Patricia Highsmith
Ian, 28 years old
...and then he saw again the girl from the bus stop. She was just putting the straw-hat back on her head. All the way she was sitting just a few seats in front of him while he was almost certain that she must have got on a different bus and that he will never see her again. When he recalled his thoughts from the moment he first saw her, when he asked God to get on the same bus as she will, he felt strange. Though now she was so close, he could not stand the fact that he could not see her face. Her bloody red lips that completely did not match her girlish look. Her lost eyes, sort of. If he met her in different circumstances, he would have never taken her for a person of age. He would probably comment her looks in a usual mocking way as guys always use to when they go downtown and pass a preety girl. She was nothing special. If not for this straw-hat she wore that made her all strange and ambigous. He just wondered what for did she put the straw-hat on. After all it was late September and it has been raining for all the last few days he stayed in this depressing city of Warsaw. People rushing back and forth. And suddenly this girl at the bus stop. For a moment he wondered to start a conversation. She seemed so foreign and lost to him on this bus stop. Just as he was himself. He found her probably the last and only living person on Earth to exchange a friendly word with in this place, but then she suddenly disappered. It was already morning and the bus was getting close to Munich. She took her pocket mirror out and started to put her lipstick on. He stared at her reflection hypnotized. He immediately guessed that she must be getting off in Munich. He only wondered who was she making up for. Though he did not really find the red lipstick attractive in women, surprisinlgy he felt sort of anger. Only later did he realize it was no anger, but pure jealousy. Jealousy of probably some unknown guy from Munich. At some moment he even thought their eyes met or maybe he just wanted it so strongly to happen. How could eyes meet with a reflection? Though he planned to go as far as Stuttgart, he decided to get off together with her in Munich. After all, nobody really expected him in Stuttgart. Now it was all about starting a conversation with her while waiting to get the laguage. It seemed all so obvious, but when he got off the bus, she disappeared again. The bus left and he stayed alone on the bus stop. He could not believe how could it happen. One thing was certain, as opposed to the weather forecast, it was a sunny day today in Munich...
Olena, 29 years old
Was she jealous? Of course, she was. Otherwise, she would not be here now. She found it quite natural to feel so sometimes. At first spontaneously furious at some other women's activity around him, she immediately calmed herself down. She never even mentioned it to him once. She knew that in order to see the matter from an objective point of view, one needs time to take a relatively distant and thus safe perspective. Only then you can understand not only the origin of your own feelings, but also the reason why you tend to perceive and interpret certain things in a given way. Looking now into the dark and deep night, she found all that "philosophing" some absurdal pseudopsychological bullshit. Though, she knew that autoprojection is generally no good thing and human kind always fulled itself continously striving to explain and rationalize every single thing to sleep at nights in peace, nonetheless she talked herself into believing that he must feel in as much lonely there as she does here and it is absolutely natural and justified that one finds company in the few people they know. Loneliness and alienation are unbearable in the long run. She knew it best. She has also forseen that she gonna stay awake all night according to the irregular and arythmic song of the engine and go into these deep philosophical-existential devagations. The only thing that bothered her was that suddenly she recalled what he told her at the seaside and in the context of tonight's pondering, she realized that he was absolutely right. It was all too fast. It took her over a month to realize that it was not about her. That being with somebody is not a one-man-business. That it is not only about you taking up the challenge and being responsible for the other person. Each of you faces a different challenge actually. She looked up at the shelf to check whether her hay hat is still there safe. She smiled to herself or maybe to some mental image of him. Indeed, she has decided that she gonna bring good weather to Munich. Despite the heavy rains that haunted Europe lately, she did not give up her optimism. She did not care about the funny looks people were giving her. Since she came from the seaside, she was ready to believe in every kind of magic whatsoever.
Jem, 35 years old
He wondered how she would react if he does not turn up at the bus stop. Well, it was not quite so. He just wanted to see how she would behave. Would she be nervous just like he expected? He was already surprised that she managed to buy the ticket for the journey all by herself. He did not refrain from telling her about it. Maybe he underestimated her. Anyway, it was at least interesting to watch. To discover someone just like Christopher Columbus once discovered America. What was his surprise when he noticed that she does not really look worried and stands in the queue for the luggage just as if she did not really expect to meet anybody. But everything happened so fast. There was no time to reflect on it. Anyway, he recognized her immediately. She wore the same hay hat she did when leaving for the seaside. This he did not really expect, but he liked it. It reminded him of last summer and the time they spend together. What he did not really expect were her red-painted lips. Well, he planned to surprise her, but it turned out to be quite the opposite. She achieved twice as easily the effect he planned with such premeditation for the whole morning. All he knew just then was that he did not like her red lips and he did not hesitate to tell her that right then. So...
To be continued...