Live, Love, Lose - 14. Chapter 14

The following morning, when Karl walked into the kitchen, he found George sitting at the table, along with Mr. Hopkins and Paul.

“But it’s a good thing that Churchill’s become the new PM. Chamberlain only made wrong decisions. He wasn’t fit for the job,” he heard Paul say.

“Good morning,” he said to make his presence known.

Mr. Hopkins, who was on one end of the table, smiled at him.

“Good morning.”

“‘Morning.”

It wasn’t too late yet, explaining why George was still here.
He went to sit down opposite Paul. For once, Mrs. Hopkins wasn’t in the kitchen, which surprised him a bit.

However, it wasn’t long before she entered the room.

“George, you’ve received mail,” she said before handing it to him.

“Thanks, Margaret,” he replied as he took it.

He tore the envelope open and took what was inside.

It was a letter.

Something he had never received in his life, except ones from his siblings, but they had always been destined for his parents, even if he was mentioned in most of them.

George read it silently and folded it back into place once he finished.

“I have to go now,” he said before standing up swiftly.

Just with the way he looked and the tone he used, Karl could see something was wrong, and he was probably not the only one.

“Won’t you eat anything?” Mrs. Hopkins asked him, looking concerned once again.

“Just some bread with butter, but I’ll eat it on the way.”

“Just wait a minute, will you?” She said before making her way toward the counter.

Hardly one minute later, she gave to him two big buttered loaves. He stuffed the letter in his trousers against his stomach, took them, and thanked her.

“See you tonight everyone,” he said before making his way out of the room.

“See you,” everyone replied in unison, except Karl.

The more the young English male was near him, the more he was intriguing Karl.

“Oh, by the way, good morning, Carl,” he heard Mrs. Hopkins say to him. “Sorry, I almost forgot to acknowledge your presence,” she sounded more upset as she said that.

“Once again,” Paul chimed in.

She didn’t need to apologise, it was fine with him.

He decided to shrug it off and looked at Paul before nudging him in an attempt to try to know more about the letter.

But it seemed that his questioning look wasn’t enough.

“George...Brevet,” he said the word in Danish because that was another word he didn’t know yet.

“Oh, you mean the letter.”

“Letter,” Karl repeated slowly and carefully.

It wasn’t one of the most difficult words to pronounce, fortunately.

“It’s his best friend. He’s gone to war,” Paul said.

War. That word again…

“And he probably won’t be back home anytime soon,” he then added. “It’s only the beginning.”

Actually, he had some trouble to realise what was really happening. These “Nazi” men invaded his country, hence why he was forced to leave, but other than that, he didn’t know anything else… Once he had a good level of English, the Hopkins would be able to explain the situation to him properly, he told himself.

“best f-www…”

“friend,” Paul helped him.

This letter, the ‘w’ sound, was one of the things he had the most trouble with to pronounce. That was something they didn’t have in Danish.

“You and I,” Paul said, probably trying to find a way to explain the meaning of the word since he didn’t know it. “We’re friends.”

Karl wasn’t sure he had understood well at that precise moment. But he couldn’t be mistaken, could he?

“Vi er venner?” (We are friends?)

Paul hummed in approval.

“We are,” he then confirmed.

Then what was he to his parents?

But they even hadn’t known each other for a month… And he was already considering him as his friend.

Even if it meant he had to share the room with George for another long while, he didn’t mind. He wouldn’t leave any more.

He looked back at the other male who smiled at him.

“Wanna come with me to work again?” Paul asked him.

How could he possibly say no to this?

“Selvfølgelig,” (Of course).

He didn’t know why he said the word in Danish. It came to him spontaneously. Maybe because he was really happy.

Paul’s smile turned into a grin.

Karl glanced at Mr Hopkins and saw him smile at them. Of course, it could only make him smile.

Both father and son had the same smile, he realised.

Just like his own father and brother. He didn’t know if he had the same as them too. He couldn’t split himself. And no one had ever made any comment about it.

He knew though that he took more after his mother while his brother took more after their father. As for their sister, she shared facial features of both their parents.
Both his father and brother have light brown hair as well, while his sister, mother and himself have blond hair. But one thing they all had in common was blue eyes.

Maybe he had the same smile as his mother, but it would be hard to confirm. She ought to smile much more often for that.

Anyway, was it really necessary to think about this right now when he learnt he just had made a real friend?

*

They went back a bit late that evening. But Mr. and Mrs. Hopkins didn’t seem to mind. They missed dinner time, but Mrs Hopkins reheated supper just for them. But instead of being just the two of them in the kitchen, Mr. and Mrs. Hopkins stayed with them to keep them some company. Well, mostly because Mrs. Hopkins was curious about their day.

