“Come.” Jelka held his hand as the woman hobbled up the creaky stairs, down the dimly lit hall, and into a room on the left.
“Gute Nacht,”the woman bade them before closing the door quickly behind her.
The bedroom was small and musty. The bed looked as if they’d barely fit, but Ozzie’s insides were on fire. He reached for Jelka. She smashed her face against his, kissing him rough and deep.
“You are lonely. I can tell.” She unbuckled his trousers.
“How?” He ran his tongue over her collarbone like he had wanted to do all night.
“Because I see myself in you.”
Ozzie slipped her dress over her head and tossed it to the ground.
“Give it all to me.” She grabbed his face. “I am here to make it all better.”
They fell to the bed, and as Ozzie moved against her, Jelka grabbed his hips and pushed him to take her hard and fast.
Afterward, Jelka rolled from beneath him, breathing heavily. She opened her purse and pulled out a package of cigarettes. She lit one and offered it to him. Ozzie shook his head.
“First time with a German woman?” she said, puffing, her lips still stained a faint red from lipstick.
“What do you think?”
“So that is a yes.” She moved back toward him and rested her head on his shoulder. “Maybe I am your last, Osbourne.”
She took another puff, stubbed out her cigarette in the ashtray on the nightstand, and then trailed wet kisses down his stomach.
Part2
We will be known forever by the tracks we leave.
—DAKOTA PROVERB
CHAPTER 12West Oak Forest Academy, September 1965
SOPHIA
When Sophia’s eyes fluttered open, it was because Willa’s alarm was blaring. Her roommate stretched her elbows overhead and then slammed her hand down to silence it. Sophia watched Willa throw her legs over the side of the bed and stuff her feet in a satiny pair of slippers.
“Rise and shine,” Willa said. “Did you sleep okay?”
Sophia swallowed. “Yes, you?”
“Like a baby,” she said, grabbing a tote bag of skin-care products. She shuffled out the door.
Sophia breathed a sigh of relief. She had slept soundly through the night and hadn’t bothered Willa with her night terrors and screams. She looked up at the ceiling and silently thanked Walter’s God.
Once again, she arrived early for all her classes. She said very little throughout the day. In physics class, Nancy lowered herself in the seat beside Sophia and then propped her forearm crutches against the wall. They discussed an upcoming project. In all her other classes, Sophia sat alone.
Halfway through her composition class, she realized that Thursdaywas only two days away, and she needed to learn the nuts and bolts of basketball before she reported to practice. There had to be more rules than what she had learned from playing two-on-two and H-O-R-S-E with her brothers. Before lunch, she made her way to the library with the hope of checking out a book that would help her.
The library sat in the breezeway between the boys’ school, Donoghue Hall, and the girls’ school, Campbell Hall, and was used by both genders. Inside, big windows were flanked by abstract paintings hanging from the walls. There was a big open common area with overstuffed chairs where students hung out with books opened in their laps. Sophia glanced at the rows and rows of library books and wondered where she should start.
“May I help you?” asked a woman with clear-framed glasses and frizzy white hair.
“Yes, ma’am. I’m looking for a book on how to play basketball,” Sophia whispered.
The woman let out a hearty chuckle. “Ah, my friend Alastair has gotten to you too?”
