“Can she hear us?” Phillipe asked Michael, apparently perplexed by my reaction and ignoring me completely.
“Of course I can hear you! You’re sitting right next to me. How could I not hear you? You’re not even trying to keep it down!” I complained, getting a little louder than I’d intended.
Everyone stared at me. The women as if I was insane, and the men as if I couldn’t have surprised them more if I’d turned into a frog.
Sarah gave me a wary look. “Hey, pumpkin, the two of them haven’t exchanged a word in several minutes. I was actually beginning to wonder whether they’d fallen asleep with their eyes open.”
That was weird, but what was going on? Was I going crazy? No, something was definitely off. How was it possible that Sarah had missed their all too candid exchange? They’d been sitting there quietly with their eyes open? Impossible, for I’d heard them clearly. All I wished was to get away, lest I would start seeing pink elephants. “I’m sorry, guys, but I have to go now. I have to get up early to study for next week’s courses,” I lied, feeling guilty as I pressed my spare key into Sarah’s hand.
“You’re not serious now, are you? Come on, you said the weekend was all mine, and we haven’t even danced yet.” When I stood there and hesitated, she knit her brows in irritation. “And I know you’ve already done all your course prep.”
Traitor! I gave her an unhappy look and returned to my seat feeling embarrassed. The mood around the table was awkward, and that was solely my fault. I was hearing conversations that weren’t real.
Michael put an arm around me, getting fresh. “Are you sure you’re not hopping into bed with me tonight, even if I ask like a gentleman?” His pleading gaze was way over the top, and it managed to elicit a grin from me. I smirked and shook my head. He jumped up with flair, pretending to call after another girl to wait for him. Everybody laughed, and the heavy mood was lifted.
“See, no reason to run away,” he breathed into my ear.
A few minutes later, the conversation was flowing and bubbly again. But something had changed. All the men present were interested in me all of a sudden. At least that’s what I gleaned from their fascinated stares. Sarah noticed the change, too. “Maybe I should try acting crazy as well. I didn’t know that trick,” she whispered sardonically.
Michael and I spoke about my studies, about hobbies, and why there were raccoons in Austria. Incidentally they had escaped from some German zoo. It wasn’t important what we talked about, what mattered was that we kept joking and having a great time. You couldn’t say the same thing about Phillipe however. He kept trying to join our conversation, but Michael skillfully blocked him from my view with his body. That wasn’t too hard, since he was significantly taller than Philippe, and was sitting between us. At precisely one a.m. his phone rang. “Hello,” he took the call and talked as naturally as if he was in his office. I couldn’t see how he managed to focus despite the loud music. When he had hung up, he announced that he and the guys had to go. We were invited to stay and enjoy the rest of our night. Alessandro gave Sarah a good night kiss, and then they were gone. After the weird little scene earlier I was relieved that neither Philippe nor Michael tried to kiss me.
Sarah was all excited and knew only one topic: Alessandro. Apparently he had asked for her phone number, and she hoped he would call. By now everyone around the table was in the mood to dance, so we danced. Around two thirty they gave away a bottle of Bacardi to the couple that did the most provocative dance. What can I say, Sarah and I were drunk, rollicking, and we wanted that bottle.
Two hours later we took the last bus home. My apartment was located on Akademiestraße. It was actually just a large room with cooking facilities and a bathroom. It wasn’t much, but it afforded me the necessary privacy. I had put a lot of effort into decorating it, so it was really homely. There was an old Native American dream catcher on the wall above my bed, a present from my parents. There was no room for an extra bed, so we shared my queen-size.
The next morning I was the first one in the bathroom, took a shower, brushed my teeth, and put on some make-up. Since Sarah was still asleep, I wrote her a note, walked over to Zentrum Hernau, where I bought fresh rolls for breakfast and orange juice to help with the hangover. Sarah swore by orange juice.
When I came back, she was still lying in bed motionless. I took my course notes and studied for a while. At noon Sarah still hadn’t woken. I had breakfast alone and changed into my work clothes, a blue shirt and black pants. I hurried to arrive on time for my shift in the cinema. It was located close to the train station in a building that contained lots of bars and restaurants. When you stepped inside, the only thing that indicated it was a cinema was the blue ticket booth.
