Cruel Games

Chapter 2

-So what is the big difference between Spain and Catalonia? – Leyla asked Joan when they were, together with all the rest, walking towards the canteen, where lunch was served for them. Everyone else was trying to keep close to Leyla as always when someone is called a guide.
Joan got very passionate, even loud when explaining that it is an autonomous government and if you compare GDP to Spain it is almost 30% higher per capita. And if this could be scaled up to the whole of Spain, it will become a wonderful place.
-Do you have any brothers or sisters? – Mario asked in the meanwhile Adi, who was walking right behind the mentioned two.
-None. Yourself?
-I have a twin sister – he sighed sadly.
-Wow, this sounds cool.
-Cool my ass! She is such a nag, so god damn annoying. And on top of her terrible personality everyone always asks me about her, no matter where I am and who I meet, as if I am a part of her or she is a part of me. I am so happy to finally get rid of her.
Adi smiled “Yet she is the first thing you talk about to a stranger, big guy” – she bid her tongue not to say it aloud.
-You know that proverb saying that blood cannot turn into water… -she said instead
-Eh? No… I only knew that water, when necessary, can turn into vine.
Adi giggled:
-As Italian you should be an expert in wine?
-In drinking it – yes, in producing it – not at all. It is southern Italy where the real experts are – they namely breathe wine.
Walking on, Homa catched up to them and it was his Italian duty to engage her in the talk.
-Do you like Italian wine, Om-ma? – he asked.
Homa couldn’t answer, as Kim, who was lagging a tiny bit, started laughing uncontrollably, trying to hide his mouth behind his hand. Everyone turned around to look at him. Adi turned swiftly back to the front when she saw Kim’s red face. Didn’t want to make things any worse for him, as he was already feeling embarrassed.
She intended to continue walking while Joan in front of her had just stopped and turned back. Thus she stopped just a few cm before clashing into him. He moved his glance from Kim to her instinctively when sensing the danger of being run over. His eyes were first startled and then turned just as curious as when sitting on the introduction table a while ago. Ida mumbled an apology and looked down. Joan stepped back to get her out of his private circle as if it was making him feel uncomfortable.
Kim needed to explain that he is sorry and that his unexplainable behavior could easily be explained, since ‘omma’ in Korean was the way to address your mother. Kevin made a comment that ‘h’ is a letter and a sound just like any other, and shouldn’t be neglected, Ugnas was surprised that ‘mom’ is something so different from “mama”, be it in Korean. Leyla explained that in Danish it actually sounds somewhat like ‘moar’ which is also a bit off from all other languages.
They all entered the canteen. A large hall with neatly ordered tables and a food bar in the middle, but since they all were disoriented their food was already waiting for them at a table labeled with a large ‘Group E’ sign. They sat around it almost at the same order they were walking.
Adi started eating directly with sitting and it was while chewing that she noticed something unexpected with the salad.
-Green salad with pomegranate?! Why put fruits in an ordinary vegetables salad? – Adi exclaimed, starting a separation process. For the record most or the others were still putting oil and vingar in their salads.
-You have to get used to it – Leyla explained. – It is very common here to mix fruits and vegetables in a salad. Pomegranate is not that common, it is even considered posh, but you will see apples and rasins quite often, also melon and watermelon in summer.
- It will probably take some time, if not forever to get used to it - Adi mumbled, continuing her dedicated sorting. She had noticed that due to her immense hunger, she was the only one with no oil, salt and vinegar in her salad and was fascinated by that fact, since the pomegranate will stay unaffected until the end, when it will be properly be eaten as dessert.
-Do you like pomegranates, Adelaida? – Kevin asked. – I thought in your part of the world everything related to bombing and explosion is hated.
“What did he say her name was?” – Joan thought to himself. He spent quite some time struggling with her handwriting on the name tag, where his best shot was something like AOEIAIOA, which made no sense at all.
Adi looked at Kevin who looked just as persistent and provocative as the question he asked and chewed her mouthful thinking of the right word to act as a knife to cut his insane attitude.
-I am surprised, Kevin, to find out that some haters’ rumors like the one that in your country you talk about bombing and death even at the dining table, are being confirmed.
Kevin looked around to see that all eyes were on him, disapproving. He looked at Adi again trying to put together a quick fix but she didn’t let him speak.
-Sorry to disappoint you, but yes, I dislike and fear rains of death. And I find it heartlessly cruel and I would rather prefer the world before those bombings, which permanently deleted the smile from my mother’s face and rooted darkness inside her heart and confusion in her mind.  – she enjoyed the solemn silence yet noticed that everyone was looking guiltily in their plates and tried to sound casual, although it was too late. – But pomegranates are great for the heart and the skin.
Adi continued eating, looking at her plate like everyone else.
-What did you say your name was? Adeliola? – Joan asked. He was sitting to her right at the short side of the table.
