Chaperoned

by Dora Heldt

  I felt myself get warm under the intensity of his gaze.

  “No, I live in Hamburg. Marleen’s doing some renovations on her restaurant at the moment, and I’m giving her a hand.”

  “How long are you here for?”

  “We’ve only been here two days, so another two weeks, nearly.”

  “Wonderful.” His gaze seemed to go right to my heart.

  “And where are you from?” I asked.

  He hesitated for a moment. “Me, erm…from Bremen.”

  “Aha, that’s a lovely city.” I was talking nonsense again. Luckily he didn’t seem to notice.

  “I don’t know your name, by the way.”

  I had never seen a man with such a beautiful face.

  “Christine. Christine Schmidt.”

  “Christine.” I had never heard my name sound so wonderful. I was getting goose bumps. “What a beautiful name.”

  “I like Johann, too.”

  We looked at each other in silence for a while. Then we both started to talk at once. How could I not go for it with a man who had the ability to look straight into my heart like that?

  “Would you like to…?”

  “Do you fancy…?”

  “You first,” I insisted. Johann smiled.

  “Would you like to have dinner with me this evening?” he asked.

  “Christiiiiiine!”

  My father might as well have tipped a bucket of cold water over my head. I jumped up with a start. I wanted to blurt out, “Yes! What time?” but keeping my father away became my main priority. Any introduction between the two men would have been way too premature.

  “I’m sorry, I’ll have to check on him. It’s my father. Are you going to be here for a little longer?”

  Johann looked at his watch. “I have something I need to do. I’m sure we’ll see each other later, though. Thank you for the coffee.”

  “Christiiiiiine!”

  “I’m coming!”

  Johann jumped, as I’d bellowed back just as loudly as my father. He stood up, lifted his hand, and then dropped it again.

  “I guess you have to head off. So, see you later.”

  He walked slowly back to the house. I had to restrain myself from running after him. Instead, I took a deep breath and walked in the direction of my father’s hollering. My father, who had just ruined what would probably have been the most wonderful evening of my life—or at least, the most wonderful evening I’d had in a long, long time.

  Clothed in a bath towel, he was leaning out of the kitchen window of our apartment and looking at me cheerfully. I, on the other hand, was furious.

  “Why are you screaming like a crazy person? What’s wrong?”

  “Your sister’s on the phone. Mom’s doing fine. Do you want to speak to Ines?”

  I made an effort not to glare at him. My father passed the telephone down to me.

  “Here you go, have a word with your sister; I’m not ready yet anyway.” He closed the window.

  I took a deep breath, then put the telephone to my ear.

  “Hello, Ines.”

  “Wow, you sound really tense. Is Dad doing your head in already?”

  I thought back to his beaming face earlier today in the surf and calmed down a little.

  “He’s somewhat challenging. He’s not always the most tactful person.” Hazel-brown eyes. “But it’s okay. How’s Mom?”

  “Well, she likes the hospital. She has a room to herself, and the operation is scheduled for eight tomorrow morning. Her results are all good so far and she’s perfectly calm, so you can reassure Dad. I’ll call you tomorrow when it’s all done. There’s no need to worry.”

  “You know Dad. He was in a bad mood this morning already. We’ll have to distract him. Okay then, let’s speak tomorrow. And give Mom my love.”

  I put the telephone down on the windowsill and went back into the garden. Sinking into the lounge chair, in which life had been rosy only moments ago, I stared at the empty chair opposite. Why couldn’t my father have shouted for me ten minutes later? By then we would already have made a date. But we hadn’t. What great timing. After a while I looked up, peered around the corner, and then lit a cigarette.

  Just you try to tell me off now, Dad!

  I stayed for another half hour, waiting for a second chance, my heart pounding. Nothing happened. Maybe I’d lost my chance when he heard me shout at my father like that. I got up, frustrated, just as Kalli drove in from the harbor. I walked toward the car. Given my love life was nonexistent, I might as well pitch in and do a little work.

  Not a Moment’s Peace

  * * *

  Kalli let the family out of the car, then opened the trunk.

