He sped up a notch. He could think
of nothing but her, probably still sleeping now. It was the school holidays and
she’d asked to go with him, but he couldn’t take her. She wouldn’t be allowed in
the bars and he couldn’t leave her alone in the motel. That would have been terrible
for her. Besides, he’d set off during school time. No way would her parents have
let her go. Maybe next year, when she was older, when they knew him better, and
they were sure the epilepsy was under control.
He was soon on the outskirts of
the city. It was beginning to wake up. Front doors opened and the traffic was building.
There would surely be a flower seller open somewhere? He’d go straight to her, only
stopping to buy the biggest bunch of flowers he had the money for, leaving just
enough to buy breakfast. Best not even go home and shower first, which would show
her that he’d come straight round there.
The traffic slowed him down. There
was a storm going on inside him. Six months now they’d been together, and his stomach
still churned before he went to meet her. The thought of seeing her still edged
his days with gold. He stopped at the traffic lights, revving the bike, but it didn’t
make him feel any better.
The lights changed to green. He
swung round the corner, off the wide boulevard and into the main shopping street
near where she lived. It was a good job the other traffic was slow, or he would
have been speeding for sure. There were speed cameras everywhere. It was just like
being with her. He had to be careful all the time. She was underage, after all.
She often teased him, about being old-fashioned. Sometimes, she said he didn’t care
— didn’t find her attractive. If only she knew what he really thought. But he wouldn’t
rush and spoil anything, not for the world. This girl was important. More important
than any other girl he had been with.
He inched forward to the next
set of lights, where he needed to turn right into her street. Good. The flower seller
was already there and opening up his booth. Jan parked the bike.
‘What can you do for thirty euros?’
he asked. ‘With plenty of colour in it?’
‘What about five of these,’ said
the vendor, beginning to take some huge yellow lilies out of a bucket. ‘And six
of those?’ he suggested, pointing to some equally big fiery red flowers, which looked
a bit like dragons heads with tongues sticking out.
Jan nodded. They were exactly
right. They reminded him of Christina, dramatic, colourful and beautiful, and a
little bit angry.
He watched impatiently as the
merchant spent what seemed like hours, putting the flowers together. He worked carefully,
adding in a few bits of green and one or two smaller blue colours. Finally, he added
the little packet of the magic formula, which helped to keep the flowers fresh,
and then skilfully wrapped the whole bouquet in cellophane in such a way that the
flowers were protected without being squashed.
‘There you are, sir,’ said the
merchant, handing the bouquet over. ‘Make sure she puts them in water straight away,
and remind her to cut two centimetres off the stems first, and not to forget to
put the powder into the water.’ He tapped the side of his nose and winked at Jan.
‘I hope they have the desired effect.’
Jan stowed the flowers carefully
into the little space he had left in the luggage compartment of his bike, and turned
down into Christina’s street. He felt slightly sick, and his pulse was beginning
to race. Sometimes, he thought he could do without this relationship — always the
tension. He was always worrying what she might think and trying to guess whether
she felt the same about him. But, no, he couldn’t give her up. It just made so much
difference to him. Life was grand, because Christina existed.
Five minutes later he was outside
her apartment block, the bike parked again. Breathing in and out slowly several
times, he rang the bell. There was no reply for a while. That was something, he
supposed. It meant that her parents were already out at work, so at least he wouldn’t
have to see them. Then the waiting became too much. He lifted his hand to ring the
bell again, but just as he was about to press it, the buzzer sounded. His heart
missed a beat.
‘Hello, who’s there?’ said a sleepy
voice. Something sank inside Jan. It was Paul, her brother. Yet it was almost a
relief.
‘Hi, it’s me. Jan de Vries,’ replied
Jan.
‘You’d better come on in,’ replied
Paul, now slightly less sleepily. ‘She’s not up yet. I’ll go and wake her.’
