Tom is still sleeping so I let him and I decide that this time it is my turn to go out with Scotty. It is only fair to share domestic duties. Yesterday I received so much new information that I need to go through it slowly one more time while I am taking a shower, one piece of information at a time. First, the questioning by the police, then Karin´s death, the love confession at our eighteenth birthday party and then such a shock – a threesome with Sabine, which fortunately didn’t happen. She would have been otherwise already the second girl in this life with whom I´d have slept.
Until I turned eighteen there had been no one, I´m sure of that. I had certainly experienced some making out with girls until I was fifteen and before I fell in love with Tom, but this doesn’t count. I kept avoiding this topic as much as I could in all our interviews and played the mysterious guy. How could I say that I was still a virgin at this age, that I was waiting to see if my chosen one would ever want me? I couldn’t do that, so I started the mystery act. The fans surely appreciated that more than Tom´s notorious affairs. With me they at least had some marginal chance that they might be the first ones at something. This really couldn’t ever happen with Tom, there was just the certainty that at that point they would surely be the last ones… but not for a long time. Besides I have always been perceived as a romantic. Well, I am not saying that I wouldn’t be, but I surely played it up some and more to have a legitimate reason to wait for that big love. The bigger romantic I was, the longer I could wait, I used to tell myself.
Showering is such a pleasant thing, I always feel reborn. And in a way, reborn I truly am, into a new life. Even though this life isn’t perfect, I can always hope that there are no more shocking revelations waiting for me. I can´t make any mistakes with Sabine today, that is a priority. I need to ask my brother what places we have been together to, so that I wouldn’t take her someplace she knows already. I hope that Tom can help me with that. I think I might need to leave it to her after all, it will be easiest like that.
„Scotty,“ I whisper in search for my dog, not to wake up Tom. „We’re going out, where are you?“ I look in the kitchen. That dog must be even bigger sleepyhead than us. We did the right thing when we picked him from all the dogs in the shelter. I can´t imagine that he would wake us up at six o´clock in the morning.
I scratch him behind his ears to wake him up. He blinks at me with one drowsy eye and yawns.
„Ugh, your breath stinks, you smelly.“ I turn my head away, it´s usually terrible in the morning. „Come on lazybones, it is piss time in the park.“ I pull at his ear and sway the leash in front of Scotty. That´s a signal he usually reacts to. He jumps up with such a force that I land on my ass.
„Damn, you´re going to kill me one day. You know that you weigh more than me. Can´t you be more careful?“ I go into the vestibule and clean my butt. Oh, it is about the time to sweep the kitchen floor. Scotty is standing at the door and watches me wonderingly why I am taking so much time. I put the lead on him and we are ready to leave.
„Don´t run, please,“ I beg him, since I really have no intention to make any more exercise than absolutely necessary that early in the morning. A granny with a dog greets me, but it´s only a small pinscher. I have to hold Scotty with all my strength, otherwise he would probably eat the pooch up.
„Hold your dog properly, my little Bobby couldn’t protect himself against such giant,“ the granny threatens and I just smile apologetically. What do I know? I am not even sure what kind of relationship we have with our neighbours. Maybe she is one of those hags, who didn’t want us here and signed the petition.
The old witches had most probably no luck since we are still here. Everywhere I and Tom ever went, we created conflicts, it’s been like this with us since the kindergarten.
Of course I didn’t get any more information from Tom about Sabine. „Do you think that I play a third wheel on your romantic dates? I have absolutely no clue where you usually go. Let her take the lead, Sabine is a girl of action, she won´t disappoint. Just try to keep quiet, so that you won´t say anything stupid. And don’t nag at her about stabbing me to death would you? She wouldn’t believe you anyways.“ My bro grins jokingly at me and it´s clear to me that I won´t find out anything of use from him.
Today I do not feel like cooking at all, so I’d better call a Chinese restaurant and order a couple of boxes of their delicacies. At about half past two the food arrives and I and Tom wolf it down quickly.
„Hey, Bill, I´m leaving now. I’m going to go and practice some downstairs. I still have to finish a couple of new songs and then I might go and visit Gustav. Don´t count with me today, I´ll probably come back very late at night and disappear directly upstairs anyway. Call me only when it´s urgent. You have to learn to be independent, my child.“ He grins, I get a mom-kiss and he leaves.
