A big Danish girl in a country dress explained the menu and how to order with the little green light above the table. The green light would signal her to come. I choose deer with greens and potatoes. I ordered a glass of red wine and asked her to bring a large carafe of water. I listened to an obese American telling an englishman about his greatly successful car washes across the southwest. The englishman was much impressed. The wives of these men were mostly silent.
After I ate I drank more water. I had tea. And then things were even clearer. I started feeling good even. I had acted poorly yesterday but that was distant now. I would need to apologize for that or find somewhere else to stay the week. I left the restaurant and caught a woman taking down her flower stall. I bought lillies. She pointed me in the direction of the apartment. I would bring these flowers to the apartment and leave a note of apology for her.
I wrote the note and explained how I felt, that my heart hurt and that I hoped she could forget about what I had done and said the night before. Then I left and started back towards that restaurant with all the people. As I sat in the downstairs bar of the restaurant I realized my heart wasnt hurting much at all. At the next bar it was hurting even less. And when I started walking back towards the apartment and it began to rain I was just some guy wandering around in the rain in a city he didnt know, and I wasnt lonely at all.
I found a metro stop but the line was closed and someone sent me on to a bus station. A pretty girl was standing there and had been waiting for some time. In fact she lived on the same street I needed to get to. I said lets split a cab and we left together. She was from a city called Arhus and worked some famous cafe at the city center. She invited me to come by the next day. I said I would.
She was back at the apartment when I got there and thanked me for the lillies. We didnt talk any more about it but I could feel that she felt better. I lay in bed next to her. I went to sleep.
In the morning I left her in bed and went out looking for a bike shop. Near the Central Station I rented a bike until Saturday and without thinking of breakfast or water or even that I wasnt wearing the clothes I had brought for riding, I started west for Roskilde. Some big road would take me directly there. It didnt seem far and I started slow and then that wasnt fast enough and after a great hill the city ended and it became a larger road through industrial parks and car dealerships. There was nowhere to stop for food or water. The wind picked up and chilled me. It darkened and I thought it might rain. I rode harder and put my head down. I had to keep my body temperature up and there wasnt anything beautiful to look at. The road reminded me of that barren stretch of highway in Jersey before you reach the Turnpike from Philadelphia.
When I came into Roskilde a girl pointed me towards the famous church. There was a beef house near it with very good and affordable beef and I should eat there. I drank tea and water along with a beef hamburger patty that was barely edible. When my shirt and jeans dried up I went out and saw the church. Busloads of children had filled the church and men wearing animal face masks were wandering around with big signs. A few were dressed as wizards. A disco ball hung from an area where many of Roskildes famous men had been buried. It did not make any sense to me and I left. It was almost dark and I took my bike on the train back to Copenhagen.
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