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- Story Listed as: Fiction For Adults
- Theme: Love stories / Romance
- Subject: Love / Romance / Dating
- Published: 09/15/2015
Christopher stood before the mirror in the bathroom and carefully trimmed his designer stubble with his exquisite shaver, which he had bought on the flight back from Hong Kong five months ago. He looked at his reflected face and found that he was quite a good-looking man, and gave himself a smile. Then he switched off the shaver, and left the bathroom, whistling his tune. He continued whistling while getting dressed, went on to singing and finally when fixing his tie he sang loudly a rock and roll song. He sang two verses totally enthusiastically and by moving his body in the fast rhythm, accompanied by abrupt jabs into the air with his right arm, just as he had seen famous rock singers doing it on stage. He went to the kitchen and finished his coffee sip by sip, while moving his head rhythmically, repeatedly singing: ‘Yes, do it ! Come on, just do it !’
It was a cold Monday in January. Outside everything was covered with a thick layer of fresh snow, and it was still snowing. In the news they had recommended to leave cars in the garage and use public transport, for those who had to commute to town. Christopher was one of those commuters. He was a portfolio specialist, and had been working about five years in the Hong Kong branch of a large bank, when he half a year ago was offered a leading position back in his hometown of Zurich. It all went very quickly. He found a nice flat a bit outside of town, in a recently finished house with several flats in the style of lofts, in a pleasant area from where everything was within easy reach: Shopping, access to the highway, as well as various opportunities for sports activities, such as a fitness place, a tennis court, a running track and a swimming hall. Also he was within a short time in the town where he could enjoy all aspects of city life.
His new job was exactly what he liked, he could bring in his experience and his skills, and actually his life was great. But there was something that he missed, namely a partner. In all the years in Hong Kong he had been working long hours throughout the weeks and months, and he and his colleagues had in the rare spare time practised sports, or now and then organized barbecues. Of course, there had been many females around. But a real and lasting relation had not come up for him, perhaps because he was a little picky, perhaps because he was not really looking for it, or simply by fate.
Now back in his hometown and settled down, he really missed a partner, especially also because all his new colleagues at the bank were married or in stable relationships, and he then was standing there a bit like a lonely stranger, when taking part in dinner parties. So he finally decided to register with a dating firm to find a possible partner online. The whole thing seemed to him at first rather strange and unsubstantial, somehow cold, but such is the virtual world, he said to himself, and went on with his project. After having registered with a certain firm upon recommendation by one of his colleagues at work, and after having filled in all the necessary forms with countless questions about his person, he felt a bit exhausted, and at the same time a kind of being put on public display, because now all his data and answers were out there in the virtual sea of data and links.
And somehow, there was an inner voice, he would have wished to find his partner in real life the old fashioned way, which means meeting her one day at lunch in a restaurant, or in a shop, on the way to work in an elevator, or maybe when he was going out for a drink. Unexpectedly, into the normal daily life, with a bang or a lightning strike, she would stand in front of him.
On this weekend he then had taken heart, and checked his so-called message box that he now was maintaining within the said partnership enterprise, and he could hardly believe it: There were twenty-two messages waiting for him, messages from women who obviously all somehow seemed to be consistent with the main aspects of his curriculum vitae that he had deposited when registering. He had been very surprised and a bit shocked at the same time. How could he handle it all? What kind of women had written to him? What would they look like? At the same time he had started to suddenly worry about his own text he had placed, because here and there he had been exaggerating a bit, glorifying his own person somewhat, to put things in a more favourable light. Now probably some wrong women with high hopes would approach him, some who look for a glorious man, a so-called VIP, which he was not, absolutely not. ‘Uff, so I just exaggerated, now I have the mess!’ he said towards the full mailbox on the page appearing on the screen of the laptop on his knees.
The weather news had just reported heavy snow all night and the following morning. He had decided to read all these female messages to him in the morning during the long and rather boring tram ride from the terminal station up to Bellevue station near the lake. He then had enjoyed two glasses of very old whiskey and watched a spy movie before going to bed, enjoying a sort of last evening as a genuine single man, before diving into those numerous data of women and the subsequent evaluation dinner arrangements.
The next morning after a final ‘Just do it, come on now!’ he put on his winter coat, hat, scarf and gloves, took his exclusive leather briefcase with the laptop, and left the flat. He trudged through the fresh snow with a cheerful face along to the terminus of the tram number nine. thick snowflakes were dancing around him, and he somehow felt excited before entering into a new world, full of women wanting him.
