An irish Lovestory - the summer of Life

The move and the consequences

As it slowly becomes emptier on the beach, the three of them also go back to the holiday village. Completely soaked and with a slight sunburn, they say goodbye to each other and Luke and Carlotta wish Marco a few nice days with the girls. He thanks them and goes into the house where Helen is already waiting for him. Johanna wanted to take a shower first. "Marco, it's so good to see you again," she says as he enters the living room. She stands up and hugs him. The fact that he is wet doesn't seem to bother her at all. "I think it's nice that you're here too. Even if it's just because of your friends." Helen nuzzles him in the side. "You're cute when you're jealous." Marco grins at her. She knows his jealousy is just an act. Although they haven't seen each other for years, the old familiarity is back. Marco goes to take a quick shower and put on something dry, then goes with Helen to his room. "Not much has changed here," she notes. Even the pictures on the walls are still the same, only a few new ones have been added. She walks through the spacious room and looks at the photos. She stops in front of one. It is a picture that was taken five years ago. Carefully, she takes it in her hand and remembers the day.

In front of a big house, three young people are standing next to a removal van. All the boxes have already been loaded into the big removal van. The smaller of the two boys says goodbye to the larger one and gets into a car that is next to the house. "Helen, it's time!" a man calls from the car. The girl looks at the boy next to her with tears in her eyes. He takes her hand and puts a small box in it. "Don't open it until you get to London," he whispers. The girl nods sadly. Then the boy takes her in his arms and strokes her hair. "I'm going to miss you," she sobs. He pulls her even tighter into a hug and says, "I'll miss you too!" Again the man calls out, this time a little louder and sterner. "Helen, the plane is not waiting for us! Will you get on now, please?" She looks once more into the boy's eyes, then presses her lips briefly to his. A brief moment of love, but also of farewell. Immediately she withdraws her lips. He looks longingly into her big eyes. One last look, one last touch, then she too leaves and gets into the car. The boy follows her to the window and says:
"Don't forget me pequeño tesoro *little darling!" "I couldn't forget you," she whispers, looking into his eyes. Individual tears roll down his cheeks too. She hands him a note, then the car drives off. The boy's family waves after the car and the moving van. The boy focuses on the girl and throws a kissing hand after her. As the car turns a corner, he runs after it, but doesn't catch another glimpse of the girl. So he opens the hand containing the girl's note and reads:
I always come back to you Marco. I love you! No matter how, I will find a way to you.
Although he is sad that Helen is gone, he smiles confidently. So far she has kept every promise she made.
In the car, Helen looks back at him and knows he will be fine.
A few hours later they arrive at the new house in London and she immediately runs into the room that is supposed to be hers. She closes the door and opens the small box. Out comes an amulet with a picture of the two of them. The last photo they took together before she moved to the city life of London.

It blurs before her eyes and she is standing in Marco's room again. Carefully she feels at her neck. The thin chain is still there. She pulls it out from under her top and opens it. Marco stands behind her and puts an arm around her. "Why didn't you ever tell me that you loved me? I felt the same way about you," he asks her gently. Helen turns to him with moist eyes. "It would never have worked out. You and Charlie used to be best friends and then he found out about us. He was so weird after that and you rarely saw each other." Marco understands this, of course.
He opens a box next to his bed and pulls out a few things. "Oh God, you still have all those letters?!", Helen asks him. He nods. When he couldn't fall asleep at night, he often read through them. Marco pulls out a note from a false bottom and hands it to Helen. It is the last message she could give him in person. "I told you I'd be back," she says with a grin and hands the note back to him. He puts it back in the box and asks, "Do you actually have a boyfriend by now? Or have you continued to be stubborn and not gone into anything with anyone?" Helen shakes her head and says, "It's not as if I don't want to now, but the boys in London were stupid, then in Ireland they weren't much better and Charlie and I have managed without a partner so far. In between, we've never been in one place long enough to really get to know one. And don't you dare call me narrow-minded or refer to me as Muhackl again, then I'll be gone faster than you can say my name!"
They are silent for a while, then Marco asks, "So you were really in therapy after the move?"

Helen nods and remembers that bad time when she had to see the psychiatrist.
She is dragged into the car by her mother, Charlie helps her. Then the door is closed and the engine howls. "Mum, I don't have to go there, I don't want to go there! Just let me go back to Marco!" she shrieks, but it's no use. The car stops in front of a big grey brick building and her mother drags her out of the car.
Then, after two hours, she is let out of the treatment room, and again it has been no use at all. Helen runs through the waiting room and out into the street. She would like to go to some friends, but she doesn't have any here in London. All her friends are in Spain, with her horses and Marco. She could theoretically run to the airport and just leave, but she knows that her mother is faster with the car. So she wanders aimlessly through the streets. Her family searched for her with the police for four days. Afterwards, her parents said that London would be no use and that they had a new lab in Berlin.
It went on like that, they were hardly in one place before she was sent to therapy, which then brought nothing and when she started to halfway come to terms with the new life, suddenly there was a new job offer for her parents in another city. It's been everything: Berlin, Barcelona, London, Paris, Linz, Wroclaw, Rabat, Rome, Istanbul, Riga, Tokyo, Wuhan and finally Dublin, where she was then sent to a boarding school nearby for a year, then deregistered again because her parents were assigned to a new lab.

She is happy about the last two moves, but they didn't have to be. She sniffles briefly and looks Marco in the eye. Marco hands her a handkerchief and looks into her eyes as well.
Just as the moment becomes romantic, the doorbell rings and Johanna enters. Caught off guard, the two jump up and look at the floor. "Am I interrupting?", Johanna asks them both. Marco shakes his head and says hastily, "Not at all. You must be Johanna. I'm Marco." He offers her his hand, which she shakes briefly. "Jo, I am. Helen told me a lot about you on the way here." Helen still has her gaze fixed downwards and feels Marco's eyes on her. To get them both out of the awkward position, Johanna asks, "And what else can you do here but keep quiet as soon as I walk in?" Helen looks up and grins. "Mega nice photos, swimming, surfing, eating, bungee jumping and horse riding, but of course there are cultural attractions nearby if that interests you." Johanna shakes her head. Helen says to them both "Speaking of riding, I'm going to see my two sweethearts tomorrow. Are you coming?" Of course they both want to come and so they agree to meet here at Marco's at nine the next morning, have breakfast together and then go to the horses.
The two girls go to the holiday home of Helen's family, which has not been used for five years. They had been there again just before the move and renovated it so that they could spend the summer holidays there, but since then they had never been back. Johanna asks Helen cautiously, "Why have you never been back?" She answers, "Well, first we were in London, then we moved to Paris, after only a quarter of a year to Linz, where we didn't stay long either. From one city we moved to the next and my parents had never had the time to go to Spain and Charlie and I were never allowed to travel here alone." Johanna understands, although she doesn't know why her parents did it to Helen, not even being able to see Marco on holiday.
At the same time, a few streets away, Luke and Carlotta have already eaten dinner and freshened up to take a few more photos on the beach. They also meet Marco, who has also gone out for a short walk, on the beach. As he has nothing better to do, he takes a few photos of the two of them and tells them about the meeting with the girls. "Do you have photos of her too?", Luke asks him. He nods and pulls out his mobile phone. But in order not to betray Johanna and Helen, he only shows old photos from Barcelona and from here with the horses. Carlotta notices a certain resemblance to Helen, but doesn't think about it any further.
The three of them only go home when it is almost dark and Marco wishes them a nice week.