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| Short Stories : Belief in the perfect |
It was late in the evening when Maximilian got off the bus. It was getting dark, the sky was wrapped in a red cloak, which threw pale light on the half-rotten houses and smoothed out their wrinkles a little. Leanderstrasse she had told him. He looked around, the cobblestones had been sucked smooth by countless cars over many years, and Max could almost be reflected on the still damp stones. It had just stopped raining. The area certainly reminded him a little of his home, a small village with only one street and a few old houses. In the midst of the hustle and bustle of a city, however, the scene seemed more like something out of one of the bad movies of the seventies. He stood at the bus stop for about ten minutes. It was almost ten when Julie appeared. The air was still hot and her little dress showed more than it hid. Max didn't expect that she would be so beautiful.
She had the most adorable smile he had ever seen. Small dimples over the corners of the mouth, fawn-brown and infinitely deep eyes and the short, black and styled hair emphasized her face with the delicate snub nose and smooth cheeks. Julie wasn't really slim and yet she had the figure that you normally only see on the glossy pages of expensive fashion magazines. She eyed him long and hard, only then did she shyly address him. Her soft, bright and pleasant voice sounded like an infinite passion that sent Max a pleasant shiver over his skin. Almost as if his body was electrified. He knew that Julie did not notice how incredibly elegant she ran and how she waved her arms slightly without looking a bit arrogant, how provocative she looked and that she had the most beautiful face that Max had seen in all of his seventeen years would have.
"Hello Maximilian! “, She said and Max's knees went terribly weak. She hadn't exaggerated in her letter. You could tell her intelligence by the mere words she spoke and the expression on her face. Max was ashamed of the letters. He had tried to speak to Julie for a year, but had never found the courage and strength to do so. They had looked each other in the eye many times, and Max always felt very brave for not simply looking away. At some point he decided to write a short story for her. And that's where it started. She recognized herself in this rather unimaginative piece and decided to write back to him.
I liked the story, it's about both of us, am I right? Do you want us to meet? I would like to get to know you.
Of course he had, but instead of just going to her the next day he decided to write back out of sheer shyness and sheer joy.
If I can't say something, I write it down. Words can change the world you know Of course I want to see you, absolutely, as often as possible and even more often! But I want a romantic meal for two. With candles, wine and everything that goes with it. If you still want to, just tell me when and where I can invite you, ok?
Countless more letters followed, and many weeks passed before both became concrete. Finally, out of curiosity, they could no longer converse over letters. They saw each other at school almost every day, and yet they were completely strangers.
" Hello! “That was all Max managed to say. He was really shy, kind of a freak, because nobody ever wanted to believe him. But he has never turned on or even spoken to any woman. That made Max sick, but he could never change it. They stared into each other's eyes and fleetingly into the area, as if they had jumped out of time. What was still around her lost all meaning, it was quiet, no more noise from cars. Then, for the first time in his life, Max took courage. It was the absolute high point of his career as Casanova, he looked at his dream woman and talked. He talked as if inspired by love about his whole life up to now, and how futile it all suddenly was now. The ice was finally broken.
"Do you want to know where you can take me Maximilian?", Julie Max interrupted. He immediately stopped speaking the years of silence and it was amazing that he did. Maximilian just called him his mother. He'd had discussions with her before, and she was the only person he really spoke to. He didn't like anything else, dull conversations with friends or nonsensical small talk, it was always so superficial. But now everything changed. From now on there was a person with whom he could share everything. Every smile, every tear, every problem and every word. He was almost dizzy because his blood seldom rushed through his veins. They walked across the street, which was now lit by lanterns, and walked for about five minutes through the clear, moonlit night along rows of houses that looked almost threatening. Julie saw the building first, it was yellow and a gate led directly into the pub she had chosen.
"It's nice here, you're even more stunning in the light of the candle!", Max breathed in a trembling voice over the light candle that was on the wooden table. And he wasn't lying. She fascinated him, held his eyes tight, and smiled like never before. She had put on a jacket in the meantime, but her beauty and perfection did not depend on the clothes and Max had noticed that there could not be anything so perfect without the sun fading with envy. In the candlelight, her dimples had a very sharp contour and just a quick glance you noticed that she didn't laugh often, she was so infinitely similar to Max, and yet he felt a small barrier. He couldn't figure it out, and it probably didn't matter, because they'd only met two hours ago. Not only was Max an acceptable discussion partner, he could also listen indefinitely, or so it seemed to Julie. She asked him why he had invited her, when there are so many more women, and he couldn't answer. He couldn't just reveal himself inside, then he would feel naked. But being able to share everything also meant sharing feelings and thoughts. He knew that, because that was exactly how he had imagined it a few minutes ago.
“There is only one reason. I love you for ages And I would have withered inside without you long ago. All my life I waited for a woman of your size and now you are sitting here, across from me. We talk as if we had a thousand years of silence behind us, I'm opening my heart to you, a completely new experience, and I'm not sorry to have betrayed my alter ego. You are the rose that blooms even in winter. You are elegant, warming and erotic like fire. Even now I can no longer imagine that I had never seen you before. You awaken the poetry in me and you are the engine that drives me to school every morning. Just for the sake of a glimpse of your beauty, your eyes. You are the pure energy, without you I already felt dead inside. Because I believe in the perfect. I adore you. "
At the same moment Julie lost a tear. This left a shiny streak on her cheek, which made her face a bright glow. Max could feel his heart beating all over his body, as if it had taken hold of him. He was really dizzy and the famous tingling sensation in his stomach, which he always felt when he saw Julie, became overpowering. He would have loved to fall on her arm and kiss her deeply. Just like it always looks in the films Max had seen many, too many of them. He could hardly hold himself, wanted to hug her and embrace her. He wanted to warm her, as she did to him by mere existence, but instead he wiped the tear from her face. Julie wasn't sure if Max was serious or if it was just a nifty towing method. But the evening would tell. Max was the first to smile after the tear. Julie couldn't contain herself for long either and began to look satisfied again. Another conversation didn't want to arise, they had got too close too quickly without even touching each other once. Max wondered if maybe he had talked too much and shared too many feelings.
Before he could answer this question, however, he woke up. He was holding a piece of paper in his hand. He read a few words and found it was the short story he was going to give Julie at school tomorrow.
Author : Konrad Grabert
