Own nothing.
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Her coat was gone, and her valise. But she'd come back? Yes, of course she would. So she's stubborn. He didn't care; he'd wait. He will not chase after her like a fool. So she's afraid of commitment, not his fault. She's thirty six years old, and not a young woman, and yet acting like a teenager about this. He'd asked her to marry him. Does that usually result in a fight? Yet she'd begun accusing him- him!- of limiting her options. Alek had asked very rudely if they were in love. Well, they are, but is that any of the boy's business? No! That boy will be the death of him, running around with his foolish soldier friend. He really considers telling Alek. He looked in the shed. Her bicycle was gone. She expects to leave him on a bicycle! Of all the women in the world, he proposes to the most stubborn, ignorant, obnoxious one. Which is actually why he likes her, but that is beyond the point. He glares at at the torn umbrella propped against the door. Of course she had to take their only functional umbrella. They really ought to have two, but who ever considers the necessity of an extra umbrella? It was the kind of discussion he would usually have with Nora, trivial annoyances and everyday dilemmas. Nora, who is leaving him on a bicycle. Of all the stupidities. He can hear Alek and that girl talking upstairs in hushed voices. One of these days he must ask her name. It obviously wasn't Dylan...
"So she left?"
"Looks like it."
"I know you don't like Volger, but you can't help but feel bad for him." Oh, young Alek pitied him. This was sickening.
"Hnh."
"You really seem to loathe him. What's he threatening you about, anyway?" For once in his life, his pupil hit the nail on the head. He'd be proud if he wasn't so annoyed.
"Uh... er, you can't tell anyone. But, uh, I'm underage. I'm sixteen, not seventeen."
"That's it?"
"Yeah."
"Oh. Well, your secret is safe with me. Do you think we should tell him she took the bicycle?"
"He can figure it out, cleverboots he is. I wonder why he's not chasing her."
"She's embarrassed him. The most important thing to Volger is his dignity."
"Even more important than love?" The girl said softly.
He ought to march up there and tell Alek about exactly who the girl loved. But that comment stung him, in its frank truth. He had come to look at Alek as a son. A stupid, irresponsible son, but a son nonetheless. And a father does not accept his son's disappointment.
He looked at the shredded umbrella and narrowed his eyes. It would have to do.