A Love Story with a Prisoner of War - 3. English Learning

(I know it has been quite long since I last updated the story, sorry about that. You are encouraged to read from Chapter 1 first, I promise the next chapter will be uploaded by the end of January, reviews are highly appreciated.)

In the first English lesson, I taught him the basic vocabulary that were essential for his survival in this English-speaking country; from ‘apple’ to ‘zebra’, from ‘zero’ to ‘thousand’. It was actually quite frustrating that he failed to pronounce most of the words; his German accent made everything sound so inaccurate. Luckily, Axel seemed quite interested in learning; perhaps, he also found drawing pictures with me for communication troublesome.

When he spoke, his full pink lips were moving seductively at me as if they were asking me to kiss him. We were sitting a few inches apart which allowed me to savor his boyish scent. It smelled like heaven and tasted like caviar. I could spend my whole life sitting next to him, sniffing him. We kept making eye contact in the lesson and his pale blue eyes simply melted my heart. His eyes were like a pair of sapphire, which were not only breathtaking but incredibly hypnotizing. I couldn’t stop wondering why he could be so mesmerizing and so flawless. But it seemed to me that he was clueless about the fact that his charisma was knocking me off. The urge to touch him, the urge to feel his warmth, the urge to cuddle him, the urge to taste him grew stronger and stronger with every moment. My heart was yearning for him so hard that it made my mind go completely blank from time to time. I had never felt this way before, was I in love with him? In love with a Nazi soldier? Hell, what a joke! First, I am a Catholic, meaning that I can’t be homosexual. Second, he is a Nazi; he might have killed my countrymen before he came here. So, there was no way I could fall for him. No way!

Axel was pooped. He was yawning and he could hardly keep his eyes open. Knowing it has been a tiring day for him, I decided to finish off the lesson after 2 hours of teaching, and I instructed him to hit the sack. When he knew the lesson was over, he stared at me for a moment and you could tell he was formulating the right thing to say in his mind. After a few seconds of hesitation, he said, ‘Fank Q, Sir!’ (Thank You, Sir!). Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God! What did he just say? Did he just thank me and call me Sir? I swear I was over the moon at that particular moment. My mind went completely blank; my mouth felt glue-shut and my head was spinning like a wheel. I struggled to find the right response to his words but the euphoria within had paralyzed me. He stared unblinkingly at me, waiting for my response. After God-knows-how-many minutes, I regained my consciousness and managed to utter, ‘you…you… are welcome.’

To make things worse, he beamed at me!!! His heavenly smile, seriously, could light up the whole town for a thousand year. I am not kidding, this boy was stealing my heart without even trying.

‘Godnigh, Xavier.’ Axel mumbled, in a sexy German accent.

His resonant voice shot me through my heart and made the planet Earth stop revolving for one entire minute. After saying goodnight, Axel ran upstairs to his bedroom, leaving me alone in the living room. I gazed at the surrounding, trying to make sense of everything, but to no avail. The perplexity in my veins was tearing me apart and the feeling inside was petrifying. I was so baffled, so baffled about the whole thing. I closed my eyes and prayed: My Almighty God, please tell me this boy is surreal; please wake me up from this imagination; please stop me from falling; please take away the feeling that I am feeling. I refuse to fall in love with him! I refuse! Homosexuality is wrong, falling for a Nazi soldier is even wronger! Lord, hear my prayer. Amen.

Though it was already midnight, I didn’t feel a bit drowsy. In order to calm myself down, I decided to go out for a walk to let the tranquility do the job.

The overhead sky was calm and beautiful, with countless lovely stars sparkling brightly in the distance. The crescent moon was hanging over the undulating hills, while the smoky clouds were drifting slowly across the sky. A moist breeze was blowing gently across the wheat field as if it was a vast hand brushing across the top of the crops. The air was cool and invigorating. Judging at the coolness of the air, summer would soon set foot in Northern Canada.

The night was beautifully peaceful, and it was quite hard to believe that bombs, bullets, tanks, poisoning gases, guns, soldiers, submarines, bombers were annihilating the other side of the world. Even though I had been living in this dull and backward area for my whole life, I still couldn’t get enough of the sublimity of this unspoiled area.

I walked slowly towards nowhere in bare feet, feeling the soils and the earth beneath my feet. I tried to forget the thing that was bothering me, but I just couldn’t stop wondering what was happening to me.

My mind drifted back to Axel, the boy who had begun the fire within me. Just the thought of him made me uneasy.

I just met this boy a few days ago, how could I fall in love with him so easily? Love shouldn’t be only about outer beauty, but also inner beauty. You don’t fall for someone just because he or she was good-looking or hot. Was it just because he was cute and handsome? Was it just an illusion? The feeling was so real but it just felt so wrong. I knew I had to end this feeling. Having feeling for a boy was a sin; and I was sure that Axel would never feel this way for me.

I looked up to the moon, feeling the weak moonbeam on my face; hoping that everything would be all right.

I shut my eyes, trying to think of something else, but the first thing that popped up in my mind was - Axel, the picture of him smiling at me. Crap!

Okay, this wasn’t love.