Short story 1. The Christmas cake

It was 22 of December and Lina, as usual in the evenings, was sitting in old brown armchair near the large window. This girl was twenty-two years old and, while studying in technical institute, she had to live in squalid hostel in the outskirts of Hamburg. Lina’s parents, although they were divorced, lived in Elmshorn, where the girl spent her happy and care-free childhood. One day her strict parents decided that Lina needed good technical education, so they sent her to big modern city, against Lina’s own will. But it was usual for the girl to trust her parents, so she flew to Hamburg and studied technology there. It was the last year of her education and Lina was dreaming of better life in another city and in different conditions. These evening was a rare moment, when the girl was alone in the whole square room, so she could dream and write something in her small diary. By the way, Lina was drawing on the pages of note-book much more often, than writing lines of poems. She was the great dreamer and her dreams that were broken by reality always found their embodiment on the sheet of paper.
 
Lina was drawing during maybe half an hour and her last picture was almost finished. On the twenty-second page of her diary there was the drawing of young and beautiful man. He had bright hazel eyes, straight nose and curly fair hair. Every touch of this picture was so realistic, that the man even seemed to breath and move, smile and whisper, while Lina was looking at him. Now the picture was ready and Lina sighed heavily. Once she used to know this boy – they grew up in Elmshorn together and their houses were side by side. Lina was only five, when she spent her time with thirteen-year old Garz, who was her neighbor. Lina’s parents were busy those days, earning money to live on. So they often left their small daughter with Garz, who had free-time after ballet school lessons. Garz was usually dancing and rehearsing one of his performances, while Lina was sitting and looking at him with admiration. He didn’t seem to be handsome or attractive at this age, in all probability he was a little bit funny and odd, like most school boys. But there had always been a shade of unforgettable charm in his words and movements. Sometimes Garz tried to teach Lina several steps or took her to the dancing class and she was really happy with her “elder brother” as Lina mentally called him.

After two years Lina went to school and Garz, who was the best pupil in the ballet class, began to take part in his first serious performances. Soon his family moved to another city and he even wrote her rare friendly letters. However, Garz was very talented dancer, so he had a lot of work and soon he got million offers from different theaters and famous shows. Gradually he forgot about casual little girl, because at present he had dozens of beautiful admirers. Meanwhile Lina was studying at school and didn’t hear any news about Garz. She even didn’t know his whereabouts and activities. A few years passed and one day, sitting in the cinema and watching one of the most popular modern films, Lina saw familiar face on the screen. Some minutes later she understood that it was Garz, but it was no longer simple-hearted and insignificant boy, now Garz was twenty-two year attractive man with shining smile, hypnotic eyes and fantastic appearance. Lina fell in love with this man from the first sight, like many fifteen-year old girls, and every second she thought about Garz. As she understood from the TV news he was living in New York, blinded by the rays of fame, and was not going to return to Germany. A few times Lina tried to find his address or any other contact, but this was secret information, so all that she could do was to write letters to his official Fan-Club. Certainly she wrote not once and not twice, Lina sent her letters almost every month, but there was no reply. Only cold silence…
Thus, now twenty-two year old Lina was studying in Hamburg and she had almost forgotten about the love of her youth. This morning, passing by the bookstall, she accidentally saw one of glamorous magazines with Garz on its cover. The headline was: “Garz Herzlosen is flying to Hamburg for the premiere of his new film”. Lina was amused and during the day she carefully read the article, devoted to this event. In the evening, when her room-mates, who worked in the bar downstairs, came out to earn some money, Lina finally had some spare time to dream. “He is arriving tomorrow…So soon!”, thought she, - “We haven’t seen each other for so many years! And I don’t have enough money to take part in the presentation, but maybe I can visit him at the hotel. There was the name of his hotel in the magazine. I hope, he would be glad to meet me here, in Hamburg…But would I have time to do this? I should try to…No, not try to – I must visit him, because maybe it’s the last chance for me to meet my friend of childhood!”

It was her final decision, but the problem was that she had to study and work the next day. Two years ago Lina’s father refused to help his former wife and daughter, because he didn’t have spare money in his new family. Then Lina started to work as a shop-assistant after studies to pay for the hostel and education. Two months ago the situation got worse – girl’s mother fractured her leg and couldn’t go to work. So Lina had to find the second job – since then she worked as night receptionist in shabby inn several times a week to send some money to her mother. In the mornings Lina was studying and in rare free hours she was preparing for exams or drawing. Now she was looking at Garz, depicted on the page of her diary. Suddenly the phone rang.

