Derek Raegnerssen

"The first thing that I saw, was the great wall of white salted risk and the waves of the (dunkel bleauen Meer) the words in german for darker blue sea of the goddamn Atlantic Ocean. I was always reluctant for flying. I don't know, maybe it was the cloudy and gray skies of Maine the ones I never liked it."

    " I used to live in New Mexico, where the sun was always shining up in the clear blue sky. With no cloud visible and the burning sun over my head, but that was before. Now I was going to start a new life. The chimney of the Ferry started to howling as the coast was getting more visible per second."

    Derek Raegnerssen saw, as he left the Ferry's railing. Then he saw his smartwatch on his wrist, it was a new message. The Helvetica typography unveil the brand. As the landing was coming soon. He listens the ringtone, it was a new message of his friend.

   "Rachel" he thought. It was a long time since he saw her, they were in the high school, before Derek decided to go for the University instead of...well the family business. As the stairs where descending into the pier Derek took his luggage with him. 

   "Is sad, how all your life can fit in a suitcase." Once again the echoing voice of Nayae her ex-girlfriend was smashing the walls inside his mind. When the passengers started to walk down, to the Harbor, Derek took his black Pecoat and suit on it. Then he came over, it was not different as the airport. Family and friends where gathering at the waiting room with bad written kid's posters in Bristol cardboard.

   "Derek, Derek, over here!" said the woman's lively voice. Derek turn to his left and saw her, at first he did not get the clue about that lady that was screaming at him. Her face was heart shaped, with blush on the cheeks, and big and sparking emerald eyes. Her lips were bigger pink and shiny, because of the gloss. 

   Her nose small and well built. She had long brunette hair the color of the toffee, she was slender and well built as well, with a tiny waist, and generous hips. With long and well sized legs. And her breast size probably grew three sizes since high school., She was her "long time no see friend", Rachel Muller.

   "Rachel, is that really you?" Derek told the lady, Rachel smirked and then ran then she hugged him. Derek got the smell of raspberry of her shampoo. The smell reminded him the scents of the late summer rains. 

   The old garden and the secrets beyond the fences of his childhood. Derek corresponded her hug. Even over the top she was wearing he could felt the muscles of her back. Tender and well built.

   "Oh Derek, is been a long time no see buddy!" said the lady, the Hug was long, and strong, maybe she really missed Derek, yeah why not, they were high school friends. They knew each other for a long time now.

   "It's been a long time" Answer the man. Then Rachel guided him to the parking lot outside the harbor, she took him into her car, the vehicle was small, it only had room two, the driver and a passenger.

   "Probably won't make a good Uber" thought Derek, she opened up the trunk of the car. And without Derek's help she stocked inside the big suitcase he brought. Derek was impressed. "She probably had worked up for years at the gym to look and be like that" thought Derek. Then both enter into the car and Rachel started the engine. 

   A second later she was already driven thru the entrance of the parking lot. The sight on Heaven's Peak streets was beautiful, the colonial style of the buildings. The trees growing all over the streets. The advertisements were carved in wood for some of the pubs and restaurants. It was like returning to the colonial life. But with no horses or horse shit.

   "What?" she asked. "You have been staring at me, since we left the harbor" said Rachel. She only glimpsed at Derek a couple times, she had to look at the road. And couldn't get distracted, whatsoever the curiosity of his friend was so intense, he had answer.

   "Oh...is just, you look really different. I mean, you are so changed, when we were at high school you used to wear, long sweatshirts and hoodies and you had a pony tail".

   To tell the true, I never knew how you looked at high school, I never knew if you were chubby, or curvy, slender or more because you were always wearing those clothes, always wanted to be unnoticed. Well at least, this time you are not." He thought.

   "Well, of course I will look different, the last time you saw me I was 17, is being a long time, even you changed in some aspects" answered the woman. Rachel had a keen mind and that was to acknowledge.

   She always had. Unless that was what Derek thought.

   "Yeah, you do" "What kind of workout you use to do at the GYM?" asked Derek.

   "GYM? I don't go to the GYM" she told, but Derek couldn't believe that, it was a long time since he worked out and he was continuously struggling with food and the fat. For him was difficult to stay fit. He knew that in the near future his metabolism won't help him. "I guess is my work, yes that what keep me fit"

   It won't past a long time when they finally arrived at the driveway of the house. The old Genever Street and the old house out there. His grandfather's house. 

   It had a Dutch design. Narrow and tall, the cover was painted in light blue with some white at the window frames. "Yeah, I can definitely see me there, sit with a table oriented at the window of the second floor, my laptop and me, writing, and watching the people passing by the street." Thought Derek. Rachel had the house opened for Derek to watch.

   The first thing Derek did, was lay his suitcase over the red rug in the living room, a smell of wood and polish hit him hard. Were the smells of his childhood. The one week of the summer vacation spent inside those walls, he opened his suitcase and took three books that were inside and started to putting at the already full bookshelves.

    "Unbelievable, you brought more books to this already library looking house" said Rachel. Derek didn't paid attention to the spunky comment of his childhood friend.

   "Those books needed to be there and that is all" said to himself. His grandfather used to be a reader, that was the only thing he loved in the world, stay by the window of the second floor, always with a book in his hands reading with the twilight shine over him.

   "Any way, I have something for too" said Rachel and then she put in the coffee table of the living room a paper bag, with a small blue ribbon

   "A present?"

   "Yeah, since you like books, I thought that this could be a book you must have" she said. as her index finger was playing with her long hair, always wrapping on it. As her smile show her white teeth.

    Derek took the bag and opened it. It was a book indeed, but a different kind of book, the covers where of leather. The smell of oldness came to life. And then in the cover, a silver rose made of metal incrusted at the face of the book. He knew what it was. "The Rollo Manual" he said in quiet voice. 

   Then he saw her as she glimpsed fast and then look away the look of those green eyes, away from him. She hesitated a moment and then started to talk again.

   "Yeah, even if you are not working...like that anymore...you should have it, like, I don't know, some kind of protection" she said.

   "Protection? Protection of what? Rachel, this is The Rollo Manual, the book created by Santa Sofia's Order to track, hunt and killing witches" Derek said, he was annoyed, the book represented a part of his past that he wanted to forgot. He needed to forgot. And yet there it was.

   "No, you got me wrong I don't want you to fight again, unless you want it" she said.

   "Is getting late, you should probably go" Derek's said he didn't want to deal with this for today, the last thing he wanted was to once again have the "talk"

   "Okay, I'll leave" she said, then Derek took her to the door. She stepped out, and then she turned around. "I am really glad you came here, I'm truly are" then she leaned and kiss Derek in the cheek. Then she walked away and took her car.

    Derek looked the silhouette of his friend. Then he felt a warm feel at his heart. And closed the door.