„Wait, you´re going to leave just like that?“ I whine at him desperately which earns me one last long good-bye kiss.
„Bye, honey, I will miss you,“ I whisper in his ear while kissing him on his neck.
„Don´t tease me or I will take you right here on the floor,“ he growls threateningly that assures me that most likely he would like to do just that.
Suddenly my cell phone starts ringing. Of course it´s still on the table in the living room. I have to let Tom go, whether I want to or not, and pick up the call. It’s probably Sabine. I blow him an air-kiss and I run to the incoming call. The door slams close behind me.
„Hi, Sabine,“ I greet my ‚lover‘ cheerfully when I see her face on the display.
„Hi, honey,“ she winks back at me cheekily. „Today I’ve got a surprise for you. Get ready, I’ll be there in half an hour. We will take my car, just wait outside the gate, okay? I´m going to drive today.“
„What should I wear?“ I ask. What if she wants to take me someplace in the forest?
„The usual, you super model. Nothing special, you won´t need to outshine anyone. The place where we’re going to doesn’t call for anything extraordinary and people there will appreciate to see you even in your normal clothes,“ she says, making fun of me.
„Well, how should I know where you´re going to take me, I might for instance need to wear some working overalls. Maybe you need my help to finish building your house or something,“ I reply smugly so that she wouldn’t think that I wanted to put on some expensive black tax.
„What? What do you take me for? I would never, ever do that to you. Besides I would never do that to myself either. I don´t need to ruin my house, for construction work I can hire someone who is actually capable to use his hands and not someone like you… you singer,“ she laughs hysterically. „Just get ready and when I am almost there I will give you a call.“
„That is fine, I´m ready already, I can leave anytime,“ I inform my girlfriend letting her know I´m not going to take any more time on my looks. She had hung up before I even managed to finish the sentence.
I have already had enough of how she always makes fun of me… little bitch. Well, now I have at least an extra half an hour on my hands, so what should I do? Got an idea; I can finally watch our music videos. That should improve the miserable state of my memory.
„What took you so long?“ Sabine looks out from the window of her car when she sees me leaving the house. If she knew that I was trying desperately to figure out which key fits in the door again, she would think that I´m a nut case. I have to put some stickers on them.
„I had to run back to toilet,“ I say the first crazy thing that comes to my mind.
„I would stop somewhere by the road if you needed to…“ She smiles and opens the passenger door for me.
„You are planning to kill me by putting me in this seat of death?“ I frown for effect and I fasten my seat belt properly.
„There are airbags in my car, you wimp,“ she replies and starts the car. She puts the indicator on and pulls away from the sidewalk, direction – the unknown.
„You have a car with manual gears? Where did you get it, they don´t manufacture those anymore, right?“ I am surprised and I immediately realize that I should probably shut up. Who knows for how long she has had this car; and I should probably know.
„A friend of mine got if for me, it´s an old model but it has a new engine. I got it yesterday so now it is the time to introduce it to the road, right? I like to be in control of my life in general and I hate any automatic operating systems,“ she explains and I’m relieved that I didn’t mess up. From now on I’d better keep quite.
After half an hour we are leaving the city. We listen to radio Berlin and sit in silence. Sabine is concentrating on driving, from time to time she bites her lower lip.
When I see the sign that lets us know that we are about to leave Berlin, I can’t help but ask. „So, where are you kidnapping me to? You know that I´m a city boy and I don’t like the mountain climbing.“ I start to worry when I see the woodsy surroundings.
„Don´t worry, we’ll be there in a bit. The place we are going to is in the countryside but you’ll be safe there,“ she answers turning to the right and drives onto a forest road.
„I am telling you, I know your kind, you are taking me someplace where you are gonna cut my throat open and leave me to become a feast for blood-hungry mosquitos, aren’t you? You’ve already had enough of me?“ I jokingly play afraid.
Meanwhile I spot pleasantly looking surroundings again and some big house far in front of us. It looks more like a castle. When we get closer, I see a big garden surrounding it.
Sabine stops the car right in front of the gate with a big sign hanging on it – Children’s Orphanage Ladybird.
