come up,” she said silently.

Larry rushed to the door right away. His whole body was shuddered and his heart was beating so hard that it about to jump out of his chest.  Eva stood in the doorway.

“Come in,” Eva repeated gingerly. “Don‘t worry, my parents are out. They‘ll be back soon, so we don‘t have much time…”

Having discovered, that the parent were out Larry calmed down a little. Eva took him to her room.

“So, what is it?” Her frightened voice was silent.

Still feeling the tension, Larry was not sure what to start from. He was looked at her and kept silent. Eva also felt embarrassed.

“What do you want to tell me?” she asked again in the trembling voice.

“Eva,” Larry recovered finally, “I have not seen you for the whole week… Since we saw each other that last night, I have been waiting for you each day… I don‘t know, may be you‘ll consider me being dumb, but I cannot live in peace without you. Eva, please, if I have insulted you, please forgive me, let‘s meet tomorrow at least.  Please, say yes…”

“No,” she said, “I‘m not mad at you, but I cannot see you, because my parents don‘t let me out.”

“Did you tell them about me?”

“No, I didn’t. That evening mother did not understand anything. I lied myself out. This is due to my school.”

“Wait a second,” he interrupted her intending to make sure. “You said only due to the school? So, this means…”

“Yes, I cannot let my patents down… When I finish the school and pass the exams, then we will meet. Okay?”

“There should be a way out this situation.”

Eva was disappointed. She thought very intensively. In a second her face changed.

“What? Did you make up your mind?”

“Well, I thought, if you wouldn’t mind,” Eva’s sight wandered somewhere towards the distance and then came back, “we might write letters to each other…”

“Write letters?”

“You don’t like my suggestion? I don’t have any other ideas…”

“I’ll have to live up with it if there is just this way out … Eva, I miss you so much,” he said softly folding his arms around her waist.

His eyes, so cautious and distrustful, hiding the souls from stranger’s sight, were like a true mirror. He seemed proud, sincerely charmed, and full of pride. He was slowly hugging Eva and smiling. Eva could feel that the feelings, which she tried to hold back so hardly again got a new fire and the whole of her body started trembling of excitement. His hands were sliding up caressing her back and shoulders.

Again, he looked up into her eyes and his sight was serious and solemn. “I love you.”

“I love you too…Very, very much…”

Her beautiful eyes got up the flame of temptation. Cuddling to each other, they were looking into each other’s eyes without a word. Forced by Larry’s sight, her long black eyelashes were closing slowly and melancholy with charm. Blushing and even burning Eva was flooded with Larry’s hot breath. He gently lifted her tiny face up and pressed his lips against hers. She closed her eyes. Then Larry embraced her tight… That saint, head-swimming kiss lasted for the whole eternity. He was holding tight her in his arms, cuddling her face like swallow in the nest. He could feel her body trembling and he kept sucking happiness from her lips. Larry’s eyes went blind with mist, he felt blood pressure beating up in his vanes, but the feelings were so chaste, that they were not even shaded with lust.          

Suddenly Eva leaned back. “Oh god,” she mumbled in fright, “what time is it? Larry, you have to go, because my parents might be back. Let’s go.”

They hurried towards the door. 

“By the way,” Larry said, “how about letters? By mail, or…”

“No! It’s good you’ve asked. At nighttime, when everybody gets asleep, come and put your letter under the doormat. There you will find mine already. Do you understand?” Eva explained her plan.

“Sure,” Larry said. “See you, my love, I’ll miss you. I wish this time would pass by sooner…”

“Go, Larry, hurry up… I don’t want them to see you here. Love you…”

“Bye, Eva!”

The girl closed the door. She still could not come to her senses because of fear and love. She stood there for a while and went into her room, after she calmed down a little. Eva was so happy, that she wanted to dance. She wanted to dance, get up in the air and fly away like a bird. She was still thinking about Larry, his gentle kisses and passionate caress. Her eyes were closing and she was feeling so good.  She was already waiting for that day when that she would be able to see him. 

●○●

They had been writing to each other secretly for two months. A white sheet of paper helped them to express their love. That time had lasted forever for her.  If not the letters, they could stand up the senseless time that had stolen their happiness. For two months, they had been patiently waited till they could meet again. 

At last, they were together. It was just he and she. There they sat together in the evening dusk, surrounded by the trees under the starry sky, holding each other tight like two water drops merged. They knew they belonged to each other. They were speaking words of love, creating plans for future and sharing their dreams. It seemed that time had disappeared. They were sitting like that for hours, and it seemed that no one could split them apart.

“Eva, we will keep this evening in our memories, won’t we?”

“Yes… This is the first evening when we are independent…”

“I’m so happy, my princess…”

“Larry,” her voice jingled in a joyful note. She finally lifted her head from Larry’s shoulder and looked at him. “I finally finished the school! Do you get it? Do you understand, that since now we will be able to see each other freely and no one, listen to me, no one would dear to disturb us. Otherwise, I don’t know…”

Eva was so determined that she seemed being able to swim across the see.

“Neither your parents?” 

“Neither them,” she replied in much calmer voice, leaned against Larry’s shoulder and spoke further, “It was me who has chosen my fortune. They cannot take it away from me. They should not.”

“No one would take it away, Eva. I promise.” Larry gave her a soft hug and even softer touched her bright red lips. There was a sparkle, and then a flame went up. “I promise, Eva…”

He was kissing her on her lips, neck, and eyes… Eva pressed her face against Larry’s chest, stick to him, and put her arms around his neck. He was holding her tight in his arms… They kissed again. He slightly pushed her back from himself, looked into her bottomless eyes and again… And it was going on for days and days… They could not live without each other and they decided to get married secretly.

bus daugiau

●○●

The coach was waiting at a yellow-painted one-storied house with the red-tile roof. He had narrow shoulders, he was slim, and short man dressed in a sports costume. His gray hair cut in a guff betrayed his way of life being rather intensive and nervous. Racing was his passion. His stumpy face was shining, as if he had just won in a lottery. He was coming towards Larry‘s car.

Larry and Arnold had known him since they were boys. He was like a father to them. He would always talk to them, encourage and comfort, if necessary. At first, they were communicating just during the races. Later, when the boys grew up into men, they would come to see him on their own. A passion for speed was the link joining them together. After the first race, when they lost, the guys did not give up. They trained a lot and reached rather good results.

“Hello, hello, I haven‘t seen you for quite a while,” the coach was first start the talking. When Arnold and Larry said their hello, the man noticed their company. “As I can see, you are not just by yourselves. That‘s why it took you some time. I was waiting for you outside and I thought you were not coming. Come on inside, call up the girl as well.”

“She is shy,” Larry said, “She said she would stay in the car.”

“Youth,” his eyes were shining. Perhaps he recalled some memories of his own. “Anyway, you will introduce her sometime…Well, let‘s go. I have prepared some snacks.”

“Wow,” the guys exclaimed when they saw the table loaded with food.

“And here is something to the snacks,” Arnold took off a bottle of whisky from the inner pocket of his jacket.

They were sitting at the table, had some snacks and a shot of whisky from time to time.

“So, coach, you say that we will have enough time to get prepared?”

He smiled, as if he had met a young lady. He seemed very mysterious. He even blushed. Both guys looked at each other.

“What‘s up, coach?” Arnold asked, realizing that there was something wrong.

“Well,” he started demurely, “I‘ve confused you a little…”

“How come?” Larry could not understand. “Arnold said that the race would be held in a month time. So we bolted to you right away…”

“Well, they will be held, but I will not be able to include you into the team.”

“But, coach,” Arnold got disappointed. “I have heard you correctly. You said…”

“How else could I pull you up? Come on… Tell me! When was the last time we‘ve seen each other?”

Larry and Arnold looked at each other. He was right. The guys felt embarrassed.

“So,” the coach chatted with delight and was happy of his joke. “Was it so bad, that I had lied to you?”

The friends were keeping silent.

“I think,” the coach said in a while, “you will forgive me. But don‘t worry, in a year, you will take part in it! Don‘t even doubt it!”

“Nothing can be done,” Arnold softened, putting a chicken leg into his mouth. Having finished it in a second, he sucked the bone and cleaned his lips with a tong. “Since you have cheated us, you have to be praised for that. Isn‘t it so, Larry? Good work!” He took a full glass, “Let‘s have drink to our meeting.”

“This is my last one,” Larry warned, raising his glass. “We have to go back. I wouldn‘t like to have too much. And if you don‘t mind, I‘d like to go and check with Eva. I think, she is bored all alone in the car. May be, I will talk her into going and seeing the castle?”

“Oh, yes, I totally forgot,” the coach realized. “Go ahead, sonny, we’ll be fine. We have things to discuss.”

“Won‘t you miss me?”

“Of course, we will,” the coach replied. “But she is also missing you, isn‘t she? Go, go, and don’t worry about us. Cheer her up…”

“Don‘t forget to come back, Romeo…”

“Stop teasing, Arnold,” Larry blushed. I‘ll get you a fillip!”

“When are you going to grow up,” the coach smiled. “You are still kids.”   

Larry went outside and turned towards the car. He could see from the distance, that Eva was sitting; her head leaned back and turned towards the other side. She is watching clouds, perhaps, he thought. Indeed, the day was not so bright any longer. The sun was hiding behind the clouds. It was not so hot.

Larry went around the car and sneaked to the window where Eva was looking out. He crouched. She was sitting with her eyes closed and her mouth slightly open. Her white oval face seemed calm like that of an angel‘s. If not her gentle breathing you might think, she was dead. He knocked on the window with his nail. Eva slowly raised her long black eyelashes and woke up at once, when she saw Larry‘s face. She looked to Larry from under her black and bush eyebrows with her gloomy and dissatisfied sight. Larry burst into laugh. Now she was very much like a small soft baby tiger, which had just freed himself from his mother‘s supervision and was trying to get established in the surroundings unfamiliar to him. Larry opened the door.

“Just think of it, what a sight,” Larry said, trying to earn her smile. “Has this little baby tiger got angry?”

Eva tried to stay gloom as before, but Larry noticed her crooked smile. But just for a second. Soon she had a sad expression on her face again. “No,” she said, “but I‘m already bored waiting for you.”

“I‘m sorry, Eva. Now I will not let you to be sad. Agreed?”

“I‘m not sad. I’m just a little boring.”

“Okay, get off the car and come on with me.” Larry thought that she was scared.

“Where to?” she asked nervous.

“Let‘s go quickly,” Larry encouraged and extended his hand. “I‘ll show you an ancient castle. It‘s very close, right behind this small forest. Small part of it can be seen from here.”

“Where?” Eva asked with surprise when she got off the car and watched towards the indicated direction. Eva liked that idea. She was charmed by the thought to go and see the castle, but it might have been Larry‘s trap as well.

“Just imagine,” Larry insisted, “dilapidated castle of the old times, surrounded by a stone wall and a huge lake behind it.”

At last, curiosity took over the distrust.

