An irish Lovestory - the summer of Life

The way to France

As soon as they are on the main road, the two burst out laughing. "How did you do that? That I look like I did in the picture just now and the policeman doesn't even recognise anything about the name." Luke grins and points to the name. It says Monika Pia Statler. Carlotta, who has been trying to halfway calm down, shakes with silent laughter. She asks him, "Where do you get such stupid ideas?" Luke shrugs. He doesn't know, but when a plan is supposed to work, he really hangs in there and thinks everything through several times. Maybe he's just spent too much time with Elea and Anastasia already.
They drive in silence through the small provinces to the motorway and only then do they start talking again.
Luke enters the destination into the sat nav and groans when he sees the journey time. "Half you, half me?", Carlotta asks him straight away, to which he nods. He tells her that she is welcome to sleep again and that he will let her know when they have reached the halfway point. But Carlotta sees how tired he still is and prefers to stay awake so that, should he fall asleep, she can bring the car to a halt. When his eyes almost fall shut, Carlotta takes strong action and immediately directs him to the next rest area. There she gets out and sends Luke to the passenger seat. "You sleep and I'll drive the rest of the way to Genoa. At the port, you drive again and on the ferry we can both sleep. When we arrive in Marseille, Mary picks us up and we stay with her overnight. The next day we take the ferry to Spain at noon," Carlotta says, but Luke immediately falls asleep. Last night was complete torture for him. She switches off the radio and, apart from the instructions from the sat nav, you can only hear Luke's occasional soft snoring from the passenger seat.
Carlotta skilfully drives along the motorway and even avoids a traffic jam caused by a lorry accident. Almost five and a half hours and a small traffic jam later, she tentatively wakes Luke. The smell of salt water hits his nose and he is immediately wide awake. Here by the sea he is at home. They swap places again and Luke drives towards the port of Genoa. He drives onto the ferry and parks the car below deck. Then the two go up to the bow and enjoy the cool breeze blowing in their faces. Carlotta opens her hair and lets it blow in the wind. Luke hugs her from behind and spreads her arms. She starts giggling softly and gives him a kiss on the cheek. Although she has nothing against love stories, the whole thing is a little too cheesy for her. "My lady, may I take you to our very own private sports fields later so we can work on our fitness?" asks Luke. It's lucky that a boy thought they were so cute and has already taken a photo, because Carlotta gets such a fit of laughter that she has to dive under Luke and runs away laughing. The boy, who funnily enough turns out to be one of the two slobs from Luke's room in Ireland, beckons Luke. Luke doesn't like him very much, but when his mobile vibrates in his pocket, he has to smile too. James is already a crafty sly dog. So he walks over to him briefly and greets him. "Where are you off to?", James asks him straight away. Luke doesn't really trust him, but he says, "On holiday. Alone!" Carlotta, who has noticed that Luke doesn't follow, has returned and puts an arm around his shoulder. She shakes her head slightly and then greets James. "Mary told us you were coming over. From there we thought we'd go and see our favourite cousin too and give you a proper send off. You were gone so quickly then!" By we, James means himself and his twin brother Orion. Luke gives Carlotta a slightly pained look. She knew Mary couldn't keep her mouth shut. But she didn't think she'd call her two cousins right away and invite them to spend the weekend with them. Luke immediately notices from her expression that she has homicidal thoughts and has to stifle a grin.
About an hour later, as they sit together in the cabin and freshen up, Luke asks Carlotta, who looks around searchingly, "What are you looking for?"

She replies: "First just my underwear, then the pencil to kill Mary!" Luke gathers her underwear and gives it to her along with a pencil. Carlotta, dressed only in a dressing gown, accepts it gratefully and gets dressed. "Are you serious? We lie naked next to each other for three quarters of an hour and now that you're getting dressed I'm not allowed to see you?" Carlotta peers out from behind the cupboard door for a moment, then disappears again and emerges fully dressed only a few seconds later. She is wearing a light grey knee-length dress with black lace and flame red shoes. "Can you zip me up in this dress please." she says and Luke, his mouth agape, nods in perplexity. He pulls up the zip and Carlotta ties her hair. "Usually girls only do a ponytail when they want something really special," Luke grins, whereupon he gets a slap on the arm from Carlotta. She goes to her suitcase and takes out the straightening iron. After straightening her hair, she turns to Luke, who is still looking at her with his mouth open. As if in slow motion, she walks towards him and closes his mouth again.
James, who just appears in the doorway, laughs. Orion stands behind his brother and lets out an appreciative whistle. Carlotta rolls her eyes in annoyance. Typical boy. But James counters cleverly. "Just be glad we think you're quite pretty. Two hundred years ago you would have been burned at the stake as a witch! And Luke said that you never had a boyfriend before him. So either you were never that attractive or the boys in your class were just blind!" Luke quickens towards him with a raised index finger. "Don't worry, I have a girlfriend! But a lot of Frenchmen certainly don't yet and Carly fits right into the calibre of Frenchmen. Attractive, as it sounds good in bed, model figure, gorgeous hair...!" James just stands there staring at Carlotta. Slowly he walks towards her, but he probably didn't think that she was still very agile even in the dress. Already she's got him round and he's holding his hands in front of the best bit. Orion looks at her for a moment, then bursts out laughing and helps his twin up. He only gets nasty looks from his twin, but they make him laugh even more. Carlotta shrugs her shoulders apologetically. At least now all three boys know that she is good at defending herself.
A ship's announcement sounds, telling everyone to head for the cars as they would be arriving in Marseille in the next twenty minutes.
So the four of them pack up all their things and Luke and Carlotta disappear to the car while James and Orion wait up on deck.
When they get off the ferry, Mary is already waiting for them at the harbour and runs to meet them, beaming with joy. For better or worse, Carlotta and Luke let the Frenchwoman hug them and give them kisses on both cheeks. On the way home to Mary, they already regret asking Mary for shelter at night. But now they have to go through with it and can't back out. But as soon as they arrive at the family's big house, they are amazed. Surrounded by high walls, a huge estate with fountains and a large outdoor area lies before them. "Welcome to our little kingdom!" says Mary when she sees the wide eyes of her former classmates. They already knew that Mary's parents are rich, but they wouldn't have thought so rich now. So Mary directs the car to the car park in front of the main house and calls two servants of the family to take the luggage out of the car and carry it into the house. Carlotta simply voices her thoughts and asks, "Tell me Mary, are your parents millionaires in some way or did you just inherit well?" Mary grins. "My grandma, may she rest in peace, had had a few affairs and relationships with rich men. At some point they all died miraculously and always left her something. And now that she's died too, the property is all ours, lock, stock and barrel!" Luke gives Carlotta a look that doesn't say much, but enough to make Carlotta give him a withering look.

