Date: Sun, 15 Apr 2007 18:57:18 -0700 (PDT) From: John Hollingway <jhollingway@yahoo.com> Subject: Oooh, Vienna - Part 1 (M/b, No Sex) Oooh, Vienna by John Hollingway <jhollingway@yahoo.com> This story is pure fiction. Although some persons in this story are images of people in the real life, I do not express their opinions in anyway. Anything in this story is made up in my head. This story contains graphic descriptions of sex between males, especially between a man and an underage boy. If this kind of story is illegal where you are living, go read something else. If you are offended by such material, why are you even here? Go read something which suits your state of mind better! If you are under 18 you shouldn't probably read this stuff either, as morale dictates us, but that couldn't hold me off at your age either. Just be careful about what you read and do, some people on the internet are not as nice as they appear at first. Preface Some ideas you have during a long car drive just develop on their own. I started writing this story after an 8h car drive, where such thoughts can keep you awake ;) This is not my first try at story writing, but at least it is the first writing it in English. I'm no native English speaker, so please be gentle if you judge my language. I try to write about places I know, so this story plays in Germany and Austria, and all dimensions are metric, so if it confuses you, just do what I do when I read a story with imperial dimensions in it: Don't bother, just try to imagine it. There is no sex in this first chapter. I really want to try to tell a story which could happen, and I really think it is unlikely that two strangers who meet for the first time will be in bed having sex 5 minutes later. But a lot of stories here try to transport this image, but honestly I prefer a real story, and when there are sex scenes in it, it's just better. But I promise you there will be sex in the second chapter, as it is nearly finished, so just look forward to it. But no sex is a difference to no erotic, and I think there are some erotic scenes in here. All feedback will be appreciated, just mail to the eMail address above. I don't have a clue how many responses I can expect, so I won't make promises I can't hold up to. But I will try to read and answer as much as I can. Part 1 - Driving away Seeing another pair of headlights approaching, I put up my thumb once again, hoping desperately one of the next cars would stop and I could hitch a ride. At this point it didn't really matter to me if it would bring me nearer to my destination, I just wanted to be out of the rain. My body shivered unconsciously as another gust of wind swept more rain against my already soaked-through figure. Not believing my luck, I saw the approaching car slowing down and coming to a halt directly in front of me. The window was lowered from the inside and a voice asked me: "Where do you want to go?" Trying to get a glimpse at the driver, I saw a middle-aged man behind the driving wheel, obviously driving alone and looking indifferently at me. "If you could take me somewhere nearer to Vienna that would be great!", I answered. A smile from the driver told me he was going that direction. "Hop in, you are really lucky tonight. I can not only take you in that direction, I'm going the whole way!" Again not believing my incredible luck, as it was quite unlikely to get someone driving from the Munich area to Vienna, I glanced quickly over the car and took another good look at the driver. Seeing a small silver car and a friendly face, I decided it was unlikely that he would turn me in, if I didn't blew it. Breaking into a smile, I opened the door while he was busy packing some things behind his seat which previously laid on the front passenger's seat. I climbed in, putting my backpack between my feet and relaxed a bit, finally being out of the cold spring rain. He extended his hand towards me and said with another smile: "I'm John, who do I have the privilege to drive tonight?" I giggled, took his hand and said: "Kyle, but I'm not sure if it is a privilege to drive me." "Oh lord, you are freezing!", he said and did something to the heater controls while accelerating towards the motorway. A warm current swept over my face, and I extended my hand toward the outlets. Finally getting on the motorway, John accelerated a bit further to be as fast as the traffic and relaxed obviously. Seeing he clearly had time to deal with me now, I awaited the inevitable question, and it came as soon as I expected it: "So, what is a kid your age doing outside in the rain beside a motorway, trying to hitchhike?" So I started my equally inevitable answer, which I had carefully thought over in the last hour: "Well, I'm going to visit a friend of mine in Vienna. I was going by train, but somewhere before Stuttgart my luggage got stolen while I was at the loo. My train ticket was in there, and I had to change trains in Stuttgart. So the train conductor caught me without a ticket and kicked me off the train at the next station. I managed to get a ride with a truck driver from there to Munich, but he left me there an hour ago, going another way." John shot me a skeptical look, but started to question another area: "How old are you?" "I turned 12 two months ago." "Would you like to call your parents? They must be worried as hell!" He