Leaving the Dragon Behind

Michal smiled and said hello to the woman who entered the train compartment . She was his type, short, brunette, curvy with little dimples in her cheeks and a snooker player’s groove in her chin. Her dark brown eyes sparkled as she smiled back, sat down opposite him and made herself comfortable. As the train rattled through the countryside, Michal realised he was staring a little too obviously at the newcomer. So he reluctantly dragged his eyes away to watch the beautiful colours of autumn blur past the window. But his eyes kept getting drawn away from the natural beauty outside towards the natural beauty sat opposite him. 
When he’d greeted her in Czech, she’d replied in a language he didn’t understand, he guessed it was Hungarian. That meant that there was no chance of getting to know her better because he didn’t really speak anything but Czech.

He thought about his English lessons in school. He remembered the dragon teacher that breathed fire on every mistake he made. She made him feel like a fool every time he tried to speak the language. That was 6 years ago and he hadn’t uttered a word of English ever since. But now he wished he’d stuck with it, because now it might come in useful.

He tried to remember the words that he had stared at for hours back in school trying to study for the horrible tests the dragon sprang on them. A few words started to come back. Maybe he could start a conversation with her. But God what if he made a mistake? She’d laugh at him like paní ucitelka had done back in school.

But she was so beautiful, so pretty, he could almost hear his heart breaking at the hopelessness of it all. The train rolled on, the girl looked up from her book from time to time and smiled. He had to do something. Fuck paní ucitelka, he was going to say something. Who cares if he made a mistake?

‘What reading?’ He pointed to the book smiling.

The girl looked up,  showing Michal the cover of her book as she did.

‘Good?’ Michal said.

She smiled and nodded, looking a bit unsure. But Michal was inspired by his success.

‘Me Michal, you name?’

‘Magdolina,’ She smiled and Michal’s heart missed a beat, a beautiful name.

2 hours later the train rolled into Budapest. Michal and Magdolina left the train and bid their farewells. Michal reflected on the conversation, Magda’s English has been as bad as his, but they’d managed to talk for almost all of the two hours. He  wondered if he’d actually got any of the English he’d used correct, but he didn’t care. He had her telephone number, a kiss on the cheek and a promise to meet up again later that evening.