Short Stories : The Greatest Journey of Our Life (Chapter 3)

Short Stories : The Greatest Journey of Our Life (Chapter 3)

CHAPTER 3

Jürgen

Then Jürgen took another look into the kitchen. Although it was small, it was perfectly adequate for its requirements.

The landlady, a small, stout woman, pointed to the closet. >> Everything is there, there are the pots, pans and dishes in it! <<

>> Everything very nice! <<, Jürgen stated with satisfaction.

"How long do you need the apartment for?" Asked the woman, pulling the keys from her kitchen apron.

He started to think. >> I think about three months, then my new book will be ready by then. <<

"Oh, they are writers!", She was amazed to find out and immediately went on drilling. >> What are you writing? <<

>> I never commit myself exactly. I'm currently looking for a new topic to write about. That is why I came to Moscow to be inspired here. <<

"I'm sure you'll find enough topics here," she replied.

When she was gone, his eyes fell on the suitcase. He had to unpack! His most important tool, a notebook, was right at the top. Including everything you need or don't need for a longer stay in a foreign country. He had been on the train for three days. He spent the last night in a hotel. However, since this would become too expensive in the long run, he now rented this small, furnished apartment. Ten minutes later everything was stowed away and he opened the notebook and switched it on. As the computer started up, he brooded. His last book was a year ago and money was running low. He could still write, the question was what? He just didn't have any good ideas anymore. There were phases like this for every author, but it has been taking too long. The word processor was started. He typed in the ten-finger system: CHAPTER 1. Twenty minutes later, there wasn't much on the screen either. Jürgen gave up and switched off. He'd go to a cafe first. Maybe he had an idea what to write. You never know how he used to say. He quickly got up, grabbed his coat and opened the door.

A cold breeze blew out at him. Something will come, he thought. It would certainly snow today, at least there was talk of it in the weather forecast. An old man with a handcart, on which there were two packed shopping bags, came to meet him. Jürgen asked him gently about the nearest cafe.

"Just around the corner!" Replied the latter, walking on with his handcart.

He didn't even hear Jürgen's thanks anymore. The people here seemed in a hurry. But that was the case everywhere, nobody had more for the other time, which Jürgen found very sad. Despite the coat, he was cold. He wanted to hurry up and have something warm in the cafe, that would do him good in this damn cold.

Alexander actually wanted to go to Mc Donalds, but decided differently. Now he was sitting in a small cafe, all alone at a table, enjoying the luxury of a piece of cream cake and a warm tea. Yes, even that was a luxury for him. For others it was a matter of course.

However, he did not want to have such real joy Andrej was dead and he was sad about it. He couldn't forget the wonderful lunch they had had. He walked crying through the streets for half an hour. Some passersby stupidly watched him. One asked what was going on, he ignored him and just kept walking. Now he needed distraction. He also didn't want to be alone. At least there were people here, though none of these people spoke to him. He looked around to see if no one would notice his grief. A blond-haired young woman sat ahead and sipped a cup of coffee. Further back, two older men who talked eagerly. Surely they were talking about earlier times when everything had been better. About the times of communism when everything was taken care of. Today everyone had to take care of themselves and quite a few fell by the wayside. Alexander also belonged to this group. So nobody noticed anything about him, everyone was busy, now was a little calmer.

Another middle-aged man entered the cafe. Dressed in a fine suit and a briefcase in her right hand. Certainly a businessman, Alexander thought. This took a seat opposite the blonde. That was clear and he could even smile a little bit about it. He preferred the space at the entrance so he could look out of the large window. The large pane at least reached from the floor to the ceiling. The cafe had not been around for a long time, in the past a shoe shop was housed here. He took his time with the cake, because it was cold outside and warm and cozy in here. In addition, because of Andrej's death, he had no real appetite.

His eyes went back to the window. Outside, people hurried past with their full shopping bags, all full of shopping stress. Suddenly a brown jaguar stopped in front of the cafe. Alexander knew this car, it belonged to Pavel. The regular customer with whom he slept last night. Now he saw him again. However, Pavel did not get out of the vehicle alone, two men accompanied him. They all wore suits. The three men ran towards the cafe. Certainly a business meeting with breakfast at the same time, Alexander thought. In fact, they came in. "Hello!" Greeted Alexander. Pavel looked over at him briefly, but then quickly looked away and pretended that he didn't know him. The other two made themselves comfortable across from him. Pavel turned to the two men and He spoke very softly, but made no move to sit down, so he now pointed his hand to the back tables. Both men got up again and followed Pavel backwards. Just as he pictured it last night, it wasn't wanted to have something to do with him. Pavel would only remember him when he wanted to have sex. He brooded again because he had another question. Where should he sleep tonight? Sure he had three thousand rubles but if he took a room now, the money would be used up quickly, so the decision was made that he wouldn't take a room tonight.

