Right one at the wrong time

Before the walk

Ana woke up the next morning with the same strange feeling she had gone to sleep with the night before. She had hoped it would go away if she just slept on it or that it would simply no longer bother her. But whether she wanted it to or not, it did bother her still. How could it not. That her husband seemed so indifferent to everything, almost disappointed her. But today was another ESC day and she would not let anything or anyone spoil it. Neither by her husband’s strange behaviour nor by a little blonde Swedish girl. After all, she was Konstrakta.

--

I šta ćemo sad?  Echoed throughout the room and for a split second there was silence.
“Excellent!” Shouted one of the sound technicians, who had run to the front of the stage after the last lines to give Konstrakta and her team feedback.
“That was perfect. You’re done for the day.”

Konstrakta had stopped counting how many times she had already practiced and performed the song by now. But it was a great song and she still absolutely loved it. She was particularly particular about the lyrics in her songs. You had to listen carefully and, above all, think. Otherwise you probably wouldn’t understand the message. Konstrakta liked people who were thoughtful and intelligent. People with whom you could talk about more than just trivial topics. She also loved to irritate people a bit with her songs. Many journalists had asked about the meaning of In corpore sano since her arrival in Turin. And she had answered each time with a smile on her lips. And sometimes her answer irritated people even more than before.

“Shall we go for a walk after our lunch break?”

Came the words from behind her and without turning around Konstrakta recognised Kosta’s voice.
They had been making music together for years so it was no masterstroke to recognise his voice. Besides, he had spoken Serbian. Everyone else here always spoke in English. Her English was good. But sometimes it strained her a bit and it was nice to be able to speak in her first language now and then.

She thought for a moment, then turned around on her stage chair and asked:
“How much time do we have before the costume fitting?”

Her team from the costume department had decided a few days ago to change a little something to Konstrakta’s outfit that would probably take hours then anyway - as always. But why not. On the whole, no one would probably notice where exactly the pinned bouquet of flowers in her breast pocket was. Except for herself. Especially during the press conference. There, the little flowers had suddenly started to bother her. But with any kind of art, it was always about the details, after all.

“Long enough. It’s not until late afternoon.”

--

On the way back from the cafeteria, Konstrakta walked with Kosta and Marija through one of the long corridors towards the outside. Satisfied and with a full stomach, the door opened and the warm late May air enveloped them. The sun was high in the cloudless sky which was as blue as...

„Oh man. When you practise all day in the hall, you hardly notice the great weather outside. And it‘s so nice and warm for May.“

Marija complained. Konstrakta was almost a little grateful to her for interrupting her thoughts.

„Well.. we‘re in Italy.“
Kosta and Marija continued talking about the weather, the ESC, the rehearsal while Konstrakta walked beside them, just enjoying not having to talk for once.

And then, out of nowhere, a voice.

„Ana?“

The Serbian flinched in horror. The voice ran through her whole body and left a little goose bump even though it was so warm. Almost too warm in her white one-piece. And once again she had recognised this voice immediately without seeing the person. She stopped but made no effort to turn around. As if she hoped the person who had called her wouldn‘t see her if she didn‘t see her. Maybe she should pretend she didn‘t hear anything and just keep walking. Or pretend to be dead. How silly.

For almost five minutes she had had the chance to recharge her batteries and not think, just be. But she realised immediately that the quiet relaxing walk was now over. She had convinced herself that the grounds were big enough and that they didn‘t necessarily have to run into each other again. The chance encounter in the museum had already been more than enough for her. But it seemed as if fate wanted to tease her.

She still stood there rooted to the spot. Kosta and Marija had also turned around. Before Ana could think about what she should do or whether she had a chance to get out of this situation, the person whose voice she had just heard was already standing in front of them.

With a broad grin, the blonde Swede was now beaming at her. And again she was closer than Ana would have liked. She had apparently never heard of personal space. Unobtrusively, Ana tried to take a small step back and forced herself to smile slightly.

“Cornelia.”

She was still beaming. Now even more after Ana had said her name. But then her gaze shifted to Kosta and Marija, whom she hadn’t noticed before.

“Oh hi. I’m Cornelia Jakobs. Sweden.”

She held out her hand to the two Serbians, who shook it. And before Ana could wonder why Cornelia didn’t immediately fall around their necks too like she always did as a greeting, she already opened her arms and hugged them both.

“We’re all like a little family here.”

She laughed. This woman was still far too good-humoured with far too much energy for such a small body. Ana wrinkled her nose, a scent coming to her that seemed familiar but belonged to neither Kosta nor Marija. But she had smelled it before. Without having paid attention to it or judged it then, she now realised that it smelled good. At least one thing that was not entirely unpleasant about the Swede. Still, it didn’t change anything.

Kosta and Marija seemed slightly surprised by the hug, since Konstrakta was not a physical person and rarely hugged but they hugged the blonde back and then introduced themselves to her. Only now did Ana notice the brunette woman who was also standing next to Cornelia. She seemed to be about her age. Very young.

“I’m Isa. Cornelia’s best friend and co-songwriter.”

With a friendly smile, she shook hands with Ana, who was grateful she hadn’t ambushed her with a hug too. She seemed all right. Much calmer than Cornelia. She could possibly get along with her. As far as it was necessary. After the ESC, you probably wouldn’t see most people again anyway.

Suddenly Konstrakta remembered the press conference. Hadn’t Cornelia told them that she was here with her boyfriend. Where was he? Why was he never with her? She wondered what he looked like.

Isa, Kosta and Marija started talking animatedly about writing song lyrics and you could tell right away that they got along very well.

“We’ll go ahead.”

Kosta said to Ana and without waiting for an answer or reaction they started walking. Ana gritted her teeth and tried to stifle a groan. They simply couldn’t leave her alone with that Swedish girl. She made a movement to indicate to Cornelia that she wanted to walk with them, hoping she would leave her alone and join the others. But instead she came a little closer to Ana, her eyes almost burning a hole through Konstrakta and asked:

“Mind if I join you?”

“Yes.”

“What?”

Cornelia’s smile changed abruptly to a startled expression and Ana added hastily, shocked by her own tone and word that had just shot out of her mouth without thinking.

“No.. I mean, of course not.”