  “Hi, Christine,” he said, handing me two travel bags. “These are Marleen’s new guests. Look, the two kids are twins. It’s funny, isn’t it?”

  I looked at the two red-haired girls, whose freckled faces were staring up at me earnestly. They did look very alike.

  “We’re not funny.”

  Their mother pushed them gently to one side. “Of course not. Herr Jürgens just finds it funny that you’re twins.”

  “Why?”

  They stared at Kalli. He scratched his head.

  “Why not?”

  They looked at him stubbornly, not giving up on an answer. Kalli was saved by Marleen.

  “Hi, welcome.” She leaned her bike, laden with shopping bags, carefully against the wall of the house and walked over to us. “I’m Marleen de Vries. Did you have a good journey?”

  “We did, thanks.” The twins’ mother held her hand out to Marleen. “I’m Anna Berg, and this is my husband, Dirk, and these are our girls, Emily and Lena. Thanks so much for the lift. If the vacation is anything like the journey, then we won’t have any reason to complain.”

  “So,” Marleen crouched down and asked the girls, “who’s who?”

  “I’m Emily,” the one on the left answered at once. “And that’s Lena. We always wear different things to school. I always wear something blue. And we’re not funny.” She looked at Kalli. Then back at Marleen.

  “Oh.” Marleen stood back up. “How old are you?”

  The answer came in chorus. “Seven.”

  “Seven.” Kalli repeated the number. “Well, then you’re certainly not funny anymore. You’re already all grown up.”

  Emily thought for a moment, then gave her sister a nudge. Both of them nodded earnestly at Kalli. It seemed like he’d made amends.

  While Marleen introduced me, Kalli got the rest of the luggage from the car. Marleen took the two travel bags from me.

  “So, I’ll show you your rooms. Kalli, can you help me with the luggage? And Christine, could you take the shopping bags into the kitchen for me? Otherwise the butter will melt.”

  Dick Berg reached for the biggest suitcase. “I can take the suitcase, thank you, Herr Jürgens. You’ve already been a great help by picking us up. So, girls, take your backpacks and jackets. You heard the gentleman, you’re grown up now.”

  Kalli watched the family walk off as I took the bags from the bike. I took two in each hand and went into the house, Kalli following closely behind.

  “I would help you with them, but it looks like you’re balanced.”

  “Thanks, Kalli, I’m fine.”

  I heaved the bags onto the work surface in the kitchen and rubbed my sore palms.

  “And? Are they nice?”

  He nodded. “Very nice. They’re from Dortmund. You know, the home of Borussia Dortmund,” he said, referring to the major league football team. “That’s my favorite team. That always did annoy Heinz; he supports HSV, after all. But Dortmund is better. Onno agrees, even though he’s a Werder Bremen fan. HSV is doing really badly at the moment, you know. I’ll be interested to see what happens. Where is Heinz anyway?”

  I put some of the groceries away in the fridge.

  “He’s over there,” I said, gesturing to the apartment. “You could go get him, actually. I’m sure he’s hungry.
”

  “It’s great how you’re looking out for him, Christine. I wish my kids would come on vacation with me sometimes, too.”

  He walked out of the kitchen, leaving me feeling heroic.

  “So?” Marleen came in and sank down onto a kitchen chair, stretching out her legs. “That was a really hectic day. Thanks for unpacking the groceries. Did you manage everything okay?”

  I shoved two milk containers to the back of the fridge. “Of course,” I answered as I did so, which muffled my voice.

  “What?”

  I turned around to her. “Yes, of course. Just ask me if you can’t find anything.”

  “Don’t put the milk so far back, though. I’m just about to make rice pudding. For dessert.”

  “My father won’t like that,” I said, and rolled my eyes at the headache ahead. I took out everything I’d put in front of the milk and started over. “Things with milk and flour in them make him sick.”

  “Then he’ll just have to fill up on fried herring. That’s a great dress, by the way, far too good for wearing around my kitchen.”

  “Dorothea lent it to me. I didn’t pack anything pretty, so I think I might go shopping tomorrow.”