“Okay, Larry, let‘s go there. But it won‘t take us long, all right? I have to be back home and in bed by eleven…”

“All right, all right, we will not stay long there. It‘s just a half an hour walk to the castle.”

Larry went slowly. Eva walked by his side, limping a little. He was talking about his band‘s tours, about tourist trips. He told about his impressions of being on the mountain top, at three thousand meters height, where he felt so small, like a bug, and so giant, like a master of the blue see and the endless sky. And diving… Unspeakable feeling of gratifies, when you are watching the mysterious breath of the silent, but beautifully colorful water kingdom.

Trying to excite Eva, he was painting wonderful views and she listened to him, all trembling and being able to see all these sights thanks to the engaging thought. Suddenly, round the turn, they saw a huge silhouette in the spacious sky. There was an ancient castle standing on the steep rock, with its narrow tower reaching high in the sky, which was decrepit and hollowed by the time and generations of the past. Eva stood still in great astonishment.

“What a wonderful view indeed!” she cried out full of joy. “Oh, Larry, let‘s come closer to the castle. What a beauty! Marvelous…”

She seemed to be carried away. She wanted to get inside, touch the walls, and take a breath of the ancient spirit, to give her up to the faceless silence. She speeded her pace, as if she were obsessed. Larry could hardly catch up with her. Taking large steps, she strained forward to the unknown.

Suddenly, Eva stopped. She got frozen in a shivering anxiety, in a mysterious and impenetrable fear. May be, it was the wrecked castle that caused this fear, its gloomy and mysterious silence, or the dusk fallen down. She was ready to drop. Her knees were shivering. It seemed that her feet were sinking down in the earth and she could not take them out.

“I’m not going any further,” she said in her scared voice. She seemed to be so frightened like a small bird, just fallen out of the nest…

“Don’t be afraid. I’m here. I won’t leave you alone. We can stop here, if you like.”

“Let’s have a look from here.”

She sat down on the lawn edge. Larry got down at her side. Eva silently was looking towards the distance, to the silhouette of that big and mysterious castle and she could feel his heart beating so heavily.

“Don’t you think,” Larry started, “that this is not the first life that we are living?”

She was so excited, that she could hardly understand the question, but she mumbled, “I don’t know. I’ve never thought of it…”

“And I do sometimes,” Larry gave way to his fantasy. “I feel like I had lived in this castle, that I was its ruler and defended it from enemies. It seems to me that here I had been in love with a girl, who was very much like you. And she had the same name like you – Eva.”

Larry talked so convincing, so passionate and poetic. He was dizzy of Eva’s closeness and of the castle in the approaching twilight. He put his arms around her very gently.

“I’ve been looking for you for so long and I have found you at last,” he said in a trembling voice.

Eva got upset… She wanted to get up, get backwards, but she had no strength for that. She was hold by a burning desire to listen to him, to feel the charming words flooding through the heart. She was sitting without a word. Larry bent down in desire to touch her red lips. And she did not turn away, like she did a year ago in Larry’s car, when he also tried to kiss her. Now she was ready not to get upset, to stay calm and to try the sweetness of the first kiss, so desired, at last. Their lips met. Larry laid her down on the lawn, gently supporting. She did not object, as if the kiss had crushed her and broken her will. Eva felt his passion and was thrilling of the pleasure. Larry’s hands could not resist the desire to caress her started slipping down her body. Then something happened. He felt that Eva was trying to push him back. Larry straightened up. Eva jumped off and ran away limping. She was shaking, thrilling of cold, as if she had dropped into water. Larry caught up with her in a few leaps.

“Eva, Eva, please, forgive me,” Larry apologized holding her by hand. “I don’t know what had come over me, I could not resist it.”

Without saying a word and still with her back at him, she stepped forward. They returned in the same mood, without seeing the way ahead and keeping silent. Without a word, Eva got in to the car. Larry wanted to follow her and try to excuse himself, but he abstained from it. She would not understand it.

It’s better to let her calm down now, he thought. She has a right to be angry. I’m senior hers. I had no right to let the passion overcome me and I had to notice the right time for cutting it off. Perhaps, she got disappointed in me… Larry shook his head, as if being unable to put up with a thought, that she would not forgive it to him. He felt so, as if he had betrayed his own mother. I’m a total idiot, he mumbled under his nose. She might think that I’m selfish. I will have to try very hard now, in order to restore her confidence in me. He gave a deep sigh. I hope she will not be mad at me forever. I’d better let her come back to her feelings. I don’t want to look too persistent.

He entered the house. Arnold and the coach were still having some drinks, snacks and small talks.

“You are back already,” Arnold was surprised.

“As you can see…” Larry was very disappointed. He sat down at the table and stared at the bottle label, but he saw nothing.

“So soon?” the coach asked. “Have you been to the castle?”

“Ah, don’t ask better,” Larry said reluctantly.

The coach and Arnold looked at each other.

“So, what? Did you managed even to get cross?” Arnold was persistent.

“No, everything is all right. Just she is in a hurry to go home. I left her in the car. She is waiting for us.”

“Okay, Larry, if that’s the way things are going,” Arnold got serious, “if the girl needs to go home, then we are off. Just we will,” he filled the glasses and looked at the bottle, “finish it up and we can leave. Just one more shot for each of us – it is all that’s left.” He addressed the coach, “You wouldn’t mind, I guess, would you?”

“Of course not… I would never stand in your way. I can understand you.”

Having finished one more shot each, all of them got off the table and went to the car still having some small talking. Fresh air was tempting them by the forest scent. Larry wanted to get rid of the sadness, he looked funny even to himself, but he could not change anything. He knew just one thing – he was under the reign of love at last…

“Wait…”

A sudden voice of the coach frightened Larry.

“Wait,” the coach repeated, “I’ll bring some snacks for the girl. She must have got a little hungry by now.”

“Thanks,” Larry said, “you never forget things that one might not even think of. I am speaking about myself. And some food would be the right thing for her.”

It did not take him long. Larry could see from the distance the coach with a large plate in his hands.

“Here, Larry, take it! The real self-service dinner! Your girlfriend should like it,” the coach was so happy about his foresight.

“Yes,” Larry mumbled and looked at Eva. Why is she mad at me? What is it that she wants? I just wanted that she would get to like me… I wanted her to smile, be happy and to think only about me… What is that I could prove it to her, that I am trapped, and that I am in love traps, which from there is no way to escape? Simply, I am not strong enough to…

“Well, Larry, have a safe trip,” the coach patted him on the shoulder.

Only then did Larry realize that he had been carried away to the skies by the thoughts, somewhere in the labyrinths of love. “See you, coach,” Larry said coming back to himself.

“Well, make sure you do train as I told you. Give me a call, if you need.”

“Yes, yes, we still have time,” Arnold confirmed. “I think, we’ll get ready over a year. If there is any news, you’ll be the first to know about it. I promise.”

“All rights then, go on… Just take care. Understood?” he shook his finger at them.

“Don’t worry,” Larry replied getting into the car. “Well, Eva, are you ready for a flight back home?”

“Long ago, already…”

“Don’t be gloomy,” he extended the plate with nice snacks and blinked an eye at her. “See, we haven’t forgotten about you. Have some and you’ll see the life is not so bad.”

“Well, well, where are my two doves?” Arnold opened the door and looked first at one, then at another. “Okay, I can see that both of them are safe, sound, and eve smiling. That’s very good, very good. So, pal, we can get going. The trip will be a ling one.”

The car was sweeping through the summer warm evening of July. Aroma of acacias was flooding through the open windows and a pleasant drone of tires could be heard. Larry looked up at Eva and he got very delighted. She was having snacks.

“How long are we going to keep silent?” Arnold could not stay calm in his place. “What are you both dreaming about?”

“Why dreaming?” Eva was the first to react, “for instance, I‘m having dinner.”

“Really?” Arnold turned to her. “That‘s good. But still, there is something I don‘t like it…” He gained turned back to Larry and stared at him with his wan look. „Listen, what is wrong with you both? On our way to here, you were in much better moods, and now… Tough you,” he waived his hand and turned to the window.

Larry turned the wheel. The car took the turn into the highway and whirled off to the yellow sunset. They were driving in silence for a long while.

“You know, Arnold,” at last Larry broke the silence, “I guess, it‘s all my fault.”

“Why? What have you done?“

“I‘m in love,” Larry snapped out and turned to the window. He said it in Eva‘s presence; he confessed it in the view of whiteness, because he was overrun by feelings. “Don‘t look at me with such eyes,” he continued, “do you thing it‘s very easy to talk about love? Arnold, you tell me, is it my fault that it has happened?” Larry picked up his right hand from the wheel and swapped his hand across his forehead. It was wet. He again fastened down to the wheel. “I don‘t know, what should I do, buddy.”

“You are not the first one,” Arnold responded, “because love comes just once, if that‘s true love. And then there is nothing you can do, there is no way to escape it.”

Larry looked up into the mirror. He could not see Eva. “Where are you, Eva?” he asked. She did not reply. The guy felt as if somebody had taken his heart and squeezed it between hands. “It‘s all right. If you don‘t feel like talking, but there is one thing I‘d like you to know: I‘m very happy now, that we are together. I just have one wish, that you were happy. This is all I want, do you understand it?”

“See, what he is like?” Arnold tried to bring Eva into the discussion. “We are much alike. We care about the feeling of the ones we love. I was just like him and what would you say? We are happy now…”

Both guys heard the girl‘s deep sigh.

Cars were slowly crawling up the steep hill. There was a huge Moon hanging in the foggy sky. Villages were sailing by, then grasslands, and fields. Later, a smell of tar could be felt. Small familiar houses showed up, and the church. Their town was shining in the distance, as well as the church dome.

“But, Arnold, it has just come to my mind, that you have not introduced your love to me so far?” suddenly Larry said. “It‘s almost three years that you have been married, and I have not seen her. Is there any secret?”

“May be, sometime in future, I think we‘ll have an opportunity for this.”

“Oh, really? Then I will wait for a while… but not for a very long time.”

Arnold was silent. Larry had a suspicion that he behaved that way because of Eva. When Larry stopped at Arnold’s house, it was the time to say goodbye.

“Well, you two doves, have it in mind,” Arnold said, “make it up and give each other a kiss.” Then he gave an inquiring look at Eva and said to her only. “A promise?”

The girl winked as if going to say something.

“And I‘d like to add something.” Arnold did not let her start turning away his eyes. “What is lost once, never comes back. Cherish your feelings. Bye, dear friends, my wife is waiting for me.”

Larry moved on. He was so much willing to pull over the car and take his friend‘s advice, but he was afraid of her reaction, what if she would decide to run away. He decided to make up with her, but first of all he had to get her speaks up. “Where should I take you?” he tried to start the talking without any smarter thought to come to his mind.

“You know it yourself, home,” she replied.

She is talking to me, Larry thought. He was glad. “Why don‘t we pull over at some spot off?”

“No, it‘s late already. Take me home,” she spoke in a sad voice. “My leg hurts…”

“How bad is it?”