It was an older tram with steps, just right to get through the snowstorm. He found a seat next to a person already sitting there, installed himself immediately for his surf trip on the laptop, and placed the empty leather briefcase between his feet on the ground. Without paying any attention to his surrounding, he slipped into his own world, opening his virtual letterbox expectantly and with a strong impact with the index finger on the screen. And there they appeared before his eyes: Twenty-two files, all with different names. His heart jumped. ‘Wow!’ he said, and then immediately opened the first file. His heart double jumped, and he looked completely paralyzed at a full-page photo of a super-looking woman. The woman seemed to him a bit too glamorous, but well then, if such vamps are interested in him, why not. He moved on to her biography but got a bit bored while reading. He clicked back to look again at her picture. Then he opened the next file. This woman seemed to wear very thick makeup, and the way she looked at him out of the picture, frightened him a bit. His eyes darted about her data and text, but he did not feel attracted. He went on and opened the third file. And this time he smiled. A real beauty, exactly what he would like to see, looked at him. He was fascinated and would have loved to meet her immediately. Someone next to him talked about a coat. ‘Well, people have indeed different topics about which they want to talk early morning in a tram!’ he thought, staring enchanted at the picture of said beauty. Then he read her text, and was shocked. She was a vegetarian and a total yoga freak, and accustomed to regularly spend several weeks in an ashram, and she mentioned admiringly a certain guru. ‘Absolutely disgusting, how could such a wonderful-looking woman want to do such a thing, and at the same time look for a new partner, while only talking about her guru?’ He shook his head and his whole upper body, and he was almost shivering. He quickly closed this file, and went on to the next one.
The tram seemed to continue very slowly, and the driver was forced to stop many times abruptly, because of cars coming onto the track after skidding on the snowy road.
He went on with his female files, and after number fourteen he was a bit disappointed that there were so many cases among the files in which he was not interested. Anyway, he could not imagine going out with most of them, not even for just a drink. Either they looked good, but then had unusual biographies, ideas or wishes, or then they were not really pretty or as he wished, but maybe had here and there quite interesting texts.
A voice next to him still seemed to talk about a winter coat. ‘Well, fashion is obviously what some people really are interested in!’ he thought.
The next file was of a Columbian beauty. She looked really amazing. However, on the one hand he could not speak Spanish, and on the other hand, he never really so far warmed up to women from some of these Latin American countries. They seemed to have a big heart and quickly move forward in matters of love, without hesitating, easily pronouncing loving words as he could see from the texts, which was a bit unusual for him because he was not used to it, and it made him even feel a bit uncomfortable. Somehow, it would request the same from him, but what he could not give. And then he noticed in her text of the open file that she had two small children and hoped that he would be a good father to them. It was a bit a shock to him, two children at once, and having to suddenly have a big family.
He went to the next files and browsed through them rather quickly, because in the meantime he had lost courage. There were two very sporty women, one a passionate snowboarder, the other one wished to go with her new partner on extensive inline skating tours. ‘Uff, that would be too much for me!’ he muttered. Then there were more women from Latin countries, and most of them had more than one child, one of them had even three. And then file number nineteen caught all of his attention. An absolutely stunning looking blonde model with ice-blue eyes looked at him, with a temptative smile on her lips. It was the sort of smile that does not let anyone cold, and that pulled the viewing person into kind of an instant magic spell.
The tram had just stopped again between two stations, and he sat there electrified and stared at the said photo. Next to him was still this talk going on about a coat, as he could hear with half an ear. But then immediately he was back with all his senses, admiring this wonder of a female, who had found him worth writing to, who obviously found him attractive. Such a rare beauty wanted to share her life with him. He felt flattered, and sat up straight, moving his shoulders back and forth, taking a deep breath, letting the air slowly flow through his nostrils, while staring at her picture. ‘She must be the right one for me!’ he thought, and moved on to her text. With relish, he began to read, and his eyes became bigger and bigger. He moved his head closer to the screen and almost crawled into it. Her words were most loving and somehow loaded with erotic promises between the lines. His fingers, hands and hips began to tingle. And then the naked truth: She wanted to marry a rich man who could offer her an exclusive lifestyle, because she needed nice and expensive things around her, in order to feel comfortable, after having missed so much while growing up in a poor family, and then having fallen into a wrong marriage. She wished a chalet in the mountains, and in the summer she wanted to go on a cruise on a large motor yacht, and she was collecting very expensive handbags as well as pumps with high heels of an outrageously expensive designer.
The letters started to flicker before his eyes, and his brain could not cope with all of this exclusive goods palaver. He screamed: ‘No, no!’