The two operators at the counter looked over at him. In any case, he believed it at first. Until a few scraps of the word snow appeared in his ear. He turned his head to the window. It snowed! It was bad for him. So sleeping outside was not possible. Such a shit! Should he go back to the old house? No, that would remind him too much of Andrej. He definitely had to find something warm for the night, that much was certain. So there was something to find out where to sleep. Fortunately, he had the rest of the day. No work was done today. He stirred the spoon in his tea, which was now lukewarm.

At that moment the door opened again and a man with a long coat came in, accompanied by a cold draft. The stranger took off his coat and sat across from him. Then he waved to the waitress, who came dancing right away. The woman listlessly pulled a small block out of her apron and also listlessly noted the order.

There was never a lot of activity at this time, but that would change at lunchtime. Then pupils and students came and literally stormed the booth. As Alexander could tell from the few scraps of words, the man spoke with a slightly foreign accent, probably German. After a few seconds the order was placed and the chick pulled out again.

The guy suddenly looked over at him, he shouldn't have stared at him like that. However, the stranger smiled friendly and said in a somewhat loud voice: "I also ordered a cream cake like this."

Alexander just nodded, as he usually did. With his guess he was probably right, the stranger was German. But he seemed to be nice and nice people were rare in his world. When did someone pay attention to him. Actually never! This was an exceptional situation. Whether all Germans were so nice?

The stranger got up and came to his table. "Is everything alright with you, you make such a sad impression?" He asked in a low voice so that no one else could hear it. Alexander heard a worried undertone from the question. What should he say to this stranger? That he went on the line and lived on the street. His buddy Andrej had thrown himself in front of the train. No, he would not do that! He did not want other people's pity, but had to deal with his shitty situation himself, he saw that Not strangers in the face when he nodded, it was all clear, it was all wonderful!

In reality he could have cried again at that moment, but life taught him to control himself. "Good!" Replied the stranger and went back to his table.

So could you tell that he was sad? He just couldn't let go of the feeling, he was observed by this foreigner. Surely his eyes were still on him. He didn't dare to look over there. It was now a matter of not showing anything. Pretend everything is normal. No one else had noticed anything, just this stranger, why? No, no, he always kept his worries to himself. Nobody needed to know anything about his life!

Then he remembered his money. He had to hide it in his shoes, it was safer than in his coat. Slowly he got up and walked towards the toilet. The same was quite small and consisted of two pisswar’s and two lockable toilets. Everything looked clean, which was not the case everywhere. No one was here except him. Both doors were open. Alexander took the right one and quickly locked it behind him. He hastily removed his left shoe and took out the money. He put two thousand rubles of it in his shoe, the rest back in his coat. When he entered the cafe again, he saw that the stranger had ordered the same thing as he had. A piece of cream cake and tea. He couldn't stay here forever, the waitress at the counter was already glancing at him.

"Tastes really good!", The man turned back to him. Alexander nodded again. In a moment he would be standing outside in the cold again and, to make matters worse, snow was falling too. He couldn't get to the subway station Cameras monitored and homeless people were not tolerated. There were security guards who would drive him away. He had to experience this several times. Bite by bite he enjoyed the piece of cake. In between, always a small sip of the cold tea. When he was finished waving he brought up the waitress to pay. The lady wasn't exactly what you could call friendly. He always tipped, even if he didn't have much, but not this time. He didn't find unkindness yet to be rewarded the counter was gone, he rose and went to the door, saying goodbye to the stranger, who also answered it with a tschau.

When the door closed behind him he was standing in the freezing cold again. Anyone who had no home feared these temperatures. Alexander was standing there, surrounded by human hustle and cold, and was thinking. His next goal would be the department store. A hat like Andrej had had was now quite practical at these temperatures. In addition, he was able to stay in the department store for a few hours and did not need to walk around aimlessly in the cold. So Alexander set off. His thoughts were with poor Andrej again.