I passed the booth with quick steps to join my waiting colleagues. They had already assigned duties for today. My job was to take care of the popcorn supply. That meant staying in a small room, continuously feeding the popcorn machine with corn, salt, and oil, and filling the resulting popcorn into large yellow bags. I normally liked that part, but with my stomach still queasy from the alcohol of the night before, I dreaded the smell of fresh, greasy popcorn. Later I sold snacks at the kiosk and took care of the admission for one of the downstairs screens. Stefan, one of the men from the night before, came to see this movie accompanied by a beautiful woman. His elegant, dark brown leather coat was the exact same color as his hair. His face was perfect and chiseled, but for my taste it lacked expression. He was handsome, no question, but something was missing, something to break the symmetry. And the lack of contrast between coat and hair made him look almost like a painting.
He nodded a greeting, seemed to hesitate, as if wrestling with himself for some reason. Whatever it was, it couldn’t be about me. Or could it? Before he stepped into the theater, he moved towards me but then shook his head and turned abruptly on his heel.
Irritated, I followed him with my eyes. Soon after I wrapped up my shift and left the cinema. Sarah was already waiting for me. Alessandro had called and asked her out for Friday. He’d said I was very welcome to join them. She was supposed to work the following Friday, but she had pulled all the stops to trade her shift with a colleague, and had thus invited herself to stay with me again the next weekend. After Sarah had left, I also traded my following Saturday shift with one of my colleagues, because I didn’t want to have to work after a long night full of cocktails again. That meant I’d have to work on Tuesday this week.
I was in my seventh semester studying computer science. While most of our lectures and courses were taught at our own Institute in the northern part of the city, some lectures took place at the Nawi. That was what the students called the faculty of natural sciences, which was conveniently located in walking distance from my apartment. The Nawi is a very well-known and eminent building, designed by the famous Austrian architect Wilhelm Holzhauer. Like every Monday morning, I crossed the circular front court with its imposing stone fountain and entered the building at precisely eight a.m. Me and a friend had made it a ritual to check each other’s homework before the seminar each Monday. I took a seat in our usual corner and waited for Andreas, my mind drifting back to the strange events in the club – and to Michael. I pictured his face, the perfect curve of his brows, his bright blue eyes, and his enticing lips. I recalled how much fun I’d had with him, and how strange the men had seemed to me at first. I thought about telling Andreas about the weirdness I’d experienced in the club, but he stood me up and arrived only a few minutes before the seminar began. He ruefully apologized for being late. A problem at work had detained him.
I liked Andreas. He was a nice guy, a good listener, and we always had fun together. To him university was a leisure activity, some sort of hobby. His main job, the one that he took very seriously, was a position in his father’s company. Although he had explained to me several times, I still didn’t really understand what exactly his position entailed. But I felt embarrassed to ask yet again. He was one of those guys who had a different girl on h
is arm every time you met him. His looks had everything most women liked: dark blonde, curly hair, blue eyes and a masculine jaw line. Stepping into the lecture hall with him was always a funny experience, one that never got old. The girls and women present became hectic. The hands fluttered as they smoothed their skirts, fluffed up their hair, or reapplied lip gloss. In the beginning they disliked me for being the woman at his side, but by now everybody knew that our relationship was strictly platonic.
When I opened the glass doors that led into the cinema on Tuesday, a little girl came running towards me and asked excitedly whether I’d seen the kids’ movie currently playing. I went down on one knee so I’d be level with her, and said that the movie was a hit with all the kids so far. When I rose again, I happened to glance over at the restaurant across from the cinema. My heart skipped a beat. For a moment I was sure I saw Michael sitting at the bar, but then I was distracted by the girl’s dad, and by random questions of other patrons. When I looked up again after a while and scanned the bar, all I could see was a short, fat man sitting there.
