262 Julius' Story

Julius sat down at the table and accepted the mug of tea from David with a smile. He smiled even wider when David slipped him a plate of cookies.

"These cookies are excellent," he said, taking in his hand a shortbread cookie sprinkled with nuts, raisins and cherry pieces and covered in fine dark chocolate. "Such a small cookie and so much deliciousness on it!"

He gave the impression that he was playing for time with the start of his story. David didn't blame him for this, because he didn't feel like listening to it himself. And he didn't have courage to do so. After all, he was about to find out about the very bad things that had happened to Julius that were about to happen to him. David certainly wouldn't want to talk about it with strangers. With loved ones, too, by the way. David just wouldn't want to talk about it to anyone.