A Ladder to the Sky(21)

Emerging from the bathroom a few minutes later with a white towelling robe tied loosely around his waist, he invited me to share some of his food, but I declined, saying that I would return to my room.

‘No, stay,’ he insisted. ‘I hate eating alone. Tell me more about your friend Oskar.’

‘Some other time, Maurice,’ I said, shaking my head. ‘I’m not in the mood for storytelling today.’

‘But I want to know. Sit down. Continue your story. Erich, sit.’

And of course, it was outside my capabilities to disappoint him so I did as instructed and began to talk.

It was the summer of 1939, only a couple of months before the war began, and I had arranged to meet my friend in our usual place to celebrate his seventeenth birthday. He was seated alone in the window as I crossed the road and when I knocked on the glass, waving at him, he broke into a wide smile and beckoned me inside. I felt such happiness as I entered and, when the waitress brought over our beers, we raised our glasses in salute.

‘Happy birthday,’ I said, reaching into my bag and taking out a present that I had carefully gift-wrapped earlier in the day. He sat back in some surprise as I placed it on the table between us. He ripped off the packaging and lifted the lid on the box inside. My gift to him was a fountain pen, one that my grandfather had given me for my own birthday a few years before. The finest of them all and the one that I treasured the most. I wanted him to have it.

‘Ah,’ he said, frowning a little, and his expression confused me for he did not look as pleased as I had expected. ‘This is very kind of you.’

‘Do you like it?’

‘I do,’ he said. ‘Very much.’

‘What’s wrong?’ I asked.

‘Nothing, why do you ask?’

‘I don’t know. There’s something, though. I can tell from your face.’

Before he could reply, a girl slipped into the seat next to him and looked back and forth between the two of us.

‘Alysse,’ said Oskar, turning to her. ‘This is Erich, who I’ve told you about.’

‘At last,’ she said, extending a hand to me. I recognized her immediately from Oskar’s sketchbooks and paintings. She seemed anxious, glancing around the bar and trying to make herself small in the seat, as if by doing so she might avoid attention. ‘I thought Oskar was making you up. He mentions you so often but has never introduced us.’

‘It’s because I don’t trust him,’ said Oskar.

‘What?’ I asked, turning to him in dismay. ‘Why not?’

‘I thought you might steal her away from me,’ he continued, laughing. ‘I’m joking, Erich. Don’t look so horrified!’

‘No one could take me away from you,’ she said quietly, and they smiled at each other for a moment before leaning forward and allowing their lips to meet. When they separated again, they continued to grin like fools, giddy with love.

‘And what’s this?’ she asked, looking down at my grandfather’s fountain pen. ‘How beautiful.’

‘It’s Erich’s,’ said Oskar. ‘Or rather, it’s mine. He gave it to me for my birthday.’

She lifted it up and examined it from all sides. The light through the window sent a gleam sparkling off the gold inlay. ‘Erich,’ she said, her eyes wide as she looked at me, ‘what a thoughtful gift. It’s so beautiful.’

‘I don’t think Oskar likes it,’ I said.

‘He’s just embarrassed,’ she said with a shrug. ‘Show him,’ she added, turning to my friend.

‘No, it doesn’t matter,’ he said.

‘Show him,’ she insisted. ‘I don’t mind.’

He sighed and reached into his bag, removing another fountain pen, a far less expensive one, the type that could be purchased in any stationery shop, although it had been engraved with his initials, OG. ‘It was Alysse’s gift to me,’ he said. ‘A coincidence, that’s all.’

‘I’m defeated,’ she said, laughing. ‘Yours is so much better, Erich.’

‘Yes, it is,’ I agreed. ‘How long have you two known each other, anyway?’

‘About eighteen months,’ she said, ignoring my rudeness. ‘We were just friends at first and then, finally, things changed. He was too shy to kiss me for a long time.’

‘But not too shy to paint you?’ I asked.

She laughed but, to my disappointment, didn’t seem particularly embarrassed. ‘You mustn’t think I’m the type of girl who takes her clothes off for just anyone, Erich,’ she said. ‘I’m his muse. Oskar is going to be a great painter one day, I’m certain of it. My image might hang in the Louvre, like the Mona Lisa.’

‘Are you comparing yourself to her or Oskar to Leonardo da Vinci?’ I asked, trying to keep the sarcasm out of my tone.

‘Neither,’ she said. ‘I only meant—’

‘If you had a girlfriend as beautiful as Alysse,’ said Oskar, ‘wouldn’t you want to paint her too?’

‘I wouldn’t know,’ I said. ‘I’ve never had a girlfriend.’

‘That can’t be!’

‘But it is.’

‘Then perhaps I should introduce you to some of my friends,’ said Alysse.