At precisely this moment he felt a slight push on his shoulder, something tugging on his right thigh, a push on his hip, and a female voice said in rather strict tone, and very loudly: ‘Would you please now finally be so kind and release my coat, you have been sitting on it since settling down on your seat after coming in at the terminal station! Please, I need get out at this stop!’
Christopher looked up annoyed, and directly into the face of an exceptionally beautiful woman sitting next to him. She had the most wonderful dark blue eyes he had ever seen, and wore her hair elegantly pinned up. She was smiling at him, and he could not believe what he saw. This extraordinary woman would certainly fulfill all his fondest dreams. He was confused, and asked politely: ‘What can I do for you?’
‘You are sitting on my coat, and I have to get out here!’ was her nice but energetic answer. ‘Oh sorry, you should have told me sooner!’ he threw in gallantly, and tried to play the cosmopolitan man. Then he stood up slowly, constantly looking in her eyes, so that the part of her long and beautiful coat that had become trapped on the seat under his right leg and butt could be released. The beauty smoothed her coat, and added: ‘Well, I tried to tell you three times, but you were obviously so deeply engrossed in your dating mails and women photos!’
She turned around, and stepped to the door that just opened. He sat back again, watched her in amazement, still holding the laptop, and seemingly confused. The woman turned around at the door, gave him a smile and said in a challenging style: ‘Good luck with meeting all of these women, if it does not work, maybe you should try it in the old fashioned way!’ She smiled again, and got out of the tram. For a brief moment she remained there on the platform and looked at him through the open door, behind her the hectic flow of morning passengers.
Christopher suddenly realized what he had just missed by not paying attention. She was a very attractive woman, his real dream girl. He saw her turning around and walking away slowly, then disappearing in the crowd of people.
Driven by an unknown feeling that shot through his body as fast as a surge of electric current, and knowing that he had to tell her right now that he liked her, he jumped up and rushed in a frantic action towards the open door, as if he wanted to fly. His feet got caught in the strap of his leather briefcase, and trying to regain the balance, still holding the laptop open in his hands, he stumbled heavily on the second stair tread, and flew headfirst out of the tram and onto the stony ground in a terrible fall. He screamed in pain. His laptop hit the ground, and slid across stopping a few meters away between the feet of rushing by morning passengers. Blood flowed over his face, apparently he had hit the ground frontally, and he could not move his left shoulder and left arm anymore.
The beautiful woman from before heard his outcry, as well as the cries of other people witnessing the fall, and she turned and rushed back. She knelt down immediately and tried to help him. she moved him carefully into a different position, laid his head on his leather briefcase and padded him with her long woollen scarf, paying attention to the injured shoulder, and carefully wiping his face with small paper towels, which she took out of her bag. He stared at her with grateful eyes, but he could not speak, his mouth was full of blood, and something was not well with his front teeth. He felt a terrible pain.
The driver of the tram had called the ambulance as well as the police. Both arrived almost at the same time. The police looked for witnesses, and a young man with huge pink headphones on was able to explain in great detail what had happened, because he had been sitting directly behind Christopher, and in fact he had read during the tram ride through the files on the laptop of this man in front. Another witness from a bit further back in the tram confirmed this statement. The waiting tram caused within minutes a traffic chaos at Bellevue, as various subsequent trams had to stop between stations because of the accident, and there were continuous announcements from the loudspeakers, causing an additional dramatic aura in the snow. The necessary forms and reports were filled out and completed, and then signed. In addition all the names, data and information provided by the witnesses were taken. Meanwhile, the staff of the ambulance had moved the injured man carefully onto a special bed on wheels, standing in front of the ambulance. They also had packed the still-functioning laptop that a passenger had carried along, with the leather briefcase and the scarf that was full of blood. They nodded to the police and were about to move the bed with the injured man into the ambulance, as the same attractive woman approached the bed, smiled at the patient and placed a small business card on his chest, and left with the words: ‘You might need a dentist!’ then turned and disappeared into the crowd.
He would have loved to say something or even to call her back, but he could not move his upper lips, and was totally exhausted and in pain. The only thing he wished was to close his eyes and forget it all.
The ambulance drove away. And soon the tram could move after a signal from the police, who had finished their work at the spot, and now also left the scene. A short message in the daily press would report the following day about a man who apparently tried to follow a woman out of the tram, and then unfortunately had stumbled on the stairs and flown with full force onto the platform of Bellevue station, landing on head and shoulder, and then had to be taken to hospital with moderate injuries. It also mentioned that because of this incident the morning traffic at Bellevue had been disturbed for about thirty minutes.