“Not so bad, but still it is not pleasant.”

“Poor thing,” Larry tried to comfort her, “I‘m so sorry for my absentmindedness… I wounded your tiny leg, and you wounded my heart…”

“What?” Eva got surprised.

“Don‘t you get it so far, that I fell in love with you like a young boy?”

“I did,” Eva replied frightfully.

The car reached the roadside and stopped.

“Here you are, Eva. You are at home. Before you get off, I‘d like to know, if you like me, at least a little?”

Larry was looking at her with his pitiful eyes and was waiting for the verdict. She did not say a word, opened the door and limped towards the house. Larry could not bear it any more. He jumped off the car and ran up to the girl.

“I‘ll see you home.”

“No need…”

“Don‘t quarrel.” Larry put his arms around the girl‘s waste and slowly took her to a leafy tree growing nearby. He looked straight into her eyes. “Eva, you did not answer…”

She put her arms around his neck and, as if getting frightened by her own behavior, suddenly took her hands away. „I‘m sorry, I didn‘t mean it,“ she tried to explain her behavior.

“Okay, okay” Larry tried to hush up, taking her hand and pressing against the lips.

“Larry,” she whispered, “don‘t…”

That word was supposed to sound like protest, but it reminded of a prayer. His lips pressed on hers. For a moment, she tried to object it, trying to persuade herself, that she disliked the man, but it took just a wink. Her objection was put off like a match in the rain. Her lips responded with insatiable desire… The flood of inexperienced sensations took over her. She was overflowed by a wave of heat. It even did not come to her mind, that whet she was doing instinctively might have been taken as her experience and temptation. Suddenly she bounced back.

“No, stop it, Larry…We can be spotted…” He lips trembled. Her face was pink like a ripe berry. Innocent, but already excited eyes were looking at Larry.

“Baby, you aren’t indifferent to me…”

“Larry, please, I have to go,” she was whispering.

“No, no, no, I can‘t let you go, I don‘t want to… but your folks are waiting for you…”

“Yes… It‘s late already. I cannot stay any longer.”

“All right, Eva,” he agreed. “Just promise that you will not push my love away.” Larry looked straight into Eva‘s eyes and waited for the answer.

She was about to say something, but the words got frozen on the lips. Suddenly, tears showed up in her eyes. She blinked and the tears glittering ran down her cheeks.

Larry bent closer and he was gently collecting those drops of pain with his lips, hugged the girl to his powerful chest and whispered in a low voice, “I love you, love you and I‘ll never let you go, never… Can you hear me?” He sworn and neither a priest, nor church bells were needed for it. He swore to himself and to Eva.

            Eva wiped away the remaining tears from her face. “I love you too…”

“Thank you,” he said with relief. “I had a feeling that you aren’t indifferent to me. I just wanted to hear it from your lips. You won‘t be sorry, Eva, I promise!”

“I wanted to tell you this before, but I did not dare. Forgive me…”

“The most important is that you have told me now… I am so grateful to you, that I have no words to describe it… Now it feels much better, when we both have said this, both have revealed our feelings, isn‘t it?”

“Yes, Larry, much better…”

He kissed her on her lips and hugged. He could feel her heart beating. “Calm down, Eva,” Larry said silently, “I will let you go right away. I don‘t want to, but I know that I have to. We‘ll talk more tomorrow, my sweetie. Promise?”

“Yes… Will you be free tomorrow?”

“Of course, Eva, doesn’t even ask. I‘ll be waiting at the music hall at seven. All right?”

“Trust me, Larry. I‘ll be there,“ said she and on tiptoe kissed him on the lips. „See you tomorrow.”

Larry led with his eyes her go down the door and waited till she disappeared in the dark.

bus daugiau

Chapter 2

A year passed.

 Music sounds could be heard behind the door. Larry listened for a while. Perhaps, everybody has come, Larry thought. And again everybody will nail me with their eyes, will be teasing me for being late. Well, it is my fault; there is nothing to be added.  What can I do? If only I meet Laura, I am late always and to everywhere. She always fawns and romances like a sweet pussycat, as if this would be for the last time. Larry grinned. Am I so precious to her? She so weird… She teases me first, and when I try to kiss her with passion, she gets back and becomes cold… Strange temptation, but I like it.

Larry opened the door and stuck his head in. On the stage, Arnold was playing one of the melodies from the new program with the guitar. Kevin accompanied with electrical organ. Mark was making some notes on a sheet. Larry tried to steal in silently, but the door slammed and everybody turned to him.  

“I‘m late, I‘m late, sorry,” Larry excused himself with his hands in the air. “So sorry, these traffic jams.”

Arnold put the guitar on the ground and said something to his friends. Then he came up to Larry. “Let‘s go aside,” he said. “I don‘t want them to hear us and disturb. I want to talk to you.” Arnold’s face had no good promises. 

“What‘s wrong you?”

“Nothing wrong with me, but you know…” he stopped talking.

He seemed to have no idea what to start from. Larry felt as if his heart was squeezed. What happened? he thought. What does he want from me?

There was dark in the hall wings and Arnold‘s face looked even sterner. “I heard you are dating with Laura. Is that true?” he finally asked.

“Yes,” Larry answered straightly. He felt a sudden relief. Nothing happened, he thought. Just it is all that damn curiosity of the friend. What a jerk! Just what an expression on his face! “So? What do you get now that you have discovered?”

Arnold did not change at all. “You are my best friend. Don‘t think that I wish you bad luck or ask for a report. I am just asking straight. Are you serious about this?”

“Yes, Arnold, very serious,” Larry replied. This discussion was becoming unpleasant, because it was about his girlfriend.

“That means it‘s not just rumors.”

Arnold turned away, thought about something for a while, and then walked around the room. Larry had an impression that it lasted for all eternity. He wanted to listen to what his friend was up to as soon as possible.  Suddenly Arnold stopped. Larry stood still in waiting. He had a twitch in the corner of his left eye.

At last, Arnold turned his face to him and stared to Larry with his wan look. “Laura is not the kind you think she is. Can you imagine this?” 

“I don‘t have to imagine, I do know what she is. We are together for a year already.”

“I can see, that you know nothing about it,” Arnold went on. “I feel sorry for you, because you are my friend. I am very sorry.”

“I don‘t care about what you know. I‘m fine with the thing, that she loves me,” Larry could not stand the unpleasant conversation any longer.

“I doubt it,” calmly Arnold replied and scratched on the back of his head. “I have to tell you something. You are my best friend and I wish you all the best, trust me.”

Larry could not believe his own ears. His friend‘s words were so offending. He was hopelessly in love with Laura. He thought that there was no other woman who would have such a beautiful face and a perfect and graceful body. He had looked for her for so long, and finally she was right beside him… This wonderful woman, who could not kiss, likes a tiger or a beautiful panther couldn‘t… She could just bite softly or to the blood… softly or to the blood…

Larry‘s face changed suddenly. All of a sudden, he became not so sure. What if… “What are you trying to tell me, Arnold?” Larry asked as if having recovered from the hypnosis. “Come on, tell me quickly!”

“During all this year, when you say you have been together, your Laura was Ronald‘s lover. Have you heard anything about him?”

Larry could not say a word. He could feel the blood flowing up… “Yes, I have. He is the chief commissar of the Police,” Larry finally stammered out.

“But this is not the most important news. Laura got pregnant from Ronald and had an abortion.”

Larry felt a piercing chill all over his body. “Where did you get it from,” he asked in a strangled voice. 

“My father, he did this operation. My father is a doctor, you know. He saw you often walking with Laura and he wanted to safeguard you from getting into troubles, so he told everything to me.” Arnold scratched his head again and croaked. “Now you know everything, Larry. It is up to you to decide.  I had to warn you. Anyway, you would have discovered it yourself later. I am sorry, Larry, if I have said something wrong.”

“It‘s all right, all right,” Larry mumbled. “Thanks.” Larry tried to give a smile, but the sorrow did not let him to. The upper jaw went down and tears froze in his eyes.

“Here is something more. Don‘t tell Laura where you have discovered from,” the friend asked. “Doctors have no right to disclose such secrets, you know.  It is the matter of ethics.  But as a man and as your best friend, even more – as your brother, I could not hide it from you. I had to warn you…”

“Don‘t worry, I‘ll keep the secret.”

Larry was like a cat on a hot tin roof. He wanted to cry. He felt as if earth was sliding away under his feet. And yet he had to rehearse. Trying to escape his friends‘ suspicions, he controlled himself at all his efforts. He tried to talk to them as little as possible. He was playing good, though hands trembled… Mark and Kevin did not get a slightest clue. 

He could hardly wait for the rehearsal to finish and bolted right away willing to see Laura. Just wait, darling, I‘ll get al this straight. Larry felt sick.  Damn it, why should I run? I have a car left there… Ah, well, it‘s too far away now; I‘m not coming back.

There were no lights in Laura‘s windows. Larry pressed the doorbell. There was not a sound, a slightest noise… Silence… He circled the house from all sides and could not spot any light. Only then did he feel his heart beating very fast. It was a lie! It was all lies. How could I let her get me into trap, Larry thought. I was fallen in love… And I still am! Arnold is right. She is a pretender. It’s a pitiful trash. Larry spitted. Good that I have not surrendered myself to her charms. Now I get it, what she wanted from me, what was she aim all that time. And I, the dummy, believed in all her tales. Oh, she was good at chatting… And how come I got to believe her? Now I understand why it was always so that I never used to find her at home, when I wanted to see her. Perhaps, she was making love with Ronald at the time. She used to turn up very unexpectedly like a bursting volcano. Larry was looking into the windows and was talking to himself in mind. He was so disappointed, that he desired to get drunk to death. He was standing there and was tortured by a desire to her again.  

            It lightened somewhere. Larry looked around. There was not a single person. It was silent and calm. I can stand here till the very morning, he got furious. I won’t let her make a mock of me. I’m sure, not any more.

●○●

There was a knock on the door. What‘s this, Larry thought. When did it become a habit of my mother to knock on the door? He got up from the sofa, went to the door and opened it with graceful bow.

“Please, come in, my Queen. Since when…” Larry straightened up and the words stuck in his mouth. The smile, extending from ear to ear, vanished like a smoke. It was Laura standing in front of his eyes.

“Good evening,” she said in her sweet voice and smiled. “Surprised?” She kissed him on the cheek and went to the sofa by small steps.

What impudence, Larry thought, he came as if nothing had happened.

            “I missed you, my kitty,” she purred and cuddled comfortably on the sofa. “Where have you been all these three days? Why haven‘t you step by? I was waiting.”

            Larry looked at her in anger. His blood was boiling. How good she is at comforting me, Larry thought, a perfect acting has started. “Indeed,” Larry said in malicious voice. “I came to you the very same evening when we had met, remember? But you did not let me in somehow. Could you give me an explanation why?”

            Larry noticed that her brown eyes were fading slightly and she was staring at one point. Think it over! Use your small brains, Larry thought. What new will you think over?