pointed to a cell phone lying between him and me. "Nah, Mum is out tonight, she doesn't want to hear from me until tomorrow." Proud of myself to have this problem at least postponed, another question caught me by surprise: "So when are you expected in Vienna? Do you want to call you friend?" Frantically searching for an answer I started to stammer: "Erm, erm, I'm not expected for another couple of hours there, but their phone number was with my train ticket. I hoped to look it up once I reach Vienna." Made another close escape, John finally seemed to have satisfied his curiousity. Relaxing again, I realized how cold I was. I reached out again to put my hands in front of the heat outlets. But somehow the cold from my soaked-through clothes really started to sink in, and my teeth started to chatter uncontrollably. John reached over to feel my arm and why I was chattering. He promptly exclaimed: "Oh my god, you are really soaked through. How long did you stand there and why didn't you put on your jacket?" He kept feeling the arm of my hooded shirt and moved his hand to my left leg which was equally wet. "Maybe an hour, could be longer, and I forgot to bring a jacket as the weather was fine at noon, spring has started and so." I heard the indicator going on and realized he decelerated and was moving onto a parking lot beside the motorway. When we came to a stop, he turned on the light in the car and ordered: "Strip!" Thunderstruck, I started to stammer: "Mmmmmister, I'm really not this kind of boy, I should rather get out...." Cursing my own judgment I started to gather my backpack and prepared myself to run away from the car. John seemed puzzled momentarily, and then laughed: "Ah, kiddo, I don't want to rape you! But you have to get out of these clothes or you will get a serious cold. I'll get you some of my clothes, even if they may be too big. But everything is better than this!" He pointed at my dripping sweatshirt and trousers. He started to rummage at the backseat, obviously opening a bag and gathering a couple of things. I pondered the situation and decided he was right. I didn't want to get ill, and he seemed nice. I started removing my nearly broken sneakers and the socks with a couple of holes in it, then pulled the sweatshirt above my head and started unbuttoning my trousers. As soon as I got rid of the sweater and the jeans, my teeth started to shatter once more as I sat in the car wearing only my slip. John tossed me a fluffy towel he must have extracted from his bag. I took the hint and started drying myself while John still rummaged through his bag, trying to find something suitable. Finally satisfied, he sat down again beside me and looked at me, having a stack of clothes in his hand. He pointed at my slip, asking: "Isn't that wet, too?" I simply nodded, and he continued: "You should get rid of it as well, these are the worst wet." Thinking about stripping completely in front of a complete stranger, I felt my cheeks to get hot, blushing profoundly. He smiled and added quickly: "I will look away." He handed me what looked like a tracksuit bottom, a thick woolen sweater and thick woolen socks, everything a couple of numbers to large. "Yeah, it won't fit, but it will get you warm." As promised he turned away, but I still could see the reflection of his eyes in the side window, so I was nearly sure he could still see me. But the cold started to win the battle, and I quickly pulled off my slip, now sitting stark naked in a stranger's car. I tried to dry off the remaining wet parts of my body and then pulled on the trousers. I giggled, as the legs were at least 20 centimeters too long, and John turned his head to see what was so amusing. His eyes roamed over my naked chest, and he was smiling once more. Feeling uncomfortable, I pulled on the woolen shirt, stopping for a short moment as the fabric passed over my face. I inhaled deeply, trying to savor the sweet smell. "Hmmm.....freshly washed!", I murmured into the shirt. "What?", he tried to make sense of my mumbling. "Ah, nothing....", I mumbled once more, cursing myself again for behaving so oddly. But it seemed like an eternity since I last had clean things on, and it just reminded me of better times. "You look like you are real hungry. Do you want something to eat?", he asked while I was busy pulling on the dry socks. "Oh yeah, that would be great!", I exclaimed. He rummaged again on the backseat and produced a sandwich, some cookies and a bottle of Coke. "Sorry I don't have something proper to eat, but normally I have only some snacks with me while driving." Goggling the things, they looked like some feast to me. "No problem at all, John!" Grabbing the sandwich, I started to devour it instantly. He ruffled my still wet hair and smiled again. "You really need it, as I can clearly see." He started the engine again and began to drive to the motorway while I was busy stuffing myself with food. Finished eating, I let out a small sigh. "Ah, that was good!" Finally I started to feel warm again, and a wave of tiredness swept over me. "John, it has been a long day, would you mind if I slept a bit?" "No, not at all. Look at the backseat, there is my jacket, you can use it as a blanket." Spotting it, I grabbed it from the backseat and pulled it over me. Snuggling a bit deeper in the seat, I turned my head sideways and closed my eyes. I