A Very Special Year Read Online Free Page A

Her headscarf flew up in the wind. Julia turned around and was astonished tosee that the wind, which had whipped up from nowhere, looked as if it might carry the woman off. She scuttled out into the street, vanishing for a moment in a group of people who crowded around her as quickly as they dispersed. Just enough time for the stranger to undergo a wonderful transformation. The headscarf had disappeared, giving way to long, blonde hair that fluttered in the wind, while her dress was hidden beneath a light raincoat. As soon as the rain started, the woman opened a dark-blue umbrella that was so ordinary looking it almost rendered her invisible.
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    Julia had followed the stranger with her gaze without knowing why. And now, just as instinctively, she walked behind her, impervious to the wind and rain. The woman emanated a mysterious aura that held Julia spellbound. Totally oblivious to her surroundings, she guided her steps inthe same direction the woman was heading. In spite of the sudden torrent, the stranger moved with a lightness as if she were not of this world. Fascinated, Julia came closer. They approached a small bridge, on the other side of which steps led up to the old town. As Julia walked onto the bridge a violent gust wrenched the woman’s umbrella. Struggling to keep hold of it, the woman dropped her handbag. Then, in a single, fluid movement, she abandoned the umbrella that was spinning in the wind, picked up her bag and continued swiftly on her way. Julia watched the umbrella rise up into the sky then flap down into the river. Like a drowned butterfly, she thought. When she looked back the woman was gone.
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    Confused and slightly embarrassed, Julia stood on the bridge. How on earth did I end up here? she asked herself. What am I doing followingthis woman? By now she was drenched and starting to freeze. She would go back home and make a hot chocolate – yes, and quickly too, before she caught a cold. She had gone no more than a metre or two when, out of the corner of her eye, she noticed something glinting brightly: an envelope. She stopped to pick it up. It must have fallen out of the stranger’s handbag. She looked over to the far side of the bridge and the steps, but the woman was nowhere to be seen. Julia stuffed the envelope in her pocket and scampered to a nearby porch, where she took it back out and examined it in the pale light of a gloomy, stormy afternoon. It bore no address or inscription. Only now did Julia realize that the envelope was not sealed. Opening the flap, she removed the contents: two train tickets that had remained passably dry. First class, she noted. They were for today. Two tickets to Paris
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    Had the stranger been on her way to the station? Julia looked at her watch: just past six o’clock. The train left at half past seven. The route – over the bridge, up the steps and through the old town – was the right direction. But the elegant-looking stranger hadn’t been carrying any luggage, had she? Would she have had to? No, she could have left it in a station locker to pick up prior to departure. In any event, she would need the tickets. Maybe everything would have turned out differently if the rain hadn’t abated at that moment, to be superseded by the slanting, late-afternoon sun. But Julia took a decision that would change everything, not least – in fact this most of all – her whole life
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    She hurried across the bridge, up the steps and through the old town. Half an hour later, she was at the station, where the train to Paris was already waiting. The first-class carriage was atthe end of the platform. But there was still enough time. Julia got on and made for the front of the train, carefully checking in every compartment to see whether the mysterious stranger was there. But she would be in the front carriage, obviously. Or should have been. For as it turned out the woman wasn’t there either. She was nowhere to be seen.