Freak City (11 page)

“She’s singing with the Colored Pieces,” I said, clicking on the next photo. Sandra hung on the microphone and the crowd cheered her on.

“The Colored Pieces? Wow. I’ve even heard of them, and that’s saying something. I heard them at Oktoberfest!” My father laughed. “It would be super if you two could get back together again. You don’t meet an incredible girl like her every day. For someone like that you have to put some effort into it, you know what I mean? Act like a man! Fight!”

Like a man? What was my father trying to tell me? That I was a wet noodle?

“Do you want to use the computer?” I asked gruffly. “I still have something to do.”

My dad got the message. He turned his back to me without a word and went back into the living room.

Shortly thereafter, I heard an ad on MTV. Sometimes I wondered if my dad just didn’t want to get older. Maybe that’s why he was constantly butting into my business.

Fight! Fight!

I clicked on the e-mail from Leah:

Hello Mika . . . about the pool on Sunday. I have to go to a dreadful 70th birthday party for my great-aunt before we meet, then I’ll come a little later. Go on in, I’ll find you! I’m really looking forward to it. CU, Leah

P.S: Have you ever Googled what your name means? It means “Who is like God?”

Are you Finnish?

I stared at the screen. Leah had figured that out about my name. I thought that was cool. Finland. My parents had saved up for a trip to Finland even before I was born, but they always postponed it. They both claimed to love Finland, although they had never even been there. At some point, they had spent the money for the trip on a car. Now my name was the only reminder of their old plans.

Why was Leah so friendly to me, anyway? I had practically walked out on her at Freak City. And why was Sandra sending me an impersonal group e-mail, when she was always saying that she still loved me? She could really have told me about the new band in person.

I got up from the computer and pulled the name book out of the bookshelves. My parents had bought it before Iris was born, and for a while, we had spent a lot of time looking up different names. Now I was curious to look up the name Leah.

Lion, it said, in addition to a whole list of other meanings.

Lion. It fit. I put the book back on the shelf. I would see Leah again the day after next.

The outdoor swimming pool was packed. After the last day of school, everyone was trying to drown the frustrations of the past year in the over-chlorinated water. Leah would never be able to find me here! At least there was no danger of running into Sandra. She preferred the indoor pool. Was she there right now, swimming her rounds with Daniel? Sitting on the hot stone bench with her knees pulled up, freshly painted fingernails decorating her hands?

I walked toward the wave pool, climbing over spread out towels. To the left, a radio warbled and a few guys sat around smoking cigars.

“Toby Miller, please come to the main entrance!” droned from the loudspeaker. And then came the next announcement. “The waves will start again in ten minutes!” Okay, in a pinch I could have Leah paged over the P.A. system. Then I corrected myself. Of course, I couldn’t have her paged. I had to hope she found a way to locate me in this crowd.

I found one last spot of grass that wasn’t occupied near the fence and spread out my towel. I scanned the ocean of heads, floats, and sun umbrellas. What a stupid idea to meet here, of all places! It had been stupid to meet up with Leah anywhere but Freak City, actually. What could the two of us talk about?
How
should we talk to each other? We couldn’t exactly stare at each other all afternoon without saying anything. Maybe I should have gone with my dad and Claudio. In beautiful weather like this, there wouldn’t be much going on in the climbing hall, and you could have the best sections all to yourself. The thought of my dad and Claudio made my stomach tense up.

Over by the water slide, I saw Leah’s head of curls. I jumped up from my towel. “Leah!” I waved at her. My face flushed instantly. Of course, she couldn’t hear me calling her. For her, the entire complex was a soundless surface, overflowing with people who opened and closed their lips like mute clowns.

The kids on the next blanket stared at me. I waved more energetically. If she looked over in this direction for a second, she’d have to see me! Leah turned her head, and our eyes met. She waved back.

That’s when I noticed that she wasn’t alone. Apparently, she had brought her little brother along on our first date to keep an eye on things. Oh, great! The two of them came straight toward me and arrived in no time.

Leah raised her hand in greeting, and I did the same. Then I looked at the little twerp Leah had in tow. “Hey,” I said to the kid in an unfriendly tone.

“Hi,” he replied and threw his towel down next to mine. He slipped out of his clothes and stood before me in a black bathing suit with Spiderman printed on it. “I’m Kevin,” he introduced himself. “Franzi’s brother. I think you’ve already met my sister?”

