Lukas - 5. Chapter 5

It was not unexpected that Hans would want to come back to Vienna as soon as possible, but it would take him over a month to get on a plane because of his surgery schedule. In the meantime, Lukas decided to stay in Vienna with the enthusiastic support of Severin.

Lukas continued in what he considered his nice corner suite with the pleasant garden view and midday sun. His ‘Uncle Sev,’ as he now addressed him, was sometimes gone as early as 5 or 6 a.m., especially with the demands of overseas projects in different time zones, but he almost always made it home to share dinner with Lukas.

For his part, Lukas rejoined his German language school and spend his days touring the city, going to the gym to stay in shape and doing the heavy lifting in the garden, ruminating about law school next fall as he went about his daily routine. He hadn’t shared his creeping doubts with anyone besides his dad, but wanted to make sure whatever decision he made would be the right one.

“You’re getting to know the plants in my garden very well, and they all obviously like you,” his uncle started. “But you don’t know a lot of people here, Lukas, so I wanted to make a suggestion, if that would be Ok?” Severin asked him one evening at dinner.

“Sure. But, you know, they can’t talk to me - they can only motion with their hands,” he answered, playing down his language skills that had actually advanced impressively for everyone but him. Severin even spoke to him in German for half of the meal and he was able to ask simple questions and understand simple answers from Mrs. Marchuk.

Severin smiled in response, then put his elbows on the table, folding his hands in front of himself.

“I belong to a kind of unique group, a gay hiking club called the ‘Blaugebirgverein,’” he stated. “It’s a great group of guys who organize hikes for gay people. There are so many beautiful mountain trails and hiking paths around Vienna, especially to the south and west. They release a schedule every month and you can pick what hikes that you like.”

He went on to describe some of the trails and events and mentioned that he only stopped going because his knees were giving him problems but planned to rejoin them again sometime when they felt better, which he was hoping would be soon.

“At this point, I just keep myself in shape with neighborhood walks and gardening. But it might be good for you to go, to maybe meet some other young people and all sorts of others. It’s a wide range of ages,” he said, then added, “Don’t’ think the older ones can’t keep up. Hiking is a big event here and many people do it their entire lives.”

“That sounds great. I’d like to meet some local folks,” Lukas responded. “I pretty much keep to myself at the gym, so haven’t met anyone there except the receptionist at the front desk. She doesn’t really know much English except for the names of American TV shows, and she loves Cher, but I’ve gradually been able to make myself understood to her.”

“See, you’re making progress. That’s exactly how it should happen. When you want something bad enough, you are forced to do it.”

“I guess so,” Lukas answered. “Even just asking for a locker every day, I can now understand most numbers that are said to me - I don’t’ need to make the visual motion with my hand or ask them to write it down,” Lukas replied with an exaggerated pantomime.

Severing laughed. “You’ll be OK with this group. A lot of them are professionals and speak pretty good English. But I have no doubt that they’d be welcoming,” he added.

                                 ***

With Severin’s direction, Lukas bought a proper set of hiking clothes, including a ‘beanie,’ sunglasses, sunblock, even though it was mid-October, and hiking boots for the rough terrain. Even though they were public paths and many of them well-trod, it could still be treacherous at certain areas, especially where the path crossed creeks or had steep terrain.

Wanting to travel like a local, he took a cab to the train station, then caught a bus from the train station to the base camp. He looked around for the meeting point of the group, which was behind the main lodge, an Alpine style ‘Sound of Music’ type structure. The scenery was beautiful and between the fir trees, he could see even some of the trails snaking up the mountains.

But finally, seeing the group of maybe 30 or so guys and just a few women, he suddenly had a moment of panic. What the heck was he doing? He had never hiked like this in his life, but even more concerning was that he didn’t know a soul! It sounded like a great idea but now that he was here, how was he actually going to meet people? What if no one was interested in talking to him? Should he turn around? But it was too late for that. He had come all this way and decided that he would just push ahead. Even if he didn’t really make any friends, he would at least have an experience.

He approached one guy who had a clipboard and seemed to maybe be an organizer and introduced himself in his improving, but still broken and very heavily accented, German, apologizing for his language skills being so schlecht (bad).

“Do you speak English?” the guy responded. The people in the group were of a variety of ages, but this guy was probably amongst the older ones, maybe in his early 60s. The fact that his clothing was so similar to Severin’s recommendations gave Lukas some comfort.

“Yes, but I’m trying to go native,” Lukas replied, his nervousness causing him to answer in a more colloquial way than he wanted.

The guy just laughed. “I’m Alexander, but everyone calls me Sasha,” he said as he shook Lukas’ hand.

