Earmuffs

Date/Timing: 29 September 2006
Setting: cafe; Berlin, Germany
.
== Revised text ==
Hermann rests, head pillowed on crossed arms atop his closed laptop at Sabine's favourite café.
Something strokes his hair.
He grunts.
A chair scrapes back, scootches forward.
„„Long week?““ asks Dee.
Hermann offers an obscene salute without looking up.
Dee swats his hand down. „„There're families about! Mind your manners.““
Hermann scoffs.
Dee sighs. „„Pick your head up and talk to me, please.““
Hermann whines, lifts his head, glowers at Dee, and braces his chin with his hand.
Dee studies him with concern. „Are you feeling alright?“
„I'm tired and lonely and won't have time for any electives this term if I want to graduate on schedule.“
„I have something which might help with one of those.“ Dee offers an envelope.
Hermann plucks it with a sigh, eases it open, and reads.
- Dear Hermann,
I'm sorry, my dear, but I must end our relationship, -
„„Manny? You've gone pale.““
- end our relationship, for I'm marrying Bakshish, who washed /both our rooms /and carried all our boxes up the stairs.
I haven't actually told him as much, but I wiiill. -
Hermann exhales.
„Are you alright?“
„He just made an awful joke.“
„Must've been absolutely horrible.“ Dee smiles. „Want some coffee?“
„Tea, please.“
„Be right back.“
- There's also the matter of Pluto. I'm afraid that may have to be the very last straw.
I can't /believe you're one of /those people! Years of tradition overthrown for what? To keep the number of the elite down? Why 'demote' when you can elevate? Why can't we have /more planets? It's all arbitrary anyway, so why can't we leave well enough alone and say 'these nine orbiting bodies are the planets and these other things are other things'? It's like the Seven Wonders of the World, yea? Or the literary canon? There's no real good reason for it, it just /is.
And it's beautiful and we should keep it and /add to it.
Never subtract.
Come to think of it, that should be my motto:
/'NEVER SUBTRACT'
Quite the battle cry, if I do say so myself. -
Hermann rolls his eyes.
- So there. I'm right and you and the IAU are completely, /utterly wrong.
I still love you.
As if something as silly as a fundamental part of my childhood hadn't been torn away and stomped upon by those who think like you. *sniffle*
I still miss you and wish you were here. It's /lonely without you, even with a house full of people.
The new house is as nice as it looked in Rhys's slideshow, especially after B♥kshish finished with it—though the crutches make the stairs a teeny bit of an inconvenience.
The other folks (Josh, Jade, Aimee, Robyn, Ryan, and Vanessa) seemed nice enough at the first house meeting. But we have a chores rota. /Chores, Hermann. I have to do /chores. Like I was at /home.
You'd think that'd be the worst part, but you'd be wrong.
Very
VERY
/WRONG.
See, I'm sharing a room with Rhys (like we figured), /BUT it's between Iggy's and Josh and Jade's.
Josh and Jade have so much sex I'm beginning to doubt they ever to go to class. Whatever. Not my problem.
Iggy's a screamer.
/PROBLEM.
/I DID NOT NEED TO KNOW THIS!!!
/I NEED TO UNKNOW THIS.
/I NEED TO UNKNOW THIS YESTERDAY. -
Hermann sits back shakes the most-unwelcome visual out of his head.
Dee pushes a steaming mug over.
„Don't suppose you have an additive which can purge my short-term memory?“
„Not with me. What did he say?“
„He shared information about someone else's sex life.“
„Oo. Ouch.“
Hermann grunts around a sip of tea.
- I also need to do my reading and writing at the library until they throw me out at 2AM by which time everyone's exhausted and asleep and I can pass out in my bed instead of on the sofa.
When I'm tired enough, I can sleep through /anything.
I hope.
/Anyway ... I'm saving the money I'm not spending on alcohol to buy earmuffs. The kind the guys on the tarmac at airports use. Then, maybe, I can study in my own room. -
„Dee?“
„Could we go shopping after this?“
„Sure. I have some time before my night shift.“
Hermann nods absently, turns over the sheet of paper.
„What will we be looking for?“
„Headphones. The noise-canceling kind.“
„Early Christmas present?“
„Mmhm.“
„All's forgiven then?“
„Not really. I'm still plotting my revenge.“
Dee snorts a laugh.
- Apparently the walls are thin, but the floors're almost soundproof since the upstairs folks have no complaints about the racket.
Lucky Aimee, Robyn, Ryan, and Vanessa.
