23.
She felt the wind at her throat and ears. Her hair flew in the wind, the coat fluttered noisily behind her. She didn't know exactly where she was going, but somehow her worried feeling got her on the way, which she had taken a taxi from the restaurant in the other direction just an hour ago.
It wasn't long before she arrived back at the forecourt of the restaurant where she had just had a conversation with Adolé and had had a terrible rebuff. The restaurant building was now in the dark of the night. Apparently the last guests and servants had left the restaurant. It was closed.
Michelle looked around searching. Except for the few cars that were just parked in the parking lot and which were now on their way home with their owners after a nice evening, everything looked exactly the same as an hour ago. What was she doing here now? In the middle of the night? Except for the sound of the wind, which kept getting caught, sometimes stronger, sometimes weaker, in the grass of the field surrounding the inn and some vehicles in the distance, she heard no sounds at all.
She pushed the bike a few meters further in the direction of the inn and kept looking around as if she was looking for something. But she did not know what it was herself. The gravel under her shoes crunched. For a while Michelle stood helpless in the night and didn't know what to do.
Finally, she resignedly turned her bike, pushed it back to the driveway and slowly drove back onto the path that had led her here a moment ago. Again and again she looked around, looking right and left into the darkness of the bushes lying beside the road, but nothing suspicious caught her eye. At a leisurely pace she passed through the darkness of the night - a night that seemed like any other before and after.
She drove for a while as if by remote control over the path that ran alongside the road. The movement did her good, so the dark thoughts could be kept in check better. She knew that Adolé had no reason to be favourable to her. She must be angry with her, the rejection she had received from Michelle was too obvious. If only she had another chance to explain it all. Her heart sank one floor below again.
She kept driving through the dark without knowing where she was going. She let herself drift. The strange feeling that had crept up on her a while ago and that was still unexplainable to her still flowed through her and would not let her rest. She couldn't bear the thought of lying idle in her hotel room.
Again and again she stopped short and looked around without knowing what she was actually looking for and what she hoped to find.
Meanwhile she was on the cycle path next to the busy main road that cut the island from north to south, driving her further and further away from her hotel. Nevertheless, she kept on going in the same direction as a driven woman and never thought of returning to her hotel. She pedaled to get rid of this tension, but her insides remained agitated. So she accelerated for minutes and covered an immense distance. When she ran out of breath, she let the bike run out and headed for a bench that belonged to a bus stop on the side of the road, which was on a bend.
Slowly she got down, leaned the bike against the bus stop house and let herself fall onto the bench, breathing heavily. In the windy chill of the night she realized how sweaty she was. No wonder, as she had certainly made a great effort and spent the last two kilometres. Her heart was pumping. To make up for the oxygen debt, she gasped for breath, and it was good to notice how her breathing and pulse slowly regulated again.
She bent forward while resting her arms on her thighs. Her body recovered gradually. With a loud panting she lowered herself backwards against the backrest of the bench and looked around. Nobody was to be seen except her. It was too late when the bus was still running, taking tourists from A to B. So it was no wonder that no one was waiting for a ride.
So Michelle sat motionless on the bench for a while, looked up at the few stars the cloudy night sky revealed and heard only the wind and her increasingly calm breath. Just as she was about to get up, only to give in to her fate and drive back to the hotel, she heard something rustling in the bushes. Or had she just imagined the sound? She paused and listened for a moment in the direction of the supposed sound.
At first - nothing. Only absolute silence, even the wind was silent for a moment. But suddenly! There! There it was again. Something was moving in the darkness beside the road and beyond the cycle path, not far from it. What could it be? An animal? A mouse, surely, which thought itself safe under the cover of darkness, or a bird.
Unsure of herself, Michelle took a few hesitant steps towards the spot in question, just to make sure she was not imagining all this. Her nerves were bare today - but hopefully not so bare. As she approached the position, she suddenly heard a soft moaning sound. She stopped like rooted to the spot! Was that really a moan? She thought her imagination was playing a trick on her. This could no longer be an animal.
She pondered back and forth, finally pulled the mobile phone out of her trouser pocket and switched on the flashlight. In addition, she fished with her other hand for a broken branch that happened to be on the side of the road. After all, she was completely alone. Armed with so much brightness in one hand and the piece of branch in the other, Michelle felt reasonably safe and now she went step by step towards the source of the sounds.
While she carefully groped her way forward, she shone her cell phone light in all directions and held the branch up high for safety's sake. There! There it was again! A moaning, now to be heard very clearly. Michelle immediately held the light higher in the hope of finding something. Carefully she illuminated every corner next to the cycle path when suddenly something moved.
She flinched in panic. I thought she had too much confidence in herself. What if this was all a trap and that was supposed to rob innocen
t tourists of their belongings? But nobody rushed at her. So after a while she summoned all her courage and slowly worked her way forward.
While Michelle felt her heart beating up to her neck, she suddenly froze when she heard the lute for the third time. She shone the spot with her floodlight and was startled as her eyes began to see more and more of what lay before her in the bushes. In the undergrowth of the ditch she recognized more and more a coat that looked familiar to her, then a scarf that she had just seen. Suddenly she understood the full extent of the situation: the source of the sound was Adolé, who was covered in blood there, more powerless than alive, lying before her in the ditch, struggling to be found.
Michelle rushed at Adolé. Through the dense, thorny weave of bushes at the side of the road she could hardly make her way to the injured woman. Again and again she held an arm in front of her face to protect it from the thorns of the branches, got stuck here, stumbled over roots and stones there, which she could hardly see in the darkness.
When she finally reached Adolé, she began to shake her and talk to her. "Adolé, it's me. It's Michelle. Stay with me!". Michelle kept trying to speak to Adolé, but in vain. She seemed to be unconscious, which was no wonder if she had in fact - as it seemed - gone off the cycle path at full speed and then fallen into the depths of this ditch. The undergrowth had also left its mark on her face and clothing - Adolé's face was covered with scratches, her coat torn several times.
"Don't worry. Now I've found you. It's gonna be okay. I'll call an ambulance. "Take it easy... With trembling fingers, Michelle dialed 911 while she continued to try to calm Adolé, who was lying half unconscious next to her, and talk to her. She had placed a protective hand on her shoulder.
"Oh my God, oh my God," Michelle kept repeating. She shook her head in bewilderment. "How could this have happened? If only I had spoken to you sooner." Michelle could hardly hold back the tears, did not let go of Adolé. Again and again she stroked her head and arm carefully, hoping that Adolé would feel it and that she would not cause her any more pain than her injuries already caused.
"Please forgive me. Please forgive me." Michelle's voice kept breaking off. "This is all my fault, oh my God. Why didn't I talk to you before? "I wanted to explain everything. "Oh, no. Oh, my God. I miss you so much. "she squeezed out with the greatest of difficulty, sobbing as she stroked Adolé's shoulder and head again and again.
It took endlessly long minutes before Michelle could see the blue light of an ambulance in the distance.
24.
Adolé felt a stabbing pain in her chest. She tried to open her eyes, but the eyelids were too heavy - as if magnetically attracted, they kept falling shut. She struggled against it, wanted to move, but simply didn't have the strength. She was sick - and so cold.
A restless sleep took possession of her.
A little later she woke up again halfway. She had lost all sense of time. When she finally managed to open her eyes for a short time, she at least realized that she was in a hospital. All around her were devices that monitored her vital signs and kept beeping softly to herself. At her side was a tube that ran in her arm. By her bed sat Roswitha, who had closed her eyes and was dozing. She held her hand. Something bad must have happened.