Boy from the Woods (9781311684776) (32 page)

“Thanks,” she said in a slightly strangled
voice, smiling warmly at Thorsten. “And my apologies. I’ll move out
as soon as possible.”

Thorsten started to
chuckle. “Oh, come on. That won’t be necessary.”
He cocked his head. “Or were you planning on renting a room
in the city anyway, once you start college?”

She shrugged. “Not really.
I live close by. And I like it at home.
It’s cozy. And cheap, of course.”

“Well, I see
no other solution but for
me
to move out,” he replied. “I
mean, I’m filthy rich. And my parents are an absolute horror,
so…”

Julia rolled her eyes.
“Sarcasm bites.
You and my mom should
start a club together.
She’s really good at that,
too.”

Thorsten raised an
eyebrow.
“How is being in a club with
your mom going to help me to run into you less
frequently?”

“True that.” Julia
blushed.
“Not such a brilliant idea after
all.”

“Hey, don’t you need to get off here?” he
suddenly said in alarm.

Julia sprang
up when she saw he was right. They’d pulled up next to her
stop.
“Hey, thanks! I wasn’t paying attention.”
She hauled her bag over one shoulder and waved
at Thorsten before getting out and setting a course for the
bookstore. It was going to be a hot day; already the sun was
burning down relentlessly, and it wasn’t even nine in the morning
yet. Julia could feel the sweat gather on the skin under her bag
strap. She hoped Martin would drag out the kitchen table onto the
patio again today, so they could have lunch outside. Inside, it was
sheer horror on the second floor at this temperature.

“Servus
,” she greeted Marco and
Silke, who were waiting on the steps in front of the store.
“Shop’s not open yet?”

Silke shook her
head.
“Martin got here a minute ago, but
he’s escorting Michael back to the bus stop.
He was
feeling really sick.”

“No way!
Really?” Julia immediately dug up her phone to
see whether Michael had called her. Not yet. She would send him a
text straight away.
‘silke just told me ure sick? I’ll
B w/ u asap, ok? xx’

“Hey, you
look all pale,” Marco said worriedly. “You want to leave a bit
early today?
After lunch? I can fill in
for you, if you want.”

“You could? That would be
fantastic.”
Julia shot him a grateful
look. Marco was a life-saver: she’d leave straight after lunch and
go to Michael’s house to nurse him back to health. His parents
weren’t home, because his mom was on vacation and his dad was on
one of his business trips.

When Martin
opened the store just after nine, Marco asked straight away if he
could
take Julia’s shift.
Martin didn’t mind. “I’m sure he’ll appreciate your visit,”
he told Julia.
“He was feeling really
nauseous. Must have eaten something wrong.”

The morning
seemed to crawl by
, now that Julia was
mostly waiting for lunchtime. When the store closed at noon, she
once again thanked Marco wholeheartedly before running out the
door. Once outside, she decided to walk to Michael’s house on the
Giselakai – it was even hotter now, and a ride on the bus would be
uncomfortable. Besides, she needed the exercise. If she picked her
route carefully, she could stay in the shade almost all the way.
Large sycamores and chestnuts lined either side of the pedestrian
lane flanking the river, so the only sunny part of her walk would
be the bridge she needed to cross to get to the other side of the
Salzach.

Thankfully, a
soft wind was blowing. Julia hitched her bag on one shoulder,
brushed the hair from her face and put it up in a ponytail.
Everything around her looked peaceful. Little boats were floating
down the river, but no larger ships could be seen. The water level
was extremely low due to the July drought. The weather had been hot
and sunny throughout Europe this summer, and it wasn’t over yet.
Julia smiled when she thought of London – they’d be able to ride
double-decker buses to tour the city, do touristy stuff and take
pictures of all the monuments before retiring in Hyde Park during
the evenings.

It took her
twenty minutes to get to
Michael’s place.
When he opened the front door, Julia gaped at his pallid face. “Oh
my God. You really look like shit,” she exclaimed.

“Always nice
to hear,” Michael responded with a faint grin.
“Please
come in.”

“You got food poisoning?”

“No idea.” Michael took her to the living
room and flopped down on the couch with a sigh. “I don’t feel like
eating anything, that’s for sure. I just feel like catching some
fresh air.”

Julia took a seat next to him. “So you want
to go out?”

He nodded.
“Once I feel slightly better, I actually want to drive to the
forest behind your house.
Just strolling underneath
the trees, in the cool shade.”

“Sounds good to
me.”
Julia poured them both a glass of
water from the pitcher on the table. She hadn’t been to the forest
herself for quite a while. Ever since Anne’s abduction, she had
tried to avoid the woods. Whenever she felt like going for a run,
she chose the paved road to Eichet. A little while back she’d
decided to use the forest trail for a workout session, but memories
of all that had happened there had come flooding back to her –
Michael’s accident, her oak tree getting sick and shedding leaves,
the secret meetings between Anne and that creep Andreas. She’d
never thought she’d come to think of the woods as a dark and
sinister place. Maybe it was a good idea to go there together with
Michael and try to recapture the sense of security she’d always had
among the ancient trees.

After teatime, Michael was doing well enough
to leave the house again. Together, they got into Michael’s mom’s
car and drove to Birkensiedlung.

Michael
parked the car on the same spot that the ambulance had used when
the paramedics had come to take Anne to the hospital. Julia slipped
her hand into Michael’s and breathed deeply in and out. The fresh
air was doing her good. Overhead, the leaves in the canopy
whispered in the soft breeze, and suddenly, she remembered what it
had been like to be in the woods before the dark events of the past
few weeks had changed her perception of them. This place had stayed
the same – it was she who had changed from the inside out.
And that was a pity. After all, Michael had told her to keep
dreaming.
He didn’t need her to change or
turn into a down-to-earth, responsible grown-up anytime
soon.