Christopher was immediately, after some basic examinations, including X-ray and blood tests, prepared for an operation. The doctor explained to him the state of injury to the shoulder, which they would operate on and how the prospects were. However, Christopher felt extremely tired, and just nodded, half absent minded. And when they pushed his bed down the corridors, he was already in another world full of dreams.
He was dreaming that he stood on a very high step and many people walked past in compact streams. They all turned their heads for a moment, looked at him, and they all had no front teeth, but were smiling at him, they then turned their heads back and moved on. His left arm was sticking far out like the wing of a giant bird, and he was just about to fly away in a large curve. He flew and flew. And then he saw her standing there right in front of him, while he was still flying with his left arm stretched far away from his body. She seemed to move with him, stepping backwards in the air and smiling at him. She was so beautiful. Her blond hair fell in light golden waves over her shoulders, her deep blue eyes sparkled at him. She was wearing a blue turtleneck sweater, matching her eyes. And then she walked away. And he fell to the ground.
Christopher reached out with his right arm, and wanted to scream: ‘No, do not go! Wait! I need to talk to you!’ But he could not, his lips and his mouth felt strange. He was not able to produce a sound. One of his upper front teeth was missing, the other one, or the rest of it, seemed to hang in his mouth, or had slightly shifted.
He awoke because of moving his body so much that he almost was slipping out of bed. Then he saw her sitting there beside the bed, smiling at him. He thought, he was still dreaming. But then she said: ‘Hi, I’m Rosemarie, I brought you a few things!’ and pointed to the collection of items on the small table. She showed him all the items individually, one after the other: There were three sets of new underpants, a huge warm poncho, a pair of jersey pants, slippers, socks, toiletries, an art magazine and a spy novel, which was a recent bestseller. Christopher tried to smile at her as best as he could with his battered mouth, and reached out with his right hand to touch hers, and he was nodding all the time. She continued: ‘I heard mention of your name when the police took notes of your personal data for the necessary formalities, and in the course of the day I then could find out after several phone calls, in which hospital you are. And now here I am!’
The door opened and a doctor came in. When he saw Rosemarie sitting there beside the bed, he stopped in the middle of the room, and said friendily but with a busy attitude: ‘Oh good that you are here to cheer him up. The surgery went well, we will keep him here until the end of the week, but then you can take him home. He will need some support for a while, the recovery of his shoulder will take several weeks, and daily life will be a bit difficult because of the splint on the left arm. But what next is important for him is an appointment with his dentist. His front teeth need to be replaced, they are smashed, one is already broken, the other one is loose and somehow shifted, and both roots are damaged. It will need an intensive treatment with jaw reconstruction and implants!’
She nodded in agreement, and replied: ‘No problem, I’m a dentist, and will take care of things!’ The doctor smiled amused and said: ‘What a lucky man – apart of the accident - to have the dentist right at home, and then yet such an attractive one!’ His mobile buzzed, and he added something hurriedly, looking from her to Christopher and back to her again: ‘OK, you two lovebirds, I leave you alone now, see you on Friday!’ He shook quickly Rosemarie’s hand, saluted toward the bed, then turned around and left the room.
For quite a while there was absolute silence in the room. One could hear the humming of the various monitoring devices. Rosemarie was leaning over the railing at the foot of the bed, grinning amusedly at the patient. And Christopher was sitting there nestled in three huge pillows, gazing at her with shining eyes, and finally he whispered, spitting out every second word through the tooth gap: ‘I am grateful for this stupid accident, I flew out of the tram just for you!’
There was silence again. Then Christopher said with the face of a triumphing boy who just won the biggest bet, but still spitting through the hole of the missing tooth: ‘You heard what the doctor said, you must take me home on Friday. I am very much looking forward to it!’ Rosemarie replied immediately: ‘Yes, everything is clear, I will take you home on Friday!’ gave him a kiss on the forehead, took her coat and gloves from the second chair, and moved to the door, from where she waived at him with the words: ‘Have a good night, see you tomorrow at same time!’ then she left. And Christopher sat in his bed, with the ultimate sunbeam on his face, and happy. He sat there smiling happily until the nurse came to put out the light.
Rosemarie picked him up on Friday and brought him to her flat, which was in fact just a block away from where he lived. She organized all the details around his recovery and everything he needed to feel as comfortable as possible, when she was at work. They only went back to his flat to get more and more of his stuff, to bring it over to her place. They formed an absolutely ideal couple and married nine months later. They arranged for the wedding guests after the church ceremony to ride a special party-tram to Bellevue station, where they had cocktails on the platform, before moving on to a party-boat on the lake for their wedding event.
