24) Every turn a surprise

The first thing Meg noticed when she opened her eyes was the outline of a man sitting on a stool next to her bed. She wiped her eyes with her fingers, but her vision stayed a little blurred. Still, she recognised him immediately. "You?", she muttered incredulously. Her voice sounded hoarse, and her tongue felt like a thick dry sponge in her mouth. Seeing how uncomfortable she was he reached for a glass of water that stood on a table and handed it to her after helping her sit up.

Meg nodded a ´Thank you!´ and emptied the glass quickly. A few moments later she was already feeling better. "What are you doing here?", she asked. "Your mother had to go to the opera because she had left something there. She was of the opinion that someone should be with you when you wake up, so she told me to do it.", he explained kindly, shrugging, as if this had been the most obvious decision. "I´d have never thought she´d let me alone with a man till I was fifty, and especially not with you.", the girl said. "Well, I guess she knows that, no matter what happened last night, she can trust me."

"Last night…", she repeated. Images fluttered around in her mind like a flock of sparrows, and it was difficult to separate them from each other. But some of them occurred again and again: his poor distorted face… the kindness in his eyes… and his naked body lying on top of her. She smiled dreamily. "Did it really happen?" "I think so.", he said. "What kind of a stupid answer is that?" The slight raising of her voice was enough to make him jump. "Well, I wasn´t exactly standing behind the curtains, watching you.", he defended himself. Meg looked up to the ceiling. He was a nice man, but sometimes Christine´s beloved Raoul could get on her nerves.

"I have to go to Erik at once.", she said suddenly. She already missed him. With as much determination as she could muster she pulled the thick blanket away and tried to get up, only to find out that her legs were most unwilling to support her weight. Raoul, who had watched her attempt attentively, caught her as her knees gave way. "What´s wrong with me?", she muttered miserably while he carried her over to an armchair and put her down on it. "If you´d rather sit here, it´s all right with me.", he said, covering her legs with a soft woollen blanket and taking a seat opposite her. "But you musn´t stand up."

She couldn´t understand all this. Hours ago everything had been fine, and now she was so weak that she wasn´t even able to walk. On her questioning glance Raoul told her: "It seems that the medicine you got has some unwanted effects. Maybe it was too strong for you. But then, you were supposed to lie in bed all night…" "What effects?", Meg asked anxiously, ignoring his allusion. She´d get more than enough of that from her mother later. "We don´t know anything for sure since we couldn´t reach the doctor. But I guess the dizziness you´re probably feeling right now is one of them. And I´ve also read about a temporary inability to see the difference between dream and reality."

"What?", she whispered faintly, clutching the hem of her blanket. "Do you mean that Erik and I didn´t… that it was nothing but a dream?" Though she still couldn´t remember all the details, the images were very pleasant. "I can only tell you what I´ve seen myself: When I entered his house with your mother and Christine about…" He threw a brief glance at the grandfather clock. "…four hours ago you were both lying in bed, not… not wearing anything. And he admitted having made love to you. So I´ve no reason to doubt it. The question especially your mother was interested in was whether… whether you wanted it.", he finished uneasily.

"Of course I wanted it!", the girl shouted. Raoul couldn´t help noticing that her voice had returned to full strength, but wasn´t certain if he approved of it. "It was me who came to him. The suggestion to make love was mine. All this would have never happened without my consent." She was glad about knowing that she hadn´t only imagined it. But how could she make Raoul and later also Christine and her mother see that Erik had done nothing wrong?

The thought of Erik caused a frightening suspicion to come up in her mind. What if they weren´t the only ones with this absurd idea? "Does Erik also believe that he might have done violence to me?" Raoul looked at her for a moment and nodded slowly. He was very uncomfortable in his role as bearer of more and more bad news. It was almost ten in the evening. Christine had to be back any minute. If Meg needed one person now, it was her best friend. He was running out of ideas how to make her feel better.

Meg tried to stand up again, but it still didn´t work. "I have to talk to him, Raoul. I have to tell him-" "You won´t go anywhere.", he said strictly. What the girl failed to notice was his slight smile. Unlike her, he didn´t sit with his back to the door. "It´s not necessary.", he went on, indicating her to turn around. Although he couldn´t see the expression on her face, he knew he had been wrong. There was another person Meg needed now.