listened to the monotone sound of the driving car, when John did something at the controls and some spherical boy voices filled the car, singing something in Latin. I relaxed even more, beginning to drift off to sleep. Later I was not sure if I had dreamed it or not, but just before falling asleep I think John stroked my hair and murmured: "Sleep well, kiddo!" ---------------------------------------------------------------- Something shook me violently, and I was wide awake in a moment, but still a bit disoriented. As I saw the street in front of me and feeling the unfamiliar clothes on my skin, everything fell in place. I looked to John, who was driving more concentrated than before, when another hole in the road shook the car again. Realizing this must have awakened me, I slumped back in the seat, relaxing. "Hey Kyle, you are awake. Sorry to wake you up, but the road is not that good close to Vienna", John added. "So it's not far?", I asked. "No, maybe 20 minutes." "Can you drop me off at the train station?", I asked, trying to figure out out my next steps. I thought I could find a bench there to spend the night. I wanted to do further thinking tomorrow, when I had a better view of the city. "Kiddo, I had some time to think while you were sleeping. I don't think you can put on your clothes this soon, they are still wet. I thought we could drive to my place, I put your things in the tumble-dryer and we can call the parents of your friend so they can pick you up there once your stuff is dry." Feeling a surge of panic flowing through my veins I started to think frantically. Seeing no obvious way to get off this lightly, I decided I had to run away once more, but it would be nice to have dry cloths. So I thought I could postpone the call to my "friend" a bit more once we got to his home. Then I would try to make a dash. Realizing the spherical voices were still in the background, I asked: "What is this music, by the way?", trying to let my change of subject appear as casually as possible. "Ah, that's Libera, a "Boy Band" in its truest form. To be more specific, a boy choir. I find it relaxing and like to listen to it while driving, they are one of my favorites." Trying to focus myself again, I recalled the things he said before, only 20 minutes to Vienna, listening to the same music as while I fell asleep and the distance from Munich to Vienna. "Either you must be a very fast driver, or you are listening the same CD over and over again, as there is no way we could have driven from Munich to Vienna during only one turn of the CD." He laughed: "No, you have slept something over three hours, I have driven normally and I just have a couple of CDs from Libera, so it's a different one than before, but they sound very similar." Realizing another thing he said before, I asked: "You said "to your place", so you are living in Vienna?" This was curious, as he was clearly no Austrian, but German as me. "Yes, I moved to Vienna 4 years ago and I'm living there since then. Ah, look, we are coming to the outskirts of Vienna." And he was right, the pitch black night lighted up considerably as we approached the city. And I had the first chance to look at him a bit more thoroughly than before. When the light was on while I was changing I had different things in my mind. John didn't looked as old as I estimated him when I got on his car, he was maybe between 25 and 30, but clearly not middle-aged as I thought. He had brown hair, had glasses on his nose and was wearing some really baggy things which concealed most of his figure. He clearly saw the evaluating look of me and said defensively: "Don't judge me from what I'm wearing while driving, I just like to be comfortable while doing long way driving." Using the occasion of talking of him: "How old are you? And where are you coming from when you say you drove quite long?" "I'm 28, and I'm coming from my parents which live in western Germany. It's an eight hour drive from them to me, so I had more than half of it when I picked you up." Being right at my two guesses, his age and him being no native Austrian, I clearly ran out of questions. I'm normally a bit more curious, but the exhaustion took over again and I looked out of the car window, trying to get a measure of Vienna. Just as we stopped at a traffic light, a huge building came into view on the right side, brightly illuminated in the night. "Wow!", I exclaimed, quite impressed, "what is that on the right side?" pointing to the huge building. John answered: "That's Schoenbrunn Palace, the summer seat of the Austrian kings a hundred years ago." "Looks really impressive, I hope I can get a closer look while being here!", I added thoughtfully. I didn't know where my next steps would guide me, but I had the clear intent to get at least a closer look at this palace. While driving further into the city, no more such impressive buildings arose, just the normal big city night life: Lone pedestrians on the sidewalks, cars which drove to fast, neon light advertisements for all and nothing, and much more. After taking a couple of turns, John clearly started looking for a place to park his car. "Hah, lucky tonight, directly in front of my house.", and he pointed to a large multi story building in front of us. "Your house?", I just had to ask this. "No, not really, I have to admit. But I have my flat in there." It