Suddenly she changed. Her cheeks got blushed; eyes came back to life, though she did not dare to look into Larry‘s eyes. After a short pause, she finally turned to him and said in her unsure, trembled voice, “When did you arrive?”

“When, when… Right after the rehearsal… It might have been seven o‘clock in the evening.”

“But I was at home,” Laura replied; though she could hardly control herself.

            “That means I have mixed the houses,” Larry lost his temper. “I have a perfect memory. I can still remember my mother‘s maiden name and even her birthday. What are trying to tell me? May be, that you yourself have forgotten where you live? Wake up, Laura!”

“You don‘t believe me?” she tried to burst into tears. “I was at home… Really… Believe me. May be, I was asleep at that time, because felt very tired that day. I might have not heard the door bell.”

“Laura, you are contradicting your own words,” Larry gave a malicious smile. “You are not sure, if you have been asleep, but you know that you have been tired. Who are you trying to cheat? This is you, isn’t it? I was standing under your windows right until the midnight, like a bodyguard, and no light came up in your house. Not in a single room! If you have been in bed since seven o‘clock in the evening, you would have gotten up. Simply, you were out.”

“But Larry,” she raised her voice insensibly and in a short moment continued calmly. “Yes, now I do remember clearly. That day when we met, I went home. I don‘t know why, but I had a terrible headache. I had a cup of tea and went to bed. At first, I could not get asleep, but perhaps I did later. I woke up far after the midnight.” Laura was talking very honestly. Tears were still glittering in her eyes.

What a sweet lie! What a performance! Larry thought. If not the tears, I would drive you out at once, despite all the charm. She lied. Larry understood that Laura would never admit her infidelity. He could not prove it; otherwise, he would have to betray Arnold‘s father. Laura had turned him around her finger. She was one of the women who lie with all their body and soul. Larry was so disgusted at it that he seemed to feel snakes wreathing around his body. She is much like a snake, Larry thought. She is very good at lying herself out of it. She hooked to my words that I was waiting till the midnight and here she goes. She is lying again!

“I‘m sorry for that day,” she said tearfully, “ I love you…”

            This is a lie, Larry thought, nervously circling around the room. She is waiting for me to get softer. “All rights, all right, calm down and stop crying. I believe you,” he said in order to break silence, though he has totally different thoughts in his mind. Enough, that’s all. I‘m fed up with your double facing. I‘m not willing to see you pretending. “Just I‘m not in a mood to talk to you today. I‘d like to stay by myself.”

“Sure, of course,” Laura chatted having understood that the storm is calming down. “I‘m leaving in a moment and will not disturb you getting rest. But, can you sit down next to me for a while?”  

“I‘m not going to sit down next to you,” he could hardly reject that temptation and went to the window. “I have some work to do.”

“But Larry, please…”

            Larry was looking through the window and could not get settled in his feelings. What should I tell her, so that she would leave me in peace? What should I start from? How can I get rid of her?” He heard a silent, but cheerful laugh behind his back. “Why is it so funny?” Larry asked, still at the window.

“You are very nervous drumming the glass,” she was still laughing, “are you afraid of me?”

            “Dear Laura,” he told her, “please be reasonable, I‘d like to stay alone.”

            It was too late. When he turned around, his eyes almost got out of the eye-sockets. His face trembled, as if due to the stomachache. The girl was standing totally nude, having dropped her dress and underwear on the floor. She had a perfect body. He could have considered this as a sign, only if he would have time and desire to gush out. 

“Are you nuts, or something?” Larry stuttered, hardly swallowing slobber from his mouth and staring at nude Laura. “Get dressed quickly. What are you up to? It‘s not a strip-tease hall. Stop fooling around walking naked.”

      “Well, don‘t you like it?”

“I do, I do,” Larry could not remain in his skin. “Don‘t frighten my mother. She might come in at any moment…”

“Just on one condition,” Laura said proudly, “if you give me a hug, kiss me and swear to be more reasonable, only then I will get dressed.”

            Laura smiled. Larry sweats all over because of such proposal. He did not know what to do. He understood that much, that he had no other choice. Who knows, what else might get into her mind? Larry retreated. He went close to her, gave her a hug and kissed the girl. “I swear, Laura…”

“Please, Larry,” Laura whispered, trembling and holding him tight, “lie down with me on the sofa, just for five minutes.”

            Larry pushed her back slightly with shaking hands. “I can‘t now,” he said rather harshly, “next time. Get dressed quickly before my mom has got here…”

“Okay, I can understand you,” she narrowed her eyes and put her long finger up in the air. “You have made a promise, so I‘ll be waiting for you tomorrow. Agreed?”

“All right, all right, gets dressed. Agreed.”

            Laura reluctantly dressed, with disappointment on her face. “Tomorrow I‘ll be waiting for you at my home,” she reminded, crossing the doorway.

“All right, see you tomorrow…”

            He saw her to the door. When he got rid of her, only then he could breath freely again after her unexpected visit and performance. His body was still uptight. Now he realized only one way out – he needed to get refreshed.  He went to the bathroom.  He saw his face in the mirror. He was pale and frightened. 

What shall I do? he asked himself. Shall I continue with her? I‘ worried, but I have to confess that she still attracts me. Larry turned on the shower tap. Cool water was running down his body. He closed his eyes. There were no more thoughts. There was just a refreshing coolness.

            All day long Larry was on alarm. The evening was coming closer, and he had not made any decision regarding what to do with Laura. So much cheating and so much lies. He could not bear it. Even if she would confess, she could hardly change her nature. No, he decided, I cannot get attached to her. I have to keep in a distance from her, till I have enough power for this. She will never change. She would always find an excuse.

He did not go to Laura, as he had promised. Neither Laura showed up or called.  Perhaps, she wanted to give Larry a trial. It was for the first time, when she played such performance in Larry‘s eyes. She was sure, that the guy would fly to her like on the wings. They had met neither on the second day, nor on the third… In the beginning, Larry was suppressed by the split, but time cures wounded souls. In two weeks time Larry seemed much stronger.

Chapter 3 

The day was very bright and the sun was even blinding. It was the end of July, an ordinary day. Larry got on to the town bus in order to reach ‘Rose’ café, where he had agreed to meet with Arnold. The air smelled fusty and that was like wet blanket. Looking for a place to stand, he caught a sight of a couple standing in front. Larry got lost. It was Laura and a young man he did not know.

They were leaning against the window glass and so busy with each other, that they would not have noticed Larry, even if he had stood next to them. Larry felt sorry for that guy; he was still just a boy… And his eyes were so naive and faithful. Larry did not feel neither jealousy, nor anger. He even did not feel any grieve. May be, it was just some disappointment. At last, he realized that Laura had never been and was not faithful to him. The true seductress, Larry thought and sat down in an empty seat. May be, this is the first time she has fallen in love with this red-cheeks boy? No, Larry thought, can‘t be true. Whoever you like, but not the man like this is her choice. Anyway, the boy seems to have fallen in love with her till the tips of his ears. Larry saw the guy giving her a hug. In a minute, he leaned back and took the girl by her hand. Laura looked over the whole bus. But she did not seem to see much. That was just her manner. Holding each other by hands, they lost the touch with the window and got off the bus smiling.  

Larry sighed. He looked through the window. The sun was still shining blindly bright. He stared at a fly on the window. It was crawling very quickly, as if it was in a rush. It wings used to buzz and it used to take off for a while and get down again. Then it crawled further. Larry‘s sight was penetrating towards the distance. Flashbacks of memories emerged in his eyes.

“Am I driving not too fast?” Larry asked.

“No, go ahead and speed it up! I love you, Larry; my heart is going to jump out of my chest! Larry, my heart is crazy… It loves you, when you are driving the car, when you are flying like a bird… Larry, let‘s be easygoing! My heart is willing to lie down on the lawn… It wants to lie down and fly!”

Yes, Laura, you were happy, Larry‘s thoughts brought him back to the reality, but that was not enough for you. You tried to look for something I could not give it you somewhere else… Patience was the only thing needed. Now it‘s all over. It’s no more of confusions. All is forgotten. Forever. Larry looked around. His stop was coming soon. He got up and went towards the door. 

            It was light at the cafe. Metal ashtrays glistered on empty tables. There were few waiters having a lively chat at one of the tables.  Larry sat down at the window. Soon he was sipping his juice and watched the street. People were popping in and out. The sky was slightly getting darker, though there were no clouds on it.  As it was coloring itself, Larry started worrying. It was more than half an hour later, and Arnold had not showed up. In other cases, he would not have got distressed, but then after coming head-to-head with Laura; he needed the friend‘s support.  

            Arnold showed up in an hour. He seemed to have lost some weight, but his eyes were shining like ones of a hungry cat. He grasped the juice and emptied the glass in one gulp, even without sitting down.

            “Are you straight from the sauna, that you are so thirsty,” Larry teased him.

“Almost,” Arnold smiled and burped without ceremony. “I‘m sorry… You know, Larry, I have hurried to you with a good idea.”

“What kind of idea?” Larry was surprised.

“We are not going to have any concerts for the four months time, aren‘t we?”

“Seems like that…”

“So, I say, why don‘t we take part in the race? They are going to be in a month time.”

“But Arnold, we have not had any training…”

“We‘ll manage,” Arnold insisted. “Just tell me, if you would like to. We are going to have lots of free time, we‘ll get ready.”

“We could give it a try, if you like. Will the coach agree to it?”

“I have just called him. He is waiting for us.”

            Larry opened his eyes widely with surprise. “Right now?”

“I think so, right now. If it takes long, we‘ll stay over the night there and come back tomorrow morning. I have made arrangements already.”

“You are quick,” Larry was surprised.

            “And you‘ve just asked, if I‘m right from the sauna,” Arnold grinned. “Okay, hurry up, pal. Get your car and come here.”

“Why not here? Let‘s come together.”

“No, Larry… I‘d like to get my mouth wet a little. Do you get it? Well, and we‘ll take a bottle for the trip.”

“Aha… All right, then wait for me here.”

●○●

            The breaks screamed.

“Are you training already, or something?” Arnold asked, when he opened the door. He writhed in to the car and smiled from ear to ear. “You‘ve almost drove over my feet.”

“Come on, I saw you from the distance. See how exactly I managed to stop? You just had to open the door.”

“All right, all right, let‘s get going,” Arnold said, trying to get settled comfortably. “When we start moving, then you will have time for training.”

“You know,” Larry said, “may be, you yourself would like to drive in this race?”

“We‘ll see, it‘s too early to think of it. Well,” Arnold gave a blink, “ to the start line!” Larry started the engine and let it roar for a few times. Arnold put his finger up in the air. “Ready, go!”

            The tires turned idling and the car disappeared from the sight. Larry took up the racer‘s role at once. Having caught up and taken over several competitors, he was going forward. Here is the turn…

“Stop it, Larry!”

“I can see it!”

