Star by Eliza Witte - HTML preview

8

Stuart looked young and handsome, standing on a stage with a guitar in hand. The captions at the bottom read Tour 2014. I thought Ankaa would be at the top of her excitement that she’d be leaving but in fact she looked quite depressed.

‘I’ve seen it that when people travel they take suitcases and put their stuff in there.

They also take a toothbrush, slippers... And all I’ve got is this,’ and she pointed at the poster. I wondered how she could be so worried over a toothbrush rather than the fact that she was going there ALONE. I shot the question that had been bothering me for the past several weeks, ‘Will you be able to hear us?’

‘No,’ she said.

She said it so matter-of-factly, as if that was understood by itself and she didn’t give any indication of how this all might end up and when and if we’d see each other ever again. I felt so helpless and sad that I just told her, ‘Hey, if you ever need me, just think of me!’

This sounded like a promise and I did mean it to be one but it was said rather as an attempt to come to terms with my own separation from her. ‘And I… I will constantly keep my eye on you,’ I thought. I kissed her and headed home. I had to go with Alcyone from my Constellation dancing that night. It had been known for eternity that we dated as well as the fact that he was very jealous and no shooting star would prevent him taking me dancing. So, this was the last time I saw Ankaa until…

V

A female voice was echoing in her head. It was persistent and angry.

‘Anna! Anna Godart! Anna Felix Godart!’

The room was small but appeared to be packed with visitors. There were reproductions of the Old Dutch Painters on the walls. The tripods were only too close to each other but somehow that made the entire atmosphere cozy. The students were laughing as Mrs. Brix, whom the voice belonged to, concentrated almost all her energy on knocking on Annie’s tripod with her pen in vain attempts to wake her up. Mrs. Brix was in her 40s and it seemed that the last thing she possessed on earth was a sense of humor. She had been teaching painting and design for the past four years but nobody had ever seen anything artistic in her. With regards to this, it was really amusing to observe her with all her sophisticated manners trying to hold her nerves. When Annie finally opened her eyes, Mrs. Brix squawked, ‘Sleeping again? You’re sleeping in my classes again!’

Annie stared in shock. Somebody whooped, ‘Our working girl, ain’t she?’