“Hi, Sasha. My name is Lukas … Lukas Richter,” he replied. “I’m here for another month or so, and a family friend recommended that this would be a good way to meet some real Austrians while I’m here,” he said with a smile.

“That’s a good attitude,” the guy said. Then he seemed to make a joke about the guys there and used feminine pronouns. It wasn’t quite translatable into English because of the general absence of gendered words, but the meaning was (sort of) clear.

‘They are just as campy here as they are in the U.S.,’ Lukas thought to himself, returning the smile.

“You shouldn’t have too much trouble here. Most of these guys speak at least some English. I lived in England for a year, so let me know if you have any communication problems.”

“Thanks for the offer. I appreciate it and will probably take you up on that.”

“Great … glad to help. In the meantime, let me introduce you to a few people,” he replied.

There was no way that he could remember all the names, but everyone was very friendly to him. Some, maybe too friendly. At one point, as he turned away from one group to meet another circle of guys, and as he started shaking hands, he felt someone from the first group actually pinch his ass.

Not wanting to make a scene, he turned around after the new introductions and tried to make a point of his displeasure with his eyes. The likely culprit, a shorter, balding fellow, winked at him with a wicked grin, but at that point there was nothing he could do. He’d just have a story to tell Severin.

As they started their trek to the trail, Lukas could see why people lived in this place – and how hard it must have been for his dad to leave. It was beautiful!

The trees only went partly up the mountains with touches of snow above the tree line at the tops of the mountains. At the ground, there were rough trails leading away from the lodge into the woods with rocks strewn all around, giving a sense that it had not been manicured and groomed for human convenience. Not only that, but the air was as fresh as he had ever breathed. He thought of his Dad and wondered if he had ever enjoyed this particular area himself.

As the group started to go up the trail, Lukas noticed two guys were lagging. The impish ‘pincher’ was listening to another guy, a brown-haired fellow whose name Lukas did remember - Christoph. The pincher was shaking his head up and down, like he was being admonished for something. Christoph looked stern and serious, not the friendly smile that Lukas remembered from their brief meeting. He was kind of a cute guy, but Lucas would be gone soon so there was nothing to really think about here. He was about the only guy with a full rucksack for this short hike, as Sasha told him that Christoph liked to continue on and to camp overnight. For most guys, it was just a day hike.

After about 20 minutes of hiking, they hit a steep part of the trail, strewn with boulders and what looked like a deep gully from a recent washout. Even though a lot of them were experienced hikers, it was difficult for most to navigate and many of the guys supported each other around some of the bigger rocks.

Being in pretty good shape, and having the proper shoes, Lukas was able to make his way up the trail, and it was turning out that he could help other older guys more than vice versa. He felt kind of good that, instead of being regarded as a ‘tenderfoot,’ he was at least pulling his own weight.

Coming around a particularly treacherous part of the path, with a fallen tree in the way, one of the guys tripped on a rock and fell into Lukas. Reacting quickly, Lukas held him until he got his balance, but as the guy got back up, he pushed out a rock that Lukas was standing on, causing Lukas to fall backwards.

‘Oh my god!’ Lukas thought to himself as his legs went out from under him. ‘My head is going to hit that rock!’

He put his hands underneath himself as best he could, but felt his head hit something and he heard a crack. His heart stopped. He thought that he could have broken his skull open, especially after hearing the noise. But his head was in one piece. He was stunned.

‘What happened?’

Getting up as quickly as he could, he looked back and saw that Christoph was stretched out next to him, his hand against the boulder, covered in blood. He had leaped over and put his hand between Lukas’ head and the rock!

“Oh shit! are you all right!?” Lukas said, turning to Christoph, who was clearly in pain. He knelt next to him.

“Are you OK?” Christoph asked instead of answering.

“Yes, I’m fine, I’m fine,” he responded quickly. But what about you? Can you get up?”

“Um…” he said something in German, then seemed to catch himself. “Ugh…Yes, I’m not dead,” he replied. But I think I hurt my hand.”

“Can you get up?” Lukas asked again. He could see that Christoph, was struggling, despite the humor. He was trying to get up, but it was clear that his left leg was hurt, too, he might have sprained an ankle or something. Without waiting for an answer, Lukas grabbed him around the hips, straining to take almost all his weight and trying to keep the load off the leg.

“That new guy is stronger than he looks,” Sasha said to one of his mates as he and another guy pitched in to take the load of Christoph’s rucksack as Lukas lifted him.

Once he got up, Lukas temporarily placed himself underneath Christoph’s left arm to keep the load off the leg. He reached over with his free hand and held Christoph’s rapidly swelling right palm.