„So you wanted to take me to some Ladybird? Am I such a bad child that you want to deposit me in here?“ I say with half-forced laughter, but I´m actually little bit surprised. God, what are we doing here?
We get out of the car, Sabine locks the door after she takes a big sack of soft toys from the boot. She takes my hand.
„Come on, you baby. We just take a look around and if you don´t like it, mom won´t leave you here.“ She grins and pulls me in the direction of the gate. She rings a bell and we wait until a young girl in nurse’s uniform comes and opens the door for us.
„Welcome.“ The nurse smiles warmly and motions for us to enter.
„I have an appointment with the director,“ Sabine tells the girl, who just nods letting us know that she´s been informed.
She opens a big and heavy door in front of us. I take the big sack from Sabine´s hands and let her enter first. There is an impressive staircase right next to the door which leads us to the first floor. The steps seem to be quite high, it´s an old building after all.
On the way upstairs Sabine explains why we are here in the first place. „It´s a center for abandoned or orphaned children, that are meant to be adopted and stay here until the official formalities are completed, which sometimes takes a very long time. I thought that our visit could delight those little poor things, so I arranged for a visit with the director. They are children of all ages, from babies to twelve years olds, you can be sure you can find some of your fans here.“ She smirks at me but my lack of interest in the matter shows clearly on my face.
This topic always gets to me. I remember the time when I wrote a song about abandoned children. As a response we got hundreds of letters from such unfortunate abandoned kinds and I realized how blessed I truly was for having Tom and my parents in my life.
Trying to catch my breath, I finally get to the first floor. I should start exercising a bit more, I´m like some out-of-shape oldie. It is rather strange given the fact that Schultz assured me that my body would be rejuvenated by my travelling in time… crap… I’m still breathing as if I’ve run a marathon. Oh yeah, I get it now… this body was nowhere. The old one me was travelling in time, but I lost that body when I left the laboratory. The only new asset in my old worn out frame is my mind and spirit… what a complicated existence!
The nurse shows us to the director’s office door and she vanishes somewhere in the corridors with the bag of toys.
„Here we are, Bill. The director is a female and she is pretty young, attractive, even sexy, so don´t flirt with her too much, am I clear?“ My dearest „girlfriend“ smiles at me slyly, then she knocks on the white door.
„Come in!“ we hear a voice, so we enter a small office full of bright light.
„Welcome, welcome, we’ve been waiting anxiously to see you, especially the children have,“ the ‚young and sexy‘ director approaches us and looks more like sixty, while shaking our hands.
„Hello,“ we both greet her in unison like well-mannered kids. Being here I feel myself like a small child. The older lady is quite pleasant, but far from being young and sexy, I will get Sabine for this later, she pulls my leg constantly and she always makes fun of me. I definitely need to „repay“ her otherwise she won´t have any respect for me left at all.
„Sorry for being delayed, Bill needed a little bit more time to get ready.“ Sabine pokes at me and I´m really thankful that she skipped the details and didn’t inform the lady about my visit to toilet. That girl really enjoys making fun of me.
„Of course, that’s understandable that you wanted to look good, right?“ The sexy director flashes a bright smile at us showing off her artificial teeth and directs us to the place where we can sit. We sink into a big and fluffy sofa. Sabine takes my hand to demonstrate how much we adore each other and she starts babbling about some silly girl stuff. „…isn’t it, Bill?“ the last part of some question suddenly wakes me up. They are both looking at me, waiting for my answer.
„Of course,“ I shoot back, not even knowing what I´m replying to. They don’t look surprised, luckily. Damn, I have to pull myself together and try really to listen to what the two of them are talking about.
„You see, the children that are here need so much more than just money, they need someone´s attention and love. We can provide them with all essential material things but none of us can buy them love. That´s what they miss the most. We are very thankful for your donation, but you know how it goes. For example, we should buy a new garden cottage, where we could seek a shelter when we are outside and it starts to rain,“ the director finishes her speech and I start to wonder how much such a garden cottage can cost. I would guess it comes cheaper than the accelerator for Beda. I am not even sure if I have my checkbook with me? She could have warned me or something at least, I feel so lost. I´m going to kill Sabine. Well, I´m not going to kill her, but at least I´m going to tickle her to death in the evening.
