Top of the Sky - Obstacles
The apartment is quickly furnished. Charles' teenage room has found its new place - the old desk, the worn bed, the record collection in the corner. Everything they have fits in here, even if it is cramped. Maddi has nothing except a few clothes that she took with her when she fled from home.
No heirlooms, no mementos.
Just what she can bear.
They share the small teenage bed. Every night they lie intertwined on the narrow mattress, which barely has room for two. For a young man like Charles, who at 1.98 meters towers over almost everything in the room, this is a real challenge. And then there's Maddi, who is now carrying a child. The growing life in her belly is a constant reminder that everything they do now has a different meaning.
Nevertheless, they are happy - in their own way.
Charles sits at the small kitchen table in the middle of the room and searches for job advertisements. He circles an entry again and again, then takes a sip of his black coffee and lights a cigarette. The smoke rises, floats in the stuffy air of the small room and mingles with the smell of burnt toast and cheap cheese.
Maddi lies on the bed and slowly strokes her stomach. “I'm good with numbers. I'd fit well in accounting,” Charles mumbles after a while, taking a drag on his cigarette. He hands it to Maddi, who takes the cigarette, takes a deep drag and then smiles wryly at him.
“Well, with your super A-levels, I'm sure it'll be something,” she says with a slightly teasing tone.
“Mediocre A-levels,” he corrects without looking up from his newspaper.
“Yeah yeah, A-levels are A-levels,” she replies and takes another drag on the cigarette before handing it back to him.
“You could catch up on your A-levels. It says here that there's an evening school...”
“No, thanks. I'll be a mother, and you will look after us,” she says with a grin and puts her hand on her stomach. Charles is silent. He drinks the last sip of coffee, folds up the newspaper, puts out the cigarette and stands up.
“I'm going to make a phone call,” he mumbles, turns to the door and disappears.
It's typical of Charles that he doesn't say much. He's a secretive guy, someone who thinks more than he talks. But that doesn't bother Maddi. She does the talking for two, quite literally. While shopping, eating ice cream, everything. She makes the decisions, she talks to the sales clerks, she asks questions, she doesn't let there be any silence. And that's a relief for Charles. Their conversations flow in a rhythm that pleases him, even if he doesn't always join in.
...
On a sunny afternoon, they are sitting on a park bench in Freiburg's Lakes Park. The lake glistens in the sun and the swans slowly circle in the water. The air is fresh, but not cold, and the scent of grass and flowers mingles with the light, familiar smell of cigarette smoke. Maddi strokes her belly and watches the birds.
“Charles?” she finally asks, her voice soft, almost a little thoughtful.
He takes a drag from the cigarette and hands her the butt without really looking at her.
“Hmm?”
“What should we name our child?” she asks, her voice sounding almost a little uncertain.
He looks at the glistening water in front of them. His gaze is lost in the way the sunlight dances on the waves, as if he is trying to find the answer in the movement of the water.
“Hm,” he mumbles after a while. “I don't know. You decide.”
“And if you don't like the name?” she asks, but also a little defiant.
“It will be fine,” he says calmly, his voice low and even. “After all, it will be your choice. Our child will have the name you chose, what more could I want?”
Maddi looks at him sidelong. It is rare for Charles to speak at such length. Normally he stays short and to the point, and almost always in a tone which requires no explanation. But now she hears a hint of thoughtfulness in his words.
He drops the cigarette end on the ground and puts it out with the front of his black Creepers shoe. The small, almost imperceptible moment of silence feels heavy.
Then he says quietly, as if he has never thought this before, as if he is only now realizing it himself:
“I can hardly wait to meet our child.”
The sentence resonates. Maddi looks at him in surprise, her eyes widening as she realizes that he does feel more than he is letting on. That he imagines a future with their child, that he is really looking forward to it, despite all the uncertainty.
She smiles, “Me too,” she says quietly.