“Can you feel your hand? Can you move it?” Lukas asked, as one of the guys, who turned out to be a doctor, took Christoph’s hand and studied it closely.

Lukas could understand the German words for ‘hand’ and ‘broken’ and realized that Christoph needed professional help. He didn’t wait for anyone else, even Christoph, to propose the next steps. He felt terrible about what happened and wanted to get help for him as soon as possible.

“You need to go back to the lodge…” he said calmy, agitated inside, but trying to present an unexcited face for Christoph’s sake. “… and as soon as possible! I think that they have a first-aid station, yes?” he asked looking around the group.

“Ja, yes,” the doctor responded. “There is a first-aid station there. He should be fine, but he probably broke his hand, so he’s not hiking anymore today.”

“Can you walk?” he asked, turning to Christoph.

“Yes,” he replied, wincing. “I can walk OK, I believe,” he said as he gingerly stepped around.

There was a short discussion, again in German, focused on who would help Christoph, if anyone. Not to burden Lukas, Christoph didn’t want to interrupt the hike for him or the rest of the group. Lukas could tell that he was playing down his injuries, but they were real and needed quick treatment and help to get it.

Christoph turned to Lukas. “I don’t want to bother you too much. Can you help me put my rucksack back on?”

“No, absolutely not!” Lukas replied firmly “I’ll take that,” he said, as he grabbed the solidly packed canvas pack. “Help me put this on, please,” he asked Sasha, who showed him how to thread his arms through the straps and get it on his back.

“Really? You don’t have to do that” Christoph said, looking up at him as he held his one arm with the other.

“Yes, really, I do. I just want to get you down there as fast as we can and get you fixed up,” he replied as Sasha adjusted the straps for him.

Sasha had to pull them slightly tighter, as Luke was a little smaller in each dimension. It wasn’t light by any means, but Lukas didn’t appear to really notice the weight at all.

“I can take him down - the pack isn’t so heavy. Everyone else can keep going on the hike,” Lukas said to Sasha.

Every moment they were delayed he felt worse about the situation and more anxious about Christoph’s condition. He wanted everyone to enjoy themselves and felt like that was the best solution. Most importantly, Lukas felt responsible.

They left the group with Christoph gingerly walking on his own, but Lukas could see how he was fighting to walk.

“How are you doing with your leg?” he asked.

“Um…I’ll be OK, we just need to go a bit slow.”

Seeing him struggle, Lukas ignored his answer and said, “I think you need some help, here, put your good arm around me again,” he said. Without asking, he pulled up Christoph’s good arm by the bicep, and put it around his shoulder. Fortunately, that was also the side of his body with the weak leg.

With Christoph’s arm in place, Lukas then wrapped his other arm around Christoph’s back, then reached down to grab his leather belt. He thought about how solid that body was and there was a lot of muscle on that back. There was nothing sexual about the feeling - it was just about how practical it was that Christoph had such a solid body that he could anchor to, except for his bicep. ‘Wow that was really big and solid,’ he thought to himself, then shook his head to get the thought out of his mind and they made their way back down the mountain.

Lukas started to feel a little woozy as they finally approached the shed but thought that it was just a little fatigue, and he would get over it. The downside of Christoph’s solid build was that he was pretty heavy, even though they were both about the same height. But the important thing was that they had made it down the mountain.

They had just gotten through the door and were almost to the First Aid receptionist when Christoph asked him, “Are you OK? You’re getting red,” he said, their faces only inches apart.

“I’m OK, I’m OK. We’re here,” Lukas replied, “clearing his throat and straining for breath. “How are you? We made it,” he weakly proclaimed.

Lukas had no clue as to how exhausted he looked and felt. He only wanted to get help for Christoph. When they were waived into the examination area, Lukas slowly helped Christoph sit himself onto a gurney as the nurse pulled a curtain to screen them from the rest of the room. But as Lukas was getting off the pack, he suddenly slumped to his knees.

“Help him!” Christoph told the nurse in German only a moment before, she had just started looking at his swollen, bloody hand. “Forget me!”

Lukas’ face was flushed, and he was clearly exhausted. And even though he only had one good hand, Christoph got off the gurney and was able to maneuver Lukas into a nearby chair, his eyes fluttering.

Christoph told her that Lukas had practically carried him down the mountain while the nurse took his pulse and looked into his eyes as a doctor moved the curtain back and came into the station. After the nurse and doctor spoke and the doctor also looked into his eyes, they hooked Lukas up to an IV and then turned their attention back to Christoph.