Once they had drunk their evening tea and after Paul had left, he went upstairs to go in his shared room. However, as soon as he had his hand on the knob, he realised that he couldn’t open the door like he usually did. It was...it was as if something was blocking it.

He didn’t know what to do now. George was most likely in here. But then maybe he didn’t want to be disturbed…

And of course, he would respect that.

Anyway, before he had even time to decide to turn away, the door opened to reveal the English male.

“Sorry...” he apologised. “I…” he trailed off.

“It’s okay,” Karl simply said.

He noticed the letter in his hand as he glanced down. He reminisced what Paul had told him this morning.

His best friend was gone at war. It may or may not have explained his behaviour towards him. He couldn’t know for sure.

He didn’t know what it was to have someone close to him go to war to fight.

“Damn, I’m still blocking the way,” George said before moving aside.

Strangely, Karl had the impression that this was not the only problem in George’s life… that was just...some kind of intuition.

“So, won’t you come in?” He looked at George again, and soon realised he hadn’t come in yet…

So he did without wasting another second.

Once he was inside, he didn’t really know what to do. Not only because of what he had learnt but because except sleeping he had never known what to do in a bedroom…

Especially when he was sharing it with someone else…

He had shared his bedroom with his brother and sister once, but this was completely different. Well, technically it wasn’t really his then since they already shared it before he was born.

But that was not the point right now anyway.

Things could become awkward very easily. And he still didn’t know how to deal with it.

It would have been much easier had they been able to befriend each other if George had been just like Paul.

But everyone has a different personality, that’s what makes them unique. Or so he thought.

He took a few steps towards, seeing that George had left one book on the bed. It was open, and so he looked at what was written in it. It was the first time he had been seeing written English. Or the first time he had been looking inside a real book for that matter.

“You’re interested in learning about medicine?”

He looked up to meet George’s gaze. Once again, they were standing neither too close nor too far from each other.

Medicin… so that was what he was studying.

“Unless you’ve always wanted to become a doctor, I’m sure you’d end up getting bored of it.”

He couldn’t really understand what he said this time. He just got “you” and “I’m”.

Well, his English level was far from being perfect.

He was getting used to hearing English, so this already helped.

But obviously, it had something to do with him looking at the medicine book. His book.

Yes, logic and context helped a lot too.

“It’s funny, the man who wrote this book was named George too,” he heard the English male say.

That’s when he suddenly realised, he was actually talking to him without being aggressive, probably using this as a way of trying to make casual talk.

That was making things less awkward already.

He didn’t know whether he was forcing himself to be nice, or if he was being sincere; but did it really matter in the end?

“Er det derfor, du ønsker at blive læge?”

Is that why you want to become a doctor?

He didn’t know why he spoke in Danish, the words left his mouth before he could think twice about saying them. He knew George wouldn’t understand, so this wouldn’t help with communication… he guessed he just missed speaking his native tongue.

Of course, confusion was clear on the other male’s face.

“What...What have you just said?”

Oh no, he was going to make things really awkward again. Well done.

“His name’s George too,” he managed to say. “And, you study medicine too,” he was thankful he could make a few basic sentences. He just hoped George would understand what he implied by that. Well, if he was studying medicine, this meant he wasn’t stupid.

It seemed to finally dawn on him after a few instants only.

“Oh, but I haven’t been studying medicine because of him.”

Karl just nodded. He guessed there was no point in trying to keep this conversation going on.

He had meant his statement to be more of a joke than anything serious. He supposed it was a mere coincidence if they had the same name.

He sat on the bed, close to the book, and stared into space.

This short interaction was already better than nothing.

Seconds passed, and seconds soon became minutes. And nothing happened.

Until...he heard George sigh.

“Don’t think I don’t like you.”

Karl glanced at him. His face was grave; he looked almost worried.

“I mean I don’t hate you. I have nothing against you. I just...never had I thought that you’d end up here at such a time.”

Karl didn’t need to master English to understand what he meant. His body language said it all.

“Ikke bekymre dig om det.”

Don’t worry about that.

Right after saying those words, he unbuttoned his shirt and removed it. He put it in its usual place (the wardrobe) before making his way back towards the bed. He took the huge book and gave it to George.

“Here.”

George took it from him with a slightly puzzled expression on his face. But he didn’t say a word.

“Good night,” Karl simply said before he lay down into bed.

This time, he turned to lie on his side, facing the wall.

He didn’t know whether George studied for a bit or if he read the letter again, but after some time he crawled into bed carefully.

“Good night.”

Karl didn't move but closed his eyes. Things between them weren't so bad as of now. It could keep improving with time.

"Godnat."

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