Posted As Missing

9. Coming Together

David and Maria stood in the room, holding each other for a long while in silence. Resting her head on his shoulder and looking at his dressings, she asked if his wounds hurt. "Tun Ihre Wunden weh?"

"Viel besser jetzt." He told her they were much better now. Then he looked into her pale green eyes and said she was absolutely gorgeous – so beautiful. "Sie sind absolut umwerfend, so wunderschön."

She smiled up at him and blushed. "Du... Du lässt meinen Körper kribbeln."

He was pleased to make her body tingle, and took it as a good sign.

She blushed more deeply and bit her lower lip. "Ich möchte Sex mit dir teilen. Kannst du es mir beibringen?"

David grinned in amusement at her innocence. Then the reality sank in. She was asking him to teach her how to have sex. Oh, God! Is this a dream? A virgin? Need to be gentle with her.

After suggesting they keep quiet, he began unlacing her bodice, and she followed his lead, undressing him. They stood admiring each other for a moment before falling into a passionate embrace, shuddering as they did. Then he led her to the bed.

Oh, God! Control, David. Take your time. Ease into this.

He used his hands until she begged for more, telling him she wasn't at the fertile time of her cycle. He entered her, and after twenty gentle but passionate minutes, they lay entangled together.

She spoke quietly, telling him how she had moved to the Kaiserstuhl, just west of Freiburg, when she was nine, in 1905. Her father had seen a promising future growing wine in the complex mix of soils on a volcanic plug at the edge of the Rhein plains. Now he was dead, her brothers too. She missed them; she missed her Unterhallau friends and her grandfather back in Küsnacht.

It was a long and convoluted story. She seemed to be reliving pieces of her past. When it appeared she had finished her catharsis, he asked her where Küsnacht is.

"Lass uns wieder spielen, dann werde ich Ihnen sagen." She said she'd tell him after they played again.

He didn't argue.

Several minutes later, at the height of another climax, Maria panted, "Oh God! – So intense!"

"Pleased I can bring you so eas ..." Shit! Slipped into English. Dumb move to be doing this, David. Should have walked away again.

"I knew it." She panted. "Your accent – reminded me of Grandpa in Küsnacht – knew there was something different about you when you came in last night." She giggled. "Guess that's now the night before last, isn't it?"

"You're British!"

"Mama's parents were. They moved to Switzerland after they were charmed by it on a tour in the early 1870s. Mama was born in Küsnacht not long after. They all made me learn English and French, besides the local German. I grew up with it, and it's what we speak at home."

"Küsnacht again. Where's that?"

"On the lake six kilometres from Zürich. It's where we're trying to go if we can get out of Germany. Do you know where Zürich is?"

"I know it as a major banking centre, but not exactly where." Surely, she has no love for Germany after what they've done to her family. "I'm heading to Switzerland tomorrow."

"But it's impossible to cross the border now. It's closed."

"I'm going over Feldberg, along the ridges. It's full moon now."

"That's what we are planning to do, but Mama said it's dangerous in the winter and early spring. We're ready to go now, but waiting until late May when the conditions are better. Maybe you can take us with you." She peered into his eyes. "Could you do that?"