Wednesday 2nd of November 2016, the flat share, Oulof Palme Street, Athen
My driving style is reckless, fast, foresighted sometimes. and dreamy. Not necessarily all at once, but Toby is the same when he is driving car. In fact, by bike I don’t need as much time as with the car.
Out of the underground garage, which is increasing the rent of the former dental office significantly and also used by the customers of the Piräus bank, my friend Virgo passes by and waves at me. I answer with my usual gesture, by tapping my index finger to my temple and swing it upwards. It’s a little stupid thing I got used to, meaning something like seen and noticed.
I park my bike in a little lockable room and pass on my way to the first floor the entrance of the bank, hoping to see Capricorn, who is working there. He is nowhere to be seen. The staircase is eerie and dark. I can understand why the dental office didn’t had much success.
As I arrive at the top I get greeted by Aquarius 90s Pop music. About 9 months ago kids shaking and adults studying the newspaper waited here for their appointment, meanwhile the receptionist would ask the patients for signatures and health insurance cards. Nowadays this place is the living room of twelve young adults in the prime of their life.
We found each other like this by accident. Each of us has one of the different star signs and that’s how we name one another for fun. Of course, we have a normal name, but honestly, I forgot most of them. For my friends I’m known as Cancer. Tobias doesn’t want to use this name for me, he does it only when he’s here or unintentionally.
Sometimes I wonder how the Universe managed to get people her, that come all the way from Mali or Japan.
Taurus for example came here from Mali to receive a school education. He was very young and tried to find a host family, which then ended up to be Aquarius and his parents, they grew up like brothers. Unfortunately, he didn’t graduate from school. Since then Aquarius is placing him to different job offers “and if Taurus doesn’t find a job soon he will never live an independent life.”
“Why should he even bother? At this place he got everything he needs: food, a TV, a place to sleep… aah yes and friends.” I just realized, that I said the last sentence out loud and covered my mouth, which was by far too late. Gemini lingers at our cool kitchen island and cooks himself a tea. “What are you already doing here?”
He shrugs, pours hot water in the cup, lifts it up, immediately he puts it down again, because it’s to hot. “What do you mean ‘already here’? I was never gone. Got a stomach ache during the night. I shouldn’t have eaten all the sweets on Halloween.”
While he is talking I peek over the back of the sofa to assure Taurus is sleeping. I wouldn’t want him to hear what I said. “There was probably lactose in one of the sweets.”, I say. Gemini nods so vigorously, that his brown hairs fall on the forehead, then he pulls up the sleeves of his pullover to pick up the hot cup.
He vanishes to the hallway and straight to his room.
Wow, he forgot to ask me about my first day at work.
I bring my stuff to my own room and change my clothes. The rooms that used to be treatment rooms are a bit little to live here for a long time, but life takes place outside or in the living room anyway. So, I don’t have a problem with this, mainly because I was the first on to move here and got a room with windows, otherwise I would get crazy too.
I kick a pile of dirty clothes into the corner of the room. Tomorrow is Thursday, our laundry day, and it’s my turn. I don’t’ know when I should wash all of this stuff, with twelve people in a household there is a lot that piles up and it stinks.
My room isn’t really interesting or unusual, like Scorpios. No, you don’t want to know how it looks like in there.
Anyway, there is a normal bed, a relatively old and antique looking wardrobe, which in my opinion is not as old as it looks like, therefore it looks good and meets its purpose. Then there is a shelf with some books, CDs of some Alternative bands and of course boxes of seasons from a diverse collection of TV shows, because this is something we can all agree on, there is nothing better than TV shows.
The walls are decorated with photos of friends, family and standard black-and-white photography from different metropoles around the world. In front of the window Pisces placed a few plants he ‘saved’.
He has a green thumb and is a very caring kind of human. One of those people that only show their true self towards close friends, but if you reach that level they become the coolest and best friends in the world.
Well, Pisces placed his plants here and in the other rooms. They are all named after celebrities whose name have a relation to plants. In my room Robert Plant, Clint Eastwood and Halle Berry are hanging out, George Bush is cleaning the air in Leo’s room and Satan the deadly nightshade is dying at Aries place.
I hope to find someone to talk while I go through the hallway back to the living room. There lies a cookbook with a note from Aquarius. We have to cook today, because he won’t be home from the concert at church before 21 o’clock. Aquarius doesn’t have a permanent job, but he always finds a side job to gain a little money. I could run-through every one of my friend’s life in detail for hours. Sadly, there is no time now. I would have to write a whole book.
In that moment Aquarius appears in the living room, he seems to have forgotten something. He turns of the music, which had played in the background the whole time and annoyed me internally. In his backpack are notes for the organ he plays.
“You are responsible for the food today, okay?” Before I can remind him, that I’m a terrible cook, he vanished. I am still standing in the living room, alone.
I return to my room and look out through the window. For a moment I consider to continue reading the book I started a few weeks ago, but I’m not very eager to find out if he will arrive at the wedding of his sister in time.
Within a few seconds the hypnotic power of the people walking down the boardwalk captured me. Unknowingly I examine my reflection. This brown hair looks like it had a hard day, though this one will by far not be the hardest one. My eyes are brown too, they have golden spots in the iris. On my chin I have a birthmark, other than that I’m pretty average, except that my hands are big, not colossal big, just big. “Perfect for hugs”, my mother always says.
Pisces sends me a message, that he’s heading home now and I unsnap from the window. Pisces dream is it to make a career as a lawyer. He visits many trials during his studies, even works on some cases. Knowing him, I am sure he will do everything in his power for his clients to spare them from punishments, he simply is a good person.
Another time, another try to find one of my friends and indeed Libra is practicing the “Sun Salutation” in the doorframe of the bathroom. Libra is a little strange. No, in reality she is very, very strange. Suddenly she appears out of nowhere and does crazy things. Once she wrote an essay for university on the kitchen floor, scrolling through pictures on the internet, making squirrel noises and eating cinnamon rolls with ketchup. That’s exactly what I mean. Now she is doing yoga, blocks the entrance to the bathroom and whispers an ancient Greek poem, which I remember I had trouble to write an analysis about in school.
“Hey, Cancy”, she opens her eyes. “How was your day? Tell me every detail.”
“Later, when Pisces is here I’ll tell you both.”
Libra grabs my shoulders and forces me to look into her dark blue eyes. “I wanna hear it now!”
Why does she have to be so intrusive? I shake her off and go to the kitchen. Taurus is still fast asleep; therefore, Aries has climbed out of his hole. He leans at the wall, flipping through the TV guide searching for an entertaining evening program.
“We can start making dinner.”, I suggest to everybody present. Libra is exited, the others show no reaction. Then the two of us started to prepare everything for the Lasagne. Pisces arrives as we put it into the oven and I’m released from the rest of the kitchen work. Even though at last I never told Libra what happened on my first day of work, she never asked me about it again, after I went with Pisces in his room. It astonishes me, because she never forgets stuff like this.
“Have you already captured all criminals in the city?”, he asks me while cleaning his desk.
“Pisces, if we did that, we would become unemployed again.”
He looks at me: “Riight.”
I didn’t try to keep it simple, instead I tell him everything elaborately. Meanwhile Libra finished the food, Capricorn was free to help her deck the table and I must admit, I’m a friendly guy, never turning my friends down, when they need help, but today is one of those days, where I feel like I just have to say “No”.
At the dining table we sit together as every evening. We grew closer, close as a family, only that we are rather a sitcom family.
Libra and Virgo
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