Six Ways in One Road #31

Herman did not know what to answer when Luisa asked him a question he did not anticipated.

"When will you ask me to marry you?" Luisa repeated her question to Herman.

Herman did not answered Luisa. On the sign board along the highway he saw that about 100 meters farther there is a strip which he can park his car, so he turned his car to parked there. When he parked the car, he looked at Luisa.

"Luisa I was surprised. Why you ask me that question?"

"Oh, you mean that you never thought about marrying me?" from the voice of Luisa one can heard a kind of disappointment.

Herman laughed. "You crazy girl, of course I had the thought of marrying you. Why you said such nonsense!"

"Are you sure you had the thought of marrying me?"

"Yes!"

"And why did you not ask me?"

"Luisa, marriage is a big commitment, is a big responsibility!"

"You mean, you are not yet ready to marry me?"

Herman did not answered Luisa. He thought good what Luisa asked him. He started his car to continue driving to Rotterdam after he said to her, "Luisa, we have to talk seriously but wait until we arrive on my apartment."

It is almost midnight when they arrived in Rotterdam. When they were inside the apartment, Herman noticed that Luisa was again very silent.

"Now we can talk seriously, but first coffee?" Herman broke the silence of Luisa.

"I will take tea." Luisa answered.

"Come, we sit in the kitchen. We drink our coffee and tea there and talk." Herman suggested.

"Okay." Luisa agreed and they entered the kitchen. Herman prepared their drink, Luisa sits by the table and quietly just looked at him.

"Luisa, Schat, please listen and understand me. I know by myself, and I am very sure about it, I really want you to be my wife." Herman was serious. "But I think you deserve to know who I am, and me to know who you are."

"Well, there's nothing much to tell you about me. I am from the Philippines, we were poor, and we always have no food on the table. I have two brothers and one sister, my father's work as income was to gather empty plastic bottles on the street, my mother washed clothes of other people to help my father, and me? I am here, still struggling, still seeking that sunlight of good fortune. I'd promised my father a good life, but he's gone!" Luisa tears fall on her cheeks as she remembered her father who died by an accident on the street.

"Schat." Herman stood up and came sit down near Luisa. He put his arms around her shoulder. "Please accept that your father was now in Heaven, released from all his problems in earth."

"I tried to forget everything. When sorrows came across my mind and heart, I always suppressed it with thoughts that tomorrow everything will be okay. I always managed, especially these few days past because in between I found happiness, yes, I am happy with you!" sniffing, Luisa said it to Herman, and it touched Herman. He felt an ache inside his heart. He felt pity to Luisa. Herman thought, did Luisa consider him as the sunlight of good fortune to her? But he knew too, and he really felt it, Luisa's affection to him was real, very real.

"Schat, I am glad and happy to hear from you that you are happy with me. I don't know and was surprised when you asked me about when I will ask you to marry me."

"I am sorry, I don't have to ask you that, it's too early, I am ashamed, seemed I am in a hurry!" Luisa excused herself.

"No-no, I am happy you asked it me, but you know I think I have to tell you something about me." Herman said and looked Luisa directly in her eyes. "Maybe you had asked yourself what I do for a living, where are my family."

Herman told Luisa about himself, about his life.

"I also had sorrows in my life. You noticed maybe there is no photos of family here in the house. I am an only child, my father, I hated him. My mother, she's gone already, she died about three years ago, she killed herself." Herman eyes was in verge of tears. "She was a good mother; she was a good wife to my father. But my father divorced her because he wanted to marry a young actress. My mother will not and had begged him not to divorced her, but he was a lawyer, and he did all his best for the divorce to happened and had did all tricks that she almost have nothing. My mother had not coped what had happened and she committed suicide."

Luisa takes the hands of Herman and hold it with her two hands. "I am sorry, because of my foolishness things you tried to forget came back."

"What happened with my parents will stay forever in my mind. I will never forget my mother and I will never forgive my father. This apartment where I am living, was given to me by my grandparents, and the money I received every month that was from a trust fund that my mother had managed to set aside for my future. So, you see, I don't have to work because of my mother."

"A blessing you have to value everyday of your life!" Luisa said. "You never work? Sorry I ask!"

"I have a profession, I finish a course in Computer Programming but actually, yes I never work for a living."

"You are the one who pick us up in Switzerland!"

"Pieter asked me a favour. He is the one that must pick you girls, but he cannot and had asked me. I am thankful he asked and that I did it because I met you."

S I L E N C E

Luisa thought, Herman picked them up in Switzerland, instead Pieter. Then she thought about Grace in Cyprus. The same what happened, Dimitri just helped a friend who cannot picked them up. Dimitri saw Grace and although they way or what had happened was not ideal, Dimitri and Grace got married that turned to be good if not perfect. So was too of Herman, he just gave or did a favor for Pieter. This favour of Herman for Pieter paved the way for her and Herman to meet each other and fall in love. A hope formed in Luisa's mind, fate that gave Grace a good happy life was doing the same to her, yes, she really expected she will have a good happy life with Herman.

"Luisa, Schat." Herman broke the silence.

"I felt sorry for you, to what happened to your parents. I never thought that inside, you had sorrows."

"Luisa, don't felt sorry on me. Like you, I also always said to myself that tomorrow everything will be okay. You don't realize it yet, but we are both the same, positive, happy-go-lucky people, and with these attitudes we will always survive."

"Oh, yes, tomorrow everything will be okay, we will never lose our hope because tomorrow never ends, and of many tomorrows, one of it will be kind to give what we hope."

"That's my girl. you are right. Of the endless tomorrows that will come, there is one tomorrow that will bring us happiness! Come near to me." and Herman hugged Luisa very tight. "I love you; I love you very much. Do not worry about between us. I promise you; we will be got married. Please just give me what time. Just trust me!"

"I trust you! And I love you too!" and they both kissed each other passionately.

THE one-week free time for the girls was over. Tonight they will start to work in the night club. Wilhelm had not yet completed the papers he needed for him to freed Carla from her commitment with the syndicate, for him to bring Carla to Germany and to marry her, so Carla also prepared herself for their first-time night work.

Herman requested if he could stay with them in the apartment as he will bring and take the girls home from their work. Luisa was happy as she seen it a kind of protection from her lover. It meant that Carla must share a room with Thelma, while Luisa and Herman take the other room for themselves.

It had taken a month for Wilhelm to finish all the papers for him to bring Carla to Germany. Their marriage was also set, and the two Thelma and Luisa were invited along Herman too.

Herman, always in the apartment of the girls and while the girls slept, he cooked food for them. He learned how to cook rice with a rice cooker as the Filipinas liked it very much to eat rice. The last week of the first month work of the girls, he drove almost every day to Rotterdam as he told Luisa that he was busy with some paper works. Luisa did not ask when Herman did not specify what paper works was it, she just assumed that like Wilhelm, Herman was also busy buying her out from her commitment with the syndicate. She really trusted Herman. She really believed him. ****to be continued****Remedios Dorio