  “Why? Do you have plans?”

  “Oh, no, but I can’t just run around in shorts the whole time. Something might come up.”

  I could feel myself blushing. Marleen noticed too. She stood up and came over to me.

  “Hey, were you serious this morning?”

  I tried to sound innocent. “About what?”

  “About Herr Thiess. I didn’t think you were.”

  I concentrated on folding the plastic bags together. “He nearly invited me out to dinner earlier when we were having a coffee in the garden. I really like him.”

  “What does ‘nearly invited’ you to dinner mean?”

  I pushed the bags into the cutlery drawer. “My father interrupted. Why are you looking at me so strangely?”

  Marleen looked at me thoughtfully. “The bags go in the cupboard over there. Did this Thiess guy tell you anything about himself?”

  “He’s called Johann and he’s from Bremen. And he has such beautiful eyes…” I leaned against the fridge, thinking about him.

  Marleen’s gaze, on the other hand, was much less sentimental. “From Bremen?”

  The tone of her voice brought me back down to earth.

  “Yes, Bremen. Why, what’s up? Is there something wrong with him?”

  “I don’t want to ruin your good mood,” she said cautiously, “but he seems a little strange to me. He wrote his name incorrectly twice, and his address is incomprehensible.”

  I thought back to our first meeting that morning. “Heavens, Marleen, I didn’t exactly do a good job of welcoming him though, did I?”

  “Well, in any case, I’m just not sure about him. Don’t you think it’s strange that he traveled through the night? It only takes two hours at the most to get here from Bremen.”

  “Perhaps he was coming from somewhere else. You watch too many bad films. What do you think he is? Some escaped mental patient?”

  “Don’t jump down my throat. I was just wondering if he might be from the competition. There’s a hotelier from Aurich who wants to open a new bar on the beach. Perhaps he’s spying.”

  “Then ask him, Marleen, just ask him. You’re getting like my father. Speak of the devil, there he is, and please don’t say anything. I don’t want him to get involved in this.”

  Life was just unfair. First I’d made a fool of myself, then gotten a second chance, which my father had thwarted spectacularly, and now even my friend was against me. Hurt, I reached for the pot on the stove and started to peel potatoes. Marleen watched me in silence. As my father and Kalli crashed into the kitchen, she took a deep breath.

  “Hi, are you hungry already?”

  My father had stopped short. “What’s wrong? You can cut the tension with a knife in here.”

  I shook my head. Typical. Now, of all times, my father starts being sensitive to other people’s moods. That was a new one.

  “No, Dad, everything’s fine. We’ll be eating in half an hour. Marleen’s making rice pudding.”

  “Yuck. But I see you’re peeling potatoes, so I can have sautéed potatoes. See you soon, then. Come on, Kalli, we can have a beer out on the lounge chairs first.”

  “That was a mean comeback with the rice pudding.” Marleen picked up the other peeler. “You’re trying to make me unpopular with the boys. I didn’t mean it like that with Herr Thiess. Perhaps I’m wrong and he really is a prince.” Marleen’s skeptical look didn’t match her attempt at reconciliation. But I didn’t care.

  “You are wrong—you can bet your bottom dollar on that.”

  My father looked at me curiously as we sat down to dinner.

  “So, Christine, how was your day?”

  “Dad! You were with me for practically all of it.”

  “Nonsense.” He heaped fried herring on his fork and leaned toward Marleen. “We went to the beach together for a bit, and after that Christine just vanished. I went over to the restaurant to lend a hand, but she was gone. Vanished into thin air.”

  “You’re such a snitch, Heinz.” Dorothea pulled the bowl of fried herring toward her.

  “I was just worried. I am her father, after all.” He looked at me searchingly. “And as a father you worry when your child just disappears like that.”

  I looked back innocently and stayed quiet. If he thought I was going to take him seriously, he had another think coming. Kalli, on the other hand, was taking him seriously.

  “But Heinz, she’s grown up. And she has a cell phone, don’t you, Christine? She knows her way around here, too. So what would happen?”

  My father wasn’t giving up.

