Postcards from No Man's Land Chapter 11 Summary

Postcard

  • Daan can tell Jacob is upset, so he takes him to a café so he doesn't have to be alone—he's had to deal with a lot and doesn't want to leave him now.
  • One of Daan's friends comes over and says hi to them before quickly leaving, and then Ton appears. Oh no… Ton and Daan know one another, so that means Jacob has to fess up to mistaking Ton for a girl.
  • Daan gets a kick out of this, especially since Ton is short for Antony. Just then, Jacob thinks back to that kiss from Ton and gets excited just thinking about it—he pushes the thought from his mind though, since Ton is coming over to them.
  • When Ton arrives, they chit-chat for a little while, until Ton asks Jacob if he's had a chance to use that rubber gift (read: condom) that he left before. Um, not so much, Jacob confesses.
  • Ton jokes that maybe they should do something about that. They talk for a little while longer, and Jacob figures out that Ton and Dan know each other well. Then Jacob lowers the bomb: is Ton gay?
  • Yes, sir—Ton readily admits it and even teases Jacob about picking him up earlier when they first met; Jacob's not sure if that's exactly the way it happened, but okay.
  • Ton blames himself for Jacob getting mugged. He could tell Jacob was naïve and didn't know much about the city, and now he wishes he would have stuck around to make sure nothing like that happened.
  • Still, Jacob doesn't think that. There was nothing Ton could have done anyway, and now that he thinks about it, it's not really that bad. At least his passport didn't get stolen… just a couple bucks and some of his stuff.
  • Ton never trusts people and is always watching out for what others are doing; he says it's because he's gay and not everyone takes kindly to that. As he's talking, he caresses Jacob's face.
  • There's some flirtatious banter between the two of them and Jacob seems to like it, but then he's confused. He's not really sure what—or who—he wants.
  • Jacob thinks back to when he moved into his grandma's place and back to that poem at the museum ("I've spent my life looking for you, only to learn, now I have found you at last, the meaning of solitude"). Now he feels like just that poem—he's just not sure how he wants to live.
  • Ton gives Jacob a quick kiss on the lips before leaving.