Longing for Île de Ré (eBook)

Dorothea Paul (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2025
192 Seiten
novum publishing (Verlag)
978-1-64268-838-2 (ISBN)

Infos

'The call came on a gray December day. A man's voice asked in English if she was the girl Adrien Vien had met in Halmstad. 'Yes,' she replied, 'that's me. There had been an accident. Adrien had died instantly. He hadn't had to suffer. Hanna's knees gave way.' Just as the wind blows the leaves in autumn, Hanna's longing drives her from place to place, always in search of love, of more, away from the small town, the narrow-mindedness, the monotony of life. Only in Sweden and in the arms of Adrien does she find the feeling of having arrived. But the two are only granted a few days before fate separates them again. Can there be a time after that, even if she carries Adrien's memory with her forever?

Textauszug

 

Chapter 1

The first blow hit Hanna completely unexpectedly. The second knocked her to the muddy ground, where she could only try to protect herself from the kicks of the heavy boots. The boots belonged to Logan, her boyfriend. He was the president of the Death Spiders. The wetness was seeping through her clothes and she was freezing. She tried to protect herself, but it wasn't that easy. Logan was standing on her hand. Hanna felt the crack. The pain made her frantic. She grabbed one of his fingers and bit down. Hanna tasted the blood, but not her own this time. It hadn't started well. The fairground was directly behind a railroad embankment. Loud music blared from the loudspeakers. Every now and then it was drowned out by a passing train. It drizzled incessantly and the wetness crept into the tent, sleeping bags and clothing. The motorcycles stood in long rows on the soggy meadow and were inspected by the mostly bearded and long-haired owners. The atmosphere was more damp than cheerful and Logan's eyes grew increasingly glazed. Vice-President Heinz stopped his buddy's bloody work and helped Hanna to her feet. Everything hurt. Blood dripped from her nose. Heinz held out a handkerchief to her. This wasn't the first time this had happened. Logan often lost his temper when he was drinking. But this time it was too much for Hanna. She pulled the engagement ring off her finger and threw it in the mud. Heinz handed her his beer and she drank in long draughts. That felt good. The people who had gathered during the incident quickly dispersed. After all, there was nothing wrong with someone smacking his bride in the face. Brides needed that. Hanna moved mechanically. Something inside her was broken. She made sure no one was following her and moved away from the fairground. It was pitch dark and the music was slowly getting quieter. She fell lengthways twice, but that didn't bother her anymore. Where she was going didn't matter what state she arrived in. The slope of the railroad embankment was slippery. Then infinite peace. The train would come soon and give her the peace she longed for. And Logan would never touch her again. The man was as big as a bear. He peed in a high arc against the embankment when he thought he heard soft crying. He listened intently into the darkness. It was coming from the top of the embankment. Blimey, he thought, the girl from earlier, and the train must be coming any minute. She struggled, but he carried her in his arms as if she were just a doll. "Gosh, girl," he said, "that's not worth a guy! You're such a pretty girl!" He smelled of beer and had a long beard. "Where's your tent?" He carried her a few meters, then Hanna wanted to walk herself. But she held him by the arm until they got to her tent. Hanna crawled inside and cried herself to sleep. He stayed up all night in front of the entrance to her tent. Just lay down in front of it, as if it were a matter of course! And in this shitty weather! Nobody moved. Logan also kept his distance. In the morning, he spoke to Heinz and he offered her a ride home with him. The atmosphere was extremely tense. Hanna's hand hurt like hell. The finger was so strangely twisted. There was nothing to cool it. Logan didn't even look in her direction. He probably had no idea what he had done. He exchanged a few words with Road Captain Mikey, got on the Harley Sportster she had helped finance, and rode off. Hanna never learned the name of her savior, but she knew he was a respected member of another club. Her heart was eternally grateful to him. He was right, no guy was worth it. One of them would have to die sooner or later. She wasn't going to put up with it any more. Now the show was over. She knew that the only thing that could help her was to get some distance. Three years could be a long time. And she had spent those three years dealing with Logan, or rather, he had spent dealing with her. He had been the cool guy for her back then, she was 16 and he was 26, someone who was different from the farmers she usually knew. He had a Harley, long hair and everything that bourgeois people didn't like. He didn't give a damn about people and he smelled of freedom. "Born to be Wild". And that was all that mattered to them. The biker life was cool, Hanna loved the bikes, the riding, the people, the rides they went on, the community, all good, but Logan had overdone it. It was enough now; the supposed freedom had shrunk to the size of a raisin. She just wanted to get away from this asshole, who was just as stupid as the others, only in a different e way. Away from the small town, the narrow-mindedness of the people and the monotony of life. The whole big world was waiting for her, she had nothing left to lose here. And then there was the pressure exerted on her at home. Hanna always felt misunderstood, nothing she did was good, all her friends were generally bad people and unacceptable company. It was difficult to combat this mood. Yes, what did they expect? That a knight in silver armor would ride into the courtyard on a white horse and ask her to marry him? Of course that would have been nice, she wouldn't have said no. She had dreamed of it as a little girl. She had climbed up alone to the old Celtic castle near the village, sat there in the sun and felt the magic of the place. A wing beat from the past had touched her. One day she would find her prince. But Logan wasn't. Sometimes she only thought that because she was different from everyone else. Society and the way people were supposed to be had literally driven her into the arms of these guys. Because they were different. Much of what she did was simply a defiant reaction against this eternal "ducking, fitting in and doing like everyone else".

