Adam and Evelyn Read Online Free PDF Page B

Brambach would be their border crossing, on the Czechoslovakian side that would take them through Cheb. Or they might try the eastern route via Oberwiesenthal and Karlovy Vary/Karlsbad, the first foreign city he had visited with his parents. Or were there other crossings? What Michael gained by driving like a maniac, Adam planned to make up for with slow but steady.
    At the light in Gössnitz the Passat was stuck behind a truck. The straw hat was still squashed against the back windshield. Once they were moving again, Adam fell back to avoid the truck’s dense exhaust fumes.
    No sooner were they through town than the Passat came to a stopon the shoulder without signaling. Adam pulled off to the right as well. Evelyn jumped out and walked toward him. Those sandals with low heels were new, too.
    “You’re making an ass of yourself, Adam. What do you think you’re doing?”
    Adam tried to get out, but Evelyn was standing too close to the car—he would have had to shove her out of the way with the door.
    “You trying to trail us? You can’t be serious.”
    A car raced past, honking its horn. Evelyn pressed up against the Wartburg.
    “Let me out!” Adam cried. Evelyn tried to say something more, but several strands of hair got blown across her mouth.
    “Adam,” she said, now that they were standing face-to-face, “what you’re up to is not funny.”
    “And what am I supposed to be up to?”
    “Nothing. Zilch. Hasn’t it got through that thick skull of yours, what happened yesterday, what you did?”
    “I love you.”
    “You’ve thought of that too late.”
    “I want us to be together.”
    “And I don’t!” Evelyn let Adam maneuver her to the front of the car, so that she wasn’t standing in the road.
    “And you’re going to leave me alone now, got it? Besides which it’s cruelty to animals. Drafts can be fatal for her.”
    Evelyn looped her hair into a knot as she tried to talk above the noise of passing traffic. It was all Adam could do not to reach out an arm and pull her to him.
    “We can vacation together, the four of us, those two and—”
    “Leave me alone! That’s all I want from you.”
    “Are the sandals another one of his presents?”
    Evelyn let out a screech. “That’s none of your damn business!”
    “Have you taken up smoking again?”
    “None of your business!” She snapped her fingers. “Not this much.” She bungled the second snap.
    She ran ahead to the Passat.
    “You’re crushing the hat!”
    Evelyn waved him off without even turning around. The knot in her hair came undone.
    “It’s pointless, pointless!” he heard her say as she got into the car.
    She slammed the door, the Passat sped away. The distance between the two cars grew rapidly. But, much to his satisfaction, he still managed to catch sight of the straw hat vanishing from the back window.

8

DETOURS
    ADAM SMILED —Michael was obeying the speed limit. They drove through Meerane, where one row of buildings always reminded him of his toy train set. Adam was startled when the Passat signaled a turn. They were turning onto the autobahn in the direction of Karl-Marx-Stadt. The autobahn was the riverbed where he was supposed to lose the trail. But what difference did it make if they shook him off here or in Czechoslovakia. Even if they spent the cousin’s Westmarks to stay somewhere else on Lake Balaton, rather than with Pepi’s family, he would find them. And that was what it was all about. And at some point Evelyn would realize just how serious he was.
    He almost lost control on the curve of the on ramp. Then he had to yield to a long caravan of cars. But just a few kilometers beyond Glauchau he again caught sight of the red Passat up ahead, doing barely a hundred. Adam even passed it. At first he thought he would pretend not to notice, but then turned his head and waved. Michael smiled, the women were back to talking—and smoking.
    He floored it as they started uphill. Once they had the long grade behind