Bold Captive

Chapter 2

The next few weeks had nothing particular for Youri. Nothing that could be forgotten occurred in that amount of time, nor anything that could be remembered for a long time. They were just normal days, and the old man was more than aware of that. And he had nothing to complain about.

Even the conversations with his wife, Erika De Lof, who was about the same age as himself, had nothing to be spoken about for hours. He often told her about his past as a waiter, and she often told him about her past as a school music teacher; when neither of them remembered their past, they both would think about the future, not caring about the fact that they didn't have much future left.

"I wonder how my students are now, if they miss me", she asked at some point.

"Your students? I think they haven't forgotten you".

"If they haven't, then why don't they send me anything?"

"Maybe they are afraid or something like that".

"Afraid of what? Am I a monster? No, I don't think so. Did I ever look like a monster to them? That's also unlikely, because otherwise they would have never come to me again, but they have a million times. So what should they even be afraid of?"

"See, Erika, they have respect for you, and they don't want to get into trouble... and they don't want you to get into trouble either".

He stressed the word 'you' as if he was going to talk about something much more serious.

"It's not anything about you, Erika. It's about them. They don't want to risk anything and therefore they avoid being in touch with you. But I don't think that means they have forgotten you. Why would they? You were a good teacher for them. Were they good students?"

"Most of them were. About half of them became professional musicians, and thirty or forty years ago I sometimes used to go to see play them. I would do it now if I could, but it's not good for a woman my age to leave home that often".

"See?" her husband said. "They have become professional musicians thanks to you. If they didn't care about you, why would they even do that? They could have become something else, for example, architects or painters".

"Thanks to me? But I only taught them how to play music".

"You taught them how to play music, and with that, you made quite a work".

"Yes, but some of them were so bad that I didn't know how to deal with them anymore. I can understand if somebody can't get something right the first time, the second, the third... but if I explain it to them thousands of times and they keep getting it wrong, pretending that they don't understand anything, then what does it tell about?"

"It tells about the fact that they thought music was much easier than it actually is. This often happens: before becoming a waiter, I tried a lot of other jobs. They were all very good, but at a certain point I started feeling like I wasn't made for them at all, and so I quit".

"But a waiter isn't an easy job, either".

"Who ever said it was? But at least, I never had any trouble being a waiter".

"That's not possible either".

"Well", Youri slowed his voice, as if trying to remember something, "maybe there were a few cases, but they weren't that meaningful... ah, I remember now. One day, a customer had me waste about twenty minutes because I didn't do what he had asked me about. I actually did what I had understood he wanted me to do".

"But apart from that, everything was fine?"

"Apart from that, it was good".

Their conversation was interrupted by the sudden arrival of their son, whose name was Klaas.