It had been a wonderful week and Aurelie felt sad that she had been surly that last day she and Danijel had spent together in Paris. When she said goodbye to him at the Gare de l’est, she could see the sadness in his eyes. She had apologized but, still, her behavior had tarnished an otherwise romantic interlude.
She’d make it up to him she said; “next week when I come to visit you in your hometown, Bratislava.” She was looking forward to meeting Danijel’s parents. Although, she had to admit she was more than a little nervous. It was important to make a good first impression before she and Danijel told his parents about their wedding plans.
The original plan was for both of them to travel together by train from Paris to Munich on the night train. The next day they would take the train from Munich to Vienna, spend a few hours there and later in the afternoon take the hydrofoil across the Danube to Bratislava. But she couldn’t get away from her job and he had to get back to his job at the Hotel, where he was the head desk clerk.
Danijel wasn’t at the station when she arrived and she was puzzled, wondering if he was having second thoughts after her behavior last week. “I’m sure there’s a perfectly good explanation” she thought, as she got into the taxi. She gave the driver the address Danijel had written down for her on the back of a box of matches. Even though he didn’t smoke, Danijel always had a few of his hotel’s match boxes in his suit coat pocket. He used them like most people used business cards.
After repeatedly knocking on the door to Danijel’s apartment and getting no response, Aurelie went to find the super. After explaining her situation, he agreed to accompany her while letting her into Danijel’s apartment. The stuffiness was oppressive and the room was very cold, as cold as the outside temperature of forty degrees Fahrenheit. They saw Danijel lying on the sofa as still as a stone. The space heater by the sofa was cold also. His complexion was cherry red. On the coffee table beside the space heater and directly in front of the sofa was a box of matches half open, one partially burned match lying atop.

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