Sleeping in Flame by Jonathan Carroll Read Free Book Online Page B

there to be totally different smells around us -- pine, fresh earth that had never been out of shadow, wet plants. After the stairs came a dirt path that wound up and into a forest. Without hesitating we kept on, walking side by side. A man with a soccer ball under his arm and a Great Dane close by came marching smartly down the path. The dog looked like a silver-brown ghost in the dim light through the trees. "_Grüssgott!_ Are you going up to the hill?"
    "Yes, we are."
    "It's wonderful there now. We've just been playing ball on the field.
    Only a few people around, and the view is clear all the way to Czechoslovakia." He tipped his hat and the two of them moved off down the way.
    "It sounds like something special up there. You're still not going to tell me?"
    "No, Maris, you have to see it. It's not that much longer now. Only a few hours." I smiled to reassure her I was kidding.
    Before leaving the forest, we passed a giant antenna for O.R.F., the Austrian National Broadcasting Company. Its high, intricately worked steel and busy electrical noises were completely out of place here. She looked at it for a moment, shook her head, and moved on. "It looks like some invader from Mars sitting here, trying to decide what to do next."
    Two men came out of the little office at the base of the antenna. Each had a sandwich in one Page 21

    hand and a beer in the other. Both stopped in midstep and midbite when they saw Maris.
    "_Mahlzeit!_"
    They seemed so tickled by this lovely woman in the middle of nowhere wishing them a good meal, that they grinned like the cartoon characters Max and Moritz. They tipped their bottles to her, and nodded to me their approval of my companion.
    "That wouldn't be such a bad job; working up here on top of the world."
    "Wait, you haven't seen anything yet."
    It was another few minutes before the hill evened out into the giant open field that gave onto the most beautiful panoramic view of Vienna I knew.
    I'd discovered the place years before, but it was true I almost never went there. There are certain experiences in life we should hoard so we never forget to savor them when we have them.
    I didn't want to look at her until the full impact of the view sank in.
    The late afternoon sun, perfectly round and sad yellow, had begun its slow slip to the horizon.
    The light at the end of a clear fall day is wise light: melancholy, able to pick out the most beautiful or important characteristics of anything it touches.
    Without thinking, I said that to Maris as we stood there, and I was glad I did, but also a little embarrassed.
    She turned and looked at me. "Walker, this place is superb. I can't get over how much has happened in the last twenty-four hours. I can't. Yesterday at this time I was talking to the Munich police about what Luc had done to me.
    I was crying, and scared to death. More scared than I've ever been. Now, today, I'm up here on Mount Olympus, feeling comfortable with you." Her voice changed completely. "Can I say something else?"
    "Sure."
    "I think something is going to happen between us. The feeling is already there for me, and it's only the first day we've spent together. I don't know if you want that, though. I don't even know if I should be telling you."
    I took a deep breath and licked my lips. My heart felt like a truck trying to burst out of my chest.
    "Maris, the first time I saw you I thought it would be the greatest thing in the world if that woman in the red hat were waiting for me. As far as
    I'm concerned, something's been _happening_ between us since then."
    That's when we should have embraced and held each other tight. But we didn't. Instead, both of us turned away and went back to looking at Vienna below. But despite our not touching then, it was a moment I will remember the rest of my life. One of those extraordinarily rare moments when everything important is so clear, and simple, and easy to understand. It was a moment like the view of the city: perfect, tinged with a light so