Free Boy from the Woods (9781311684776) by Jen Minkman Page A

turned
around and inched away toward the dartboard. “I’m going back to my
game,” he said, suddenly seeming in a hurry. He looked sideways at
Julia. “You sure you don’t want to join me?”
    She shook her
head. Axel, Flori an and Moritz watched
him make his way back to the other side of the pub, their jaws
still slack.
    “Almost
healed?” Julia echoed. “That’s impossible . I know what it looked
like.”
    “What baffles
me even more than his miraculously healed head injury is his
good-guy act,” Florian said dazedly. “Imagine my surprise when he
popped up next to me at the bar and made some small-talk out of the
blue? He even congratulated me on having a new boyfriend! Kolbe,
our resident gay-basher!”
    “Oh. Is that
– does he really hate gay people that much?” Florian had never told
her that. She was starting to discover all kinds of things about
Michael that she didn’t like one bit. Then again, he seemed to have
a completely new side to him all of a sudden.
    “Well, he
never flat-out threatened or harassed me.” Florian shrugged.
“He ’d just give me these contemptuous
looks after it became obvious I was batting for the other
side. You know, being his usual, condescending
self.”
    “From what
I’ve seen, he seems li ke a nice guy,”
Moritz protested. “He doesn’t strike me as an arrogant person at
all.”
    “I know ! That’s what I’m
saying,” Florian cried out. “He’s different . He changed.” He broodingly took a swig of beer and scooped up a handful
of salted peanuts from the snack bowl they’d brought.
    “What do you
think happened to him?” Axel asked
pensively.
    “Who knows?” Julia
mumbled. “He had a near-death experience. That must have done something to him.”
    Florian’s
eyes widened in sudden surprise. “Jules, that’s it .” He
hit the table with a fist full of peanuts. “He’s been at Heaven’s
Gates.”
    “Uh-huh. You
think?” Axel snorted.
    “Yes. And he
met Saint Peter, or someone. And this saint told him he was only
allowed to live out his life on earth if he promised to better
it.”
    Axel smirked. “Of course,
Flo. That must be it – he was blackmailed
by an apostle. Gee, I can’t believe I didn’t think of
that.”
    Julia
giggled, but tried to stop when she saw
the offended look on Florian’s face. She shouldn’t laugh at him for
his theory. In fact, she’d thought something along the same lines;
Axel just made it sound so funny.
    “There are
plenty of stories about people who came back from the dead,” Moritz
backed up his boyfriend. “They cla im they
saw dead relatives, or some sort of peaceful, bright light.
Whatever it was this Michael guy encountered, it must have changed
him.”
    Everyone was
pondering his words when the door to the pub swung open and Gaby
and Tamara trotted in. “Darlings!” Gaby hollered, sashaying toward them with Tamara following
in her wake. “Have you guys started drinking without us? Shame on
you.”
    Axel got up
from his stool. “Let me prove chivalry is not dead,” he said, winking
at Julia. “What would you both like to drink?” he asked the two
girls.
    While Axel
went off to the bar to get drinks, Gaby and her sister squeezed in
between Florian and Julia. “I can’t believe this
heat!” Gaby huffed. She was wearing a
purple-and-black striped tank top and a big purple pentacle
dangling from a chain around her neck to match. “First we get rains
heavy enough to make Noah bring out the Ark again, and now it’s
like Austria was relocated to the tropics overnight.”
    “Be glad,”
Florian said. “You’re working at the riding school this summer,
right? Nothing says ‘this seasonal job sucks’ like having to
work outside in the rain all
day.”
    “I appreciate
the sun, of course. Just not to this extent.”
    “So , how are you?” Tamara turned
to Moritz. “Any more gigs this week?”
    Moritz’s eyes
start ed to sparkle. “Actually, I’ve been
meaning to tell you all. Our band was