Chapter twelve
Soon after the last visit of the thief, Alan got better again, but while his health improved he started to feel pretty guilty about what he had told him. Sure, he had been really annoyed by the fact, that he wasn’t able to do anything but sleeping, reading or talking with the Phantom, but now, after he had cooled down and thought about the whole thing again, he knew that there would’ve been nicer ways to say that.
So maybe he even thought about apologizing the next time the blue haired guy visited. The only problem: He didn’t.
In the first week after that incident, Alan didn’t worry too much about it. He had his work to do and normally, the other guy visited only once or twice the week anyway. The second week was still okay. That was the time when he got to the conclusion that he probably had to apologize, so he thought that maybe the Phantom stayed away for exactly that reason, to get him to understand he hadn’t been very nice.
But as the third week began, Alan got increasingly nervous. He began thinking about the thief pretty often, wondering why he still hadn’t visited. Some part of him even worried, maybe something bad had happened? Because he himself had no choice but to wait, as he hadn’t any contact information about the Sapphire Phantom. (Not that it was strange, because he probably would’ve found out his identity with any given information)
Still, by the end of the week he started to get distracted during his work, beginning to make careless mistakes. Even his boss asked him one day if everything was alright because he seemed slightly distant. Of course, he told him that everything was alright but it still wasn’t that easy to concentrate anymore.
The whole thing went on - on some parts even getting worse - until a few days before Christmas.
Alan sat in his living room, trying to write a report without getting distracted by every single noise he heard, somehow hoping that his usually frequent visitor would be there when he looked at the door. But as always, every time he did, he was just as alone as before.
Suddenly though, he heard the slight sound of knocking and spun around. And this time, it hadn’t been his imagination. In the doorframe of his living room stood the master thief himself.
Before he could open his mouth though, the policeman had already jumped from his chair, striding through his room and stopping right in front of the guy.
“Where have you been?!” One could clearly hear the anger in his voice, but there also was some kind of relief. Relief that the thief was okay. Not that he’d ever admit it.
The Phantom himself seemed mostly surprised though, it looked as if he’d expected a different reaction, but he answered anyway.
“Well... originally, I just wanted to wait until you calmed down a bit, but then I got ill myself and had to stay home. I’m sorry.”
Alan shook his head. “Don’t be.” It seemed wrong to let the other one apologize as he didn’t even do anything wrong. “It’s me who should be blamed. I shouldn’t have snapped at you, it wasn’t your fault anyway...”
The last few words came out pretty quiet, but the other one still seemed to have understood them as he smiled.
“Let’s forgive and forget, okay?” A nod. “Great! So... ” He paused for a second, probably searching for a safer topic. “Will you go to the annual masked ball?”
Yes, that definitely was a safer topic.
The annual masked ball was a tradition of the town they both lived in, every year on Christmas eve everyone came together in the town hall. There was great music, everyone danced and generally had fun. And of course, as it was a masked ball, everyone had to wear a costume and a mask, which made the whole thing interesting, as it wasn’t always easy to guess who the person behind the mask was.
Alan nodded again. “I have to. Most of the police will be there, some of them for fun, some to supervise the whole thing a bit and watch out for crimes.” Of course, crimes were easy to do too, as no one showed their real face, so it was a good idea for the police to have men there.
“Let me guess: You’re one of the people to supervise the whole thing?” The Phantom smiled amused as he asked the pretty obvious question. Alan simply didn’t seem like a person who liked to go to events like that. Also he had said ‘I have to’. The policeman answered anyway.
“Yes. And what about you?”
“Of course I’m going! It’ll be so much fun! And I love to dance! So watch out, maybe you’ll recognize me?”
As he told him that, he looked as if he knew something very funny about that, grinning the whole time.
“We will see.”, was the only answer he got though.
After that, both guys talked a bit, mostly about some harmless things. But after a while Alan made clear that he still had important work to do - though he did it nicer than the last few times - and as the Phantom himself had supposedly some ‘preparations’ to do he left shortly after that.
And surprisingly, the policeman got his work done the same evening, without being distracted or making a single mistake.