  “I heard voices coming from the garden. A man’s voice, and yours. Who were you talking to?”

  “Heinz!” Dorothea gave him a shove. “Enough of that. Let’s change the subject, shall we? Nils arranged for two young guys to come by and give me a hand with the painting. Were they there earlier?”

  My father was staring at a small fish bone with a look of deep concentration. Kalli choked and started having a coughing fit. I gave him a few knocks on the back.

  “Put your glasses on when you’re eating fish, Kalli. It helps.”

  “Thanks, but I don’t wear glasses. And it wasn’t the herring.”

  “Then why did you choke like that?”

  Kalli looked at my father, but he was still concentrating on his fish bone. Marleen, Dorothea, and I looked at each other. Dorothea spoke a little louder.

  “Heinz? I asked if the painters were there.”

  “Oh, they’re useless. Can I have more fried herring? Kalli isn’t eating his anyway.” He held his plate out toward Marleen.

  I had a bad feeling about this. “What do you mean, they’re useless?”

  My father took a large sip from his glass. Then he heaped potatoes onto his plate, taking his time. Marleen was getting impatient.

  “Could you both explain, please? Were they there or not?”

  My father pointed at his full mouth and chewed demonstratively.

  “Kalli?”

  “Yes, they were there. But they didn’t make a very good impression.” Kalli glanced at my father, who was still chewing tirelessly. “I had a funny feeling about them. Onno too, I think. And Heinz is good at reading people. They were still very young and hadn’t washed properly. They smelled bad.”

  We stared from Heinz to Kalli and then back again. My father was good at reading people. That was laughable.

  “Dad! What did you do to them?”

  He swallowed indignantly. “I didn’t do anything to them. What do you take me for? I just questioned them in detail and had a good look at them. We decided they weren’t right for us.”

  “What do you mean, not right?” Dorothea was annoyed. “And who’s we?”

  “Kalli and me,” he answered in a fatherly way. “Onno was giving th
em a funny look too, by the way. He doesn’t say much, as you know, but I knew what he was thinking. They were too young, not very clean, and I think they’d been drinking. Anyway, I told them we could do without their services, and that they should look for another vacation job. It would have been trouble all the way with them, I can tell you that.”

  He shoved another forkful of fried herring into his mouth.

  “Heinz, what were you thinking?” Dorothea said, sounding angry. “Nils sent me the boys especially to help with the painting. I can’t do everything by myself. We have to make a start tomorrow, otherwise we won’t be ready by next week; you know the schedule. Where am I supposed to get two new people from at such short notice?”

  Kalli flinched and sat with his head bowed next to my father, who was still eating, seemingly unmoved.

  “You shouldn’t be annoyed, Dorothea,” he said, finally. “Completely the opposite, in fact. I saved you from a lot of trouble. And besides, Kalli can paint, can’t you?”

  Kalli nodded shyly. “Yes, I’d love to help. Just tell me how you want it done.”

  “Thanks, Kalli, but can you do the work of two people?”

  “Well, Heinz can…”

  My father shook his head, smiling. “No, Kalli, I have this problem with colors, you see, and with my hip I can’t stand on a ladder for long. That kind of thing could really do me some damage. And after all, someone has to keep an eye on everyone else.”

  Marleen and Dorothea were staring at him, speechless. He held their gaze.

  “And besides, Christine can paint well, too. She helped Ines with her renovations last year and did a really good job. She can start after she’s done the breakfast shift. Don’t worry, we’ll manage.”

  I stood up and walked toward the door. Marleen turned her flabbergasted gaze from my self-satisfied father to me.

  “Christine! Where are you going?”

  “I’m fetching the rice pudding. Especially for Heinz.”

  A Challenging Morning

  * * *

  “You don’t have food poisoning.”

  I was awakened the next morning by Dorothea’s voice. I kept my eyes shut and tried to ignore the warning signs. She wasn’t talking to me—for one thing, her voice sounded muted through the closed door, and for another I felt absolutely fine. I recognized my father’s voice, saying something I couldn’t quite make out.