He looked after the boy thoughtfully. The latter stopped and seemed to be considering. Then he continued to run and got out of sight of Jürgen. The latter put the fork into the cake and thought about the boy. He had been kind. The exact opposite of the unfriendly service here. Saying goodbye politely. You rarely saw anything like that these days. Still, he gave the impression that he looked tired and sad. Something seemed wrong with the boy. As if he hadn't slept for nights and experienced something bad. He certainly didn't seem rich, his coat looked worn. Sure, there were many poor people in Russia, Jürgen was already familiar with that. This boy was also one of those poor people. Did he even have a home? Questions after questions he couldn't find an answer to. Only the boy could answer his questions, but he was gone. Jürgen was one of those people who were very sensitive and didn't look away straight away, but helped.

The selection in the large department store was huge. There was really almost everything to buy here if you had enough money for it. Alexander stopped in front of one of the LCD televisions in the electronics department. There used to be a television in his former home, but it never worked. Since his parents drank everything, there was never any money to fix him. He was often bored because of that. Everyone else in his class could watch TV and often told what was going well the previous day. He couldn't have a say. Once a classmate asked how he found Airwolf. In order not to be considered poor, he simply lied and said that he thought the series was great and would watch it every week.

The Dog Show was running in the LCD telly. Then owners came to the studio with their dogs. They had to do tricks. The best dog got a food pack as a prize and his owner a small television. When he was nine years old, he also wanted a dog. Once he asked his mother who promised he would get one for his birthday. There was no dog on his birthday and no other presents either. His grandmother was no longer there. No one congratulated him that day. Alexander remembered that at that moment. He watched the whole show and thought it was really cute.

Then he continued to stroll towards the clothing department. He had all the time in the world and didn't need to hurry. At the far end, at the end of the clothing department, was a basket with innumerable caps. There were red, yellow, blue, in short all colors and shapes. The beaver fur hat liked the best, unfortunately it was too expensive! He had to divide up his money. Alexander didn't know when he would earn anything again. Most also paid bad. Pavel was a glorious, rare exception. He tried on some cheap hats and finally decided on a simple model. This brown one was also warm and fit perfectly. He strutted on with his hat in hand. At least it was warm here. The department store would close at 8:00 p.m. as long as he wanted to stay there.

Back on TV, he now watched some music videos. It distracted him a bit. Then it went to the game consoles. Before that, many children and young people were romping around. Some of them came here every day just to be able to play for free. There were many who couldn't afford it. The only way for them to play something like that was just here. Alexander waited patiently until a console was free, then he went and took the joypad. It was a car racing game in which it was important to have a good time driving, which wasn't exactly easy. He kept trying. His time got better every round.

Suddenly there was a loudspeaker announcement. >> Dear customers, we close in ten minutes! Please finish your shopping and go to the checkout. << Thank you for your purchase and wish you a pleasant evening. "Christ, it was already so late! During the game he had completely forgotten the time. He quickly put the joypad down on the shelf and marched to the food department. A can of fish and two rolls and a yogurt. That would be enough for today. Somewhere in a lonely corner he would have his supper afterwards. The hat and the groceries went to the checkout. He was the last customer, and as soon as he was outside the large glass doors were locked behind him.

It was already dark. However, the lanterns provided enough light to be able to see everything. It was still snowing heavily and an icy wind was blowing in his face. Since it was a Saturday today, a lot of people were on their feet. Many of them went out to eat, some to the cinema, some to one of the many clubs. Most hurried, none wanted to stay in the cold longer than necessary. The cars, however, drove at a snail's pace. Firstly, because the heavy snowfall made it difficult to see anything, and secondly, because people were constantly crossing the street without paying much attention to the traffic. Others were busy clearing the sidewalk from snow. Small piles of snow formed on the edge of the sidewalks. If it continued to snow, these small piles could quickly grow into larger ones. Every now and then a clearing vehicle came and poured everything back onto the sidewalk. Alexander put on his newly acquired hat. He stopped in front of a house and looked through the window. The lights were on inside and the whole family was sitting comfortably at the table eating dinner. It had never been so nice with them before. Sometimes there wasn't even anything to eat in the house. He watched for a few seconds, then kept walking. There was a thermometer at the front of the pharmacy. It showed minus nine degrees. It was going to get colder that night and there was still no place to sleep. There were always emergency quarters for people like him organized by the church in winter. It was not very advisable to spend the night there. A lot was stolen. When you woke up in the morning it could be that your shoes were gone. In addition, there were often fights because the people were too drunk.

