Boys in the Dark: A European Odyssey

"You know, there's something about Europe that makes you feel like a kid all over again. The excitement in the eyes of a young man is beautiful to behold."

The old man with the grey hair and the slight wrinkles on his face had been sitting across from me at this pub in Berlin for almost 2 hours now, talking non-stop. It was getting rather annoying. I wanted to be left alone so I could watch the soccer match but all I could hear was his incessant yapping.

"I've seen countries crumble and fall under the might of other nations. Most countries have gone through some kind of turmoil or another but they always bounce back stronger than ever before."

He took a sip of his beer and wiped his mouth with a rag he pulled out of his pocket. The bartender nodded as if he understood what he was saying. He probably does. Germans are smart people, after all. They know when to agree with someone who is clearly more intelligent than them.

"But it's different here in Germany," he continued, "We're special, you see? We don't just get up from our slumber and rebuild our nation; we're born anew." He reached over to grab my glass and took a sip from it. "We're born from the ashes like our mythical God Tierra." He put my glass down again and smiled at me. "We're strong and we don't accept defeat."

"Well that's great for you guys," I said, "Now can you please shut up?" I looked over to the TV but quickly looked away again when I realized how boring my team was playing today. This pub wasn't that big either; I could probably see everything from where I sat if it weren't for this guy beside me who insisted on talking non-stop while watching the game with me. "I'm trying to watch the match here," I said, gesturing at the TV screen with my head, "Can you just go somewhere else?"

He looked at me and frowned, looking hurt by my words but he didn't say anything else. Instead, he stood up slowly from his seat and walked towards the exit of the pub. As he pushed his way through the crowd of people standing around waiting for their turn to order another round of drinks, women seemed to gravitate towards him like bees around their queen bee when she sends out her pheromone scent into the hive signaling that she has found food for them all. One woman even took his hand as he passed her by but he quickly withdrew it as if he were scalded by lava before making a hasty retreat out of the pub as fast as he could without breaking into a run.

I sighed in relief as soon as he left and quickly turned my attention back to the TV screen above me but my mind kept wandering back to him instead. Who was that guy? He spoke German with an accent that sounded vaguely familiar but I couldn't quite put my finger on it where I had heard it before. Was it... German? No... French? Maybe Spanish? No... Dutch? Not Dutch... Belgian? Dutch maybe but not Belgian... Scandinavian perhaps? No Scandinavian doesn't sound like that... Italian? Italian! That was it! Italian! But what was an Italian doing in Germany anyway? There were hundreds of Italians living in Berlin anyway; any one of them would have been better company than this weirdo who talked too much and wore clothes that looked like they came straight out of a history textbook about World War II and Nazi Germany!

I shook my head at myself before turning back to watch the match again but then suddenly felt something odd happening around me; something strange yet familiar enough that made my skin crawl because it felt like déjà vu, like something I had already experienced before...