When they move into the guest room and Mary leaves them alone, Luke says, "You may say what you want about Mary, but you sure are a lot like her sometimes!" Immediately Carlotta throws a pillow at his head. She can't just take being compared to someone like Mary lying down. "That's not true at all! I'm nothing like her!" She has a slightly ironic undertone in her voice, but she still sounds very serious. Luke thinks that she herself is just in it for the money and doesn't care if someone in her family dies. Yes, it is true, at least with her "parents", but that was also something else. She was lied to by them for years and always had to do everything perfectly. But finally it's over. Even though Ursula and Heinrich's death has affected her too, she has hardly any good memories of the time she spent with them.
She looks down in distress and thinks of her birth mother sitting in Ireland, having finally found her again after sixteen years and now not even being regarded as an authority figure by her. Luke comes to her and puts his hands on her hips. Reassuringly, he talks to her and presses kiss after kiss to her hair. Even though she was never there for her, Carlotta misses her mother a little and feels an urgent need to talk to her. So Luke suggests, "Okay, one phone call. And don't say where we are! When we're through with Spain, we could still go to Ireland and pay her a visit. If you want, of course. And I'll tell my parents we're fine, but no details." So later they go downtown and look for a phone box.
First, Carlotta gets to call June Warren. It cracks briefly, then the voice of Pippa Warren, her mother's twin sister and also the head of the boarding school in Ireland, answers. "Excuse me, I'd like to speak to June Warren," Carlotta says by way of greeting. There is no way she wants to give herself away, but too late, her aunt has recognised her immediately. "Carlotta Kaichonski-Warren, where are you? You're even wanted here already!" Carlotta swallows hard. "We have to get out of the forest, there are too many trees. Please don't give us away." Of course Pippa can't refuse her this request and promises not to tell anyone. Then she calls her sister to the phone. "Oh God, darling, what's happened? You've been missing for three days!" In the phone box, Carlotta rolls her eyes in annoyance. "June, I want to apologise to you. I know I'm not that easy and I've never been nice to you, but I need you. You're bloody my mum and even though I live with Luke, that doesn't mean I don't need you in my life!" A soft sniffle sounds on the other side of the line. So Carlotta has started off on the right foot. "I'll be coming to Ireland in about two weeks!" she says before there is a short beep and the line goes dead. Carlotta nods to Luke and walks out of the phone box to take a quick breath. As he types in his parents' number, she comes back in. His mother answers immediately. "The beds are empty..., no message..., calls are ignored...! They may be dead by now!" Luke swallows hard before saying, "Who might be dead already?" Carlotta looks at him incredulously. He didn't really say that now, did he, she thinks to herself.

"Luke Jerome Giesma, presumably Carlotta Kaichonski-Warren is still with you too, how dare you, no, how dare you steal the car and just run away? You're only seventeen. As soon as you get home, you're both grounded, no talking back!" Luke is about to open his mouth when his mother continues shouting, "You shut up now and listen! You're coming back home right now! And then you'll be in for a lot of trouble!" As Luke is about to say something again, Carlotta puts her hand on his arm soothingly. "We're sorry, it won't happen again! The whole thing was just too much for us and we had to get out. Luke will be home soon," she says in a very calm tone. Then she hangs up and takes a deep breath. She hasn't even told Luke yet that it might be better to move to her mother's in Ireland, even though she would then be separated from Luke. Luke himself doesn't seem to have noticed, because he nods gratefully and puts his hand to her cheek before looking at her for a long time and kissing her.
Carlotta swallows hard and tries to gently push him away. If she's going to move to Ireland in about two weeks, maybe for good, she needs to get some distance from Luke now before the goodbye gets too hard.
On the way home, the two don't speak a word and when Mary, James and Orion receive them there, Carlotta feels anything but comfortable and soon goes to sleep. Luke wishes her a good night and leaves her alone.