The buzzer sounded again, and
the front door swung open. Paul was standing in the hallway in his dressing gown.
‘Go on in,’ he said. ‘I’ll go
and get her up. Would you like a coffee?’
‘It’s okay, thanks,’ replied Jan.
‘I thought I’d take her out to breakfast.’
Paul wandered off towards Christina’s
bedroom. Jan sat in the lounge nursing the flowers. He was grimy and sticky from
the journey anyway. The lounge was impeccable — nothing out a place and not a speck
of dust anywhere. He was a complete misfit. But hopefully, she would be glad to
see him, and the little argument they’d had just before he’d left would be completely
forgotten. He hoped she’d love the flowers, and going out to breakfast, and perhaps
now gradually, her parents would start to accept him. He even thought of getting
his hair cut, but she’d told him so often how much she loved his long blonde hair.
Soon she would be older. They would be able to take things further, and she’d be
able to come on more of the biker trips with him. He’d even be willing to give up
that for her, but that was another of the things she said she liked about him. If
he became too much Mr Sensible, she’d go off him. He even worried sometimes that
she didn’t quite approve of the fact that he didn’t smoke, drink or do drugs. Well,
not much, anyway.
What were they doing? He hoped
she wasn’t unwell. Then he heard the raised voices.
Christina’s voice was hard to
hear. But he could make out ‘ever — again — have gone — flowers where the sun…’
‘Oh come, on,’ he heard Paul say.
‘He’s waiting out there with a great big bunch of flowers. Come and sort it out,
won’t you?’
A door slammed. Paul reappeared
in the lounge.
‘She won’t speak to you,’ he said.
‘Oh well,’ said Jan getting up.
What else could he do? He was sorry about going to the meet, but well, if he was
going to carry on being a biker, he’d had to go. And she wanted him to be a biker.
‘Look, Jan,’ said Paul. ‘I can’t
make her come out. You’ll have to try again later.’
‘I’ll leave the flowers, then,’
said Jan.
A door suddenly opened. Christina
rushed into the lounge. Her green eyes were flashing, her thick dark curls were
mussed from sleep. Still, something leapt up in him as he saw her.
‘You can keep your bloody flowers,’
she said. ‘Don’t come near me again. If you can’t put me first, it’s all off.’
She rushed back to her room. Paul
shrugged his shoulders. Jan could do nothing but leave. The lump in his throat was
so huge he couldn’t swallow — could hardly breathe. He couldn’t lose her, he just
couldn’t.
Mrs Van Bredow, the Grants’ next-door
neighbour was just coming in. She was a little woman, with dark and wrinkled skin,
who shuffled everywhere with the aid of a walking stick. It was arthritis, she’d
explained to him one day as she watched him mending his bike outside the apartment.
‘Oh, what lovely flowers,’ she
exclaimed and beamed at Jan. ‘For Christina?’
Jan managed to nod.
‘Oh, there’s no one in?’ she asked.
‘I’ll take them, if you like, and see that she gets them.’
Jan didn’t speak.
A slight cloud passed over the
old lady’s face.
‘Oh, she didn’t want them?’ she
said.
‘No,’ said Jan, suddenly finding
his voice. ‘You may as well keep them, Mrs Van Bredow. Enjoy!’
He thrust the bouquet into her
arms, and went to leave. Mrs Van Bredow grabbed his arm, quite strongly, Jan thought,
for someone in so much pain. She looked him straight in the eyes and Jan felt as
if she was trying to tell him something.
‘Don’t give up on her, don’t give
up.’
She let herself into the apartment,
still clutching the flowers.
The day had lost its colour. The
heat and the traffic were just a nuisance. Despite the bright sun, everything seemed
grey. He wanted to get back now to his apartment and have a shower and then just
sleep, try to forget, and then perhaps when he’d had a good rest, he could think
what to do to make her come round.