was an old house, but at least painted recently and looking a lot of better than the other buildings around it. John opened his door and climbed out of the car. I remembered I had no shoes on and much too big clothes, so after thinking about it a moment, I just put on my sneakers, shoving the trousers a bit up. It was clear it wouldn't do for a long walk, but obviously it wouldn't be far. John was busy unloading a couple of bags to the sidewalk and told me: "Could you take this bag and your clothes, please?" while pointing to a small bag having his travel supplies in it. "Sure!", as I had only my backpack and both hands free. He was loaded a bit more with 3 bags, but seemed to manage them just fine. He obviously did this a couple of times before. Entering the building, I was right once more that it was old. It didn't looked too nice in the corridor, but John gave me no time to gaze around, as he quickly ascended the stairs. I tried to stay on his heels, not knowing where he was going. But it was only up one level and he set down his bags, fishing his keys from his pocket. When he put the key in the lock, I heard a rumble behind the door as when something had fallen over. But John didn't looked concerned, he had more of a happy look on his face, obviously knowing what to expect behind the door. And it was clear when he opened the door, as two cats stood there, meowing frantically and trying to get their heads out of the door. John blocked them with his legs and moved his bags behind them. "Ah, I hope you are not allergic." He shoved them back a bit further into the flat, allowing me to enter the flat as well. I glanced around, seeing some plain furniture, all a bit untidy as when the cats had tried to help "cleaning up". I smiled at John, who was kneeling on the floor, relentlessly attacked by the two cats who purred loudly, sniffed at him and tried to get patted more than the other one. He pointed to the black and white cat: "This one, purring as loud as a sewing machine, is Ben, and this is Chloe", stroking the fur of the tabby cat once more. "And, sweeties, this is Kyle!", he tried to introduce me, but it was unambiguous that he was the most interesting person right now. I giggled at his fruitless attempt to calm them down. "Ah, I'll just feed this pack, they are always hungry when I come home, or at least they play it quite convincingly. When they are full they will be a bit more quiet." He took off to a room straight behind the front room, and I heard the sound of cat food being put into a cup. John returned, leaving the two cats with the cup, and seeing me standing a bit lost there in the hallway. "Ah, just put the bag in the rack over there, and put your backpack wherever you want. Just keep it closed, Chloe loves to explore bags. And that you can give to me.", pointing to my wet clothes. Having a spontaneous idea, remembering the smell of the shirt, I asked: "John, is there a possibility that you could wash them instead of only drying?" It would be so nice to have clean clothes once again. Looking a bit puzzled at me, he replied: "You are aware that this will take a couple of hours, cleaning and drying them? It is half past eleven in the night, the parents of your friend will be very reluctant to pick you up at four in the morning." There it was, the great flaw in my plan I had overlooked. Trying to save the situation, I decided to take a bold risk: "Erm, I thought, maybe, if you do not object, I could stay the night here? It is too late anyway, and I just had announced I will call them when I'm here, and not said a definite time." I prayed to all the gods, spirits and whatever was out there that he would buy it. I did not want to run on the street with this misfitting clothes when he decided to throw me out. He seemed to think for a moment, and said then, with a blank look in his eyes: "Sure, you are welcome to stay. Do you have anything more you want me to wash?" Being so eagerly, I made the second big mistake of this night as I opened my backpack and extracted a couple of other shirts and slips from it, all still dripping slowly on the floor, as the backpack had gotten wet too. I handed them to John who looked at them a bit astounded, but quickly turned around, going through another door. I followed him through the kitchen into a roomy bathroom, where his washing machine was. He put the clothes in, filled some fluids into it and pressed a couple of buttons. As it started, he turned around to me: "Maybe you want to take a shower to wash down the dirt from standing besides the road for an hour?" As I nodded, he simply added: "Put the clothes you wear in the bin to your right. Just take whatever you need in the shower, and you can put on the colored bathrobe when you are finished." Producing another fluffy towel out of a cupboard, he passed it to me. "Here, I will prepare your bed in the meantime." Seeing John heading off to another room, I closed the door and started getting rid of the misfitting clothes. Waiting until the water was heated, I heard a scratching noise at the door. Opening it just for a small gap, I expected to see John there, wanting something from me. Looking around the corner, I just saw nothing in front of it, but felt something at my legs an instant later. Clearly Chloe wanted to be pet again. I obliged, of course, and she started to purr very