Christoph refused to answer any questions about himself until he was satisfied that Lukas was OK, then allowed them to treat his hand and leg. After an x-ray, they bandaged him up and, along with a sling for his arm, said that he’d just need time to heal - probably six weeks at least. He barely heard what they were saying. He just kept his eyes on Lukas, waiting for him to wake up.

                                 ***

They talked more on the bus and the train back to the city, Christoph groggy from pain killers and Lukas still fatigued. Dinner was food from the railroad trolly, which, despite the limited selection, he oddly thought of as one of the best meals he ever had. Whether it was the fatigue, or he just felt like he could be open with this guy, Lukas told Christoph about coming to Austria to find an old classmate of his father, that his dad would be arriving for a visit in a few days, and then mentioned his slowly diminishing feelings about a career in law. Even though he planned to go back to America soon after his dad’s visit, he answered, “I’m not sure,” when Christoph asked him about how long he’d be staying here.

When they exchanged addresses and phone numbers before getting in different cabs at the train station, Christoph remarked that Lukas was staying in a fancy part of town.

“Yeah, it seems like it. But my Uncle Sev, at least I call him ‘Uncle,’ - his place is kind of modest for the neighborhood. However, it’s home for now,” Lukas said. “Meanwhile, I’d like to check up on you in the morning, OK? Lukas added.

“I’ve got nowhere to go, so I’ll be home. I thought I’d be on the mountain tomorrow and coming back tomorrow night. And the way this all looks I won’t be going anywhere anyway. It’s a new place,” he continued. So, I can do some cleaning and get things settled.”

                                 ***

What was meant to be a short update call the next day turned into a two-hour conversation. After turning him down several times, Christoph finally accepted Lukas’ offer to do a supermarket run for him.

“I don’t want to look helpless, so this won’t be regular thing,” Christoph added. “But I need to go to work tomorrow and get ready for my evaluation on Tuesday. And I must admit that my new cupboards are a little bare.”

Lukas insisted on arriving early to make sure Christoph had breakfast. Since it was very early in the morning, the train station was the only place he could shop for food, or just about anything. And after telling Uncle Sev his story, he was more than happy to drive him to the station before work.

“I’m glad that you met some people at the hike,” Sev said. “It really is a great group of people - and they obviously looked after you. I’m sorry what happened to that one fellow.”

“Yes, Christoph. He’s a super guy. I still can’t believe what he did for me, so I want to make sure he’s OK. You know,” Lukas continued, “he only started going to the group this year, so you wouldn’t know him, though you probably know people in common now.”

“Yes, maybe sometime I can meet him if you continue as friends, or maybe if I go on another of the group’s hikes soon.”

“I think that we will, and thanks for driving me,” Lukas answered. “I think that he just moved into a new place, so I want to make sure he has the staples. Speaking of which, what does a typical Austrian eat for breakfast? Or actually, I think he’s Tyrolean.”

“They are Austrians, too,” Severin answered with a chuckle. “I don’t think that you could go wrong with bread and jam, but he might like yogurt and also maybe get some Muesli in case he’s more of a cereal person. And get some noodles - I’ll bet he’ll like that for dinner. Get those kinds of things and you can’t go wrong.” He then continued with some more ideas.

Lukas wrote quickly as he spoke, trying to write in German if he could quickly remember the word. By the end, he had filled a page with Sev’s suggestions, supplanted by a few of his own. Although his money was starting to get low, he would not scrimp on these supplies.

An hour later, after the cab dropped him off, the driver got out and helped him get hold of the two full shopping bags of food. He then pressed the door button for Lukas and waited for the buzzer to release the door.

“Vielen Dank!” (Thank you very much!”) he finally called out to the driver. Lukas liked whatever limited conversations he had where he only spoke German. Little victories!

When he got into the foyer after being buzzed in, he saw Christoph at the top of the stairs, looking down at him.

“Don’t try to bring those both up at once, those look heavy!” he yelled down, starting to come down the stairs to help.

“Don’t you dare come down those stairs!” Lukas ordered, trying to be calm but anxious that Christoph would re-injure his hand. “I’ll bring them one a time, but you shouldn’t try to do anything.”

“OK, that’s a deal. But I’m watching.” Christoph answered, staring down at him.

As Lukas finally entered the apartment, he noticed that the kitchen and small bathroom were on each side of the foyer, with what looked like a completely empty living room straight ahead, neatly piled high with brown cardboard boxes of all shapes and sizes. He knew enough about local culture by now to not have to ask about taking off his shoes before placing the bag on the edge of the counter, and then quickly putting them on again to retrieve the second bag. Christoph tried to give him a pass on the shoe removal issue for only being there a moment, but Lukas was too quick and was practically out the door before he could finish the sentence.

