A Man, a Girl, a Deserted Island - an Epic Love Hate Saga

Episode 51: What do you want right now?

We measure the water level. Both Eva and I look at the stick we've pulled out of the cauldron. I don't like it. She doesn't like it either.

"What date is it today?" the girl asks thoughtfully.

"February 12th. Give or take a day."

"This is bad," she says with an incredibly serious face. "The water is dropping too fast."

"Maybe the cauldron is leaking somewhere."

We both lean in and inspect it closely. The cauldron is intact. It's not leaking anywhere.

Based on my measurements and Eva's meticulous calculations, what's left in the cauldron will last us another month.

"If we ration it a bit, maybe a month and a week," the girl says calmly.

I'd bet her calmness is a bluff. It's well known that Germans are stoic and don't often show what they're thinking. Why would German women be any different?

The water tastes metallic anyway, like rust and mustiness. I don't drink it with pleasure, so it won't be hard for me to ration it.

The boredom and heat of the day are literally killing us, but by evening the temperature becomes more bearable.

Eva and I check the traps. In one of them, we find a good fish but also a damn four-colored fish. They're together, like brothers from the same swamp.

I try to separate them. I chase the damned four-colored fish out with a stick. I manage to lose both of them.

There goes dinner!

***

I don't know what time it is. We're lying back-to-back on the sand.

"You know what would be nice right now?" Eva asks from behind me.

"Mmm? What?"

"A steaming cup of cappuccino. With lots of foam. And it should be sweet, of course. Sweet, sweet. And after I drink it, I want the foam to stay on the tip of my nose."

"A cappuccino with three teaspoons of sugar?"

"Yes," she sighs. I hear her licking her lips.

"Alright, girl. Noted. Anything else?"

"Nothing. But what do you want?"

"To sleep."

"Besides that. Come on, Tiberiu, work with me! It takes two to have a conversation."

"It only takes one to take a nap. Anyway. What do I want? I think I'd like a cigarette."

"Aha," Eva responded, a little disappointed. "That's what you want right now?"

"Yes, but not just any cigarette. One of those with cherry wood aroma. And cherry blossoms. And leaves."

"Wouldn't it be simpler to smoke the cherry tree directly? Why mix it with tobacco?"

"You're talking nonsense."

"Do such cigarettes exist? Cherry-flavored ones?"

"Sure! I haven't found them yet, but someone once told me they exist."

"Hey... how was it?" Eva asks suddenly, out of the blue. "Your first real date with Irina. Was it as you imagined it would be?"

"Damned woman," I lament. "I was almost falling asleep. You had to bring up cigarettes."