"Logan could also be incredibly romantic, he cooked her favorite food, played guitar, yes, he could do that, he was even in a band, at least once in a while. Of course, he didn't earn any money from it. But he had scraped together the last of his money and bought her a mirror with a gold frame that she had once seen in a shop window and liked. And every time he hurt her, he was infinitely sorry, it would never happen again, she was the love of his life. That's how the engagement came about. His grandmother had given her a present. She had been very serious. "You treat this girl properly; do you hear me?" she had said. That made Hanna uncomfortable. She knew that he didn't and probably never would.

Logan and she had met at the local nightclub, the Metropol. The age limit was 18, but that wasn't a problem for Hanna, more of a challenge. And she loved a challenge. The bouncer had his eye on her and didn't cause any problems, even if she took Sarah with her, who was still a year younger. They drank dirty drinks, a mixture of beer and cola. Hanna was wearing tight Levi's and a black, laced suede top. Her long blonde hair was loose. Hardly any make-up. She also had a good relationship with Jochen, the DJ. He always played whatever she wanted. The disco was full that night. People were standing in three rows in front of the bar. There was nothing going on the dance floor, too early. Hanna leaned towards Jochen and whispered: "One Lola, please!" He nodded and winked at her. "You're welcome, my lady!" She danced slowly to the Kinks' song with her eyes closed, not even noticing that a ring was forming around her and she was dancing alone. Jochen grinned, yes, the girl had it in her. He had seen many in his days as a DJ, but none like her. A natural talent. When the song came to an end, there was spontaneous applause. Oops, Hanna was startled. She rushed to the bar. A guy with a beard and a frock put his arm around her. He didn't smell particularly good. "Well, my pretty, how about us?" Hanna wriggled out of his grip. "Let go of me, damn it." He held her even tighter; it was starting to really hurt. "Hey, bitch, don't be like that, you're mine!" He reached out with his free hand and grabbed her breast! Now Hanna had had enough! "I don't belong to anyone, remember that," she blurted out. She spun away from him, reached out and struck him. All her irritation at this insult was contained in this one blow. With success. The bearded man fell like a skittle on a bowling alley. It suddenly became as quiet as a mouse. Jochen had seen it too and turned off the music. Hanna stood there as if it wasn't about her. Rudi, the owner of the Metropol, who wasn't often seen, came in. "What's going on?" he asked. Someone said: "That guy deserved it; he grabbed her and everything." It was Logan. Rudi kicked the bearded man out. Logan's words carried weight. Hanna got rid of her nickname – Beater Elli! Hanna had made her mark right from the start and gained respect. And so, the story began. Most of the members of the Death Spiders had seen her knock-out punch. When they sat around a bonfire together later, they laughed about it. No one even thought to question it, except Logan himself. Secretly, they were proud of her. Hanna was straightforward, she didn't pretend and did what she thought was right, even if she was sometimes a little hasty. Tit shows were often arranged at the biker meetings, which Hanna found completely disgusting and humiliating. Logan always wanted her on stage, but the other members protected her there too. "I have the prettiest," she joked, "I really don't have to prove it." Logan also wanted to force a tattoo on her, but Hanna remembered her father's words. "If you're invited to the king's ball, do you want to have an ugly tattoo or be the princess of the evening?" Of course, Hanna always wanted to be a princess, what young girl didn't? And she wanted the great love. The one who makes everything feel right and perfect. But so far, pretty much everything had gone wrong!

At home, she only ever told half the story, if she told...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 15.5.2025
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Romane / Erzählungen
• Schlagworte: Belletristik • Dorothea Paul • Dramatik • Lyrik
• ISBN-10: 1-64268-838-X / 164268838X
• ISBN-13: 978-1-64268-838-2 / 9781642688382