I stared at Kevin. This was getting better and better. If Leah had to keep an eye on her own brother, I could understand that, just barely. But what on earth was her best friend’s brother doing on
our
date?

“I only have half an hour,” Kevin said in a business-like tone. He sat down cross-legged on his towel. “Then I’m meeting my buddies over by the Ping-Pong tables. Got it?” I didn’t get anything at all.

Leah took a printed blanket out of her backpack, spread it out, and sat down on it. Then she took off her T-shirt. She was wearing a light blue bikini and for a millisecond, my eyes surveyed it. She had a smaller chest than Sandra, and her skin was browned by the sun. She was covered with freckles. Kevin looked at me sternly.

“So what’s it gonna be?” he asked. “I don’t have all the time in the world, people.”

Leah rolled her eyes. With her hands, she exchanged some angry words with the pipsqueak. He nodded and answered her, also in sign language. “Okay, okay, I get it,” he muttered. “Does anyone have something for me to drink?”

I stared at the boy, stunned. That was quite a feat: he somehow managed to talk and speak in sign language at the same time. And he was just a kid! Leah reached into her backpack and threw Kevin a can of Pepsi. He opened it and drank greedily.

“How do you know sign language?” I asked Kevin when he had set down the can.

He shrugged his shoulders. “Franzi taught me. My mom says I could do sign language before I could say my first word. Everyone in my family knows sign language. But for my parents, it’s harder; they only started learning it when they were grown-ups.”

I was astonished.

Kevin studied me. “Leah sent me a text and asked if I would come with to translate. But like I said, I only have half an hour. Besides, it’s annoying. I always have to come when Leah meets some guy or another. She’s
always
falling for someone, just like my sister. But Leah’s last boyfriend was a complete idiot.” Kevin looked at me like he needed to check to see if I was a complete idiot, too.

What Kevin said made me uncomfortable. I had somehow thought I was a hero just for asking Leah out. If I was honest with myself, it hadn’t even occurred to me that there were other guys who were interested in her. Maybe I had come to that absurd conclusion because she was deaf.

“Has she already had lots of boyfriends?” I asked Kevin.

Kevin translated for Leah with an impish grin. She looked at me indignantly and made a rather unfriendly hand gesture. “She said that’s none of your damn business!” Kevin translated for me.

I rolled my eyes. “Do you have to translate everything?” I said with remorse. “That question was meant for you!”

Kevin was still grinning and translated that for Leah, too. “Ask her something about her family!” I interrupted Kevin hastily and looked at Leah again. The twerp was a jerk. But Leah seemed to enjoy the game, because she winked at me forgivingly.

With flowing movements, Kevin formed a few signs. I recognized the sign for family: two small circles trace the shape of a larger circle. Leah grimaced, and at that moment, a swarm of birds flew overhead. It looked strange, as if a shadow were moving across Leah’s forehead. Her hands started to reply in an uninterrupted stream of motion.

“Her mother works half days as a secretary,” Kevin translated. “And her dad is a big shot with German Railways. She has two brothers, but they don’t live at home anymore.”

“Have you always been deaf?” I asked and then studied Leah’s face. She had a tiny birthmark that I hadn’t noticed before. Her mouth was full and soft. Kissing Leah would definitely feel fine.

Leah nodded and continued talking in sign language. “Since she was born. Her parents didn’t want to believe it for a long time because there wasn’t anyone else in the family who is deaf.”

We were quiet, and I studied the pattern of the blanket Leah was sitting on. The noise level around us was enormous. Everywhere kids were screaming, music blared, or bodies splashed in the water. It was unimaginable that Leah didn’t hear any of that. The kids on the neighboring blanket had all disappeared in the direction of the snack bar, so we three were alone now.

“Leah wants to know if you have siblings,” Kevin said.

I tore myself away from the blanket pattern. “Yeah, a sister.” Kevin translated for me. “Iris,” I continued. “She’s seven. My dad is a teacher, and my mom has a catering service.”

“That sounds nice!” Kevin translated for Leah. “Like a nice little family.” I stared at the blanket again. It might sound nice, but it wasn’t really. Still, it was impossible for me to explain that to Leah. Not like this, on a blanket at the swimming pool. With a little boy next to us who got every word of our conversation. Would I ever be able to have an undisturbed conversation with Leah?