Snowy tram ride to Bellevue(Dill McLain)
Christopher stood before the mirror in the bathroom and carefully trimmed his designer stubble with his exquisite shaver, which he had bought on the flight back from Hong Kong five months ago. He looked at his reflected face and found that he was quite a good-looking man, and gave himself a smile. Then he switched off the shaver, and left the bathroom, whistling his tune. He continued whistling while getting dressed, went on to singing and finally when fixing his tie he sang loudly a rock and roll song. He sang two verses totally enthusiastically and by moving his body in the fast rhythm, accompanied by abrupt jabs into the air with his right arm, just as he had seen famous rock singers doing it on stage. He went to the kitchen and finished his coffee sip by sip, while moving his head rhythmically, repeatedly singing: ‘Yes, do it ! Come on, just do it !’
It was a cold Monday in January. Outside everything was covered with a thick layer of fresh snow, and it was still snowing. In the news they had recommended to leave cars in the garage and use public transport, for those who had to commute to town. Christopher was one of those commuters. He was a portfolio specialist, and had been working about five years in the Hong Kong branch of a large bank, when he half a year ago was offered a leading position back in his hometown of Zurich. It all went very quickly. He found a nice flat a bit outside of town, in a recently finished house with several flats in the style of lofts, in a pleasant area from where everything was within easy reach: Shopping, access to the highway, as well as various opportunities for sports activities, such as a fitness place, a tennis court, a running track and a swimming hall. Also he was within a short time in the town where he could enjoy all aspects of city life.
His new job was exactly what he liked, he could bring in his experience and his skills, and actually his life was great. But there was something that he missed, namely a partner. In all the years in Hong Kong he had been working long hours throughout the weeks and months, and he and his colleagues had in the rare spare time practised sports, or now and then organized barbecues. Of course, there had been many females around. But a real and lasting relation had not come up for him, perhaps because he was a little picky, perhaps because he was not really looking for it, or simply by fate.
Now back in his hometown and settled down, he really missed a partner, especially also because all his new colleagues at the bank were married or in stable relationships, and he then was standing there a bit like a lonely stranger, when taking part in dinner parties. So he finally decided to register with a dating firm to find a possible partner online. The whole thing seemed to him at first rather strange and unsubstantial, somehow cold, but such is the virtual world, he said to himself, and went on with his project. After having registered with a certain firm upon recommendation by one of his colleagues at work, and after having filled in all the necessary forms with countless questions about his person, he felt a bit exhausted, and at the same time a kind of being put on public display, because now all his data and answers were out there in the virtual sea of data and links.
And somehow, there was an inner voice, he would have wished to find his partner in real life the old fashioned way, which means meeting her one day at lunch in a restaurant, or in a shop, on the way to work in an elevator, or maybe when he was going out for a drink. Unexpectedly, into the normal daily life, with a bang or a lightning strike, she would stand in front of him.
On this weekend he then had taken heart, and checked his so-called message box that he now was maintaining within the said partnership enterprise, and he could hardly believe it: There were twenty-two messages waiting for him, messages from women who obviously all somehow seemed to be consistent with the main aspects of his curriculum vitae that he had deposited when registering. He had been very surprised and a bit shocked at the same time. How could he handle it all? What kind of women had written to him? What would they look like? At the same time he had started to suddenly worry about his own text he had placed, because here and there he had been exaggerating a bit, glorifying his own person somewhat, to put things in a more favourable light. Now probably some wrong women with high hopes would approach him, some who look for a glorious man, a so-called VIP, which he was not, absolutely not. ‘Uff, so I just exaggerated, now I have the mess!’ he said towards the full mailbox on the page appearing on the screen of the laptop on his knees.
The weather news had just reported heavy snow all night and the following morning. He had decided to read all these female messages to him in the morning during the long and rather boring tram ride from the terminal station up to Bellevue station near the lake. He then had enjoyed two glasses of very old whiskey and watched a spy movie before going to bed, enjoying a sort of last evening as a genuine single man, before diving into those numerous data of women and the subsequent evaluation dinner arrangements.
The next morning after a final ‘Just do it, come on now!’ he put on his winter coat, hat, scarf and gloves, took his exclusive leather briefcase with the laptop, and left the flat. He trudged through the fresh snow with a cheerful face along to the terminus of the tram number nine. thick snowflakes were dancing around him, and he somehow felt excited before entering into a new world, full of women wanting him.