The following day I had a seminar in the Techno-Z, a terrible building that hosted the faculty of computer science. After the seminar I told Astrid, a fellow student I often spent time with, about my adventures at Peri’s Night. Of course I left out all the strange incidents and impressions. Astrid and I had made it a habit to hit the public pool on Thursdays, for a swim and a chat. Inspired by my stories, she suggested we go to Europark instead this Thursday, and to buy me something dressy to wear for the weekend. Since I liked Astrid and appreciated her candor, I agreed. When we got there the following day, I couldn’t help but notice that you could look right over at Peri’s Night from the bus stop. No surprise that it made me think of Michael immediately. I stared at the club’s indifferent façade and lost all sense of time for a moment. I was torn from my trance only when Astrid nudged me, and we went inside the mall building together. I saw a beautiful, elegant, dark green dress in a shop window, and although this gem wasn’t in my price range, I tried it on, just for fun. When I stepped from the changing cubicle, I spied Michael. He was standing in front of the store, watching me with a self-assured look in his eyes. “The tall one over there,” I whispered to direct Astrid’s attention in his direction. For a fraction of a second, Michael and I exchanged a glance, but then Astrid asked: “Where? There’s nobody there.” Thrown by her reply, I gave her a confused look. When I turned back towards Michael, he had vanished. Maybe my subconscious had thrown me for a loop. Be that as it may, but from that moment on I kept feeling watched, observed. Several times I turned around for no reason, but I could never find anything out of the ordinary. Once I heard a garbage can being toppled in one of the side corridors. I turned back and peeked around the corner. The corridor was empty. My little inspection round elicited a suspicious sideways glance from Astrid, so I refrained from going on further excursions.
That night I couldn’t sleep. Had I really seen Michael in the mall, at the bar? Was I going crazy or was I just crazy for him? I had mixed feelings about the upcoming night out. First of all I didn’t know whether Michael would be there at all, second my gut was still warning me about the whole thing, and third of all I desperately wanted to see him.
3 RENDEZVOUS
I picked up Sarah from the train station in the late afternoon of the following day. Until then I’d had no idea what was planned for the night, but Sarah was kind enough to fill me in. “We’re meeting the guys at Europark, and then we’ll have dinner at the new Chinese or Thai restaurant. And after that there will be a party at Michael’s place.” Even though I was excited, since a party at Michael’s could hardly take place without Michael, I wasn’t too thrilled by the idea of going home with these men I barely knew. Sarah had little patience for my misgivings. “But why? We did stuff like this all the time when we were nineteen, so where’s the difference?”
“Well, we always had Thomas with us.” Thomas had been my best buddy for many years, but we didn’t see each other much anymore.
One thing was crystal clear: Sarah wanted to go to this party, misgivings be damned. “As if Thomas would have been able to protect us. Melanie, don’t you remember how most of the time he was drunk after a short while, and then disappeared with random guys?” She was right of course, but somehow the mere thought of this party made me feel antsy.
We had plenty of time to ride back to my place and dress up – or so I had thought. But whatever I changed into, Sarah wrinkled her nose. I finally let her pick my outfit for the night. I ended up wearing a thin blue blouse, a very tight pair of white jeans, blue heels, and a thin summer coat – because she ruled out my ‘horrible old winter coat.’ My outfit wasn’t warm enough for the season, especially since Sarah was also of the opinion that a sweater was merely a bother. I felt that it was better to be cold than to argue with her. Sarah had put on a beautiful red dress, taken the curling iron to her hair, and applied lots more make-up than I had.
We arrived at Europark a few minutes late. The others were already waiting for us. They were ten people altogether. I knew Michael, the rest of the men, and Cornelia from the club the week before. The woman who’d been to the cinema with Stefan was introduced as Birgit, and there was another lady I hadn’t met before, whose name was Anastasia. Those two women and the men from the club were cast in the same mould: attractive, imposing, almost unearthly.
In the restaurant Phillipe sat down to the left of me, and Michael to the right. This was going to be fun. Or not. Once we had ordered food and drinks, everyone was quickly engrossed in conversation. With such a large party around one table, it is almost inevitable that they form smaller groups, and that was precisely what happened. Stefan had told Michael and Phillipe that he’d seen me at the cinema, so they inquired whether I financed my education with this job. I had inherited a small sum from my grandparents, and I also received a moderate stipend. That covered most of my expenses. I worked at the cinema once a week so I could treat myself once in a while, and to stretch my grandparents’ money for as long as possible.
