Bold Captive

Chapter 4

Youri felt that one day or another, his journey on Earth would end. No, it wasn't going to end soon, but one day or another, it would. So he was aware that he had to do everything he planned, so that nothing would be left behind forever.

But what exactly did he plan to do? This list was long, and he didn't quite know it. But he knew that as years passed, his wishes and intentions increased in number. However, even that would be a questionable statement, because now, he hardly felt like doing half of what he used to dream of when he was young.

What was it due to? Was it due to him changing? Maybe. Was it due to everything around him changing? Could be. Was it due to him being, just like everyone else in this world, affected by the time passing? I'm not excluding this hypothesis. But what I know for sure is that, when he tried to think of his past days, maybe trying to get them back, his efforts were zero. And it couldn't be otherwise, because he knew too much. Really too much. And he would never want to do certain things again.

Not everything was smooth in his marriage either. At times, the wall between him and his wife was so high that neither of them could break it alone, but if they both tried to break it at the same time, it would become even higher. And it was so until someone thought quickly about what had happened, and realized it was time to make sense and let go of it. And at that very second, everything would return back to normal.

But all of that wasn't important. Right, because in all those years, it had only happened a few times, and I'm sure neither of them, if asked what exactly happened, could describe it at least in the most approximate terms.

Have there ever been any accidents? In all those years, it would be quite weird if there hadn't been any, don't you think? But even this is something that he didn't really think about, and I wouldn't think about it either. Sometimes he could forget those accidents, but other times, especially when it seemed to him as though he was guilty about them, when actually he wasn't, or at least, not the only one guilty, he couldn't.

This time, he had a dream which could be taken as a normal dream, or the most terrible nightmare, depending on the person. For his part, he didn't care much about it, because he knew that it was beyond reality, and therefore, it couldn't be explained with the law of this world. So, he had little or nothing to worry about.

It would have been different if it had actually happened to him. Yes, because who would like it if somewhere they enjoyed going to got shot down? For justice, I should say that he hadn't been there for ages (it was something like a pub, but you could only drink two glasses in a row unless you could pay more than usual, and by the way, Youri often drank when he was young, but then he had to stop), but he had a good memory of it. Or at least, of the moments that deserved some memory.

But this was not what scared him the most. It seemed as though he heard certain voices saying things he thought he would never hear. And no, waking up didn't have him forget them. He was completely lost, and wanted to scream - but he didn't have enough force to do that.

Can we say that, all in all, his sons and grandsons had a better life than he did? Not really. But it also depends, on a large extent, on what we mean by 'better'. Yes, because everyone assigns a different meaning to this word. And as much as everyone agrees that it has to do with personal pleasure and comfort, nobody can tell anything about another person's comfort, unless they ask this person.

Youri's eldest grandson, Robrecht, was on the way back to his house, a cottage he had rented for a while, giving one tenth of his money. He heard that two visitors were coming to that cottage, and although he didn't know what they looked like - well, actually he knew, but only from some pictures - they weren't any strangers to him.

One of them was Martin Tyberghein. How was Robrecht related to him? Well, Robrecht's aunt (Youri's daughter, the one who worked as a DJ) was Martin's wife. When he was a student, he got a job that he soon found boring and quit. His studies weren't that bright, so he went for another job. And just in a few years, he realized that he enjoyed fitting carpets more than anything else in this world.