Lonely Angel

Chapter 1

It was a sunny Tuesday in Münster. Johann Schreiner woke up early, around eight o'clock, being careful not to wake his wife, and went to the garden (it's maybe worth saying that they were elderly people and so they liked sleeping a little more than necessary, but Johann had some things to do.)

Cutting the trees which had already gone useless, Johann kept saying (in a low voice, almost silently, for nobody to hear him):

"Okay... this one goes here... this one will go here... okay... that's it... here we go..."

Johann was seventy-five years old, but if anyone of you saw him, they would say that it's not true and that he couldn't be any older than sixty or sixty-five. This is because when he was young, he used to do a lot of exercise and take part in various championships. He also wanted to participate in Olympic games (I'm not going to say which ones), but his form was rejected for rather a weird reason.

As a result, he didn't limp at all, or he'd only limp slightly after a long walk. He had a pair of glasses, but he didn't wear them this time, because he only needed them to watch TV or to see what was far from him, as well as drive his car. But now, when he was cutting the trees, he didn't need his glasses.

"Four... six... eight..." he switched to saying numbers. Why he would is a question that I couldn't answer either. Maybe those were memories of sport competitions he used to take part in.

Around ten o'clock, he finished and came back in. Now I'm not going to tell what he did after that, but to spend a few words about him.

Johann was married and had a daughter. This daughter, many years before, had married a Portuguese and moved to his country (I'm not going to say to which city). Therefore, their two daughters were born in Portugal as well and learnt both Portuguese and German as children. Soon after growing up, they married Portuguese men.

Now I want to talk about one of these: Joaquim Nascimento, who was married to Johann's younger granddaughter.

Joaquim, or as his friends would call him, Quim, had been working in a pawnshop for a few months. At first he didn't like this job (he had tried many others, but he had gotten rejected or fired for arguing with his colleagues or with the boss), but now he had already gotten used to it and, let's say it, he even had some fun.

His working day had been over for like an hour and he was in a bar which was quite near his house. He had ordered a drink and was waiting for it when he suddenly saw his classmate, sitting at the table nearby.

He greeted him and said:

"Didn't you move to another city?"

"I did", his classmate replied, "I moved nearly after finishing school, but I had an argument a few months ago".

"An argument? What kind of argument?"

"I'm too ashamed to tell about it".

"Don't worry, you can tell me anything, we are friends".

"Okay, then listen. One day I went to..."

In that moment, the bartender served Quim's tonic, saying:

"Here you are".

"Thank you, that's very kind", and then addressed his classmate: "Excuse me. What were you saying?"

"I was saying that one day I went to the shop to buy a ring for my girlfriend. We had been together for like seven years and we had decided that it was time. As for the ring, she gave me some conditions about what it had to be like. I came to the shop and told the assistant those conditions, he started searching, but didn't find any ring which matched them, so he gave me instead a ring which was in discount. I took it, thinking that my girlfriend would like it anyway".

"And what happened afterwards?"

"I decided not to show her the ring until proposing, but she wanted to see it at any cost. I didn't know what was happening to her, I had never seen her like that before. She kept shouting so loudly that I had to show the ring to her, and when she saw that the ring was not like she wanted it, she got very mad at me. I tried to explain that there were no rings matching the conditions she had given, but she refused to listen".

"Did it offend you?"

"Of course. Who wouldn't feel offended if their girlfriend screamed at them for something that doesn't depend on them? So, despite loving her a lot, I came back here".

"But if it's not your fault, what are you ashamed of?"

"I'm ashamed of what happened, because I love her".

"But what is done is done, and it's not your fault if the ring she wanted was not there, so the one who should feel ashamed is her, not you".

"Yes, you are right", his classmate said, "but your words aren't helping me".

But in that moment he got a message on his phone.

"Wait a moment", he told Quim, "she's writing to me. What does she want from me after what has been?"

In his fear, the young man read the message. It said: "I'm very sorry for what happened. I already admitted I screamed at you without any reason. Please come back. Without you, my life is worthless. But if you have already found another girl, I can understand that. Only a stupid could act like me, and who would ever want to be with a stupid?"

"So?" Quim asked.

"She's writing that she's sorry, that she admitted her mistake and wants me to return".

"Then go back, what's the problem?"

"The problem is that I'm afraid this might repeat".

But in that moment his girlfriend sent him another message:

"Actually, I like a lot the ring you bought. I wanted to throw it away, but after you left I looked at it once again and I realized it wasn't worth doing that. The one who was wrong is me giving you conditions".

"Should I reply?" he asked Quim.

"It's your choice", the other answered, "reply if you still love her".

And the young man wrote her this message: "I don't have anyway. You're all my life as well. I still love you. I'm sorry too. I can't live without you".