quietly. I told her: "Look, the water is warm, I have to get under the shower." She clearly understood what I said, as she headed off to sit in a cupboard with a good view of the shower. I climbed under the shower, sighing a bit as the hot water hit my shoulders. Just standing there for a couple of minutes, I just felt good, just warm. Regaining my senses, I started to wet my hair and roaming with my hands over my body, trying to get rid of the dirt. Turning off the water, I looked down to see a veritable choice of shower gels and shampoos. I just picked the first which looked OK, and started to soap my hair. It really hurt to soap them, as a lot of knots had been there for some time now. I just tried to be careful, and then started to soap up the rest my body. Turning on the water again, I rinsed off the soap and washed it out of my hair, shocked to see the water turning dark as the dirt got out of it. I just hadn't realized how dirty I must have been. With a feel of regret I turned off the water and started drying. This had been the sign for Chloe, who descended from her seat in the cupboard and started rubbing against my bare legs. As I'm a bit ticklish, I started to giggle quietly, which seemed to animate Chloe only to rub my legs even more. Finished drying up, I moved to the washing basin with a mirror on top of it. Critically looking at myself in the mirror, I tried to get a measure on how much weight I had lost. Maybe 10 or 15 kilos, I really looked thin at the moment. But living on my own had not been easy. Seeing my collar-length dark blond hair hanging untidy to my shoulders, I spotted a brush lying besides the basin. I picked it up, trying to straighten it up. But the knots in it were too numerous, and I couldn't do a stroke without yelping out, so I finally gave up and just straightened it up a bit with my hands. Taking a deep look in my own blue eyes, I tried to gauge if it was a clever move to stay with John tonight. Seeing no other options at that moment, I had to decide that it wasn't too bad. At least I was clean, had a dry and warm place to sleep and would have clean clothes in the morning. Not too bad to start over in a new town. Looking around for the bath robe John had mentioned, I found it and put it on. I kneeled down to pat Chloe a bit more, she really appreciated it and started to purr again. I went to the room John had gone while feeding the cats, figuring out he must have gone there, as he wasn't in the kitchen. Entering the room, I saw John sitting on a couch there, waiting for me. I took a look around and saw a nicely furnished living room in warm colors with a lot of wood. A big eating table stand in front of a couple of cupboards full with books, on the other side was a TV and the couch John was sitting on. He got up as soon as I entered the room, asking me: "Are you thirsty or hungry? Do you want anything?" "I'm OK, I think, just a bit hungry." "So do you want something to eat? You seemed really hungry in the car, and the things there were nothing more than a snack." I couldn't turn down the opportunity for a meal, so I quickly said: "OK, yeah, if you have something I would be glad." He moved back to the kitchen, opening the fridge and looking at it. I had followed him as he said: "Hmm, I'm running a bit low on everything, being away for a week. I have this, if it's ok." and showed me an instant lasagna from the freezer. "Oh, great! Yeah, I really would like it if it's not too much work to prepare!", I exclaimed. "Nah, no work at all. I'll just put it in the microwave. Look, I'm going to take a shower as well, why don't you make yourself comfortable in the living room while I shower. You can take this out of the microwave when it's ready and start eating, you don't have to wait for me.", he told me while putting the lasagna in the microwave and turning it on. "Cool, don't you want anything as well?" "No, I had dinner just before I picked you up, so I'm fine." With that, he tousled my hair once more and moved to the bathroom, and I went to the living room, settling down on the couch cross-legged. Chloe must have waited just for it, because as soon as I sat down, she jumped up and started to make herself comfortable in my lap. I was busy patting her and scratching her behind the ears, which she really seemed to like. When the "DING" from the microwave came, I picked her up with a sense of regret, sat her down besides me and got up to fetch my meal. Back in the living room, the smell of the lasagna attracted both cats as once, and I was busy defending my meal at no time as I settled on the couch again. Alternating between giggling when one of the cats started another attempt to get something and shoving food in my mouth, I didn't realized John was finished showering. when I saw some movement in the corner of my eye, I looked up and saw him leaning against the door frame in a white bathrobe as well, having a big smile on his face. "I hope they are not bothering you too much, normally they don't behave this bad." Seeing I finished the last bite of my meal, he extended his hand and stated: "Just give it to me, I will put it away. Do you want anything to drink? I think I have juice and water in the fridge." "Juice would be fine!", I stated, and he moved to the kitchen once more and returned with two glasses of juice, sitting down on the couch next to me. He