Forsaken Love

Chapter 13

Jim met up with Evelyn in the cafeteria. He found her sitting with a small group of her girlfriends, and Jim managed to squeeze in between a pair of them. “What are we talking about over here?” he asked while sitting down. 

“Marcie was just telling us about her family’s vacation over the break,” Evelyn explained.

Talking about travel, the world, or any culture always piqued Jim’s interest. “Oh yeah?” He looked at Marcie. “Where’d you go?”

“Munich, Germany.”

“Really? You’re so lucky.”

Marcie smiled. “It was a blast. Everything is so beautiful in Germany. We visited this castle near Munich called Neuschwanstein, which serves as inspiration for Disneyland’s Sleeping Beauty Castle, and of course that being my favorite Disney tale we just had to go see it. We learned it is also one of many attractions along the Romantic Road, an extensive street considered to be one of the most representative of German scenery and culture. We actually celebrated Christmas there.”

“Sounds like the kind of place I’d like to see someday,” Jim replied.

“It was a great experience,” Marcie continued after nodding. “I feel bad for my sister though. The Germans love their meat, but she’s vegetarian, so it was difficult at times for her to find something to eat outside of a salad. She managed of course.”

“Did you happen to stop by Berlin at all, or maybe one of the concentration camps from World War II?” Amanda asked. 

“My father’s a history professor,” Marcie reminded. “There’s no way we would have gone all the way to Germany without stopping by one. We actually visited Dachau, and honestly I’m not sure I could explain how powerful that visit was. We spent the whole two hours we were there in complete silence, honoring those lost of course, but also really just trying to understand the gravitas of the events that transpired there. Just being on the grounds of one of the camps was enough to make me cry, but then reading the history of the place added even more emotional understanding.

“Our flight left from Berlin, so we were able to spend a couple days there before returning home. We tried to visit one museum there, but there was a misunderstanding between us and the museum staff. We waited in line to purchase our tickets and everything, but then when we went to the museum entrance the ticket collector said we had to put our bags in a locker, which requires a unique token. So we had to wait in line again to acquire said tokens. Then after we put our bags in our lockers, we tried to get into the museum again only to discover we left our tickets in our bags which were now in the lockers. These tokens to use the lockers were a one-time use as well, so we would have to wait in line a third time. In the end, we all just decided it wasn’t worth it.”

“Man,” Jim replied, with a slight frown. “You are so lucky. I hope one day I have the privilege of having a story worth sharing.” 

Evelyn smiled. “I’m sure you will.” 

The bell rang, signalling the end of the lunch hour. 

Evelyn stood up from the table last. Jim searched for her attention. “Evelyn, wait.” 

Evelyn turned to face Jim while she continued fully standing. “What’s up?”

“Marcie’s story got me thinking. She has experienced what it really means to live life to the fullest. I want to do that some day.” He paused. “You remember that promise we made long ago? To visit the world together?”

Evelyn smiled. “Of course. That’s not something I could just forget.”

“We graduate in a year. School will be over us. I’m not attending college, at least not immediately. You’ll still be attending of course, but you’ll have a full ride. We could have one last hurrah before you venture off to the next phase of your life.” 

“You are suggesting we travel the world next year?” Evelyn asked.

“Look, I don’t know what I want to do with my life,” Jim sadly admitted. “I just know I want to see the world. If I wait until after I graduate from college, I might be too busy paying off school loans with a degree I might not be able to get a job for. And then who knows when I would be able to afford to travel, if ever.” 

Evelyn sighed, then stared off into the distance. She did that sometimes when thinking. “I don’t know, Jim. I’d love to, but as you said I’ll have college to prepare for still, even if I have a full ride. I find your reasoning logical though, and think you should consider taking a trip without me first, if I’m not available. We can always go on a trip later in life, there’s no hurry.” 

“My parents would never let me travel the world alone, especially at 19. They probably wouldn’t let me until I’m at least 25, but probably not even then. And if I wait that long I may never attend college.” 

Evelyn did this weird shrug mixed with a nod expression in agreement. His parents really would not let him travel the world alone. “You’ve already been to New York. That’s not enough for now?”

Jim shrugged. “I mean it was fun and all. I am really glad that the band was invited to play there. I loved the trip. The perfect first taste to the tourist experience. I performed well, in an extraordinary venue, and the band finally even started to acknowledge me after all this time. But that was for school. I had a strict schedule to adhere too, which left little to no time for me to explore the city as I wished. We only had less than a day to walk around Times Square, Central Park and the Rockefeller Center.” He paused. “We don’t need to go far. We could go to the Grand Canyon, or New Orleans, or even Vegas.” Another brief pause. “Ok, probably not Vegas. You know how I feel about big cities, but you get the point.”

She already started backing away, hurrying to her next class. “Look, I’m sorry, Jim. But I have a feeling that I’ll be too busy to go anywhere until I am done with school, that is unless of course it is for school. There is more commitment to college than finances after all. I still have to apply, decide on which school I want to go to, visit campuses. I’ll likely be busy all summer. I’d say you could come with us on campus visits, but it might not be any different than New York. I won’t have time to explore if I am constantly meeting with representatives. Maybe you can convince your parents to take a family vacation or something.” 

Jim sighed, for a moment standing alone in the hallway as he watched Evelyn rush away. Without any confirmation of the possibility of a family vacation, Jim already imagined destinations and plans for one as he himself headed to his next class, bumping into lockers along the way, thinking about what Evelyn just recommended.