“Have you just moved in?” Lukas asked as he took off his down jacket after depositing the second bag. He was wearing a sweater underneath, but as he didn’t think that he’d be staying long, he kept that on.

“Yes, I just, how do you say in English when finishing the financing, ‘closed’ on this place a couple of weeks ago. I had to get out of my old rental flat at the end of the month, but it came furnished so I had to leave everything. I’m just camping out in my own place right now until this stuff gets set up.”

“Is this your furniture? In these boxes?”

“Yes, it’s from a new Swedish place called Ikea. They just opened here in Vienna. They make very modern furniture, but you must assemble it yourself. It’s kind of a new concept to make cool stuff affordable. I like the looks, but I need to put in some labor to make it functional.”

“But how are you going to do that now?”

“It’s a good question, but I’ve got some leads on workers who can assemble it for me. Not everyone is, as you say, ‘handy,’ with tools like I like to think I am, being an engineer. I even had my toolbox ready over there in the corner,” he said, pointing to a black metal box with a chrome handle on the top. “But with my hand like this, I’ll need some professionals to do it.”

Lukas glanced into the bedroom. The open closet was full of neatly arranged dress shirts, slacks and ties, but there was a sleeping bag in the corner.

“Is that what you’ve been sleeping on?” he asked. He was aghast, but didn’t want to embarrass him, saying it without raising his voice.

“Oh yes! I like to camp in the mountains, so I’m kind of used to it. Not that I want to make it permanent, but it’s OK.”

“When are they coming to put it all together?”

“Ikea has become pretty popular, but since people aren’t used to it, the assembly crews are very busy. So about two weeks, I think.”

“Are you going to be OK living like this?”

“It’s not ideal, but there isn’t another way to do it with my hand like this. So, I’ll be OK.” he replied. “But hey, I should get going soon, and so should you. I should put all this food away now before I go to work,” he said as he walked over to the kitchen counter, which conveniently opened onto the living room space.

“You buy like a native,” Christoph said, as he pulled out each item carefully with his good hand. “Milk, eggs, sausage, butter, bread, marmalade, Muesli … It’s like the ingredients of an Austrian breakfast from a tour book. You’ve observed the natives closely.”

Lukas smiled. “I wish I could claim that, but I asked Uncle Sev and he told me what I should get. I wasn’t sure what you really like, so I just bought everything that he said.” As he was unloading, he couldn’t help stealing a glance at all the boxes, then seeing the sleeping bag in the bedroom. Lying in the other corner of the room was the empty rucksack from the trip.

“Well however you discovered these, it’s perfect. Thank you!” Christoph said, then paused. “I need to pay you for this, it cost a lot and it was also delivered to my door. How much do I owe you?”

“You don’t owe me anything. After what you did for me, I can’t pay you back enough,” Lukas answered, trying to be nonchalant about it, not even looking at him.

“Lukas, I need to…”

“I won’t take your money, Christoph. But if it would make you feel better, you could be a tour guide, maybe next weekend, if your hand feels OK. I’ll bet that I’ve missed a lot before I leave, and I’d like to see more of the city and the area. And a local like you would be perfect.”

“Well, I’m not a native, but I have been here for like 10 years. And I would love to show you around. However, I will pay you back somehow, whether you like it or not.”

“Guided tours would be payment enough,” he replied as he emptied the second bag before carefully folding it up. “It will be fun.”

“Tours it is!” Christoph replied. “And thanks so much again,” he said, patting Lukas on the back with his good hand. Lukas trembled at the touch and hoped that Christoph didn’t notice.

“Meanwhile, I need to catch the tram for work. We should go if that’s OK.”

“Actually, do you mind if I use your bathroom? Sometimes it takes a while for a cab and I want to make sure that the ‘tank is empty,’ as we say in America.”

Christoph smiled, then looked at his watch. “Sure, of course! But I should go. Can you let yourself out? You can just pull the door behind you.”

“Not a problem, I promise I won’t steal anything,” he said, as he put his jacket back on.

“I have your address and phone number, so I’ll know where to send the police,” Christoph replied, laughing as he pulled the door behind himself.

After coming out of the bathroom, Lukas looked around the empty apartment. In front of him there was almost a mountain of boxes. It would take Christoph forever to put these together. He hoped that the assembly crew would be able to get in there soon.

Then he caught a glance into the bedroom, with Christoph’s sleeping bag on the hard and cold floor with an adjacent reading light on a small box. Next to that there was something else. Lukas just poked his head into the room and identified the object - it was an ice pack.

Looking once more at the pile of boxes, he exhaled. He hung his jacket and sweater on the coat hooks, opened the toolbox and got to work.