Watching Cars Go By

Chapter 5: Silke

This time Silke didn’t burst out of the hotel room. Instead she changed clothes and parked herself in front of the mirror. Dressed well enough to impress a landlady? Check. Her light gray slacks fell nicely and the darker gray shirt with a white layer underneath matched perfectly. All body parts adequately covered? Enough so that even the most lecherous landlord wouldn’t get the wrong idea? Check. All that showed were her bare feet and her arms. She twisted to one side and smoothed her shirt down as she was doing so. Check. No, uncheck that! Her n*****s showed under the fabric, even with the bra. Only when she turned, but still. She touched the tip of a finger to the left breast and watched the n****e harden. Alex. Silke’s image became blurry as she tried to push the memory away. But even as the tears fell her body responded to what should have been Alex’s hand caressing. Within minutes she cried out and some minutes later she splashed water onto her flushed, tear-stained face. Damn her! Damn Alex and her deft hands and her lean body that felt so good next to hers!

“Don’t be too sad now, Schatz! It’s only for one year after all. We can survive that. And we’ll each visit.”

Alex’s last words to her the day Silke left Munich. Granted, she hugged Silke afterward and when Silke clung to her, Alex had allowed her another few minutes, but then Alex rushed out of the apartment claiming to be late for her meeting with a customer. A heartbroken, blubbering mess herself, Silke watched her from their kitchen window. Watched how Alex, already dry-eyed and composed, crossed the street for the tram and minutes later boarded it. So it had been Claudia who drove her to the airport, Claudia who helped her lug her heavy bags into the terminal and to the check-in counter, and Claudia who had held her and patted her back when she sobbed uncontrollably outside security.

So much for being a couple!

* * * *

Forest Way and Forest Knoll and Forest Brook…Thank God for Google Maps! A couple of Forests-this and Forests-that later, Silke clicked out of the app as she had arrived at her destination. Slowly she got out of the car, but this time nobody was pouncing on her. No door opened, not even as she hesitantly ventured past the bulky old clunker in the driveway.

“Woof. Woof. Woof. Wooooof!”

If that wasn’t enough to announce her, nothing was. It sounded like a big dog, too, and as she stood there Silke debated the wisdom of her coming. God, was it hot! A rivulet of sweat was running down her back just from walking up to the house and it sure wasn’t going to get any better the longer she procrastinated. Taking a deep breath, she pushed the doorbell.

Ding dong.

More woofing, but nothing else. Uncomfortable, she shifted from one foot to the other and—for lack of having anything else to do—took in her surroundings. The house itself was no different than any of the other houses she had driven by. An unimposing one-story with three windows facing the street, it looked like it had been there a while and would still be for some years to come. The front yard seemed a bit dry and needed to be cut, and the purplish-pink blossoms of a hanging plant were slightly wilted, with numerous petals strewn across the porch, but all in all the place appeared to be reasonably well taken care of. Apparently someone else had noticed the grass was a few centimeters longer than what appeared to be the norm here, because an ad for lawn care hung from the nickel doorknob. Silke watched a spider busily spinning its web inside the porch light for a few seconds, then she once again checked the number above the door against the one in her iPhone. It was 7130 all right, the same number the woman had given her. This was it, unless she had somehow ended up on the wrong Forest-whatever road.

“Butterscotch! Hush, boy.”

There were some scrambling noises and then the door opened, revealing a middle-aged woman in baggy jeans clutching the collar of a dog. A rather small dog, Silke was relieved to see. She would have thought it a chubby Beagle except that its white coat had tan patches rather than brown.

Silke smiled tentatively. “Em, hallo. We spoke on the phone earlier.”

“You must be the lady interested in renting the room. Silkie, was it?”

“Silk-e.” Mentally she rolled her eyes.

“Sorry. Silkeh. Unusual name. Um, yes, well, um, come in. Don’t mind the dog. He’s harmless.”

“That’s not what it, em, he was saying a minute ago.” Despite its nonthreatening size, Silke still eyed the dog warily, even more so when it thrust a long, wet nose into her purse.

“Butterscotch! Get out of there. I’m sorry. The old boy is always hoping for a treat. Really, he won’t hurt you. Just curious is all.” Lauren pulled the dog back inside the house.

“Thank you.”

Silke followed the woman into the hallway past a padded bench. A mirror hung above it and between that and the door was a wooden plaque with several hooks on it. A leash was draped over one of them. A doorway on the left led into a bright, open room with a couch half-covered by a blanket. The dog immediately jumped up on the couch, made a few circles, then settled himself on the blanket, closing his eyes.

“Not so scary now, is he?” Lauren patted the sleeping dog on the head. “This is the living room, which of course you’d be welcome to use.”

