FanStory.com - DUEL with the DEVIL - Chapter 27by Jim Wile

Recap of Chapter 26: The date continues to be a disaster. Daniel and Kimiko have a great deal of trouble conversing. At the restaurant, Brian gives Daniel more advice on how to talk to Kimiko while the girls are in the lady’s room. When they return, Daniel decides to tell the sniffing conductor joke to Kimiko, but he completely botches it, offending Kimiko in the process, who flees the restaurant in embarrassment. Brian and Julia can hardly contain their laughter at the situation, but Brian gets up to go look for Kimiko to try to smooth things over. He can’t find her and returns to the restaurant, where he finds Julia giving Daniel more advice on how to talk to a girl.

Daniel is very disheartened, and they return to the dorm. Brian visits Kimiko and explains that Daniel is shy and didn’t mean to offend her. This makes her feel better. When Brian returns to his room, he hears Julia playing her violin.

Chapter 27

I opened the door, and Daniel, with a rapt look, was sitting on his bed watching Julia play Paganini’s Caprice No. 5. Her fingers were flying over the strings as the notes poured out in an incredibly fast piece. I stood in the doorway, listening. A few kids passing in the hall heard the music and stopped to listen too. By the time she had finished, the crowd around the doorway had grown even more, and applause and whistles rang out for Julia. She smiled and bowed her head to the crowd.

Shouts of “encore, encore” followed this. I gave Julia an inquisitive look, and she nodded to me. I entered the room, and a few of the kids crowded in behind me. Julia began playing something more familiar—the classic fiddle number called “The Irish Washerwoman.” The audience loved it and began clapping along. Daniel followed suit and clapped too. His face was lit with a huge smile, and Julia was beaming.

One of the girls who’d come in began dancing a jig. When the piece was over, the crowd in the room and out in the hall roared their approval with more applause and whistles. Again, calls of “encore” and “play another one!”

As the applause started to die down, I mouthed to Julia, “One more?” and she nodded. I shouted to the crowd, “Okay, guys, one last one!”

Playing to the crowd now, she launched into “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” which everyone knew, and they clapped along to that one too. When she’d finished, she took a bow to more thunderous applause, cheering, and thanks as the crowd began to disperse. When the last person left and I was about to close the door, Kimiko suddenly appeared in the doorway. Apparently, she had joined the throng in the hallway. I ushered her in and closed the door.

“Julia, that was wonderful. You are so talented,” she said.

“Thank you, Kimiko. I’m glad you enjoyed it.”

She looked at Daniel, who had risen from his bed when she entered the room. “Daniel, I want to apologize for running out of the restaurant. I—”

“I should be the one to apologize for my very rude joke, which I did not tell correctly. I am most sorry for offending you. I hope you can forgive me.”

“There is nothing to forgive. Maybe we can start over.”

“I would like that very much. You are most kind. I was feeling very miserable, and Julia helped to cheer me up with her excellent violin playing.”

He looked at Julia and said, “Thank you, Julia. I agree with Kimiko; you are most talented and also very nice.”

“Thank you, Daniel. Do you play any instruments or sing, perhaps?”

“I do not. I am unable to carry a tune in a… in a briefcase.”

I looked at Julia, smiled, and shook my head.

“My talent, if I have any at all, is more in the area of sports. I like to play football, which you call soccer, rugby, and tennis.”

“I like to play tennis too,” said Kimiko.

“That is very good. We must play sometime.”

“That would be nice.”

Both of them were smiling at each other now, and the ice appeared to be broken. Then the four of us just talked together. Julia put away her violin, and we sat on my bed. Kimiko joined Daniel, sitting on his bed. The conversation was pleasant, and everyone participated. Kimiko felt comfortable enough to share with us that most of her friends back home called her Kimi and that we could call her that too.

That seemed to fit her perfectly.

When there was finally a lull, Kimi said her last final was coming up on Monday, and she needed to study some more for it, so she had better say goodnight.

“Would you permit me to walk with you back to your room, Kimi?” asked Daniel.

“Yes, I would like that.”

We said our goodbyes, and they left together.

“That sure ended well,” said Julia after they had gone.

“Unbelievable.”

“What did you say to her when you went to her room? It must have been amazing.”

“I just told her what a great guy he really is, and how nervous he was, and how bad he felt about botching that joke. I don’t think she even realized he’d started telling the joke.”

“You mean she thought he was just waving his arms around and thinking she’d farted?”

“I guess,” and the two of us broke up again.

“Poor Kimi,” she said. “And then she thinks he's asking her if she’d shit her panties!” and we laughed some more until the tears came to our eyes.

“Oh, my God, I’m never going to let him live that down,” I said, finally getting myself under control.

“Now don’t be cruel with him.”

“No, don’t worry. He can take it. I already tease him a lot. He’s used to it.”

Pretty soon, Daniel returned. “Well?” I said when he sat down again.

“I apologized once more for insulting her, and she said I was forgiven. She was very gracious.”

“You did very well after she returned, Daniel,” said Julia. “It wasn’t so hard after all, was it?”

“The both of you helped to ease my discomfort. I am most grateful to you. Now I will take my leave and go to Dmitri’s room down the hall for the night. Thank you both again for your help tonight.”

He gathered up a few things and left us.

I saw him in the bathroom the following morning and asked him if he’d had breakfast yet. When he said he hadn’t, I asked him if he’d like to join Julia and me, and when he agreed, the three of us went down to breakfast together.

When we’d filled our trays and sat down to eat, I saw him scanning the room. He spotted Kimi dining alone at a table by a window. “Why don’t you go join her?” I suggested.

“I am starting to get nervous again. It was easier when the two of you accompanied me, but I am uneasy about going there alone.”

Julia said, “You’ll do fine. Don’t think about it. Just go say hi and ask her if she would like some company.”

He slowly headed over to her table, and we watched him as he got her attention. I saw them chat for a minute, then he turned and headed back. He picked up his tray and said, “She asked if I wanted to join her.”

I smiled and flicked my fingers in her direction, encouraging him to be off.