looked at me with a sincere expression in his face: "So, will you tell me why you ran away from home?" Overwhelmed by a sudden strike of anxiety, I looked with big eyes at him and only managed to stammer: "But I, I told you, that I was on the way to Vienna, visiting a friend...." He looked even more sincere and a bit angry at me. "You are free to tell me anything, but please don't lie to me. You don't have to tell me, but don't you think it would be nice to share your burden? And your story doesn't fit together that well. For one thing, no train conductor would throw off a twelve year old from a train without turning him over to the police. And you told me all your clothes were stolen, but you produced enough from your backpack to have me to wash them. Oh yeah, and you are very reluctant to tell anyone what's happening, either your parents or your friend here in Vienna.", he started to count out all the mistakes in my story. "Ah yeah, and your appearance doesn't state as well you have started this morning from home." I knew when I was beaten, so I lowered my head and tears started running from my face. I was sure John would kick me out right now, without my clothes or anything, and it would be a very cold night out there. But instead he moved a bit closer to me, put his arm around my shoulder and pulled me to him, so now I was crying into his bathrobe. He made some soothing noises and stroked my shoulder. He let me cry for a couple of minutes and produced a handkerchief then. He pushed it in my hands and told me to blow my nose. I obediently did as he told, and straightened up a bit. I asked him: "So, what are you going to do?" "I don't made up my mind yet, not without hearing your story. You can of course sleep here tonight, it's way too late for anything today, and we can look what to do tomorrow. Is that OK for you?", he asked. "Sure.....", I answered, hanging my head low again. He would probably sent me home, or turn me over to the police, which would get me in a lot of trouble. He then put his hand under my chin and lifted my head, so I had to look him in the eyes. "Just tell me truth, OK?" Thinking it over for a moment, I nodded my head then and told him: "OK, I'll tell you. But don't interrupt me, I don't know if I would continue otherwise." Looking at him, he just gave a slight nod, and didn't said anything else. "OK, where should I start? I'm from the outskirts of Frankfurt. I'm living, or better said used to live, there with my mum, never knew my dad, and Mum didn't wanted to tell me anything about him. I led a pretty ordinary life, I think, until two years ago. I had just started on secondary school when Mum got a new boyfriend. He was heavy into drugs, and he somehow tempted her to try them as well. Mum was never a strong person, you know, she got always the bad men, but this one was the worst. It started lightly, just with smoking stuff and so, but she obviously kinda liked it. She was high more and more, not caring as much about me as she used to. She lost her job, and to bear it, she started with heavier stuff, like injecting herself cocaine and heroine. From then on she stopped caring for me at all, as it seems. Everything turned around how getting the next shot, or if she got it, she lay there trapped in her own world. She stopped shopping for food, cleaning the flat and whatever. From then on I was pretty much on my own. I begged to get some money for food, and after a time I knew some of the merchants on the market, some employees in the stores and so on, and sometimes they gave me some leftovers. When I wasn't hungry I was at the public library, I know one of the librarians there and she let me in and read, when I wanted to. Mum started to selling our stuff, and after a year or so our flat was next to empty, only some mattresses remained, nothing more. I spent less and less time at home, living on the streets most of the time. Most of the nights I slept at our flat, but in the morning I was gone, not returning until deep in the night. I went to the school most of the time, but my grades dropped very drastically as it is kinda hard to concentrate when your stomach is rumbling and you just think about where you can get something to eat. Of course I was mocked at school, as I had only very old clothes, not the proper things for classes and whatever. When my clothes got to filthy or too small, I just got some from the cloth collection for the poor and homeless." Taking a deep breath, I continued: "That was my live until three days ago. That was one of the worst days of my life on the streets. I somehow had always managed to stay away from stealing, always getting enough together with begging. But that day, I don't know. I got nothing, none of the shopkeepers had something to spare, there were very few people on the streets, and no one seemed to care. I hadn't gotten much to eat for a couple of days, but not that less as that day. I must have stricken by some bad luck, I imagine. So, after getting a bit woozy from the hunger, I decided that I had to take another step down the ladder, if I don't wanted to starve. And I decided to go into a shop and steal something. But, as the things turned out, I was too nervous, stood out too much and they catched me while I tried to smuggle some chocolate cookies out of the shop. They turned me over to the police, as I couldn't pay