"Are you okay??"
Anna who has been keeping her eyes on the cute boy stranger since he stopped talking asked, slightly concerned for him—which baffles her, cause she never worry for stranger, ever.
"I am... In more ways than one" Tim replied, hesitating before— 'fuck it, here it goes'
"Actually... do you happen to know where I can find a currency exchange place near the station??.... I have some currency I need to exchange to Euro"
Anna's brow furrowed, her eyes dropping to his completely empty hands. "An exchange booth? Why would you use those? They completely rip you off with the rates. Why don't you just go to a standard bank or use an ATM?"
Tim rubbed the back of his neck, his expression tightening with a mix of physical pain and profound vulnerability.
"I don't exactly have a European bank card on me right now."
"Which currency you exchanging into??"
"Uhhm.... Nigerian Naira??". Tim replied in a quiet tone that's more like a question than answer.
'So he's from Nigeria too, meaning he's actually a mixed race and gosssh, no one can even tell without his fair skin color tone which look white too' Anna thought before looking upward to met his eyes.
"You did land at the airport before the sea right??" Anna asked, her voice dropping into a quiet, intense register as her eyes scanned his caked, salt hair and-stained Jean clothing.
"Frankfurt or Düsseldorf? Why didn't you just do it at the airport when you arrived?" She pressed on.
Tim looked down at her, the absolute exhaustion pulling at his face, he actually didn't want to hide anything if he wanted her help but he just.....
"Well.... I didn't come through an airport." He said in a murmured tone but Anna caught the word and she just stared at him, the gravity of his words sinking into the space between them. She noticed the total lack of any luggage, any bags—except a small cross bag which couldn't contain a phone except a button phone which is impossible for her type of generation citizens to use,she couldn't find a phone, or anything a normal traveler would carry. Things clearly did not look like they were supposed to. The conversation was veering into dangerous, deeply personal territory.
"Uhhmm... okay...." Anna managed to say, wanting to call the cute stranger name before realizing she didn't even know his name and so she exclaimed...
"Wow!!.... Please what's your name, sorry??" She asked, managing to keep her voice from rising as she can.
Tim, whose heart has been beating nervously while looking at the girl different facial reactions, heard her question and breathed a sigh of relief inside.
"Oh, Timo.." Tim caught his words before it came out and continued...
"Sorry, it's Tim.. and sorry I didn't introduce myself earlier. I guess it was just too easy and great to talk to you that I forgot we didn't know each other's name".
"Tim...." Anna murmured the name softly, the name sounding great and strange same time on her tongue.
Leaning in closer so her voice wouldn't carry over the noise of the shifting passengers, Anna said while demonstrating with her hands
"What is this? Where is your stuff?"
Tim looked around, the direction of her demonstrated hands around the crowded bus—feeling the suffocating weight of his secrets pressing against his chest.
"Look, I... I can't tell you here on the bus. It's not safe, and it's complicated."
Anna looked at him for a long, quiet moment, seeing the profound, raw sorrow in his eyes—a look she recognized in her own mirror every morning.
"Where are you getting off??" She asked.
"Dortmund Central," Tim whispered.
"Me too," she replied quietly, turning her gaze back to the window, leaving him in a supportive, understanding silence for the remainder of the trip.
When the bus finally pulled into the subterranean concrete bays of the Dortmund intersection junction, the doors hissed open.
Tim carefully stepped off, bracing his core as the cool German air hit him like a physical shock. He stood still for a moment, looked up at the cloudy late February weather, breathed in the German cool air and closed his eyes murmuring
"Dad,Mom,T, I'm here, finally home".... When he opened his eyes, a tear, that he didn't even know about followed.
Anna, who has been walking ahead and stopped when he noticed Tim not following, just stood and watched him, noticing the emotional tumor he's in.
"We good to go now??" she asked softly
"Yeah...thanks" Replied Tim, appreciating her for no reason he could say but know, he needed to say it.
Anna just smiled at him genuinely for the first time and walked right beside him, keeping his pace without saying a word until they had navigated completely away from the main crowd, stopping near a quieter, brick-lined corner of the junction plaza.
She turned to face him, wrapping her jacket tightly around herself to ward off the chill. Her eyes were fixed on his face, entirely open now, stripped of her usual armor.
"Okay. We're off the bus. What's the real story??"
Tim looked at her, a bitter, tragic smile touching his lips before fading into something entirely exposed.
"You're smart, and I believe you've noticed I came into the country illegally right??"
Not waiting for her to answer, Tim continued
"If I told you I came to this country through the water... would you believe me?"
Tim whispered, his voice cracking.
"No flights. No legal lines. I came straight from the border crossing in Italy."
Anna's eyes widened, a sharp breath catching in her throat.
"Are you serious? You crossed by sea? But... Tim, why would you risk your life like that?"
Tim looked down at his sneakers, clean and new, but the salt crust on his Jeans, told a different story.
His voice dropped to a raw, bleeding whisper.
"Because I didn't care if I made it to the shore or not". He said in a raw vulnerable state, his voice dropping by the seconds.
Bringing his head down—cause he couldn't look at her or anywhere— and looking at his blury sneakers in front of his moist tears eyes, he continued
"I'm from here, you know...." He said in a quiet heavily breath
"Mom was from here," he said quietly, more in a whisper way
"left when I was two-year-old and was supposed to return when I turned Eighteen but....." Tim stopped, his voice breaking and tears dropping on his sneakers continuously.
