O.A. - Ruby

“I had to be sure.”

“Herman, what do you do? What is your profession?” I decided to start first (I was really bursting with curiosity).

“I work for my father,” Herman sat up straight, straightening his back, as if at an interview, “we have a family business. Several music stores.”

“Ooh, cool! Music is my theme! Do you play anything?” Amir was as delighted as if his childhood idol was sitting in front of him.

“Yeah. The electric guitar, the bass guitar and the piano.”

“Great. Maybe you also sing?” Camilla removed the boiling kettle from the stove.

“Maybe I also sing,” Herman smiled, “but only on special occasions… Under special circumstances.”

“Do you write songs?”

It was clear that Amir was only interested in the part of Herman’s life which was somehow connected to music.

“No, I sing exclusively covers.”

Doesn’t anyone wonder what special occasions and circumstances he meant?

“Me too! I love the Beatles the most. I also do vocals…”

“How did you meet?” I believe that I will ask the most interesting questions today.

“My cat fell ill, and I took him to the veterinary clinic. And the doctor to whom he ended up with turned out to be Sophia.” a slight blush appeared on Herman’s beautiful face.

Well done, still keeping it under control.

“What’s your cat’s name?”

Amir! Why are you interested in all that kind of crap?

“My cat’s name is Alf.”

“In honor of whom?”

Oh God would you calm down already!

“In honor of the alien who loves to eat cats.”

Damn… Brilliant!

“Do you have brothers or sisters?” Cam poured everyone cocoa and placed a large plate in the center of the table with the five remaining pieces of Striped Lady.

“Yes, I have three older brothers…” I hope they are just as beautiful, and at least one of them is gay… “My mother died when I was nine years old, so we were raised by our father and grandparents.”

There was an awkward silence. It’s good that I didn’t ask that question.

“Tell the guys how you and your brothers came across a bear in the forest.” Sopha came to the rescue.

“Ooh yeah. Well, I will definitely tell you all the story, but at some other time. That story is best told while drinking.”

Herman looked at Sophia with such a gentle look… Can it really happen that after such a short period of time after meeting that someone looks at you like THAT?

I felt a snowball of longing in my chest. And I felt ashamed that I couldn’t be happy for Sophia at the moment. And, probably, Herman (I’m sure he’s a good guy).

“So maybe we all have a beer?”

Amir’s proposal meant that he was ready to accept Herman as a friend.

Now I also felt an incomprehensible prick of jealousy.

“Amir, don’t forget that not all of us can drink alcohol.” Sophia’s voice held a perceptible moral tone.

“Who doesn’t drink?”

“Me. But it’s not that I don’t want to. I just can’t right now… Get out the beer, and I’ll eat a piece of Amir’s Striped Lady. And let’s hear the story about the bear and your brothers.”

“When my brothers and I were small…” as Herman began talking, Camilla took out four bottles of beer from the refrigerator and handed them to the guys, leaving one for herself. “The weather was cloudy, but it was not in the least bit cold…”

Sophia’s face showed such interest that it was as if she was listening to the story for the first time.

Outside the window, the rain grew stronger and thunder rumbled. I imagined that we were all sitting in some cozy forest hut by a burning fireplace, wrapped in warm blankets and listening to how Herman and his brothers fled from the bear and we were drinking cocoa, not beer.

Amir, listening to the story, completely lost control of his facial expression and looked very comical: his eyes were wide open, as if he was a direct participant in what was happening, and from his gaping mouth one might assume that he could not breathe through his nose. Camilla sat on the windowsill, examining the patterns made by the rain on the window. She had not opened her bottle of beer. Sopha listened to the devilishly and unrealistically handsome Herman, her chin still resting on her palms.

I wish I had someone to look at with that look and even better if it was mutual.

“… and then we heard a shot. These were hunters who had seen us…”

I have to admit that looking at Herman is much more pleasant than listening to him. But despite such a pleasure for the eyes, I wanted even more to sleep. And again, I felt a weak tremor in my hands.

As if dumb, I silently poked my wristwatch with my finger and, tilting my head to one side, put two palms on my left cheek, indicating that it was time for me to sleep. Then just as silently I got up from the table and held out my hand to Herman for a goodbye handshake.

Am I doing the right thing saying goodbye to him? I won’t see him early tomorrow morning in his underpants in the kitchen, will I?

Herman got up from the table and, instead of shaking hands, hugged me and patted me on the back.

Unexpected, but nice.

When I was finally in bed, only one thought stayed with me: what was with that whole story about the bear and how did it end?

Part 3

“I think most of us have, at one time or another, dreamed of becoming superheroes. As a child I often had such a desire. And with age, it has not disappeared.

“Once I saw a TV show about how people who survived a lightning strike or just experienced a strong current strike had telepathic abilities, they stopped aging and could see the future. Naturally, a parasitic obsession immediately penetrated my brain, that if I was shocked with electricity, then I would gain some kind of superpower. If I had shown such perseverance in the study of higher mathematics, and not in a manic desire to receive an electric shock then perhaps, I would have achieved outstanding success. So that’s it.

“After that, with great enthusiasm, I tried the following methods: an awl stuck into an outlet, a finger stuck into a light bulb socket and then the most interesting one, a finger stuck into the socket of a circuit breaker in a fuse box. I even lost consciousness from the last method, but unfortunately nothing supernatural was awoken in me.

“A couple of times, maybe, I saw prophetic dreams, but they did not continue. Just so that you don’t think anything bad: I wanted to get at least some kind of superpower, at least something that would help me cope… I was not trying to harm myself. My belief was that the electric shock would benefit me.”

“How old were you then?” the therapist, with smooth movements, made some notes on a tablet lying in her lap.

Maybe she’s just drawing out of boredom?

“Maybe nine or ten…” Lie! Lie! Lie! Lie! Lie! “Or even eight. I don’t remember exactly.” Fourteen or fifteen years old…

“And what would you do if you had superpowers? Let’s imagine that you have the opportunity to choose any three abilities. What would they be and why would you want them?”

“That’s very simple, I don’t even need to think,” I felt enthusiasm waking up in me. “Teleportation, the ability to heal and telekinesis: teleportation for myself, so I could move to any part of the planet in an instant; the ability to heal, so that I could be beneficial to humanity and so that there would be at least some sense to my existence and finally telekinesis which I would use for self-defense. I think that in a world in which I had such abilities, there would be those who would want to kill me because of them.”