Silke flinched just a little. Cozy nights in front of the fire? Pretending to be focused on the room, she surreptitiously looked the woman over instead. Scratch middle-aged. This lady was not only younger but also prettier than the horrible Ruth who had made Silke that abominable offer. Also, there was nothing predatory about Lauren, as she quite obviously had not bothered to fix herself up for Silke’s visit. No make-up, hair that hadn’t seen a salon in quite a while, and a nondescript red top that didn’t even fit her well. And those awful jeans. No, Lauren looked exactly like what she probably was, a housewife wanting to bring in a little bit of extra money. But she did have a nice smile. Nervous as it was, it reached all the way to her eyes. Quite striking eyes, actually. They were a deep green with golden brown flecks in them. Plus, they somehow seemed familiar.

“It has a nice view of the street, if you like watching cars go by.”

Watching cars go by? Having spotted her rental out by the curb, Silke pivoted around to look directly at Lauren, who, rather than kidding, appeared to be dead serious.

“Em, ja, of course. Sounds, em, nice.” What the heck? Nobody in their right mind would be doing that. Having deemed Lauren harmless only a few minutes ago, she was now seriously wondering what was wrong with the woman.

“Sorry, I’m afraid there’s just not a whole lot of excitement on this block. What sort of things do you enjoy doing, anyway? We’re not too far from a movie theater, library…or maybe you like outdoorsy things? There’s a nice park with nature trails a few blocks over.”

Taken aback, Silke shot her a hard glance. After all, she just needed a room, not someone to run her life. But Lauren looked so guileless and was so earnestly trying to please, Silke simply had to revise her impression.

“What I like to do? Hm, let me think.” Rainy Sunday mornings in bed with Alex. With nowhere to go and nothing to do but…

“It must be pretty boring here for someone from Europe. I mean, Texas is okay, almost never rains, which I hate personally, and of course there are always festivals going on of one kind or another, but I imagine things are pretty strange to you here. How long do you plan to stay?”

“A year. For now,” Silke added in case the woman preferred a long-term renter.

“I’m sorry. Just let me know if I ask anything that’s none of my business. As I told you, I’ve never done this before. You’d probably like to see the room before you commit to anything.”

“That would be nice,” Silke confirmed the obvious and let the woman lead her to the prospective rental.

The room was smaller than what the lecherous couple had offered, but it had a feel to it that she immediately liked. While a far cry from the sleek look Alex favored, the furniture was at least light-colored, and even though things matched a little too much for Silke’s taste, it was subtle enough for her to add her own personal touches. It felt airy, too, and with the sunlight streaming in from between those mauve curtains…Slowly Silke turned around in a circle with Lauren’s somewhat anxious glance following her, but when first one car and then a second car drove by, Silke allowed a grin to spread across her face. When Lauren saw that, her tenseness immediately diminished and the next thing Silke knew, they were smiling stupidly at one another.

“I like it.”

“Well, I’m glad to hear that. Most of my friends go a little crazy with southwestern décor. I like things simple.” She shot Silke an apologetic look. “It’s pretty basic, I’m afraid.”

“Basic is good,” Silke assured her. “Either way, I am really, really interested. Have you had a lot of people looking?”

Lauren hesitated, apparently unsure of the best strategy to employ. “Um, well, not a lot. I mean, I just put the listing out there yesterday. You’re the first one to see it today. Have you looked at many other places?”

“Enough to know that I like yours.”

“You must think I’m not much of a businessperson. I haven’t even told you what we’re asking.”

No, that she hadn’t. Dang. Frustrated, Silke bit her upper lip, a habit she had never been able to shake no matter how often Alex complained about it. “I know I’m the first person to see it and all and you’ll want to have more people come and look at it so you can make your choice. But please, could you give me at least some idea of what you are charging?” She gave Lauren what her mom always called her dachshund look, all pitiful and pleading.

As Lauren’s smile went from friendly to amused, the lines around her mouth deepened and for the first time she seemed truly relaxed. “Well now, I’m sure not every place for rent out there offers such amazing views of the street, and such an agreeable dog to warm your feet.”

“That is truly an amazing view you have,” Silke replied with an earnest face only to burst out laughing a second later.

“And no doubt you could spend hours just watching the progression of the rust on my Tahoe.”

“Your what? Oh, you mean your car? Yes, yes, I certainly could. When I’m not cowering in fear of your scary dog that is.”

“Of course. He’ll be guarding every bit of my Walmart silver, so be warned. But now the price of the room, with all these amenities? Hmmm…”

“Hold on! I don’t know about you but I am positively starving. And I passed all these restaurants I know nothing about on my way here.” What was she doing? This was not some woman she was trying to pick up, this was her potential landlady, for heaven’s sake! No wonder Lauren was staring at her all perplexed. “I’m sorry, I was not trying to sound pushy or anything, but I’ve eaten every single meal by myself since I got here and…”

“Don’t apologize. Buy me dessert and the room is yours.”