Suddenly Alexander stopped, his eyes fell on the apartment building opposite. The door was open. He knew the house. He fell asleep a few times. Alexander had to take advantage of the situation. The door was mostly locked. Today must have been his lucky day. Fate meant well with him. He quickly crossed the street and hurried through the open door into the hall. To the right was a staircase that led down. He turned on the light and carefully went down the stairs. Below was a large basement that was divided into many small ones by wooden slats. So a separate basement belonged to every apartment. Most of them were secured with chains and grub locks, some not. Alexander chose the back cellar. It was always open. There was only an old table and a few sacks of garbage in it. The associated apartment seemed to be empty, so the basement didn't belong to anyone. He sat behind the sacks, so he wasn't immediately seen if someone came. First Alexander took off his hat and shook off the snow. Now he had earned something to eat. The two rolls and the fish tin emerged from his coat pocket. He carefully opened the can's zipper and took out his little spoon. He hadn't eaten since this morning and now the hunger came back suddenly. There was the strawberry yogurt for dessert. After everything was consumed, he cleaned the spoon with a paper handkerchief and stowed it again. He put the hat on the floor, it now served as a pillow replacement. He lay down slowly and waited for sleep to overpower him. Unfortunately, this did not come as quickly as requested. So there was enough time to think about his shitty life. About his grandmother, whom he liked very much and who also loved him. About his screwed-up parents, to whom vodka was more important than him. Did he hate her? Not right, despite what they did to him. Maybe he hated them at times, but they were still his parents. Then he had to think of Andrej again, how nice he could always play on his harmonica. He would never hear him play again. One day he would follow Andrej and go where he was now. Because at some point he would no longer be able to endure his shitty life. As the saying goes, the door to death was always open. These were his last thoughts, then his eyes closed and he dreamed of a better world.

Jürgen stumbled into the small kitchen with a packed bag and put it on the sink. He paused completely out of breath. His whole head was covered with snow. He took one of the dishcloths and swept the snow off his head. You could only see a few meters, it was snowing so much outside. But the purchase had to be. There was nothing to eat in the house. For a moment he thought of the boy in the cafe again. He could feel it, the immeasurable sadness that seemed to come from the boy. He wanted to help him. Maybe he shouldn't have let go so quickly. He felt sorry for the strange boy he didn't know. "Pity!", He regretted. He would never see him again in his life. He should be wrong, but Jürgen didn't know that at the time.

Now it was time to unpack. The first thing that came out was a bag of Pelemeni. These were Russian dumplings. In contrast to the Swabian dumplings, these had no minced meat, spinach filling, but only minced meat. A specialty that was eaten by the locals. So he wanted to try this specialty today. He has been to Russia several times and he was surprised that he has never tasted this delicacy. Fortunately, everything was available in the kitchen. He took a pot from the small cupboard, filled it with water and put it on the stove. If you were a single, like him, you had to be able to cook properly. He could, because cooking was his greatest passion. The fact that he lived alone was not a hindrance. He often tried out new recipes.

Most chose involuntarily to live singles. He made a very targeted decision and was happy with it. He was forty-nine years old. Thirty books bore his name, which he was also somewhat proud of. As a writer, you were used to loneliness. Writing was a lonely job. To be able to write well, you had to be alone. Since he was used to it from his work, he could easily transfer this to his private life. He didn't mind being lonely, at least that's what he thought.

Somehow it was too quiet here, that bothered him now, so he got his little transistor radio out of his case. The antenna was quickly removed and a station that played music was quickly found. Some Russian singer sang about love. Jürgen noticed that so many songs were about love. One of his books had also been a love story. Things like that sell well. Women in particular belong to the target group of such novels. It couldn't be too cute. Now he finally got the saving idea, a love muzzle. His next novel would be his second love story. Something was finally found! He wanted to sit down in front of his notebook and start typing, but he let it be better now.

The last time he cooked and wrote, things went wrong. He forgot the spaghetti because of the sheer writing. When he came back into the kitchen everything was smoky, you could hardly see your hand in front of you, there was so much smoke in the room. The noodles were just a piece of coal. Getting the pot clean again would have been time-consuming. So the pot ended up in the residual waste bin. But as the saying goes, you learn from experience. He learned from this never to do both at the same time.

The water started to boil. He quickly opened the bag and threw the pelemenin into the bubbling water. They would be ready in a few minutes. However, he could not eat in the kitchen, there was neither a table nor a chair, so he had no choice but to taste the pelemen in the other room.

Thirty minutes later, he sat the plate aside saturated and switched on his notebook again. These dumplings didn't taste bad. Unfortunately, he could never really estimate the quantities. So there were enough left now, but he would deal with them later. Now a long, busy night in front of him. He started typing. CHAPTER ONE YOUR NAME WAS CHRISTINE .... A few minutes later, he was completely in his element, forgetting the world around him.

Continue Reading to The Greatest Journey of Our Life (Chapter 4)