“Leah has lots of problems with her family,” Kevin tore me from my thoughts. He had started translating for her again.

“Why?” I looked at Leah. Her eyes were so green that I got dizzy. Her face had taken on a defiant expression. I really wanted to know how many guys she’d been with. And what exactly did that mean? Was her life a lot like other girls, actually?

“Her two brothers are lazy good-for-nothings,” Kevin translated for me. “And her sister is a totally conceited wench. In addition, there’s a lot of fighting at home about Leah’s future. Leah wants to go to college, but her parents are against it. An uncle has a company that manufactures plastic. Leah could get a job there, but she doesn’t want to.”

“What do you want to study?” I looked at Leah.

“Psychology,” Kevin translated. He was starting to sound less enthusiastic. It was probably tiring for him to translate all the time. “Couldn’t you two talk about something more interesting?” he asked. “I’m about to fall asleep!” Leah and I laughed.

“Are there schools for deaf people?” I asked, and Kevin pretended to give a long yawn. But he continued to translate.

Leah nodded. “In Munich there’s a high school for the deaf,” Kevin explained. “That’s where Leah goes.” I nodded.

Kevin looked at his watch. The time had flown by.

Suddenly, a guy came toward us. He was tall, buff, and enviably evenly tanned. Apart from that, he had a three-day beard, something I couldn’t even begin to dream of. Me and facial hair—that was a difficult subject.

Leah noticed the shadow that moved along in front of the guy and looked up. Something in her face switched instantaneously to soft, and she jumped up as if I were nothing but air, and like she had only been sitting there waiting for this dude the entire time.

The guy nodded at me and Kevin indifferently, but hugged Leah tightly and kissed her on both cheeks. Then the two of them started chatting away in sign language.

For fifteen whole years, I hadn’t met a single deaf person, and now all of a sudden . . .

Kevin groaned next to me. “Flirt alert,” he whispered, as if Leah or the other guy could hear us. Leah’s cheeks glowed, and she was smiling as if she had inhaled laughing gas.

“Who is that guy?” I asked. I felt abandoned.

“That’s Marcel,” Kevin murmured. “My sister and Leah are both crazy about him. My sister even scratched a tattoo with his name on her arm. With light blue ink. That was six months ago already. She retraces it every morning at breakfast.”

“Uh huh.” I looked at my interpreter, who was out of a job. “There aren’t too many deaf guys, are there?”

Kevin grinned. “Sure, there are a whole bunch of them. But most of them don’t exactly look like Marcel, if you know what I mean.”

He was certainly right about that. Most of the guys who could hear, myself included, didn’t look like Marcel. He seemed like a character straight from
Baywatch. Baywatch
with subtitles, of course!

“What are the two of them talking about there?” I asked.

Kevin shrugged. “It’s private, man. But I can tell you, Leah’s giving it her best shot. If she manages to hook up with Marcel, I think my sister will die of grief. She’s been in love with Marcel ever since she was two grades behind him in elementary school.”

“Really?”

The god-like Marcel patted Leah on the shoulder and nodded to us in passing. Then he strode off toward the diving platform. Leah sat down again. Our eyes met for a moment. I tried not to let it show that the guy had intimidated me. If Leah went for guys like him, what was I even doing on this printed picnic blanket?

But Leah didn’t give me any time to wallow in depressing thoughts. “What do you want to do after you graduate?” she asked, with Kevin translating for her.

I got embarrassed. “No idea . . .” I mumbled. But then I saw a good opportunity to play a trump card. Leah didn’t need to think that there weren’t any girls who were interested in me. “Actually I wanted to go to Mannheim. With my girlfriend. Well, my ex-girlfriend. She’s a singer and wants to go to the Pop Academy there.”

“Cool!” Kevin beamed. Finally, I had broached a topic he found exciting. “Dave Mette, the drummer for Laith Al-Deen, was whipped into shape at the Pop Academy!”

“Did Leah just say that?” I asked, confused. Kevin shook his head. “’Course not. She, naturally, doesn’t know the first thing about music. She doesn’t even know what it is. But I might want to go to the Pop Academy myself someday. I’m saving up for a drum set. Is your ex famous?”