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Dee looks at me as if the answer is obvious "You look"
Twenty-three
NAME: Willem
NATIONALITY: Dutch
AGE: 20 as of last August
GREW UP IN AMSTERDAM
PARENTS: Yael and Bram Mom isn’t Dutch Mom is a naturopathic doctor
19 meters, which is about 6’3"; 75 kilos, which is about 165 pounds
Acted with the theater troupe Guerrilla Will last suraphical facts that I have on Willee in one of my abandoned lab notebooks When I finish, the list is like a taunt, reality’s bitchslap You think you fell in love with sos? And hoould I find hi for a needle in a haystack That’s easy At least it would stand out I’ for one specific needle in a needle factory
Eight things It’s hue and am about to tear it out and crue and start writing a different list Randos Like the aht he was a kidnapper And the way he looked at the café when he found out I was an only child and asked if I was alone The goofy happiness as he bounded around the barge with Captain Jack How good it felt to know that I was responsible for hi that way The way Paris sounded under the canal The way it looked from the back of the bike The way his hand felt in the crook of my hip The fierceness in his eyes when he juirls in the park The reassurance of his hand, grasping h the streets of Paris The raw expression on his face at the dinner table when I’d asked hiht me there And later, at the squat, how he looked atand capable and brave
I let the e Then another And then I’ aboutpanic and jealousy, butbut possibility
I fill three pages None of what I’ood--no, not just good, but full Right, so ti that convinceson the list is Guerrilla Will, so I start there They have a bare-basics website, which gets me pretty excited--until I see how out of date it is It’s advertising plays froo But still, there’s a contact tab with an e ten different emails and then finally just delete them in favor of a si to find a Dutch guy nae 20, who perforht I saw it and met hiust If anyone knohere he is, please tell hiet in touch with her This is very important
I list allthe ones and zeros or whatever it is that e across oceans andsomewhere in someone’s inbox Who knows? Maybe even his
And then I press Send
Thirty seconds later, my inbox chimes Could it be? Could it be that fast? That easy? So for o to e I just sent, bounced I check the address I send it again It bounces again
"Strike one," I tell Dee before class the next day I explain about the bounced email
"I don’t do sports enerally nine innings"
"Meaning?"
"Dig in for the long haul"
Professor Glenny sweeps in and starts talking about Cy last call for tickets for As You Like It before giving a brief warning to start thinking about oral presentations at the end of the year "You can either work alone or with your partners, do a regular presentation or so more theatrical"
"We’ll do theatrical," Dee whispers
"It’s the Glenny way"
And then we look at each other as if both getting the sao up to the lectern where the usual coterie of groupies are si
"Well, Rosalind, here to buy your As You Like It tickets?"
I blush "I already bought et ahold of someone I lost touch with, and I don’t have very h this Shakespeare troupe that I saw in Stratford-upon-Avon last year, and they have a website, but the eo"
"In Stratford-upon-Avon?"
"Yeah But not at a theater It was sort of an underground thing It was called Guerrilla Will They perforood I actually ditched the RSC’s Haht"
Professor Glenny likes this "I see And you’ve lost a Sebastian, have you?" I gasp and I blush but then I realize he’s just referring to the play "I have an old mate in the tourist bureau there Guerrilla Will, you say?"
I nod
"I’ll see what I can dig up"
The folloeek, right before spring break, Professor Glenny hands me an address "This is what my friend found It’s from police records Apparently your Guerrilla Will friends have a habit of perfor without permits, and this is from an old arrest Not sure how current it is" I look at the address It’s for a city in England called Leeds
"Thank you," I say
"You’re welcoht, I print out the copy of the ee my mind and write a handwritten letter to Wille to forget about you and our day in Paris for nineall that well I guess , I want to know, did you just leave? If you did, it’s okay I et over it And if you didn’t leave, I don’t knohat to say Except I’m sorry that I did
I don’t knohat your response will be at getting this letter, like a ghost from your past But no n Lulu and Allyson and leave all my various contact details I put it inside an envelope and write Forward to Willeht before I leave for spring break, Ibreak at home Melanie’s vacation doesn’t coincide with mine, and I both miss her and feel relieved not to have to see her I hole up in my room and propFacebook searches and Twitter searches and every i search, but it turns out, only having a first name is kind of a problem Especially because Willeh hundreds of pages, staring at pictures of all different Willems, but none of thee as Lulu with pictures of Louise Brooks and ofonly he’d understand Do you believe in accidents of the universe? Is Nutella chocolate? Is falling in love the sae freaks I get requests froet requests fro fro for his parents I do combination searches: Willem, Braet nothing I search every Dutch naturopathic site I can find for a Yael but cole the name Yael, and it’s a Hebrew name Is his Mom Jewish? Israeli? Why didn’t I think to ask him any of these questions when I had the chance? But I knohy Because when I ith him, I felt like I already knew hi break ends, and in Shakespeare class we start reading Cyh, at the really juicy part where Posthuen’s husband, sees Iachien and decides this is proof that she cheated on hih of course, the bracelet was stolen by Iachimo, precisely so he could win his bet with Posthuen to cheat