Monday, January 31, 2011

Green Tea instead of Black Coffee (CH07EP08)

When he turned around Patty saw the terror on his face. He didn’t answer when she asked him what was wrong. Then when she moved she felt the sheets tug at her. She looked down and saw the stains in the sheet. The next second she started laughing and he noticed a slight hysteria in her voice. As sudden as she’d started laughing she stopped. He was relieved that she was still alive, but he didn’t understand. He asked her what was going on and she told him that the day before she had cut herself while working on her bikini-line and that the sheets must have opened the wound again. She always lost a lot of blood when she had a wound, even a little cut like this one, it was an illness that ran in her family. They left it at that.

The next few days he had to take a lot of rest and Patty helped him as much as possible with everything he did. She bathed him twice a day, cooked diner and did the laundry while he did the dishes. It was the first time ever he was living with somebody, and he felt great for the first time in his life.

At the end of the week Mark dropped by to see how things were going. Mark had dated Mandy twice that week, but it didn’t click between the two and the second time they decided to leave it at that. When Patty opened the door Mark was surprised and asked her what time she had arrived. She told Mark that she’d been with the patient for the past few days and that she would stay with him even after he’d completely recovered. She asked Mark if he would like some coffee or tea. Of course he had to come in, see the patient and sell some vacuum cleaners. They laughed. Patty made coffee for the two of them and put on some water for the green tea she had to make for her patient. In fact it had been her idea to stay away from the coffee as long as he was recovering and he’d agreed on the single condition that she would come up with an alternative.

Mark asked Patty how things were going, if she was serious about moving in completely. They talked about how one could meet somebody who was so perfect for you that you couldn’t think of a life without that person. She asked Mark about him and Mandy. She was sorry to hear that it hadn’t worked out, but was happy to hear that they both had felt the same way about their future and suggested the four of them should get together for dinner or maybe even a nice game of bowling. After 20 minutes all that could be said without talking was said and they finished their coffee in silence, waiting for him to get into the kitchen, finish his green tea and they would wait for what was to come. It had never been clear to them who he actually was, or what went on in his mind. Patty knew he was the man she loved, the man that made love to her like no one ever had made love to her before. Mark knew that he was probably one of the few persons in his life that called himself a friend... unconditionally. Both of them suspected that he had a past, a past you probably wouldn’t wish to your worst enemy. Patty admired him for being the person he was, even more considering his past, the past she didn’t know. Mark wondered about him because he was the person he was, even more considering his past, the past he’d tried to get out of him on many an occasion.

It had been the second time they’d spoken, it wasn’t at a sales pitch, but at the grocery store. He’d asked him where he’d lived before he moved to this metropolis. He had laughed about Marks overstatement and had told Mark that he’d moved around most of his life, setting up a business every time he needed money. He called himself a man of many trades, but didn’t dare to call himself a jack-of-all-trades. Mark had never understood this, never grasped why he didn’t consider himself the proverbial jack. Mark had tried to get to know more about his mysterious new friend but this had been the closest he ever got. After that it seemed as if the more time they spent together, the less he knew about his new friend.