Deeper Blue

VII

It was late and Edgar was well aware of it. He didn't need to look at his watch to guess that it was almost noon. Nevertheless, sluggishly with his lynx paw, he grabbed the pocket watch lying right next to him on the bedside table and opened its copper lid.

"11:20 a.m. I slept too long." - He thought, but still put his head in the mattress of the bed for a while.

There was not even a trace after the night storm. Edgar felt the warm rays of the summer sun beating down on him from outside the window. He could also hear birds singing as they merrily flew around the neighborhood.

Since the day promised to be beautiful, Eddy wondered how he should use it. He considered grasping sheets of paper and charcoal in his hands to devote himself to art. It had been several days since he had practiced, and after all, drawing and painting was his passion and talent that needed to be constantly honed. In addition, after all, he had to practice before the entrance exams to the Academy of Arts, something the teenager had not thought about at all after the recent events. It was somewhere in the back of his mind, but for reasons known to him, this important thing had receded into the background.

Suddenly he opened his eyes wide and thought - "Tymon."

The boy immediately sprang to his feet and changed into a fresh cream-colored short-sleeve shirt and slim-fitting brown pants hooked up with suspenders. He wiped his large round glasses with a cloth and left the room. He immediately went downstairs to see how his guest was doing.

"What a gaffe. I'm sound asleep and my guest is without breakfast. Tymon has probably been up for a long time..." - He thought concerned that he had overslept.

When he went downstairs, Tymon was not there. He called out to him and looked around the living room and also the kitchen. Had Tymon left without saying goodbye? Very possible, after all, it was already late and he probably had a lot of his own responsibilities.

He momentarily felt sorry for himself. Somehow he didn't want his role as a host to turn out this way. He felt embarrassed by this fact. In his family home, guests rarely stayed overnight, but when it came down to it, everything was taken care of to the last button. His mother would get up early, serve a plate filled with bread, butter, eggs, cold cuts and fruit. Even the dessert was already standing on a crystal dish pleasing the eyes of the recently awakened guests.

Edgar curled his lips in a grimace of displeasure. Not only because in his mind he had behaved rudely, but also because he wanted to get closer to Tymon. After all, how his relationship with the tiger would turn out depended on whether Edgar would be able to learn about this hazy past. Besides, the boy seemed to be really okay, so that made Eddy feel all the more remorseful.

Edgar decided that he would check the laundry that Tymon had hung out the night before. He headed straight for the terrace, and as he passed the house attempts, he felt that something was wrong. He looked around left and right, not knowing what it could be about.

"Strange," - he thought, then looked under his feet.

It was immediately apparent that the protruding threshold that Eddy had been tripping over all the time was gone. In its place appeared several smooth planks nailed to the floor, which were certainly installed here later today. Edgar looked around and only then saw the tiger.

Tymon, in the near distance, was kneeling by the fence surrounding the house and nailing some nails to it. He looked very focused on the work he had assigned himself. Eddy thought that Tymon must have been working since early in the morning, because the deteriorating fence was now largely standing even and solid.