Like a senseless robot, Larry pressed on the brakes to the bottom. The tires screamed. The car turned and slightly touched a girl who had suddenly run into the street. For a moment, both were silent trying to understand what had happened.

“What a luck!” Larry hit the wheel with his hands and broke the silence. “Why did she rush down under the car!”

“Perhaps, she was carried away by her thoughts. Let‘s hurry up and see how she is feeling. May be, nothing too bad?”

“Good that there were no other cars driving behind or at the side,” Larry sighed, when he checked around, “otherwise who knows what would have been the end like.”

            Both guys jumped off the car. The girl lied on the asphalt paving, trying to reach her left knee with one hand. Frightened friends got close to her. 

“How bad are you wounded?” Larry tried to help her up taking by the shoulders. “Where did you go in such a rush? You should not run across the street like with scorched eyes.”

“I thought I would manage,” Larry heard a silent answer. “The car was far away…”

            Larry could feel her shaking. When raising her up slowly, he cast a glance to Arnold. Racers, both of them thought. They knew very well that they had exceeded the speed limit. Arnold showed towards the girl by a nod of his head. Larry understood him.

“Are you all right?” Larry asked the girl, when she was already up.

            She was still bending when exploring her leg. Larry looked at the same spot.  There was no blood, just a small scrape.  She fell on the asphalt, thought Larry.

“I‘m okay just the leg hurts a little,” the girl said, raised her eyes and looked timidly at Larry.

“It is all right, it‘s just…” Larry‘s face lost its previous expression. It was Eva standing in front of him, with expression of pain and fear on her face. The very same black-haired girl, just a little taller, but she had not changed at all. “It‘s you, Eva?” Larry was surprised and stared at her. He could not hear or see anything around; he stared at her eyes. “Damn it, it is you, Eva…”

            For a moment Larry‘s thoughts flashed back to the past. He remembered when they met for the first time. He blushed again and his worry on the face was replaced by a smile. He also recalled, that she never showed up for their date, but now it did not seem so painful. May be, she simply could not make it then? Oh God, isn‘t it a miracle that she is next to me again?

            Only then did Larry feel that he was sweating. Only then, he did hear the noisy crowd having gathered to check what had happened there.

“See, Eva, there is no chance to escape the fate,” Larry said gently, when he came back to his feelings.  “We have met again. Just the place is not very right. Perhaps, the fate wants us to stay together. And what do you think, Eva?”

“I don‘t know, may be…”

“Well,” Arnold came up and looked at Eva. “Are you okay? Shall we take you to hospital?”            “No, Arnold, it won‘t be necessary,” Larry replied. “Get back into the car, I‘ll be right back with you.”

“Whatever you say… I just wanted to help.”

“I know that everything is all right. I just want to talk with her.”

            When Arnold disappeared, Larry hugged Eva around the waist. She stood still, as if having noticed a snake nearby. She is so shy, he thought. Is there no one who can hug her? It‘s a shame, I gave to go to see the coach, and otherwise I would not let her go.

Suddenly, he heard a strange voice in his mind that whispered to him, “Take her with you!” Larry liked this saving thought very much, so he took the lead right away. 

“Don‘t be afraid of me,” Larry said, “I won‘t bite you.”

“I am not afraid, just let me go,” she tried to free herself from his arms, “I can walk myself.”

            Larry did not let Eva go and went on talking, “You see, Eva, how many people have gathered around. If we are not out of here, the police might come. Do you want us all to give explanations to them?”

“No, but…”

“Please, let‘s get into the car. If you like, I can take you home right away.”

“I am just from home. I was on my way to a friend.”

Very good, he thought, that meant she has some time. “Really?” Larry could hardly hide his joy. He turned towards the crowd, which was still there. “Everything is okay,” Larry addressed the curious people. “Nothing wrong has happened. She is my friend. We will take her home.” Then he told to Eva, “The guy in the car is my best friend. We were on our way to see the coach. Why don‘t all of us go there?”

“I guess, not,” she opposed, “ you‘d better take me to my friend‘s place.”

“Whatever you say, whatever is your choice,” Larry was disappointed by her decision, “I just thought it might cheer you up… But if your friend is more importance, than good intentions of mine, there is nothing to be done. Larry sighed. “Let‘s go into the car then, I‘ll take you to your friend.”

Eva could feel Larry‘s mood. A not of bitter disappointment could be heard in his words. She felt sorry for him, when he agreed with the current state and agreed to take her to the friend.  It‘s the day after the fair, she thought, coming towards the car. When saw me he shined like a crystal, and now he is just an obeying servant. If he asks me for once again, she decided, I’d agree to go together with him, though it will look improper.

Larry was silent. He opened the door and helped Eva to get in.

“Well, Arnold,” he gave a deep sigh, fastened the seat belt and looked at his friend. “Our plans have changed. We‘ll take this lady to where she needs. She is our victim, and we are gentlemen, of course. It is so, isn’t it, Eva?”

            Eva could not answer. She swallowed the bitterness and kept silent. 

“Do you now each other?” Arnold was surprised.

“Seems like that,” Eva replied pitifully.

“You have no brains at all…” Arnold slammed on Larry‘s shoulder. “Why haven‘t you offered you girlfriend to join us?” Still smiling he turned back to Eva and gave an eye blink, “He is such a jerk.”

            Larry found her eyes in the back view mirror. Her eyes were very sad. “Truly, Eva,” Larry tried once again, looking at her over the back view mirror “let‘s come together with us. The trip won‘t be short, but you will like it, I promise.”

“We promise,” Arnold corrected him.

            Larry saw her smile. That‘s a good sign, he thought. “Well, Eva,” he turned to her and looked with much more cheerful sight, “Let‘s go together?”

“Well,” she considered out loud, “I can see you are very funny and charming, hopefully, I won‘t get disappointed.”

“It is him who is charming,” Arnold said, having turned to Eva, and clapped on Larry‘s shoulder. “I‘m just funny…when it‘s needed.”

“I see,” Eva replied, “So, what are waiting for?”

“Any music?”

“Yes, of course!”

Arnold started browsing in the disk box. He found Elvis Presley’s disk and switched on the player. “Here you go, ladies and gentlemen,” he informed cheerfully, “the good old rock-n-roll.”

            That disk was inspiring. Larry started the engine and moved forward. When they reached the high way, he felt as the right man in the right place. He flew exceeding the speed limit. He had somebody to show off for.

“Here you go, Eva, get ready,” Larry warned, trying to shout over the music, “You will see yourself, after we reach the top this hill…” There was a beautiful valley revealing in front of them: little houses, a church of red brickwork and greenery of hills. Larry was driving and enjoying the sight. “Well?”

“It‘s beautiful…”

            Arnold lowered down the music. “And where have you met?” he asked Eva.

“Hasn‘t Larry told you?”

“Come on, stop it, Arnold, you old devil! What do you want from her!”

Larry slammed his shoulder with a fist. But Arnold could withdraw just for a moment, until he was up with a new joke. Showing off like a rooster among his hens, he said, “If I were you, I would be sitting next to my girlfriend, instead of circling the wheel!”

            Larry caught Eva’s look, which was embarrassed. He had to calm down his blowing up friend.

“You‘d better stay in your own place, and have no claims to others! Got it?”

“What‘s wrong? I am just kidding,” Arnold was slightly offended and cast a cross look towards Eva.

“Let him drive further, if he wants,” Eva finally understood Arnold‘s joke, “I will manage by myself somehow.”

            “See, the girl is unhappy…”

“All right, all right, you grumbler, leave us in peace,” Larry said and looked at Eva over the mirror. She turned her eyes away towards the window at the last moment. “Let‘s listen to some music and dream about something.”

            The sun was still roasting hot behind the window. There was a herd of cows… And a village… Women… Kids… The landscape flew away passing by…

“It‘s been two hours already like we are on the way. How about a short stop?”

“Is it worth while,” Arnold stretched himself up and yawned. “One more hours and we‘ll be there. Isn‘t that so, Eva?”

“I am fine. I can further for hours…” Eva moved closer towards the left window and closed her eyes.  The sun caressed her face. 

“Do you like when it‘s hot?” Arnold asked with surprise.

            Eva opened her eyes and slightly raised her head. “I love it,” she said and lowered her long eyelashes again.

“And I hate the heat.”

            The car was slipping along the serpent like highway. Linden trees blossomed on the roadsides. The dogs could be heard barking in the distance. There were gardens all over the place. Smells of the nature were so tickling. There were butterflies floating around.

“It‘s very close, Eva,” Larry broke down the total reverie. He looked up into the mirror. Her eyes were rather tiresome. May be, the trip has been boring to her, Larry thought. Well, we‘ll have a chance to spend some time eye-to-eye, and we will come back to life, I promise. “Do you hear me, Eva?”

“Are we there?”

“Not yet, but soon will get there,” he blinked to her over the mirror. Eva smiled.

“At last,” Arnold added, “I‘ve had enough of sitting also.”

bus daugiau

●○●

An hour later, Larry was lying on a sofa. His eyes were wandering from pot flowers on the windowsill to the picture, and his thoughts were far away: Larry was planning the dates…  Eva excited the guy. Such a feeling had never been raised by any of his girls he new. 

Tomorrow I will meet Eva – the black-haired girl… How come did she charm me at the first sight? Well, who cares? Larry was swimming further. She is so simple and sweet… She is like a child… Yes, she is different than the ones I often meet… She differs from her contemporaries… So chaste… Why did she agree to date with me? And why shouldn‘t she? Am I so common? Or may be she wants to catch up with her friends? She is so young… But wait! Larry felt as if his hear stopped beating. Can I date with her? What will her parents say to this? What, if all my dreams are hopeless? How come I haven’t thought about this? And my friends!”

Avalanche of thoughts did not leave him in peace. His mind and heart were on a powerful struggle. She needs a friend of her age, Larry decided. I am senior hers, though, not much, but I am used to another type of relationships… I am not minded to make a sacrifice… I enjoy being free and independent… I go, where I want, and I do, what I want…  I need relations without any liabilities… I need a different girl, Larry thought. A mature girl, who knows what she wants, who would also be independent… yes, yes, and who would understand me and would love me the way I am… But Eva is so sweet! No, I have to meet her, I need to see her, and I want to talk to her… Larry did not know how to behave. Those endless contradictions were very tiresome. That‘s it. Enough, he could not bear the tension any more. We‘ll see tomorrow. As they say, in the morning thoughts are more reasonable than in the evening. I need to start doing something in order to forget this for now.

He went to the cupboard and started browsing on the shelves. He found the folders with sheet music and listed them through humming favorite melodies under his nose. He could not concentrate on the work, so he dropped the sheets and took the dumbbells from under the chair. I‘d better do some training, he said to himself. 

Larry was well known for his athletic body. He liked sports. And though he spent not so much time for training, just half an hour every other day, his body was like that of a wrestler. And he was very happy about that, he felt like a mountain mover.

Standing in front of a mirror, he was doing simple exercises and watched himself. Suddenly, somebody entered the flat. Though it was dark in the hall, Larry could spot a man‘s face, once seen somewhere.