It was an older tram with steps, just right to get through the snowstorm. He found a seat next to a person already sitting there, installed himself immediately for his surf trip on the laptop, and placed the empty leather briefcase between his feet on the ground. Without paying any attention to his surrounding, he slipped into his own world, opening his virtual letterbox expectantly and with a strong impact with the index finger on the screen. And there they appeared before his eyes: Twenty-two files, all with different names. His heart jumped. ‘Wow!’ he said, and then immediately opened the first file. His heart double jumped, and he looked completely paralyzed at a full-page photo of a super-looking woman. The woman seemed to him a bit too glamorous, but well then, if such vamps are interested in him, why not. He moved on to her biography but got a bit bored while reading. He clicked back to look again at her picture. Then he opened the next file. This woman seemed to wear very thick makeup, and the way she looked at him out of the picture, frightened him a bit. His eyes darted about her data and text, but he did not feel attracted. He went on and opened the third file. And this time he smiled. A real beauty, exactly what he would like to see, looked at him. He was fascinated and would have loved to meet her immediately. Someone next to him talked about a coat. ‘Well, people have indeed different topics about which they want to talk early morning in a tram!’ he thought, staring enchanted at the picture of said beauty. Then he read her text, and was shocked. She was a vegetarian and a total yoga freak, and accustomed to regularly spend several weeks in an ashram, and she mentioned admiringly a certain guru. ‘Absolutely disgusting, how could such a wonderful-looking woman want to do such a thing, and at the same time look for a new partner, while only talking about her guru?’ He shook his head and his whole upper body, and he was almost shivering. He quickly closed this file, and went on to the next one.
The tram seemed to continue very slowly, and the driver was forced to stop many times abruptly, because of cars coming onto the track after skidding on the snowy road.
He went on with his female files, and after number fourteen he was a bit disappointed that there were so many cases among the files in which he was not interested. Anyway, he could not imagine going out with most of them, not even for just a drink. Either they looked good, but then had unusual biographies, ideas or wishes, or then they were not really pretty or as he wished, but maybe had here and there quite interesting texts.
A voice next to him still seemed to talk about a winter coat. ‘Well, fashion is obviously what some people really are interested in!’ he thought.
The next file was of a Columbian beauty. She looked really amazing. However, on the one hand he could not speak Spanish, and on the other hand, he never really so far warmed up to women from some of these Latin American countries. They seemed to have a big heart and quickly move forward in matters of love, without hesitating, easily pronouncing loving words as he could see from the texts, which was a bit unusual for him because he was not used to it, and it made him even feel a bit uncomfortable. Somehow, it would request the same from him, but what he could not give. And then he noticed in her text of the open file that she had two small children and hoped that he would be a good father to them. It was a bit a shock to him, two children at once, and having to suddenly have a big family.
He went to the next files and browsed through them rather quickly, because in the meantime he had lost courage. There were two very sporty women, one a passionate snowboarder, the other one wished to go with her new partner on extensive inline skating tours. ‘Uff, that would be too much for me!’ he muttered. Then there were more women from Latin countries, and most of them had more than one child, one of them had even three. And then file number nineteen caught all of his attention. An absolutely stunning looking blonde model with ice-blue eyes looked at him, with a temptative smile on her lips. It was the sort of smile that does not let anyone cold, and that pulled the viewing person into kind of an instant magic spell.
The tram had just stopped again between two stations, and he sat there electrified and stared at the said photo. Next to him was still this talk going on about a coat, as he could hear with half an ear. But then immediately he was back with all his senses, admiring this wonder of a female, who had found him worth writing to, who obviously found him attractive. Such a rare beauty wanted to share her life with him. He felt flattered, and sat up straight, moving his shoulders back and forth, taking a deep breath, letting the air slowly flow through his nostrils, while staring at her picture. ‘She must be the right one for me!’ he thought, and moved on to her text. With relish, he began to read, and his eyes became bigger and bigger. He moved his head closer to the screen and almost crawled into it. Her words were most loving and somehow loaded with erotic promises between the lines. His fingers, hands and hips began to tingle. And then the naked truth: She wanted to marry a rich man who could offer her an exclusive lifestyle, because she needed nice and expensive things around her, in order to feel comfortable, after having missed so much while growing up in a poor family, and then having fallen into a wrong marriage. She wished a chalet in the mountains, and in the summer she wanted to go on a cruise on a large motor yacht, and she was collecting very expensive handbags as well as pumps with high heels of an outrageously expensive designer.
The letters started to flicker before his eyes, and his brain could not cope with all of this exclusive goods palaver. He screamed: ‘No, no!’
