Red of Berlin

Chapter Eight: Lumiére

Michael's point of view:

Her dress was lovely. There was nothing in this world that could tell me otherwise. Adèle was the embodiment of beauty and I was sure she didn't even know it. She probably wasn't thinking about the way she looked at the moment. I couldn't decide if she still hated me or not.

There was nothing predictable about her. There were times where she didn't want me in her sight, and others where I was all she wanted to be with. I was at a loss of understanding. How is it that one person can be so bipolar about one other man? She was kind to me one day and impolite another, defensive and private.

Yet, here she was. It was one of Adèle's finer moments. I knew it was so when I put that moonstone necklace on her, as I felt her shivering when I touched the nape of her neck. Now she was walking down the stairs, her arm linked with my own. My fingers perused over the fine silk of her palatial dress. It was clear that I had chosen well when I went through the wardrobe of my little sister. She never used those clothes, so I thought instead of throwing them out I would give them all to Adèle. She was the correct size and I'm sure she well enjoyed the fact that she wore clothes of expensive tastes.

I allowed her access to the car first, like a true gentlemen. She held the shawl I had given her close to her body as the night brought a brisk chill. It wasn't a usual temperature for June, but it was not uncommon for nights to have their bite. I stepped into the car as quick as I could to keep from feeling the cold on my face. I still had yet to shave, and the stubble had turned into small hair on my face. I would have to shave tomorrow morning no doubt. I could only tolerate so much hair.

"Where are we going? No surprises this time. You used that card a while ago," I heard Adèle ask me after five minutes of silence as the car drove. I laughed and check my pocket watch that my father had given me before I moved from Berlin.

"A dance cabaret. It's quite wonderful. I have been there a few times before. The drinks are great and the music is superb. You'll love it, I promise," I said to her. She nodded and turned her head out the window, staring into the cloudy night sky, only a few stars making their way into a line of sight. The night was tumultuous, to say the least, but it had that reckoning beauty. It took a unique sort of mentality to appreciate the opulence of the darkening clouds covering the night sky like a blanket of moistened air and rain.

"You like the sky?" I asked. She turned around, wisps of her red hair falling from her style. I could only assume Charlotte was the reason for that intricate fashion. Adèle normally left her hair down around her freckled shoulder, making its way down her breastbone and below like a waterfall of flowing fire.

"Who doesn't?" She asked in return. I nodded in consideration.

"I am sure there are a few people out there. The final job is to find them," I replied. Her eyes glimmered in the dark cast of the moon, the grey of them the same as the clouds.

"I'm assuming you're not one of them," she said in her delectible French accent. I still thought the same thing as when I first heard her speak to me. Her accent was delicate, alluring like that of the perfect Frenchwoman from Paris. I could only imagine how spellbinding she could have been if she was born into a welathy family. Even then, at the class she was before she came to me, she was eyecatching above all things. I supposed the boys she knew from school imagined the same things as I did when they thought of the splendorous Adèle Roche.

"I have loved the sky since I was a boy. My brother and I used to watch the stars with our father all the time. He used to show us the constellations and tell us stories about what he had heard from his own father about the skies. Most of them were legends from Greece and Rome, but they were so fascinating to us both. He really knew his sky myths," I explained to her. She listened intently as I told the story of my childhood. I had many good memories with my father and mother, along with my siblings as well. I was lucky that I had such a harmonious family.