“What are you doing here so late. Training?” he heard the voice.

“Ah,” Larry had recognized Arnold‘s voice and cheered up. “You have caught me pretending to be a strongman,” Larry said turning towards his friend, leaned down and put the dumbbells back on the floor.

“And what? Would you deny this? Only you wide shoulders remind of a wardrobe,” Arnold ‘praised’ his friend. “It is not to no purpose that girls are twisting around you like bees around honey.”

“Come on, stop teasing me and tell me what you have come for.”

“Don‘t you see, I‘ve brought your guitar. After the concert, this evening you‘ve ran away as if being on a hunch of some earthquake. You‘ve left your friends, you left your guitar as well…”

“Damn it, I totally forgot about it,” Larry got blushed in shame, “Thanks.”

“No problem that’s what friends is for. Well, tell me, how was it?”

Here it comes again, Larry thought. It‘s impossible to hide anything away from Arnold. I cannot tell him about it this time. I need to get off the hook somehow. “Why are you nagging,” Larry asked, pretending not to understand anything.

“Don’t pretend my friend! You won’t cheat me. You are blushing like a girl. I saw you gazing at that girl after the concert…”

Corners of Arnold lips twitched. At that moment Larry wanted to come closer to his friend and give a good rub on his nose with his palms, so he would stop teasing. But Larry knew his weak point. Arnold liked teasing. That was all.  Otherwise, he was calm.

“So,” Arnold grinned from ear to ear, “will you tell me yourself, or you prefer that I would force you to?”

“All right, all right, I give up,” Larry yielded to this point. “I‘ll tell you some time, just not know. Don‘t be mad, bro. I‘m not in the right mood now, okay?”

“All right, live in peace,” Arnold melts. “What can I do here with you… I will not force you… Is it worth getting rid of you? What can I take from you? Unless I would do some research…” he waved away and leaned the guitar against the armchair,  “Ah, these are not worth as well…”

“That‘s true, pal. There is no use of me, especially tonight.”

“All right,” Arnold went towards the door, “I‘d better be going.”

“Bye,” Larry gave a pat on the friend’s shoulder and saw him to the outside door.

After he latched on the door, Larry went to the kitchen for something to drink. He poured a glass of apple juice, got refreshed and returned to the room. He took the guitar to its place. Then he looked at the clock. It was ten-thirty. It‘s time for a rest, he decided. Perhaps, everything will look different tomorrow… Having found a pleasant melody for his ears, he lied on the soft bed. He tried to think of nothing. And it worked. He even did not sense, how he sank in waves of the night music.

 ●○●

Larry’s dream was cut by a metal sound. He opened his eyes and realized that it was his mother, the cause of that noise. Perhaps, she is preparing breakfast, Larry thought. After few more minutes in bed, Larry washed, got dressed and sneaked into the kitchen.

His mother was standing at the gas stove and was stirring something with a scoop. The scent coming from the pot was so pleasant, that Larry’s mouth watered with taste.  

“What are you cooking here that it has so tasty smell?” he asked.

“Ah…My sleepyhead,” mother smiled turning to Larry. “You would sleep over your own wedding.”

Mother was cooking cranberry jam. She looked pretty nice and reminded of the Santa Clause – short, plump, swathed in a kerchief, with cheeks red from steam…

“That‘s the purpose of Sunday, that you can stay in bed as long as you want,” Larry smiled and whispered to his mom‘s ear. “When you were young, didn‘t you sleep long?”

“Stop it, son, don‘t disturb me,” she gave a squirm. “Get something to eat for yourself, because I have to finish this…”  

Mother was great parrying the question, Larry thought. She does not like empty talking.

Right away Larry arranged for the breakfast and was full and happy in half an hour. Since he realized that his mother was had no intention for chatting, he left the kitchen caressing his full stomach. He had no idea what to get busy with and he decided to go to a cafe in the town center. The youth was fond of that place. Larry‘s friends used to gather there. 

Outside he was met by a fresh wind flow. He went slowly, observing the shining shop windows, taking over couples here and there, spotting the one or the other car, and leaving the church domes and the bus station behind him.

The cafe was almost empty. He was about to sit down at an offside table, but somebody called him by name.  Larry turned around. He saw Mark in a company of charming girls. The three were staring straight at him. Mark was in a good mood. His oval and dark face was purple. The dark brown eyes were sparkling like diamonds. He looked like a true gentleman between the two beautiful girls. Larry did not expect to see Mark there. He raised his hand hoping to say hello in that way and avoid that company.  

“Come and join us at this table,” Mark invited him cocking his eye and waved his hand throwing his light, long hair on the back. 

Larry was about to grumble something, but he noticed a familiar face. The girl was sitting on the chair, casually leaning back on it. A cigarette smoldered in her hand. Though her pose and the cigarette did not show her good behavior, she did not look like a restaurant‘s madam.  She was wearing a very elegant slinky dress, and she held he head almost in a royal bearing. Her pale face had a wonderful and at the same time overbearing, looks. She looked like a doll and a young princess.  Larry came closer to the table.

“I‘d like you to meet someone. This is Laura and my girlfriend Emma,” Mark introduced his escort.

Laura extended her nice hand, which was cold like ice from the glass of champagne. “Come, sit down, Larry,” she said playfully. “Don‘t be surprised, Mark told me your name.”

Her eyes were sweet and slightly snide. At that time, Larry could not understand the color of her eyes, but later he realized that they were dark brown. He had never seen such eyes.

“Thanks,” Larry said. Embarrassed, he sat down next to Laura. Only then did he notice that her body under that snake-like dress seemed unusually flexible and seducing. What the hell brought me here? Larry thought. I could have lounged about. And I have a meeting with Eva.

When he pulled together, Larry looked at Laura again.  The girl‘s sight was still snide as before. For Larry, it was embarrassing and tempting at the same time. “You look familiar to me,” Larry tried to start the conversation, “but I cannot remember where I have seen you.”

“The town is small, may be,” she agreed, “though, I think this is the first time I meet you. May be, you are writer or a poet, who tries to avoid the world’s vanity?”  

Indeed, Larry preferred to stay away from the true-life fuss. 

“Bingo,” Mark got in. “This musician and sportsman, in fact, is a shy and closed up stay-at-home.  I can say this as a friend, since I know him very well. Moreover, he is afraid of girls as of fire.” 

“Don‘t blunder out,” Larry tried to school the friend‘s ribald, feeling his ears and cheeks blush.

“All right, all right, I’m kidding,” Mark tried to change the topic, when he noticed Larry‘s status. “What do we drink and what do we eat?”

“Don‘t get offended, but I will be here just for a short stay. I have no mood for a party. I wanted to sit down and think over calmly.”

“You what, pal,” Mark did not give up, “don‘t be so sour, life is short…”

“Yes, and there is just one life,” Laura supported him.  

Larry did not like their cues, but he did not manage to get away. “All right, you win,” Larry fetched a sigh, thinking that he had got enough time. “A shot or two won‘t make any harm, I guess.”

“Of course,” Mark rejoiced calling for a waiter.

The girls looked at each other. Larry noticed when Emma cast her eye to Laura, who took a deep breath as if preparing for a dive.

“Well,” finally uttered she taking her breath, “stay-at-homes also have to walk off for a while…”   

Soon, a short and round like an apple waiter sprang up in front of them and, after looking everybody up and down, and stopped his sight at Mark. “What you would like to order?” he asked in a thin voice.

“I guess, the company wouldn‘t mind, so we‘ll have some beer and spicy chicken wings, for the starter.”

“Anything else?”

“That‘s it for now. Just don‘t forget about pepper…” Mark was joking.

The waiter looked up as if checking for rain clouds gathering above, and walked away without a word.  

It did not take him long. The wings were so spicy, that soon they ordered for another round of beer. Later, they took another round. Larry was about to forget everything. No one felt a shortage in talking – neither himself, nor Mark or the girls.  There were more and more whoops, laugh and jokes coming from their table.

I guess I‘m wined up, Larry thought, when they were half through the second bottle of cognac. Today it’s earlier than usually. Yes, this day is good indeed. This beautiful brown eyes next to me … She is here, my Eva… But wait! Larry stiffened like a stone, as if he were hit into the pit of the stomach. I have a meeting with Eva! Really… What am I doing here? He looked at his watch. It was a quarter to seven. It‘s good I am not far away. I will manage to be on time.

Larry felt that his left arm was shaking madly.

“Larry, Larry, what happened?”

When he came back to himself, he understood that it was Laura shaking him by his arm.

“Oh, I‘m sorry. I‘ve almost forgot, but I have to go now.”

“What‘s wrong, Larry?” the girl became sober in a second. 

“Don‘t be mad, baby, and you too,” Larry stuttered and started hiccupping. He turned away from everybody and raised his finger.

“Come on, Larry, stop kidding,” Mark got cross, “we are just half way through…”

“You have to understand,” he tried to explain. “I have a very important thing to do. I‘m sorry, if I am not back, please don‘t have offended.” 

“Anything else?” The waiter hummed.

“Strong coffee and hurry up. I am on a run.”

“Cut it off, Larry!” Mark was screaming already. It seemed like his eyes were about to tip out of their sockets. “No small things!”

“Things can wait,” Laura added, caressing Larry‘s hand.

Larry understood that Laura was so unwilling to let him go. Her eyes were witnessing that. Big and distinct on her pale face, they were as if stiffened with despair.  Larry felt sorry for her. Just a moment ago she looked like amazons, and now… And what about Mark? What‘s wrong with him?

“Your coffee,” the waiter emerged from a side and put a cup in front of Larry.

“Thanks,” Larry said and looking at his friends tried to calm them down. “Please, understand me. This is a very important and delicate matter. But I promise to be back soon.”  

“Well, Larry, okay. Jut hurry up. One foot there and the other foot here,” Mark agreed. “Hurry up, otherwise we‘ll get split.”

“Yes, yes, Larry, we‘ll get split,” Laura added, gazing at him with her challenging eyes.

Having finished his coffee in a hurry, Larry left his disappointed friends and stepped out the cafe. It was wet, but warm outside. The sky like a dragon‘s jaws was hanging between walls of houses, above roofs… Larry took a deep breath of warm air and wanted to enjoy that nice view, but he did not have time for that. He had to be on time for the date. So, right away he ran down towards the silence of the ascending evening. 

In the distance, he saw a heavy building of the music hall and started searching for Eva with his wondering sight. He could not see anybody like her. Where might she be? he thought. May be she is hiding somewhere… Perhaps, she has not come yet? Yes, may be she is not yet here? Girls are always late.