for it, they got my name and address and drove me home. Mum had just taken a big dose, as it seemed, and lay unconsciously on her mattress. The police started to wake her up, and when the two were busy with it, I went to my room, put some of my clothes in the backpack and just ran. The policemen tried to pursuit me, but I could shake them. After a night in a hiding place, where I carefully thought over my situation, I came to the conclusion that I had to leave Frankfurt. I couldn't return home, as they would have taken Mum with them for sure, for drug abuse, and I would have been turned over to social security. And that is a thing I really don't want to. I don't what to go to an orphanage!", I exclaimed a bit louder than I intended to. "I thought where I could go, and going in a foreign country sounded like the best idea. A school friend from primary school moved to Vienna a couple of years ago, they speak German here, and so this appeared to be the best target. So I tried to hitchhike here. But I was unlucky more and more, everybody could either take me only a short way, or tried to turn me in. I had to make a dash from cars or trucks 3 times now. But when I met you, I was really lucky. Perhaps my luck turned around.", I told John and looked up to him, smiling at last a bit again. When I looked into his face, I was astounded to see tears trickling down his face as well. He put his arm around me again, and hugged me very tight. "Such things should happen to no one, seeing the own parents stopping to care about one and so.", he stated. Suppressing a yawn, I smiled at him: "Nah, it wasn't that bad. I just should not have tried to steal anything, then everything would have been OK." "OK? You call that farce of a home "OK"? If I'll ever meet you mother, I would tell her something. As said, no kid should experience such things." Seeing me yawning again slightly, he continued: "I think we should call it a day and hit our beds. It has been a long drive for me, and an even longer day for you. We can think about everything tomorrow and decide together", he put some emphasis on together, "what to do further." "Yeah, that's fine with me", I replied, still yawning. The thought of just falling asleep looked very promising. John got up and told me: "My guest bed is in my own bedroom, as this is the only cat-free room in my flat. So I hope I don't snore too much.", he added with a grin. Petting Chloe once more, I got up as well. John stroked both his cats as well and wished them a good night, and opened the door to the room next to the living room. It was a smaller room, on the right side a big double bed, and on the left side a mattress lying on the floor. The pointed to the mattress and said: "You sleep over there. I fear I don't have a pajama for you, but maybe a boxer short and a t-shirt will do." He opened a drawer standing in there as well, and pulled out a boxer short at least 5 numbers too big for me. I tried to pull it on under the bath robe, but it just slid down to my ankles, having no resistance on my thin body. I giggled and just pulled off the bathrobe. "I will sleep naked, it doesn't matter to me." And that was right. After telling John everything about my live, it just seemed irrelevant that he might see me naked. "Suit yourself, I don't mind", he responded, turning around to the big bed. I just laid down and pulled the sheets over me, watching John. I was a bit curious how he looked naked, it only seemed fair after he had seen me naked twice. But to my disappointment he still had his underwear under his bathrobe. He slid under his sheets as well, and asked me: "Do you mind if I read a bit? I can't get to sleep very good without at least reading a few pages." "No, not at all", I responded. I turned myself around, now facing the wall and snuggling a bit deeper in the cushion. I suddenly realized that I didn't know what to do tomorrow. Up to this point I had a goal, namely reaching Vienna. But now I was there and didn't have a clue about anything. I didn't know anyone here, no places at all and felt suddenly very, very lonely. I felt tears dwelling up in me again, when I realized with a flash that I wasn't alone. I knew somebody, John, and an idea formed in my head. I turned around to look at John again, he lay in his bed, reading, and started to ask him: "John?" "Yes, kiddo?" "John, can I sleep with you in your bed, so you can just hold me?", I asked in a pleading voice. For the first I saw John struggling for words: "Uhm, I'm not sure if this is a good....." "Pleeeeease, I feel so lonely!", I said, setting up my best puppy look, the one which has gotten me a numerous meals. "Uhm, yeah, sure", but he seemed a bit uncertain. Just waiting for the yes, I threw up my covers and started walking towards his bed. I noticed he couldn't take his eyes off me, although I had no idea why. He turned over to his side, now facing me, put away the book he was reading and took off his glasses. I just slipped under his sheets, my back to his front, and snuggled up really close to him. He put one of his arms under my head, and the other around my chest, and hugged me again. Just feeling the warmth of his body pressing against my backside, I felt safe and comfortable for the first time in ages. "Night....." I just murmured when the exhaustion took over, and fell to sleep within seconds. To be continued