All the Lights by Clemens Meyer

Author:Clemens Meyer [Meyer, Clemens]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
ISBN: 9781908276056
Publisher: And Other Stories Publishing
Published: 2011-12-19T23:00:00+00:00

We were sitting at a small table right by the huge window. It was night, and all the lights of the city lay twenty-seven floors below us. I don’t know whose idea it had been to come to Leipzig. We’d passed through a couple of villages around it, knocking off a load of dodgy pills. Then we’d picked up two guys in a dark park next to the ethnology museum, and now we were high above the city, five-star hotel, drinking kir royale and champagne and looking out across the lights on all the buildings, in the streets, eating starters and desserts, cod liver and prunes in bacon, cheese platters and turkey medallions, waving over the waiters who came trundling between the tables with little carts. ‘Would the gentlemen care for a choice pear brandy from the private distillery …?’

‘The gentlemen would,’ said Stephan, and the waiter fussed around, placing two little glasses on the table and filling them up with even more fuss.

‘Enjoy your drinks, gentlemen,’ he said with a slight bow of his torso, then trundled off with his cart.

‘Enjoy your drink, gentleman,’ I said as I raised my glass.

‘I will,’ said Stephan, and then we touched glasses. We downed the choice pear brandy from some private distillery in one. ‘What d’you reckon it costs?’

‘No idea,’ I said.

He nodded and tapped his breast pocket. ‘I’ve got it covered.’

‘And if not?’

‘Then you’ll have to box us out of here,’ he said, patting my hand for a moment. ‘When we’re on tour together, you know, I’m never scared.’ He patted my hand again, and when I went to take it away again he held onto it, and first I pulled a bit and then my arm went suddenly slack, and he lifted up my hand. ‘Your hands are so small though,’ he said, ‘almost smaller than mine, see?’ He was still holding onto my hand and now he put his other hand up against it. ‘Doesn’t it hurt when you punch them?’ I leant back with a jerk, wrenching my arm away so that his hands fell on the table. He was sitting bent over the table, and for a tiny moment it looked as though he was going to lay his face on his hands. He still had a trace of lipstick on, although he’d wiped his lips with a tissue. He’d used black mascara on his lashes and eyebrows. We’d taken the money straight to the restaurant. ‘A table for two!’ And the waiters had given us a funny look, ‘right by the window, if possible!’ And the people at the other tables had turned around, maybe because I’d turned my sleeve up a bit and they could see the lizard. I took the champagne out of the cooler and filled our glasses. He drank a sip and said, ‘You know, I’ve never drunk champagne before.’ He’d leaned back as well; his face was in the shade now, not looking so pale any more. He smiled.

‘I don’t believe you.

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