Bold Captive

Chapter 3

In the following days, maybe weeks, Youri was bored. Not that he wasn't doing anything; he was doing a lot of things, quite a lot. But whatever he was doing, his mind always wandered elsewhere. He was thinking about something he didn't know himself.

So one of those days, he had to leave, not for too long, just for a few hours, for a very important business. He took all the sheets and documents he needed, and upon reaching the place, he heard the following conversation between two men, both of which were, of course, much younger than him:

"Has everything been closed on time?"

"No, I'm sorry. We couldn't get to check it".

"How come? What happened?"

"Mark has left. He had barely any time".

"When will he come back?"

"He didn't say. Or, at least, I didn't hear".

All of this conversation embarrassed Youri quite a lot. First, he didn't really know what were they talking about. In particular, he didn't really understand what they were supposed to close on time, nor who Mark was (he had randomly found that place just a few days before, and he wasn't sure how good it was). But he thought that Mark was probably holding a very important position there if they couldn't do it without him. And if he was away, then, probably, it was better for Youri to go home. But he didn't want it. He didn't know what to do.

For a moment, he thought that probably someone else was replacing Mark — and someone had to be replacing Mark, otherwise what sense would all of this make? But fearing he would have to waste minutes explaining to them what he wanted, and not wanting to risk his fragile nerves, he decided to do something else instead, but he didn't know what.

But the conflict raging inside him got even sharper when he realized that what he had come for was very important and he would have to do it anyway — even if he decided to postpone it to another day. This lost him completely.

He sat on the first chair on his left (the chairs were all desert, and he didn't know why), bending his head down.

Something that I'd rather avoid mentioning would happen to him if a man who looked in his fifties hadn't arrived just on time and hadn't asked Youri:

"Sir, what happened? Are you alright?"

"Are you a doctor?" Youri asked him in turn. He felt like he was dreaming, or had somehow gotten into a different world, which i the same, more or less.

"Well, I used to be. But what does it have to do now?"

Youri raised his head up. Maybe he was tired of being in that position, maybe he was getting uncomfortable. He asked the man:

"Who's Mark?"

"Mark?" the man was embarrassed. "Where did you hear this name?"

And Youri told him about the conversation he had overheard earlier on that day.

"Oh", the man exclaimed, and a beam of hope started shining in Youri's eyes. However, it faded just as quickly when the man added:

"I'm sure they were talking about something else".

"They were talking about their own stuff?"

"Yes. I often come here, almost every month, sometimes twice a month. If that conversation was related to this place, I would have to know".

"Okay. Is all the staff at work now? Because, you know, I'm here for the first time and..."

"Well, they have shifts, but I think everyone who has to be here at this time, is here".