But there was another problem
waiting for him sitting on the doorstep to the tall old canal-side house his apartment
was in. Susanne Richards. Her parents rented the two floors below him and she was
at school with Christina. She was always hanging around.
‘Not seeing Christina, today,
then?’ she asked. ‘I’d have thought you would have been gagging for it, after being
away for all that time. I know, I bet she’s sent you back home to have a shower
first. Little miss high and mighty.’
‘I’m too tired for this,’ said
Jan. ‘Could you move, so I can get in?’
‘Have you two fallen out?’ asked
Susanne, grinning.
‘No…not really,’ muttered Jan.
What business was it of hers? ‘No we haven’t. Not at all.’ He wished she would just
go away.
She grinned at him again. But
at least she moved a little over to the side and he was able to struggle past her
with his luggage.
He dumped everything in the hall
and went straight to the shower. The hot water and the shower-gel felt good. When
he had finished, he didn’t bother getting dressed, but just stretched out on top
of the bed. His bedroom was in the shade now, and with the window just a little
open, the room was beautifully cool. Seconds later, he was fast asleep.
When he awoke after two hours,
he felt much better. He was no longer tired and he knew exactly what he was going
to do about Christina. He was not going to let her go that easily. He tried ringing
the landline, and then her mobile. Nothing. Perhaps she was still asleep. Or maybe
she’d gone out. Well, he would just go and wait for her.
Susanne was still sitting on the
step when he got outside.
‘You going to take me for a ride
on your bike, then?’ she asked looking up at him with one eye shut against the sun.
‘Now that you haven’t got to worry about making old green eyes jealous?’
‘Don’t talk to me about Christina’s
eyes,’ he said. They’re the most beautiful
eyes in the world, he thought.
‘Do you and her actually — you
know — do it?’ she asked.
The cheek of her. ‘None of your
business,’ he replied.
‘I bet she won’t let you!’ said
Susanne. ‘I bet she gets you panting for it. But oh, no, Mummy’s little girl wouldn’t
do anything disgusting — like sleep with a man — not until she’s old enough.’
Susanne stood up and sidled over
to Jan. She put her arms round him. Jan gently but firmly pushed her away.
‘No, you ought to go with me,’
she said. ‘I’m not such a prude.’ She gave him another of her crooked little smiles.
‘Can you let me through?’ said
Jan. ‘I’ve got things to do.’
‘Oh, I don’t know,’ said Susanne.
‘I will if you make it worth my while.’ She undid the top of her shirt to reveal
quite a bit of cleavage. She grabbed Jan’s hand and held it over her chest.
He flinched and pulled his hand
back.
‘Anyway, if you don’t, I’ll tell
her you’ve been feeling me up,’ said Susanne. ‘Well, you have to admit, your hand
was just on my chest.’
‘What do you want?’ he sighed.
‘Sleep with me!’ cried Susanne,
her eyes gleaming.
‘No way!’ replied Jan, trying
again to push past her. He could get past, if he pushed her hard enough, though
he didn’t dare hurt her. Knowing her and her family, that would land him in court.
‘Only kidding!’ said Susanne,
laughing. ‘Just give me a lift on your motorbike up to the park. I feel like chilling
out by the river all day.’
‘All right,’ said Jan. ‘Are you
ready? I want to get going.’
‘I’ll be two minutes.’
He took the spare helmet out ready
as she went into the apartment. Ten minutes later, she appeared, dressed in nothing
but a bikini, a short skirt, flip-flops and sunglasses. She was carrying a towel,
a book and a tube of sun cream.
‘You’ll be cold, like that, on
the back of the bike,’ he said.
‘Great!’ said Susanne. ‘It’ll
save me getting too worked up, clinging on to you. It’ll stop me getting erotic
feelings.’
They climbed on to the bike. He
felt slightly nauseated as she put her arms round him. Still, it would only be for
ten minutes, then he could drop her off at the entrance to the park and make his
way as fast as he could back to Christina.
