Goodbye

Page 30

I think I was a little hesitant, when I had to go back to work. I looked at my own flat with entirely new eyes. What looked empty and suffocating before was now nothing more than a simple building. It had been about half a year, since I moved here. Barely anything had changed. Still every corner suddenly started to feel familiar and warm.

Even though Lucy-Ann had not expected it, she was rather glad to see me in the morning. Just like before we continued our routine of picking up trash. She told me about everything that had happened while I was away. I listened carefully to every word she said before I noticed something. A weird sound was coming from one of the dumpster. I stood up and made my way towards it. All of a sudden the dumpster fell to the ground. Behind it stood an English Pit Bull. His coat was white but covered in stains and wounds. His small eyes looked directly at me. He was a bit like an elf with those long ears of his. When Lucy-Ann approached, he suddenly ran away and left nothing besides his dust behind.

"I guess we finally found our culprit."

Mint was not at work. She was sick. She really wanted to come. Not necessarily because of me but rather because she hated missing even a second of work. James was the one to tell her that she should stay home. To my surprise he was not the least bit worried about her, even though nobody was taking care of her. He even told me that there was no need for me to check up on her.

Still, James was weirdly eyeing me for the entire day. It was as if I had committed a sin. He asked me multiple times if nothing had happened in this short time. I had a vague idea of what he was talking about but then again, I did not want to make an assumptions. In the end I just told him that I got to spend some time with my friends, which in itself was not a lie.

"You seemed weirdly glad, when James told you that Mint was sick today. You guys got into a fight?" Lucy-Ann asked sincerely curious on our way to the bus station. 

"If that were the case, I probably wouldn't check up on her."

I had a vague idea of where Mint was living. So far we had always been at my place. I wondered what her flat looked like. Everything was most likely neatly arranged and always tidied up. Mint was such a perfectionist. I would not have expected anything less from her.

Lucy-Ann had not known about Emilia and me. So far I did not have the chance to tell her about this. I wanted to talk to Mint first. It was not right for me to keep her in the dark like this. I did not mean to lie to her. I just did not want to break up with her over the phone.

I had expected Mint to live in a mansion but damn, you could not simply call this a mansion anymore. That thing was enormous. I felt like at least a family of eight could have lived in that mansion. Jokes on you, a family of eight lived in this big palace like thing. When I rang the doorbell, a boy with curly brown hair opened the door. He was about a head taller than me and in both of his nostrils were tissues put.

"Can I help you?" He asked with a raspy voice, before he had to sneeze loudly. One of the tissues even fell to the ground. He picked it up and put it in the pocket of his red jacket.

"Actually, I think I got the wrong house. I'm searching for... someone... well... her nickname is Mint..." I felt awful, since I just realised that I still had absolutely no idea what Mint's actual name. I always called her Mint and never cared enough to find out what her real name was. All I knew was that her last night was something like Puschkin.

"Ah, you mean Mila. You must be one of her friends. Come in. I think she's upstairs."

I entered the corridor and was already astonished by what I saw. The building was even bigger on the inside. The stairs that were leading to the second floor were literally out of a Disney movie. There was even a red carpet. 

A woman with a red headscarf ran back and forth. She had wrinkles all over her face and her skin was sagging. She said something to the guy with the curly hair in a language that sounded like Russian, before she blowed her nose in a tissue. Before the guy could answer anything two girls, probably around the age of thirteen, ran down the stairs. They were covered in thick blankets. One of them even wore a knitted cap. The woman started shouting at them, in Russian as well, before she ended up coughing at least for half a minute.

The boy said something to the woman and the only word I understood was 'Mila'. I was still quite sure that I must have been at the wrong place. Mint was living alone, right? Who were all those people?

The woman started shouting again. A deep, rusty voice from one of the rooms answered her. Then a female voice started shouting as well. Now was the time. I just had to turn around and run away. Mission failed. The guy and I walked up the stairs. He blew his nose a couple of times before he looked at me, as he was trying to start a conversation.

"I'm Mikhail by the way. Mila is my older sister. Her friends usually look a whole lot older than you, so I was a little surprised when I saw you. Do you know her from work?"

I told him that Mila and I were coworkers and that I just came to check up on her. He nodded. He lead me to the end of the corridor. The walls were painted red. It kind of reminded me of my old house. The place where I used to live, before I moved in with the Blue family. It used to be so lively at their place.

We waited in front of a white wooden door. Mikhail knocked on it three times before someone suddenly opened it. It was Mint. While it had been evident that she probably had not slept much the past few days, she seemed to be in a far better shape than I had expected. When our eyes locked and we stared each other for a second, Mikhail started to understand that he was not wanted anymore. He left without saying another word.