*Words for the darkside: Dark, thanks for reviewing!! Soo glaaad!! (Still laughin' at Prof. Pro & Sabrebike aka Billman!)*
„Ich moechte das Flugzeug verpassen, das dann abstuerzt." (I want to miss the plane, that's crashing then.) Xaver Bayer
March 2003
It was past eleven'o clock in the evening. Only past eleven? Liz Walker glanced over once more to her alarmclock. 11:07 pm. She checked out wether the battery was in its place, then looked at the clock of her notebook. Seven minutes past eleven, there was no other possibility. Shit. She had decided to work on her university – homework til one o'clock - at least. But she didn't have many good ideas during the last hours. At least nothing related to her term paper.
Maybe the bathroom needed to be cleaned? No, she did that the day before yesterday. Continuing with the kitchen yesterday. Unfortunately her wardrobe was already tidied up and she was almost never ironing. She shrugged her shoulders, resigning. It was kinda strange which ideas crossed one's mind while trying to chicken out of the actual job. And unlikely more frustrating when nothing was found. Sighing, she dipped another chocolate cookie into her café au lait and bit into it. Baaah, the coffee'd gone cold. She needed to rewarm it urgently. That would pass for an excuse for a little break, wouldn't it?
She scuffled into the kitchen, opened the microwave and put the cup into it. Although she already had drunk up three cups, she didn't feel that much more awake than before. While the machine was gently crooning, she yawned and stretched herself extensively. Maybe some fresh air would benefit.
She went back to her room and opened the balcony door. It was a calm, starlit night. The sky was deep black and loads of stars were blinking mutely. Which meant, they did not really blink. It was the ‚seeing'. Variations in the air density of the earth atmosphere were accountable for that the direct line of sight was displaced for a few tiny units. (*I'm sorry, but even in German this is quite difficult to do, and no dictionary wanted to give me the right translations. Anyway, it's not that important. Just to point out the following.*) That could give the impression that the stars were dancing. What a pity that wasn't valid for the earth as well. From the distance, it surely would've looked funny, such a dancing earth.
Liz sighed, cuz she basically hated these whiffs of science during such romantic moments. Her last boyfriend had managed to spoil the high spirits in such moments with a terrifying regularity. Midst the only romantic movie they'd gone to see together at all, he had mentioned within the most touching scene – while a big part of the other viewers, being moved to tears, snatched at their napkins – that the camera work in particular plus the plot in general left quite much to be desired. And he didn't say it very low. What didn't make her friends with the others. They rather gave her irritated or compassionate looks. Why did people do that? When she lit a beautifiul candle he didn't care that or how it burned, no, he explained to her why. Including all the boring details. Regarding the sundown with a sigh, he lectured about the physical and astronomic datas of the sun and the complexity of the solar system. Up to that day she used to be happy to tell for sure that the moon went round the sun and not vice versa. Self-improvement was one thing and apart from that she was always in favour for it, but now? Per-lease. When she had jilted him, everybody was just wondering how she could've born it so long. Must have been her steadfast optimism.
Liz broke away from her negative thoughts and turned around, to reenter the kitchen.
Her hand already touched the button for opening the microwave, when she felt a light breeze at her naked legs. It seemed to be a little draughty. Her look went automatically to the kitchen window. It was closed. Odd. If it was closed, how could it – She startled as something skimmed along her ankle, but it was only a little leaf, that had been wafted in. Cautiously she moved back to her room and glanced through the open balcony door. The trees didn't move. Otherwise she would've heard them whirring in the silence. She looked back. The leaf laid innocently in the middle of the floor, as if it had followed her secretly, only trying to look innocently. Though her heart was beating like crazy, she had to giggle a bit. A flake like that would hardly try 'n attack her. Nonetheless she kept staying in the middle of the room, not stirring for minutes.
Nothing happened.
Finally her congealment left and she went cautiously through her apartment, but couldn't find anything that could've explained the draft. And it didn't repeat. Probably the coffee had made her a little creepy-crawly. She stopped once more, listening, attentively observing her surroundings. Maybe the vent in the kitchen was to blame for. Sometimes the wind was whistling inside. And a simple, normal, sudden draught wasn't that deviously.
She picked up the leaf, a maple leaf, and sat down in front of her notebook again. At least she was wide awake and the coffee could stay where it was. A light rustle from the outside made her listen attentively. The sound of leaves when the wind went through, yeah, that was it. With a relieved smile she touched the cursor and turned to her term paper. By now the clocked showed 0:09h. In not quite an alibi-hour she finally could go to bed.