Oh my god Vanessa's /hair! It's /huge! Like 'dwarf planet' huge first thing in the morning. The fact that she can style it at all (let alone make it look good) frightens me a whole lot more than the fact Josh could break me in half with a sneeze.
Just as frightening? She's a chemistry major and she and Iggy get on like a housefire and babble in chemicals and reactions. Compared to the two of them, the rest of us are absolute nobodies, I swear.
But! I was chatting with Aimee and it turns out she's a linguistics person and worked on Japanese last term and I mentioned that you (well, "my boyfriend") were taking it too and having a lot of trouble. She's like, "Really? I'd think language would be easy—he's so good at math and programming; they're similar principles. They're all language." So maybe if you think about it like C or Python or Perl it'll be easier. -
Hermann ....
„Hmmm?”
„Pardon?”
„Did you say something--dear Lord, what now? You look like you've taken a blow to the head.“
„I ... have.“
Dee leans across the table. „Your pupils look even ... any weakness or tingling?“
Hermann shakes himself. „I'm not having a stroke, only a realization.“
Dee settles back down. „You keep reacting this strongly to these letters and I'm putting you on anxiety meds.“
„Will they clear my short-term memory?“
„No.“
„Then don't bother.“ Hermann turns over the page.
„Manny ...,“ sighs Dee.
.
== Original text ==
Hermann rests, head pillowed on crossed arms atop his closed laptop at Sabine's favourite café.
Something strokes his hair.
He grunts.
A chair scrapes back, scootches forward.
„„It's only the third day of classes, Manny,““ teases Dee.
Hermann offers an obscene salute without looking up.
Dee swats his hand down. „„They're families about! Mind your manners.““
Hermann scoffs.
Dee sighs. „„Pick your head up and talk to me, please.““
Hermann whines, lifts his head, glowers at Dee, and braces his chin with his hand.
Dee studies him with concern. „Are you feeling alright?“
„I'm tired and lonely and looking at a semester without any electives.“
„I have something which might help with one of those.“ Dee offers an envelope.
Hermann plucks it with a sigh, eases it open, and reads.
- 18 Aug. '06
Dear Hermann,
I'm sorry, my dear, but I must end our relationship, -
„„Manny? You've just gone pale.““
- end our relationship, for I'm marrying Iggy's brother Bakshish, who washed /both our rooms /and carried all our boxes up the stairs.
I haven't actually told him as much, but I wiiill. -
Hermann exhales.
„Are you alright?“
„He just made an awful joke.“
„Must've been absolutely horrible.“ Dee smiles. „Want some coffee?“
„Tea, please.“
„„Be right back.““
- The new house is as nice as it looked in Rhys's slideshow, especially after B♥kshish finished with it.
The other folks (Josh, Jade, Aimee, Vanessa, Robyn, and Ben) seemed nice enough at the first house meeting. But we have a chores rota. /Chores, Hermann. I have to do /chores.
You'd think that'd be the worst part, but you'd be wrong.
Very
Very
/Wrong.
See, I'm sharing a room with Rhys (like we figured), /BUT it's between Iggy's and Josh and Jade's.
Josh and Jade have so much sex I'm beginning to doubt they ever to go to class. Whatever. Not my problem.
Iggy's a screamer.
/PROBLEM.
/I DID NOT NEED TO KNOW THIS!!!
/I NEED TO UNKNOW THIS.
/I NEED TO UNKNOW THIS YESTERDAY.
I also need to do my reading in the library until they throw me out at 2AM by which time everyone's exhausted and asleep and I can pass out in my bed instead of on the sofa.
When I'm tired enough, I can sleep through /anything.
I hope.
/Anyway ... I'm saving the money I'm not spending on alcohol to buy earmuffs. The kind the guys on the tarmac at airports use. Then, maybe, I can study in my own room. -
„Dee?“
„Could we go shopping after this?“
„Sure. I have some time before my night shift.“
Hermann nods absently, turns over the sheet of paper.
„What will we be looking for?“
„Headphones. The noise-cancelling kind.“
Category:Ficlet
Category:Berlin (setting)
Category:Hermann
Category:Hermann's POV
Category:Hermann (ficlet)
Category:Dietrich
Category:Dietrich (ficlet)
Category:Sabine (mention)
Category:Edan
Category:Edan (ficlet)
Category:Conversations via snail mail
Category:Vigsai (mention)
Category:Rhys (mention)
Category:Ficlets with images
Category:Pages with comments
Category:Bakshish (mention)
Category:Celestial Mechanics
2006 09 29