At precisely this moment he felt a slight push on his shoulder, something tugging on his right thigh, a push on his hip, and a female voice said in rather strict tone, and very loudly: ‘Would you please now finally be so kind and release my coat, you have been sitting on it since settling down on your seat after coming in at the terminal station! Please, I need get out at this stop!’
Christopher looked up annoyed, and directly into the face of an exceptionally beautiful woman sitting next to him. She had the most wonderful dark blue eyes he had ever seen, and wore her hair elegantly pinned up. She was smiling at him, and he could not believe what he saw. This extraordinary woman would certainly fulfill all his fondest dreams. He was confused, and asked politely: ‘What can I do for you?’
‘You are sitting on my coat, and I have to get out here!’ was her nice but energetic answer. ‘Oh sorry, you should have told me sooner!’ he threw in gallantly, and tried to play the cosmopolitan man. Then he stood up slowly, constantly looking in her eyes, so that the part of her long and beautiful coat that had become trapped on the seat under his right leg and butt could be released. The beauty smoothed her coat, and added: ‘Well, I tried to tell you three times, but you were obviously so deeply engrossed in your dating mails and women photos!’
She turned around, and stepped to the door that just opened. He sat back again, watched her in amazement, still holding the laptop, and seemingly confused. The woman turned around at the door, gave him a smile and said in a challenging style: ‘Good luck with meeting all of these women, if it does not work, maybe you should try it in the old fashioned way!’ She smiled again, and got out of the tram. For a brief moment she remained there on the platform and looked at him through the open door, behind her the hectic flow of morning passengers.
Christopher suddenly realized what he had just missed by not paying attention. She was a very attractive woman, his real dream girl. He saw her turning around and walking away slowly, then disappearing in the crowd of people.
Driven by an unknown feeling that shot through his body as fast as a surge of electric current, and knowing that he had to tell her right now that he liked her, he jumped up and rushed in a frantic action towards the open door, as if he wanted to fly. His feet got caught in the strap of his leather briefcase, and trying to regain the balance, still holding the laptop open in his hands, he stumbled heavily on the second stair tread, and flew headfirst out of the tram and onto the stony ground in a terrible fall. He screamed in pain. His laptop hit the ground, and slid across stopping a few meters away between the feet of rushing by morning passengers. Blood flowed over his face, apparently he had hit the ground frontally, and he could not move his left shoulder and left arm anymore.
The beautiful woman from before heard his outcry, as well as the cries of other people witnessing the fall, and she turned and rushed back. She knelt down immediately and tried to help him. she moved him carefully into a different position, laid his head on his leather briefcase and padded him with her long woollen scarf, paying attention to the injured shoulder, and carefully wiping his face with small paper towels, which she took out of her bag. He stared at her with grateful eyes, but he could not speak, his mouth was full of blood, and something was not well with his front teeth. He felt a terrible pain.
The driver of the tram had called the ambulance as well as the police. Both arrived almost at the same time. The police looked for witnesses, and a young man with huge pink headphones on was able to explain in great detail what had happened, because he had been sitting directly behind Christopher, and in fact he had read during the tram ride through the files on the laptop of this man in front. Another witness from a bit further back in the tram confirmed this statement. The waiting tram caused within minutes a traffic chaos at Bellevue, as various subsequent trams had to stop between stations because of the accident, and there were continuous announcements from the loudspeakers, causing an additional dramatic aura in the snow. The necessary forms and reports were filled out and completed, and then signed. In addition all the names, data and information provided by the witnesses were taken. Meanwhile, the staff of the ambulance had moved the injured man carefully onto a special bed on wheels, standing in front of the ambulance. They also had packed the still-functioning laptop that a passenger had carried along, with the leather briefcase and the scarf that was full of blood. They nodded to the police and were about to move the bed with the injured man into the ambulance, as the same attractive woman approached the bed, smiled at the patient and placed a small business card on his chest, and left with the words: ‘You might need a dentist!’ then turned and disappeared into the crowd.
He would have loved to say something or even to call her back, but he could not move his upper lips, and was totally exhausted and in pain. The only thing he wished was to close his eyes and forget it all.
The ambulance drove away. And soon the tram could move after a signal from the police, who had finished their work at the spot, and now also left the scene. A short message in the daily press would report the following day about a man who apparently tried to follow a woman out of the tram, and then unfortunately had stumbled on the stairs and flown with full force onto the platform of Bellevue station, landing on head and shoulder, and then had to be taken to hospital with moderate injuries. It also mentioned that because of this incident the morning traffic at Bellevue had been disturbed for about thirty minutes.