"But.... I lost everything...everything, I couldn't take it anymore... the will to live, the power to get out of bed daily and continue living.....I couldn't do that. I didn't even knew my phone existed for weeks... Probably got rundown cause of the continuous calls and messages that I forgot it existed".... At this point,Tim was already whimpering, his heart heavy and breaking. He didn't know why he was crying or telling her this stuff that he didn't want to share with strangers, but he did anyway.
Anna, standing in front of Tim was already having a glistening eyes just listening to him.
He didn't tell her what he lost but she, she could guess that he lost his mom from their conversation earlier on the bus and now, she could tell that he lost more than his mom and she been empathic and observant, couldn't stand still and do nothing, so she closed the distance between them, raised her two hands and held his tears glistening face up that was facing down.
Holding his chin with both of her hands and making him face her, she looked straight into his eyes,—now seeing his eyes up close and the glistening tears dropping slowly, she could now tell that his eyes was purple and black 'or is he wearing contact lense'
"Hey... It's okay, you don't need to explain further.... if you don't want to okay... Just tell me how I can help,... I promise to okay??.."
Anna spoke in a slow, quiet tone, both staring into each other's eyes.
Tim looking into her glistening eyes, her face blurry cause of the moist tears on his eyes. He saw the sadness and empathy in it, he couldn't even tell, he could see her sadness for him, her genuine worry and yet, they just met half-an-hour ago.
He took a quiet breathe of air, took her hands from his face—holding it down—and look at her again, this time breaking into a bitter smile
"How??..." His voice cracking and shaky
"How can you help someone,... who has a German passport,.. and could take a safe flight if he just renew it but didn't,..." He let her hands go, bringing his own hands unto his face before exhaling and bringing it back down while he continued...his emotions rioting
"Instead he took a risky ordeal,.. I wanted a risky, painful thing to do and this..," he pointed a finger to himself before spreading his hands and motioning to the surroundings
"returning here, to Germany was the only thing left.... and what way to make the journey smoothless and eventful if not to cross the Mediterranean sea huh....hahaha"
Tim laughed quietly, a shaky, uneven breath, his hand trembling slightly as he gestured vaguely toward his spine.
"I didn't want a safe flight, because a safe flight meant sitting with the emptiness. I wanted something risky. I was entirely ready to let the ocean take the pain away. But I survived.... And like you said," He motioned to Anna, continuing
"Maybe the sea has higher standards and I'm not up to it, or..."
"Come on, don't say that" Anna interrupted
"Or maybe it realized I still had some chivalry left to give away to strangers... Your words you know, and I guess you right".
"You know I didn't mean it like that right??" Anna said in a sad empathic voice, looking at him sadly.
She stood entirely frozen, the quiet plaza suddenly feeling incredibly small. The sheer magnitude of his grief, coupled with his physical trauma, struck a deep, agonizing chord within her. She knew exactly what it was like to want to give up on life, to abandon the things you loved—like her giving up football because of her own suffocating guilt over her friend's injury.
She took a step closer again, stepping completely into his space, her guarded demeanor already forgotten into pure, intimate empathy. She didn't give him her name yet, but her actions spoke with total certainty.
"What do you want to do, I will help out like I said earlier"
Tim looked at her determined face and couldn't help but appreciate GOD—the God he hadn't appreciated or prayed to since he questioned him 'why he took all his family from him'— for making him cross path with this kind hearted beautiful soul.
Tim look away from her face, taking a second to gather his self and emotions before looking back at her face, still staring at him and his every movement.
"I have an aunt here in Dortmund who doesn't even know I was coming nor....through this...". He paused before continuing
"I can't reach her cause her contact info went down the sea with my phone and I don't have it memorized. I just need enough to find a place to hide for the night."
"It was the reason why I asked if you knew a conducive place where I could exchange to Euro. Wanted to find somewhere to stay for the night or two if it's enough, somewhere that won't ask for Id's or details". Tim finally said after calming his emotions and cleaning his glistening tears face.
Anna looking at him—just one feet forward separating them barely let his word echo before she...
"Forget the currency exchange tonight," she said firmly, her voice steady but remarkably gentle as she reached out, her fingers lightly resting against his arm, carefully avoiding his back, since she could tell he has a massive injury there.
"You're bleeding, you're in pain, and you're not spending the night on the street,..." She stopped for a second before continuing
"How about coming home with me??... It's okay, my parents won't mind I__ guess... When...I...explain to them" Anna couldn't believe what she just said.. she looked away from Tim unable to look at his face for the moment while thinking like 'I'm I okay??, why would you say that Annabelle'. She felt like she needed to hit her head on the wall for saying that but she couldn't blame herself, that's how she is, the kindhearted given type and the guy standing in front him looked like a nice guy, she knows it.
Hearing no response from Tim, Anna looked up and found him staring at her emotionally, she looked into his eyes—the intense and emotions it held staring into hers made her heart jolt and started beating rapidly, scaring her in the process cause she knew what that was and needed to avoid it.
"Uhhmm, my Mom is a Doctor, she wouldn't mind and she could help you look at your injury which you need urgently". She managed to say while still looking at him but this time, not his face.
Tim, who has been staring at her intensely when he heard what she said the first time, couldn't fathom his emotions right now, a tear finally cut a clean line through his already dried eyes flowing on his right cheek down. He was deeply moved by the sudden, quiet grace and kindness of a stranger who understood what it meant to be broken.
"Thank you..." He wanted to say more, ask more but he couldn't on his choked voice and overwhelmed emotions at the sudden offer of kindness from her.
"Come on," she said softly, her hand remaining on his arm as she guided him toward the exit of the junction. "Let's get you out of the cold."