He looked at his watch and relaxed. It was two minutes to seven. I managed, Larry calmed down, and Eva should be here in a moment. His eyes were fussing over the shoulders of passers-by. Faces. Eyes. He was looking for those blue, special ones, but he spotted the wrong ones. Larry was waling around, looking around and fidgeting, but Eva never turned up. Why is she doing like that? Why? he was asking himself. Why is she not coming? Larry could remember each word of his own after the concert. He recalled her words as well. He remembered when he was taking her home and asked her to date. She agreed. She doubted, but agreed. Then, why on earth she is late? Larry felt some prick of remorse. This serve me right, he was angry on himself. I myself tried to persuade that she needs a different man. And here you are! She hasn‘t come…

There was a huge square. There were lots of faces. A modern building illuminated with rainbow colors. The wind blew nestling up like a cat to one or another corner of the concert hall. The washed out purple color of the sky… And there was a lonely man, very lonely among the people passing by. Larry stood still and saw nothing in front of him. He was looking bleary-eyed somewhere in the distance and it was so empty in his soul. His heart was burning with resentment. 

I have been cheated, he decided. He looks at his watch. An hour and a half had passed. She sneered at me. Yes… I guess so. The heartburn grew into anger. That‘s good for me. I‘ve been taught a lesson, and I am not going to be dumb any more. I can love another girl! Laura is worth of it. I‘m going back to the cafe and I‘ll forget about this traitor!

●○●

The cafe was crowded. Larry was looking for the table, where he had left the friends. They were still there. Good, Larry thought, I‘ll surprise them. He went to the bar and agreed that would attend the table himself. 

“Here‘s your lemon brandy, goose liver…”

“Larry,” Laura exclaimed shining. “You are back?” Her eyes reflected a hazard – that of love or a good deal.

“Oh, pal, we missed you so much,” Mark revealed his joy. He got up on his feet. “Let me help you.”

In a moment, the table again was loaded with meals and drinks. The feast continued.

“That‘s the spirit! Truly, I haven‘t expected you back,” Mark said. “When leaving, you looked like your holiness, and now, just look at him, here is the true old Larry back!”

“You were not sure? If I say I‘ll be back, that means I‘ll be back. Don‘t you know me?” 

“Yes, I do. I know you keep your word. Let‘s drink to this!” Both, Laura and Emma agreed to him.

The feast was not boring. They were drinking, eating and having fun, especially Larry.  He was talking all the time like a crazy man, though he was known as a tight-lip person, he was drinking shot by shot, though he was not a hard drinker. Although himself surprised him, but then it was that way, he wanted to behave like that. He knew that he could forget all about it, only if he was having fun, so he did have it. He did not want even to thing of the pain. The life was proposing something, and Larry was not rejecting it.

Well after the midnight, when the cafe was almost empty, the cheerful four came to the reality. The town was sleeping.  From time to time, lonely passers-by or police officers disturbed its peacefulness.  At the cafe door, Mark and Emma said goodbye and went away, leaving Larry with Laura alone. 

“Well, here we are, two of us,” Larry sighed.

Laura stood in front of him, as if waiting for something. She looked along the illuminated street. The light ray extended on her cognac colored hair.

“You should see me to home,” Laura suggested, having turned to Larry and smiled.

“Sure, with pleasure.”

They silently walked along the gloomy street, both sunken in their own thoughts. The night was spacious and reverberant. Sent of blossoms was penetrating from the dark.

“You know, we knew each other some time ago,” suddenly Laura said.

“Did we?” Larry was surprised. 

“Yes, ten years or so ago, may be less. We were neighbors. Of course, if you remember…”

Larry thought very hard trying to remember. “Neighbors, you say? Yes, yes, through the mist I started recalling something. That petite girl was just a small kid.”

“Not so small, I was a schoolgirl already. I was in the fifth form; you were in the eighth.  Those were good old and unforgettable days,“ she was telling, her face turned to Larry.  „I liked you very much.”

Laura said this joking, but Larry was so embarrassed that he lost his voice.

“One more word and I would get up into the sky and fly away without wings.”

“That wouldn‘t be very nice,” she said. “Would you leave me alone in this abandoned street? No.”

The street was not totally empty. They were passing the bus station. Next to the red brickwork building, there were young guys packing and pushing each other, as if trying to straighten up serious matters by using their fists. When Larry and Laura were passing by, everybody turned to them and watched them pass. These sights made Larry to worry for a good while. Laura also got worried and frightened. Their discussion, which was unpleasantly broken, renewed only after a while, when they were in quite a distance from the gang. 

“I have to confess that it was me, who asked Mark to call you up to our table. I saw you were hesitating.”

“Really?” Larry felt uneasy. “I was looking for Arnold, because we had to make agreement about the race.  May be that is why I looked reluctant to join you…”

“Anyway, I’m happy that I‘ve met you. Yes… I would have never believed that you would become a musician. You were known as a good litterateur when at school, weren‘t you?”

Larry did not know what to answer her. He did not care at all, what she thought of him and what her expectations were. He was willing to get home sooner. Unpleasant recollections about Eva‘s betrayal were bothering him again. He wanted to fall asleep and to have no memories in the morning. 

“Why don‘t you say anything?” Laura asked with her sweet voice.

Larry pulled round and looked at the girl. She was very beautiful indeed, tall and slim.  A woman intended for love and luxury. It’s not her fault, Larry reasoned. She is not to be blamed that I‘m a looser. I couldn‘t be such a jerk. And she liked me once.  Perhaps, she was brought to me by the fate? Larry felt that his heart was beating very loud. It seemed that the confidence he had lost several hours ago came back and very close to that mysterious moment, which he thought to have lost.  The girl seemed so close. Perhaps it seemed so, because he did not know her at all.  

“You know, Laura, I‘d like to know you better.”

“Indeed?” she was surprised.

“Yes, Laura, I want it,” the guy smiled.

Keeping her sight fixed straight into Larry‘s eyes, the girl came up to him slowly. There was nothing else what he could do, just hug her. It seemed that the time disappeared.  Larry could feel her gentle breathing. The feeling of strength overwhelmed him: he wanted to pick her up from earth and carry her in his arms so far and far away.  He was happy. He did not realize why, but he new he would not be alone any more.

Larry wanted to thank her. Slowly drawing back his head, Larry was looking for Laura‘s lips. Laura did not respond to his intentions. Her lips were closed tight. Just her nose, so cold that even seemed wet, touched the guy‘s face. Larry had a strange feeling. He could not understand what kind of feeling was hiding in her soul. He tried to kiss her again. She bent back in his arms and trembled, but she did not kiss him back. Who knows if she likes me? I shouldn‘t have kissed.

“I do like you,” Laura unexpectedly said. “ Someday I will tell you my story, but now I would like to go home.” 

That night Larry returned with double feeling – having fallen in love and disappointed. How should he win Laura‘s love? Her words gave him some hope.

He went to bed right away but he could not fall asleep. He desired to sing, to create such a melody, which would sweep away everybody with its unusual sound. He desired to sail over the stormy sea, to fight a wild animal.  These overwhelming feelings reminded him of the teenage.  He imagined as if having returned to his boyhood. He felt unspeakably pleasant. He fell asleep.  

In the morning, when he woke up, all the dreams seemed as if having vanished in the daylight, but the desire to see Laura and to touch upon her face was unappeasable. Longing for love, which had been just heating all his life, was burning with flames.

Bus daugiau

Meilės romaniukas

Chapter 1

 It is showered a little. The gloomy sky weighed on the town. Cars were passing by splashing around the dirty street water. Though gardens in the streets were full of flower blossoms, the town looked gloomy and gray. The same could be said about people. Some of them hid from the rain under their umbrellas, others – under cases, rucksacks or even bundles, all of them hurrying to somewhere, like ants… Only people at the building of unusual architecture in the town center were not in a hurry, everybody was just awaiting something. The youth were circling around not far away from there. Those, who did not know the place, had to look around in order to understand why it was like that. If you raise your head up, somewhere in the sky you would see a large sign “The Music Hall”.

In a few minutes, a red sports car, which suddenly had showed up at the horizon, attracted attention of the tarrying people. Having arrived at full pelt the car pulled up near the entrance. Two tall and athletic guys stepped off the car. A black-haired, short cut young man, wearing a mottled sweater and blue jeans, seemed very seriously minded. In a hurry, he opened the back door of the car and picked up two encasements with guitars in them.

“Hurry up, Larry,” he pushed his friend while slamming the door.

“Wait, Arnold, I have to get my pants right…”

“Okay, go ahead, but I‘m not going to wait for you,” he said and rushed towards the entrance.

Soon having got ready and switched off the car alarm, Larry ran after his friend as well and they both disappeared behind the door.

“Damn, you are late!” Kevin tilted. “Are we scapegoats or something that we have to work for you all the time?”

It won‘t hurt,” Arnold replied. “You, youngsters, are supposed to work harder.”

“Oh, come on, next time we will leave this pleasure for you,” Mark snapped at it. Kevin was about to open his mouth.

“All right, all right, we better hurry up. In either case, we don‘t have much time, we‘ll have a gig in a moment,” Larry interrupted. “Enough of quarrels…”

“Who wants to quarrel? Do you, Kevin?”

“No, I don‘t… I‘m just saying, that it is enough of sweating us…”

“And who is sweating you?” Arnold could not get calm. “Is it worth getting mad, when the public is fidgeting? Why don‘t us get it straightened after the concert?”

“Well,” Kevin said that at some ease already, “I‘d like to sit down for a while at “Gabbier”.

“You will get everything – a restaurant, a beef-steak with mushrooms,” Larry assured. “I can even promise you a good cognac. Just don‘t get into quarrels too much. We are a perfect team, after all! Looks, how many people have gathered? Isn‘t it enough?”

“All right, all right,” Kevin calmed down as well. “Peace.”

“Here we go, that‘s the talk,” Larry smiled. “And now, while it‘s still possible, I am going to check, if you have properly adjusted the mikes.”

And indeed, the uproar was taking up its rise. Mark looked through the curtains – the hall was bursting at the seams…

“Wow,” he was cheering, so that his eyes shined with satisfaction, “It means, we are still popular.”

“We can be pleased,” Arnold slowly said.

“Yes,” Kevin came up also, “we‘ll show, what we are capable of…”

“We‘ll give them a whirl of pleasure,” Mark added, “Won‘t we, Larry?”

Larry did not reply. Perhaps, he did not hear his friends‘ discussion. All deep in his thoughts and biting his lip, he was adjusting the microphones. Such an expression on his face was witnessing the concentration.

After everything was checked, they took their usual places. In a second, the curtain would get up. The band members would be laying out for pleasing the public. Larry was excited as always.

“Are you okay? Can we start now?” he asked the friend below his breath.

“You know,” Arnold could hardly stutter holding himself by the stomach, “I guess, I‘m going to have the runs…”

“Come on, you are kidding, or it will happen indeed,” Larry said.

„Then don‘t ask me, are you okay, are you okay…”

“I am nervous,” Larry confessed.

“What?” Kevin could not get it.

“Don‘t you know? This is not for the first time,” Arnold bleated. “He‘s always got his pants beaten off him before a concert…”

“I can understand him,” Kevin smiled widely, “it is not that every guy can work it out to kiss that many girls over one evening…”

“Cut it off,” Larry said. “It‘s time to concentrate. We are starting in a second.”