‘Adeliola’… -Adi smiled, she really had a long and awkwardly circularly referenced name and now was the time to tell everyone how to shorten it nicely. Yet she never liked being called Adi, only her close family called her Deli… Aida sounded really nice but it reminded her of Branko, of whom she most certainly didn’t want to be reminded…
-It is Adelaida, but people can call me Ida.
-Ida means ‘going’ in Spanish…
-I know.
-Hablas espanyol?
-Si.
-Pero no te ves como espanyola, ni tampoco como sudamericana, como es que hablas espanyol?
-Todo el mundo habla espanyol. – Ida was not in the mood to give boring answers. It would have been thrilling if she learned Spanish in Cuba, where she could have been sent to military school after misbehaving in her Swiss lyceum, but she just went to an ordinary school and behaved …. Well, not quite eventually … the hell with behaving! … she went to an ordinary school and acted like a nerd most of the time, one of the consequences being speaking Spanish fluently.
-Ella tiene razon! – joined the conversation Leyla and Joan didn’t at all expect it. She was sitting on his other side on the long side of the table and he turned to her as if she was a movie star.
-Claro que si – didn’t miss his chance to take the ladies’ side Mario and the mood in the group was already high and tripping. Joan was also smiling, yet in the same time looking around like a Jew whose wallet got stolen for the next one to speak it up.
Leyla used the chance to unite the group again asking if any of them was interested in taking Danish lessons.
-I would like to try – confessed Ida.
-Why learn Danish, when apparently the whole world speaks Spanish? – Joan couldn’t help but say.
-I am not going to any Danish classes, everyone here speaks English – commented Kevin.
-But you know how nice it is when people from other countries try to speak your native, right?- challenged him Irini.
-Tell me about it – he grinned sarcastically. –It is such a plague with English. I have heard any possible accent on Earth!
-It is actually a bad thing that all the Danes speak English so well, because they just avoid speaking Danish to you, unless you are perfect and you cannot master it before speaking to people. So it is like an evil circle, especially here in Copenhagen – Homa explained. -  I have already studied it for 15 months but I miss a lot of practice to get fluent.
- Actually, there is a special course for students here which you can apply for, I will talk about it tomorrow. It is in collaboration with a specialized language school that has very good references.
-And what else are we doing today? – Ugnes asked, changing the topic.
-Not much – we have a treasure hunt game and I will give you some general tips on living and expenses.
-No need – Mario smiled. – Everything is way too expensive.
Everyone smiled and laughed.
The lunch was almost over and Ida was disappointed that there was no dessert, apart from the fruit she extracted from the salad.
Ida stood up from the table together with everyone else and in a second the world in front of her eyes sank in darkness.
-I am los… - she managed say, holding tight to the edge of the table, knowing that if she passes out completely, she needed to fall in a controlled way. Joan was the only one who heard her and although he didn’t understand what she said, he read the paleness of her face and held her midway to the floor ending at one knee, holding her shoulders having her unconscious head resting on his own shoulder.
Then everyone tried to do their best. Kevin panicked completely and made chaotic movements, Homa brought cold water, Joan held Ida securely and checked her pulse with his free hand, Leyla asked loud if someone in the room was knowledgeable of first aid and since no one was she eventually called 112, when Ida didn’t react to the cold water. The hospital was just across the street and the ambulance took less than 5 minutes, in which people agreed that Homa and Joan will accompany Ida to the hospital, because Homa already had a Danish telephone number to keep in touch continuously and Joan volunteered.
Homa called a short while after to say that there has been a temporary problem with the blood sugar, and Ida was getting glucose, so nothing to worry about. Joan stood inside the room, looking at Ida’s relaxed face. He noted that she was more beautiful when her vivid eyes were open. What a jerk was this guy, asking her for the bombings, but she did shut him up without even showing a sign of irritation. Himself in her situation would have grabbed him by the neck – that unfeeling coward. He was such a pitiful picture afterwards when she passed out.
Ida snap opened her eyes and saw him standing there.
-Where am I? –she asked in Spanish.
-In a hospital, they are regulating your blood sugar – he explained, asking if she understood his Spanish, she confirmed with a smile. He smiled back and she caught herself staring at his smiley face for quite a while.
- You caught me falling? You cannot imagine how thankful I am for this.
-Don’t mention it; I am glad I was there.
-I fell brutally once and hit my head so severely that I was forbidden any activity for 5 straight days, those were the worst days ever, I couldn’t even watch television, read, or play any game as my brain needed to be entirely resting. It was a torture.
He listened interested and then asked:
-Does this happen to you often? Passing out like this?
-Now is the second time in my life. You can actually tell your friends that a girl fainted for you today – she tried to cheer up the situation joking.
He turned around with a brisk movement feeling his face on fire after this remark. Ida clenched her mouths as her attempt to be funny went completely wrong again. She should try to limit her efforts to be funny; it was so disappointing when unsuccessful. Especially now that Joan have been so kind to her and she embarrassed him instead of making him smile.
-I am not going to tell such a thing, unless it is true – he said looking back at her and she thought she read ‘is it true?’ somewhere deep within his glance.