The Foreigner

Chapter 19

She stays at my place all afternoon. We ordered a pizza.

- I'll put some songs to play. She warns me as I leave the room to answer the door.

-OK.

I pay the delivery boy.

I get the pizza and take it to the bedroom. I hand the pizza into Heidi's hands. She cheers up.

-Hmmm. Wonderful smell. -She says as she opens the box. - Must be great.

-I'll get the beers -she nods, already biting the first slice.

I go down to the kitchen, grab two beers from the fridge, and go upstairs. I hand her a bottle. She opens it immediately.

I sit on the bed and open my beer. She takes another piece of pizza and holds it between her fingers, making me see her nails painted dark enamel. I can also see her ring, with wings spread out over the other fingers. In the other hand is the ring with a pentagram.

Despite this dark look she looks like a child to me. I keep admiring her as she eats with some hunger.

-Uh! I was so hungry! - She relishes the slice.

-Hmm. Really great! - I bite my piece.

While we eat and drink, her cell phone plays a playlist.

-Hey! I love this song. She gets excited about one of the tracks. He shakes his head from side to side enjoying the sound. He stops and comments: -It seems to describe you.

-Oh yes?

-Yeah. Listen to the lyrics well.

Mr. Writer, why don't you tell how it is? / Why doesn't it really count? / Before you go on home...

-Saw? It's all about you.

-It is true.

-I'm already satisfied -she says after we eat.

- I'm fine too.

Her cell phone vibrates. She looks over and puts him back on the bed. I'm curious and she notices it.

-It was my father's message.

-Is he trying to approach you?

-I don't know if that's it. But if it is, I think it's late.

-Maybe now with your mother's illness, he realizes how important you are. It happened to me. Why can't it happen to him?

-I have my doubts. You didn't do to your wife what my father did to my mother, did you?

-Oh ... No ... It's ... No. -I don't know what to say to help you.

-I can't believe he can change anymore.

-Heidi, everyone deserves a chance if you're sorry. And the fact that he did what he did does not mean that he cannot repent and change.

-For me now whatever. -She shrugs. -I don't care anymore. I'm only going back to Amsterdam because of my mother. And, honestly, I don't believe my father's character. He is very different from you. You cannot understand this.

I think she's right. Maybe I really don't understand.

-I'm used to his absence. And now I think maybe it's better this way.

-Wow. It's hard to hear you say that.

-But that's the truth, Mr. Whitman. -I have to deal with her.

I don't touch the subject anymore. We spent hours talking about trite things and drinking some more beer. Heidi falls asleep in my bed with his head on my pillow. I cover her, go downstairs, and lie down on the couch to get some rest.

When I wake up, it's already night. I look at the time on the wristwatch I had left on the coffee table. I get scared.

-Wow! I slept it all!

I'll see how Heidi is doing. I climb the stairs. I open the bedroom door. She is not there. The bed is made up. She must have gone home and was sorry to wake me from my deep sleep, I think trying to comfort myself that I had not seen her leave.