“Hallo” answered the phone Lina.

“Hi!” said Lina’s colleague, with whom she worked in the inn “Are you busy tonight?”

“Well, I think I don’t have any urgent affairs” answered Lina “What’s the matter?”

“Oh, that’s great!” rejoiced the colleague “The point is that my child is ill, so I can’t work tonight. I’d like to ask you to work instead of me if you don’t mind”.

“Okay” said Lina “I understand your situation. No problems. I would arrive in one hour”.

“Thank you!” said the colleague “See you soon”.

“Bye” Lina hung up the receiver.

Then the girl put her grey winter dress on, prepared all necessary things for work, like a pair of bananas to eat, shoes to change her foot-wear and worn textbook to learn some rules before the exams. Lina packed them in her bag and was ready to get out. At the same time her marry room-mates returned from the bar. They looked at Lina hanging her bag in one hand and winter high boots in another one with great surprise.

“Where are you going, Lina?” asked one of the girls “Would you like to join us in the bar?”

“No, thank you” answered Lina “I’m going to the inn, because one of my colleagues can’t work tonight”

“Oh, that’s pity” noticed the second girl “We’ve bought a delicious Christmas cake”

“Really?” Lana was surprised “But it was very expansive! Have you robbed someone?”

“Certainly no” laughed the girls “There were several discounts in the supermarket. Moreover, we have heard that your friend Garz is arriving tomorrow, so we should celebrate this day. You have been waiting for this moment for so long. And, finally we are working on Christmas day, so it’s better to change the date of holiday supper”

“You are so careful” smiled Lina “Thank you for your kindness, but I think we can’t celebrate now – I have promised to work tonight”

“Well, we will keep the cake for you, so you can eat it in the morning” suggested the girls “And we are going to sleep, because it’s boring to take supper without you”

“Okay” said Lina “But tomorrow I’m working, too. So we can gather together on 24th of December. Do you agree?”

“Well, you have changed our plans, but we don’t have any objections” answered the girls “By the way, you’d better go now or you’ll be late for work”

“Yes, you’re right” suddenly remembered Lina “Wish you good evening!”

“Thanks” answered the girls “You too”

After this short, but pleasant conversation Lina put her boots on and went downstairs. It was late, so all the streets were dark and lonely and it was a little bit sad for Lina to make her way to the bus station. Although the sky was cloudless and the snow was crackling under her feet, the wind was strong and piercing. So the trees around were swinging and pieces of rubbish were flying above the street. “The weather is conductive to work”, thought Lina with smile, while going to the bus station, “But I think it’s not so dangerous…And I just have to get to the bus station and then, nearby the inn I should pass only several buildings”.

By lucky chance, Lina didn’t have to wait for the bus, as usual – she managed to enter the bus before leaving. So she was joyful, sitting in warm transport and looking in the window. During her trip Lina thought about tomorrow that seemed to be the best day in her life. She imagined the piece of beautiful Christmas cake, decorated with sugar powder, nuts and peels, on the kitchen table. She even felt its delicious taste – sweet and spicy. Then Lina thought about her meeting with Garz, who, as she expected, would be very happy to see her. She dreamt of sitting in a small caf; with him and talking about everything, about all these past years…

Then, there was the right station and Lina had to alight. She didn’t want to leave this warm and comfortable bus, but she didn’t have the choice. So, Lina took her bag and walked along the street in the direction of the inn. There was a high grey building in front of the girl and it seemed to be even ominous from the opposite end of the street. But Lina didn’t pay any attention to this fact, because she was immersed in her thoughts as before. When Lina was passing this strange building, which was under reconstruction, the sudden gust of wind blew and several bricks fell from the surface of the building straight on her head…Lina’s colleague, working in the inn, was waiting for the girl during two hours, because Lina was often late for work, but then she began to worry. Lina didn’t answer the mobile phone and there was no telephone in the hostel, where the girl lived with her two room-mates…

Everything grew clear later …When the first aid arrived, the doctors understood that they couldn’t do anything…Two room-mates were quietly sleeping in their beds and the promised piece of cake was waiting for Lina on the kitchen table… It was early morning and Garz was sitting in the taxi, driving to the hotel with his young pretty girlfriend. While the car was passing the dark grey building, Garz suddenly saw the small open diary, lying in the mud of the lawn and some pencil drawings flying above the pavement.