The hall hummed like a beehive. Finally, they were greeted by the laud applause… All the band members looked at each other and wished them luck. The curtain went up.

“Let‘s go,” Larry said.

The guitars twanged. The admirers started screaming like mad caps, but noise went down after the first song words could be heard. The spectators gloated over each word of the song, and they spared no applause and flowers. Top songs were repeated again and again. Spot lights used to catch sweated faces of the performers, which reflected mixture of tiredness and joy.

Towards the end of the concert, Larry caught a sight of a young girl. What a perfect and young face, he thought in admiration, her long eyelashes and bushy, expressively curved night black eyebrows…

She floated towards him like a refreshing windflaw and, with a smile on her lips, extended three red roses at him. Larry took the flowers slightly touching the girl‘s fingers and got stunned for a blink. Cold shivers went down his body and broke into a sweat. What‘s wrong with me? Why am I so exited? She is not the first admirer who brings me flowers, he thought. What is it that these blue eyes try to tell me?

This was the first time that he had this strange feeling… When he pulled together after that unexpected feeling, he thanked for the flowers and kissed her on the cheek like any other admirer. The young lady turned around and disappeared in the crowd. Larry kept looking at her receding, though; other admirers were giving him flowers already… She was so simple… Black hair braided into a horse tail, checkered adherent jacket, short skirt, white stockings – everything was so banal… Was her smile had disarmed me? Such unforgettable wrapped in mystery and passion-less smile of the nature? Wasn’t the destiny itself sent this girl to me? Larry could not stop looking at her.

The girl understood that she was being watched. Her cheeks blushed of that piercing look. I have to stay calm, urn-exited and not to shiver like a leaf, the girl kept repeating in her thoughts, I have to stand back this caustic and passionate look. And she raised her head involuntarily, looked straight towards Larry. The guy’s brown and impudent eyes could not stand her look and he turned away. The young admirer drew a sigh of relief.

Just having come back to himself, Larry understood that everybody had been waiting for him. In order to hide the reason of such his behavior, he straightened the guitar belt and started playing the finale for dessert, which he used to save for the concert wrap up. The spectators could not stay calm in their places. They were singing together. The last song ‘Stay with us’ had to be repeated for four times. And that was not enough yet. The crowd still did not let them go. The triumph pleased their souls – they reached the Olympus.

Finally, the curtain went down. As soon as he got free from the wild spectators, Larry took off the guitar.

“Where are you going, you have to help us here!” suspecting of his aims to dash away, Arnold shouted and added, “Don’t tell me you have fallen in love.”

The friend’s jokes could not stop him. Larry waved aside and rushed outside. Hiding in the building shade from getting into the sight of his admirers, he was waiting for the stranger. The guy could not understand what was going wrong with him. He could feel just one thing – he wanted to see her again. His heart was beating wild. Larry was praying for a miracle. If only I could meet her, I would be the happiest man in the world…

The crowd was still flooding through the door, but, unfortunately, he could not spot the girl. Where is she? Why can’t I see her? Come on, please, show yourself, he was praying. Why has she vanished?

In half an hour the crowd had melted. Having realized that he would not catch the black-haired birdie, the guy decided to join his friends. Disappointed he turned towards the door. He seemed as had lost something so important to him, something so needed. Those, who say that love at first sight does exist, are very right. This feeling cannot have another name. There is nothing to be done, Larry thought. I asked for a miracle, but perhaps it has been fated not to come true. I have to calm down. Why do I still think of her? There are no miracles…

Suddenly Larry froze to the spot at the entrance and looked speechlessly. She stood right in front of him-the very same attractive stranger, who was so much desired to be meet by him. It took the guy‘s breath away.

The girl was also embarrassed. She recalled the glance, which was put on her in the music hall. And here, the same guy is standing right in front of her! Why is he standing here and blocks my way, the girl could not understand. Is they’re something he would like to tell me?

“It’s a miracle, isn’t it? We have met again,” Larry was the first to get back to him.

“Yes,” the girl timidly agreed.

“Perhaps, it was the God, who has brought us together,” Larry could not slack away.

“I don‘t know…”

“And I think, it‘s a charisma of the God and we cannot ignore this.” Larry was so happy to meet the girl again, so that he even did not know what to do. All kinds of thoughts were twisting in his head – compliments, proposals… He did not know, what to start from… “Could I see you home,” finally Larry came to reason.

“I‘m in a hurry…”

“Oh, please,” he interrupted her, “I‘ll not trouble you, just let me see you home… I can give you a lift, if you‘d like…” the guy was insisting, because he did not want to miss a chance to get to know her better.

“All right,” she yielded to him after a long persuasion, “I can see that you are fidgeting around. I agree, since you are so insisting.”

“Wait for me, I‘ll be right back,” he said and nimbly ran down to the car.

The girl watched him run. She liked the player. She had noticed him before. True, he was not her promised prince; she simply liked his dark voice. She tried not to miss any of the group concerts. His long straight and yellowish like hay hair, black eye-brows and seducing smile – he was attractive, but he did not seem reliable. Flocks of girls used to bring flowers to him during the concerts, while other members of the group were not awarded with such attention. The girl had never dreamt of that Larry would ever pay any attention to her.

Soon the red car of Larry was in front of her. He gallantly helped her to get in to the car and stepped on the accelerator.

“Where to?” he cheerfully asked.

“Not far away,” the girl replied timidly. “Right turn at the traffic lights and there is a two-storied building …I‘ll show the spot to stop at.”

“Do you live there?”

“Yes,” she said, throwing a short glimpse at Larry.

“Oh, I‘m so sorry, I almost forgot… I‘m sorry, what is your name? I am Larry.”

“I know,” the girl said.

“Where from? It‘s a secret,” Larry was joking. “So, what is your name then?”

“A secret,” Larry‘s passenger plucked her courage and after a short pause introduced herself, “Eva.” “This is beautiful name just like you yourself…”

Eva blushed. “Not is so beautiful. There are names much more beautiful than mine,” she replied.

“Don‘t be so shy, you are a true princess,” Larry complimented her.

“Come on, stop kidding me…” Eva was already sorry, that she agreed to be given a lift. She understood that she was not yet ready to have conversations with guys, especially with the ones like that one. He was senior her and famous… of course, with experience… The girl did not know, what to talk about with him, therefore, she wanted to get back home as soon as possible. “Well, you can pull over at this house,” Eva said as soon as she had spotted her daddy‘s domain and even pointed out with her hand.

When Larry stopped his car, Eva was in a hurry to get off. Larry thought over that the bird was about to fly away. “Wait, please,” he begged, “can we start seeing each other?”

“Are serious or just kidding me,” Eva did not understand, “Do you want to date with me?”

Larry put a sign of cross on him and said, “Eva, please, listen to me.”

The girl‘s heart tingled with excitement. She could not hide away her fear. She even held up her breath, when looking at Larry. Can this is true? Is it so, Eva was thinking, that he offer his friendship to every girl he gives a lift? Who knows what kind of friendship he has got in mind?

“At first, I would ask don‘t call me ‘you’ so, as if I were much senior yours,” Larry said.

Eva nodded. She did not want to interrupt the guy; therefore, she was listening to what he had to tell her.

“You see,” Larry went further, “I have a strange thing to confess… Just please, don’t sneer at me and try to understand. Something has happened to me today. You know I don‘t even know how to explain. When you gave me your flowers today, I had a very strange feeling. It was a very good feeling. I felt that you would be my girl… Could you understand me? Only mine… Someone said so to my heart. I could not even think of the concert any longer, or about the fame, or of the spectators…about nothing. All that time, I just wanted to see you again… You know, Eva, you are very special. You have enslaved my heart…”

Eva did not even try to believe, to what Larry had confessed. This was something against all the principles of life. Eva was almost sure he used to tell the same to all the girls. Her crooked smile and derisive look told about the disbelief. Larry noticed that at once.

“You don‘t believe me?”

“It is hard to believe… I think, you don‘t experience shortage in girls. Why are you talking to me about this?”

“I can confess that I have fallen in love for several times, but as soon as I saw you, all those previous feelings faded away. Please, trust me, my precious little star…”

Eva shook her head. She could not believe him.

“I‘m not joking, Eva… I‘m quite serious…”

“All right, if you say, that you have serious intentions, we can give them a try…” Eva said lamely.

“Don‘t worry that I am a little senior,” Larry tried to calm her, as if having read the girl‘s thoughts. “We will be happy! Just wait and you‘ll see.”

He is very good at persuading, Eva thought. What if he means it? Should I throw him aside? Just not me… “All right,” Eva said. “I still cannot believe that it will work, but let‘s give it a try.”

Larry even jumped up in his seat, when he heard those words. He grabbed her hand with joy and pressed to his lips. “Thank you, Eva, you will never regret.”

She could feel Larry‘s hot lips on her hand. She felt embarrassed at that moment. Her heart was tingling like that of a frightened animal. “I‘m not sure, if my behavior is right,” she said out loud and got frightened by her own words.

“That‘s right, don‘t doubt it,” Larry encouraged her. He was holding her hand and was not even thinking of letting her go. “Today is a very special day for me. It seems that miracles come true! I never believed in miracles, but today I have got proof that I was wrong…” his was looking straight into her eyes. “My life has never been so precious like today…”

Eva looked at Larry and could not understand of what he was twiddling about. The eyes were burning with some power mysterious to her. There was not a tray of ambiguity on his face. Only then did she feel that Larry was caressing her hand. Suddenly, he stopped.

“Eva,” he whispered, “tell me frankly, do you believe in miracles?”

“I don‘t know,” she replied. “I don‘t understand much about this…”

“And I do. Now I do. You know, this is very special feeling to realize that they do exist.” Eva shrugged her shoulders. Larry smiled. “You cannot know…Now, when you have agreed to date with me, I’m the happiest man. Can you believe this?”

“Perhaps, I can…”

“So, when will we meet? I would like to get to know you better.”

“It depends on you…”

“Will you be free at seven tomorrow evening?”

“I guess so, and where?”

“Let‘s meet at the place we have met today for the first time,” Larry suggested.

“At the music hall?”

“Exactly!”

“All right,” she said, “tomorrow, at seven.”

Larry leaned forward placing his left hand on her right shoulder. Realizing, that he was going to kiss her on the lips, Eva was ready to accept his sweet kiss. Hot Larry‘s breath was so exiting. When Larry‘s lips was almost touching Eva, at the very last moment, she suddenly changed her mind and turned her head away, trying not to betray herself being inexpert in this field… The lips touched just her cheek. Having eluded the kiss, Eva quickly got off the car and ran towards the house. Larry watched her leave until she disappeared in the entrance of the brick house.

He was not in a hurry. For a while, he stared at the house windows hoping to see Eva again. Unfortunately, she never showed up. Larry had not lost heart, though his attempt to kiss the girl did puzzle her.

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bus daugiau…