“Come on,
let’s go
,” he softly said, walking along
the forest trail and taking a right turn after a few minutes. He
left the path and took her straight to the clearing where her oak
was silently waiting for them – at the site of his
accident.

They tacitly
stood and stared at the oak. More leaves had turned yellow since
the last time Julia visited her tree. When would the forest wardens
come and chop it down? They usually cut down ailing trees in the
fall, to keep the woods healthy. This year, their job would be
scheduled around the time she’d start college.

Julia
swallowed thickly. The thought of no longer having a sanctuary to
find refuge whenever times were tough made her throat constrict
painfully. But then Michael squeezed her hand, as if he could feel
her sadness, and she looked aside with a smile.
She
would
have a
sanctuary. She could take refuge in his presence.
He would be there for her, and all would be
well.

He turned to her and smiled back at her.
Somehow, he always managed to do that when she looked at him from
the side. It was no longer a source of astonishment for her that he
seemed to sense her gaze on him. Ever since he had told her of his
experience of life upon waking up after his accident, she assumed
he was just more sensitive than most people. That’s how he must
have managed to find Anne. The police had been back on his doorstep
several times after locking away Andreas Mittelmayer, even though
Andreas had confessed to the charges. The fact remained that
Michael had inexplicably known where her sister had been hidden
away, but Detective Spitzer put an end to the interrogations by
writing something in the police report about profilers, mediums and
people with a sixth sense helping the police force sometimes.

Michael’s voice snapped her out of her
trance. “You want to sit down for a while?” he asked, pointing at
the tree. Julia nodded. He was probably tired after walking all the
way out here, so she sat down next to him, her back pressed against
the sturdy tree trunk just like old times. Michael slipped his hand
into hers, and a deep feeling of peacefulness spread through her
body.

“It’s so
beautiful here,” he mumbled beside her.
“So quiet. So
different than the city.
And yet, I love
city life. It’s big and fantastic, full of people and life and
love. Everything moves.”

His voice had taken on a tone that suggested
he wasn’t really talking to her. He was thinking out loud, and
Julia glanced aside to see the expression on his face.

“You love
being in the city, right?” she asked.

He nodded pensively. “I can always feel you
amidst all the people in it,” he replied. “It’s as if you’re
radiant with love for me.”

In the quiet
afternoon, Julia slipped her arms around his waist and kissed him
on the cheek.
“That’s so sweet,” she whispered. “Thank
you.”

Sitting underneath the trees and enjoying the
cool shade made Michael gradually feel better. When they finally
left the woods again, it was almost six.

“We’re going to fix dinner,” Michael
announced as he pulled up in front of the house.

“
And after
dinner, let’s watch a movie?”
Julia
suggested.

“Let’s do that.
Why don’t you pick something you like?” Michael
motioned her toward the shelves lining an entire wall in the living
room. Julia had never seen this many DVDs together in her entire
life, not even at the video store.

“I’ll have a look in a minute,” she said.
“Shouldn’t I be helping you in the kitchen?”

“No, you shouldn’t. Why don’t you play
something on the piano? That’s gonna inspire my cooking for
sure.”

He made his way to the kitchen, leaving Julia
next to the grand piano in the living room. She sat down and
lightly ran her fingers over the keys. Even though she was in a
good mood, she started to play a mournful tune, to her own
surprise. It was something that just came out of nowhere and felt
as if she was leaving something precious behind in the song she was
playing, although she didn’t know what it was.

As she
finished, Michael walked up to her.
He caressed her
shoulder. “That was beautiful,” he said in awe. “You composed
that?”

Julia smiled.
“Yes. Just now, in fact. It’s like someone
whispered it to me… as though I’ve stolen this song from the trees
in the woods.”

He thought it over. “You
could have.
Maybe you’re more open to
some influences than others. That would explain why you liked to
write your poetry in the forest as well.”

He slid down next to her on the piano bench,
snaking an arm around her waist.

“Don’t you
need to supervise your pots and pans?” Julia giggled when he
started kissing her all over her face and neck.
“Isn’t
our dinner going to burn?”

He shook his head.
“The lasagna is in the oven, so that will take
care of itself.” He kissed her once more, searching her lips with
his mouth. Her heart sped up when his hand ran up and down her
back, making her shirt ride up a bit. Out of breath, she let him
pull her up and walk her over to his DVD collection. They finally
settled on ‘Legend’, one of Tom Cruise’s earliest works. Julia had
seen the movie dozens of times, but Michael hadn’t.

“This is the first movie I bought on DVD,”
she told him enthusiastically, balancing two plates of lasagna and
climbing the stairs. Julia had suggested they watch a movie in his
room, because she secretly didn’t like the living room that much –
it was too big for her taste. Michael’s bedroom was much
cozier.

Michael was
carrying her overnight bag. He threw it down next to the bed when
they entered.
“Geez, woman,” he teased her. “What’s in
this bag? Bricks?”

“No, books, actually.” Julia sat
cross-legged and zipped open her bag. “They’re for you – to
borrow.”

One by one,
she handed them over to him, and he accepted them almost
reverently, running his hand down the spines of her favorite
books.
Zweig. Brecht.
Kafka.

“If you like them, I bet you can buy your own
copies at the bookstore at a discount,” she added with a playful
smile.

Michael flopped down on his bed and put the
pile of books on his nightstand. “You think Martin will give us the
discount twice if we order them together?” He kissed her cheek when
she scrambled up to join him on the bed. “Thank you. I’m going to
pick one to read tomorrow. Now let’s eat.”