Lonely Angel

Chapter 3

When Johann and his wife returned home, the man felt relieved, as the worst had gone away. But maybe it would be more correct to say that the worst seemed to had gone away, because more trouble was waiting for him.

In the afternoon of the following day, Johann received a message from a sports company inviting him to hold a conference about the importance of doing exercise in the early age as well as in the late age (and it's worth saying that Johann still did a lot of exercise).

He showed this message to his wife, and she tried to talk him out, saying that usually those messages are written by evil people who search for a way to take money off everyone, but Johann replied that it didn't look anything like that and that he was probably never going to have another opportunity like this one.

Nevertheless, when he went to his room, he read the message again to check if his wife was right, but he still didn't find any sign of that.

On the day of the conference, Johann left home two hours before it was meant to begin, telling his wife:

"Don't worry, I'll be back soon".

And he went to the bus stop. The vehicle came before even ten seconds passed and Johann got on it. The place smelled like smoke and Johann looked around to find who was smoking. And, indeed, he saw a man in his thirties holding a cigarette.

"Excuse me", Johann told him.

The man didn't react at all.

"Do you hear me?" Johann repeated.

"What's going on?"

"Could you please stop smoking here? First, it's not allowed to smoke in the public transport, and second, many people can't stand this smell".

"Oh, sorry", the man said, as though he had just been told that in an office, one is supposed to work, not to play, "I just have this habit. I'll hide my cigarette right now".

"Alright, hide it, that will be better".

As soon as the man hid his cigarette, the phone of a girl, who had to be a university student, rang. The phone was set to the loudest volume and Johann heard the tone. He told the girl:

"Listen, could you please turn the volume down? You're bothering everyone!"

The girl apologized as well. She said that she had forgotten her earphones and that she would be more careful next time, then she answered the call.

When the bus arrived at Johann's stop, the man got off and looked at his watch. He realized that about forty minutes were left, so he decided to use this time to visit the place.

It has to be specified that the conference wasn't going to be in Münster, but in a city where Johann had never been before, so everything looked rather weird to him. He decided to go into a shop he saw and maybe buy something, but he didn't see a pillar with the shape of a wall made of bricks and crashed into it. His head started to hurt until he fainted.

The ambulance came and took Johann to the hospital, to the intensive care department. The doctors did what they had to do and one of them told the other:

"This is a very difficult case. I have been working here for twelve years and never has anything like this happened before".

"Are you telling me that? I have been working here for almost twenty-five years". He said 'almost', because just a few weeks were left. "But at the university they didn't tell us about this situation, nor is my experience of any help".

Johann opened his eyes for a moment and tried to ask them something, but after the first sound, he fell back.

As for the organizer of the conference and for everyone who came to listen to it, nobody could understand what was happening. So the organizer decided to call Johann, but instead, one of the two doctors answered.

"So?" one of the bystanders asked with worry.

"It looks like there will be no conference today", the organizer said and referred the doctor's words.

"Oh no! And what are we going to do now?"

"Well, I think it's no use to stay here longer, so let's go home".

"Yes, that will be better", everyone started saying and commenting.

Everyone left to go home and the organizer did the same.

The doctors went on with Johann for a few days, and some visitors came, including his wife (who cried without being able to make sense of the matter) and some friends. If someone wanted to see the ill man while another visitor was in, he was told to wait. Also, everyone was warned not to make any noise. The doctors did everything they could, but on the ninth day, any possibility that Johann could ever breathe again was lost.

Everyone who came to the hospital to visit Johann, also came to his funeral. Many of them felt like a cloud had covered the entire sky forever, others couldn't hold their tears.

"He was a very good man", a woman said. "One day, I was doing something I was asked about and got in trouble, so he found a solution and I thanked him".

"Don't tell me that", another woman, who was her friend, said, "he helped me a few times too, when it looked like there was no way out".

"I wish there would be a way for him to come back to life", a friend, who saved Johann many times from danger, said. He was complaining about not having done so this time.

In the meantime, Johann's granddaughter, Aline Gonçalves, who was born in Portugal and lived there, came home. She was a traffic warden and sometimes her work stressed her, especially when she had to give a ticket to someone who drove their car like they had bought their license, but in those days nothing could make her feel as sad as her grandfather's death did, even though they had hardly ever been in touch. If it wasn't dangerous for a responsible job like hers, she would have drank a lot. But she decided not to risk. Sometimes she could hear a voice telling her:

"Don't do that to yourself, you're still young. A lot of things happened to you, as well as to your friends, but you're still alive, and this is because you're strong. Tears were never any use".

Then Aline tried to calm down, but it only resulted in the opposite. Nevertheless, she believed in herself and in her force. She knew that this wasn't the end, nor the beginning of the end. She had been in that state since she knew about her grandfather's death, but now she reached the highest point.

"You're strong", the voice told her, "we're all mortal. When your time comes, you'll go as well. But don't kill yourself now. Just live like you always have, and everything will be all right".