In the course of the evening I found out that Michael’s father had his own company, which dealt in a variety of things. They also owned the club Peri’s Night. All the men I’d met there, as well as Birgit and Anastasia, were employees of this company. After this revelation I smirked at the thought whether a certain charisma might be part of the corporate objective.
Michael was an attentive observer. “What is so amusing about Phillipe and the others working for my family’s company?” I gave him a mysterious smile, shook my head, and changed the subject.
Cornelia sat across from us on the other side of the large table. I was under the impression that she was interested in Nicky, one of the guys from the club. But then she began trying to catch Michael’s attention until it appeared rather desperate, and I was no longer so sure. When all her subtle attempts went nowhere, she decided to try a more offensive tack. She addressed Birgit on our side of the table, speaking loud enough so everybody could hear her: “You should have been there last weekend, it was hilarious! Melanie yelled at Michael and Phillipe, telling them to stop badmouthing her friend. But neither of them had said a word. I felt almost sorry for them; you should have seen their perplexed faces!” It was one thing to have the hots for Michael, but it was another thing to try and humiliate me to get rid of perceived competition. I resolved to take it lightly, and made a mischievous face. “I didn’t exactly yell. Maybe I was a little vehement, I’ll give you that.” I couldn’t help blushing violently though.
Michael gave me a benevolent look and put an arm around me. “Right, that was interesting.” From that moment on, he ignored Cornelia completely. He didn’t even reply to questions clearly aimed at him. Whatever she had intended, I’m sure this was not the reaction she had hoped for. Thanks to her, Michael had his arm around me now and kept touching my hair or stroking my face every chance he got. When Sarah and I wanted to pay for our food, Michael had already taken care of the tab. When
I tried to protest, he simply said: “We invited you out, so we’re paying.”
Michael, Phillipe, Alessandro, Sarah and I left the restaurant a little while after the rest of them. Sarah and Alessandro were acting like a pair of lovers. They walked arm in arm and kissed several times. Michael lived close by, so the men had come by foot. We turned into a side alley. A sudden sensation of cold crept up my spine and made the hair in the back of my neck stand on end. It wasn’t the outside temperature or my flimsy clothes. Something was wrong with the path we were on. I shrank back immediately, for if I trusted anything in this life, it was my gut feeling. And I had a really bad feeling about going further down this alley, a really bad feeling. I suggested we take a different route. Might be a little more circuitous, but felt a lot safer to me.
It was a cool evening, and Michael hadn’t missed my shivering. “Come on, Melanie, don’t be silly. You’re already cold. We’ll take the shortest route.” He took my hand and wanted to continue down the alley, but I refused to take even a single step. Sarah was watching me. She probably didn’t want them to think me even crazier than they already did, but she also read the fear in my face. In any case, she opted for damage control: “My friend may seem a little loony at times, but I’ve learned to trust her judgment, so if she thinks this path is dangerous, I’m with her. Several years ago we went to Berlin with a few friends. The two of us shared a car with Thomas and his then-lover. Two of Thomas’s friends followed us in a gray Volkswagen Rabbit. Since Thomas wanted to cuddle with his new flame in the backseat, Melanie was behind the wheel. Suddenly she wanted to leave the freeway for no apparent reason. She even called the guys in the other car, trying to convince Thomas’s buddies that they needed to leave the freeway as well. They refused, because the alternative route was a detour. Since Melanie was the driver, Thomas and I could protest all we wanted, we left the freeway anyway. We planned to meet the others at a rest stop a good bit ahead, but they never made it. We later heard that a guy who wanted to kill himself had been on the freeway, driving on the wrong side of the road and right into oncoming traffic, causing an accident. Both of Thomas’s friends tragically lost their lives, while the suicidal guy survived.”
Peris Night: Terakon (Secret Language) Page 2