Christopher was immediately, after some basic examinations, including X-ray and blood tests, prepared for an operation. The doctor explained to him the state of injury to the shoulder, which they would operate on and how the prospects were. However, Christopher felt extremely tired, and just nodded, half absent minded. And when they pushed his bed down the corridors, he was already in another world full of dreams.
He was dreaming that he stood on a very high step and many people walked past in compact streams. They all turned their heads for a moment, looked at him, and they all had no front teeth, but were smiling at him, they then turned their heads back and moved on. His left arm was sticking far out like the wing of a giant bird, and he was just about to fly away in a large curve. He flew and flew. And then he saw her standing there right in front of him, while he was still flying with his left arm stretched far away from his body. She seemed to move with him, stepping backwards in the air and smiling at him. She was so beautiful. Her blond hair fell in light golden waves over her shoulders, her deep blue eyes sparkled at him. She was wearing a blue turtleneck sweater, matching her eyes. And then she walked away. And he fell to the ground.
Christopher reached out with his right arm, and wanted to scream: ‘No, do not go! Wait! I need to talk to you!’ But he could not, his lips and his mouth felt strange. He was not able to produce a sound. One of his upper front teeth was missing, the other one, or the rest of it, seemed to hang in his mouth, or had slightly shifted.
He awoke because of moving his body so much that he almost was slipping out of bed. Then he saw her sitting there beside the bed, smiling at him. He thought, he was still dreaming. But then she said: ‘Hi, I’m Rosemarie, I brought you a few things!’ and pointed to the collection of items on the small table. She showed him all the items individually, one after the other: There were three sets of new underpants, a huge warm poncho, a pair of jersey pants, slippers, socks, toiletries, an art magazine and a spy novel, which was a recent bestseller. Christopher tried to smile at her as best as he could with his battered mouth, and reached out with his right hand to touch hers, and he was nodding all the time. She continued: ‘I heard mention of your name when the police took notes of your personal data for the necessary formalities, and in the course of the day I then could find out after several phone calls, in which hospital you are. And now here I am!’
The door opened and a doctor came in. When he saw Rosemarie sitting there beside the bed, he stopped in the middle of the room, and said friendily but with a busy attitude: ‘Oh good that you are here to cheer him up. The surgery went well, we will keep him here until the end of the week, but then you can take him home. He will need some support for a while, the recovery of his shoulder will take several weeks, and daily life will be a bit difficult because of the splint on the left arm. But what next is important for him is an appointment with his dentist. His front teeth need to be replaced, they are smashed, one is already broken, the other one is loose and somehow shifted, and both roots are damaged. It will need an intensive treatment with jaw reconstruction and implants!’
She nodded in agreement, and replied: ‘No problem, I’m a dentist, and will take care of things!’ The doctor smiled amused and said: ‘What a lucky man – apart of the accident - to have the dentist right at home, and then yet such an attractive one!’ His mobile buzzed, and he added something hurriedly, looking from her to Christopher and back to her again: ‘OK, you two lovebirds, I leave you alone now, see you on Friday!’ He shook quickly Rosemarie’s hand, saluted toward the bed, then turned around and left the room.
For quite a while there was absolute silence in the room. One could hear the humming of the various monitoring devices. Rosemarie was leaning over the railing at the foot of the bed, grinning amusedly at the patient. And Christopher was sitting there nestled in three huge pillows, gazing at her with shining eyes, and finally he whispered, spitting out every second word through the tooth gap: ‘I am grateful for this stupid accident, I flew out of the tram just for you!’
There was silence again. Then Christopher said with the face of a triumphing boy who just won the biggest bet, but still spitting through the hole of the missing tooth: ‘You heard what the doctor said, you must take me home on Friday. I am very much looking forward to it!’ Rosemarie replied immediately: ‘Yes, everything is clear, I will take you home on Friday!’ gave him a kiss on the forehead, took her coat and gloves from the second chair, and moved to the door, from where she waived at him with the words: ‘Have a good night, see you tomorrow at same time!’ then she left. And Christopher sat in his bed, with the ultimate sunbeam on his face, and happy. He sat there smiling happily until the nurse came to put out the light.
Rosemarie picked him up on Friday and brought him to her flat, which was in fact just a block away from where he lived. She organized all the details around his recovery and everything he needed to feel as comfortable as possible, when she was at work. They only went back to his flat to get more and more of his stuff, to bring it over to her place. They formed an absolutely ideal couple and married nine months later. They arranged for the wedding guests after the church ceremony to ride a special party-tram to Bellevue station, where they had cocktails on the platform, before moving on to a party-boat on the lake for their wedding event.
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