Driving home for Christmas
Part V
Previously on “Driving home for Christmas”. As Anika and Michael were nearly freezing to death in their car, they finally took the courage and asked the Porsche dude next to them, to have a warm place for the night. As Eduard didn’t had anything against that, Michael is back on his way to Anika’s car.
… Very fast, but carefully, Michael tries to follow his own footprints in the snow back to their car. He isn’t wearing the best shoes for that kind of weather, but honestly that was his smallest problem. Back at the passenger side of the Renault, Micheal opens the door with a well trained swung, allowing half of the snow to fall from the roof right onto his seat. As Anika was moving her head towards the scene on her right, she interpreted the rather aggressive opening ceremony as a way to letting go of his anger. Mr. Porsche dud had probably send him back into his side of the road. “Don’t worry, Michael! At least we have tried!“, Anika starts off the conversation, trying to sound very neutral. “What!? No! It is not a problem! He lets us in!“, Michael replies, adding, “Get your stuff, we are moving!“
Back in the spaceship on the left, Eduard was wondering who those people might be, that will enter his car any minute. “This is just an act of kindness! Calm down! They will not rob you, or harm you, or even worse, steal your car! Just put your purse and keys close to you and you will be safe.“
“Do you have anything, Anika?“, Micheal asks excitedly while jumping back and forth in his own footsteps on the snow covered road. “Yes, that is it! Let’s go into the lion’s den!” “Ready?“, “Ready!” They both look themself in the eyes while standing in the middle of the Autobahn. “Please, Anika, go to the front passenger seat!“, Michael demands rather friendly and adds, “That’s where the massage function will be!“. “Good idea!”, Anika replies with a blink of the eye.
Ah, here they are. Eduard could already see at least one of the strangers through the nearly snow covered hole in the Porsche’s white winter dress. “Who they might be?“, he starts to wonder, but didn’t had very much time for that. Clickkkk, with a push on the looking button of his sports sedan, all the four door locks immediately sprung open with a refreshing sound.
“Ah, he has opened the doors for us already!“, Michael says and opens the front door for Anika. “What a gentleman you are!“, Anika replies with a smile, before her concerns about sitting next to this Porsche idiot for probably the other half of the night was letting her face froze back into a very neutral and icy expression. “Hello, Sir!”, Anika says friendly, while entering the car.
The smell of the black leather was the first thing she realized immediately after getting in. “Yummy!“, Anika was thinking. She could get probably used to that smell. As Michael entered the car through the back right door, Anika sensed another thing, but she couldn’t make sense of it right in that moment.
“Thank you so much for letting us in!“, Michael bursts out immediately after closing the door! “This is so nice of you! Really!”
“No problem! I mean, in this car is more than enough space for all three of us.“, Eduard responses softly, trying to make a good impression. “Always be nice to strangers!“, he see’s his mother telling him back in the days, when playing soccer after school was the only thing in his life. She always had that softly voice, when teaching him some important life lessons. “Again, thank you!“, Micheal disrupts the silence. “My name is Michael! And this is Anika, a friend of mine.“, Micheal adds, touching Anika on her right shoulder. “Nice to meet you, guys! My name is Eduard!” “Nice to meet you!“, Anika responses, while trying to absorb the interior design of the car. “This car is fucking amazing!“, Michael finally bursts out from the rear, while smiling from one cheek to the other. “Thank you!“, Eduard responses coldly, “It is quite nice, yeah!” he adds, and was moving his hands over the top of the steering wheel.
“This is a long and cold night, right? I wonder how long we still need to wait here in line!“, Eduard disrupts the silence in the car again. His passengers weren’t that communicative, or at least not in his presents. He sensed a kind of tension in the front seat next to him and tried to get them into the talking mode. “Where you heading towards home?“, he adds, looking to the guy in the back seat. The chances where higher that he will be respond, he thought. “Oh, yes! We where at the Christmas market! It was a wonderful day, well until the road was closed of course and we nearly froze to death.“, Michael answers honestly. “Yes, it was a very nice day!“, Anika starts to add to the conversation, looking over to Eduard. “We were meeting with a friend of mine until it was time for us to drive back home“, she continued and looked back at the snow covered windscreen in front of her. “Ah, I see!“, Eduard responses shortly, thinking about his ex girlfriend who was doing the same thing all the time, simply staring off into the distance. “And you? Where you at the Christmas market as well?“, Micheal hears himself asking. “haha, No! Actually I am on my way back home after work!“, Eduard responses with a laugh at the beginning of his answer. “Ah, I see!“, Michael adds, wondering what kind of job he would have. He has such a nice car, is well dressed and works one day before Christmas on a Monday? That must be someone in a high position. “Ehhmmm, working today? I wonder what you are doing for a living?“, Anika asks directly, disrupting her day dream. “I am an engineer, well, at least I was that in the past, today, I manage a small company with a friend of mine.” “Oh, cool! Michael is an engineer as well.“, Anika responses, thinking about the fact why Micheal must be so different to this other fellow engineer. “Oh, you are? Cool! Where are you working, Michael?“, Eduard asks interested, stretching his head around to the rear seat. “I do nothing special, just work in the local automotive supplier on the other side of the river. “Ah, I see! But I bet it is quite interesting to work over there!“. “Yeah, but to be honest, sometimes the company sucks.“, Micheal responses with a smile. “Oh, believe me! Even my own company sucks sometimes! That is just in the nature of a company!“, Eduard responses with a smile.
As the snow fall continued, the conversation went on and on. Millimeter of snow after Millimeter. Minute after minute, even hour after hour, the time went by.
“Well, it seems like he isn’t the idiot I thought he must be, that Eduard.“, Anika thinks in her mind, adding into her thought, that he was actually kind of cute in the way he was speaking. It seems like he was just frustrated and wanted to drive home! Could that be? Was I just in his way? Was it my fault? What does it matter, right? We are all just people with different interests.
“Oh, yeah, that was the funniest movie ever!” “I have seen it more then ten times, already!” “Hey! Me too!” They all were laughing and had a great time.
Wooooooopppppp, the windscreen whipper opens the snow cave they were sitting in. The sun, which was already very close to appearing upon the horizon was the only sign that told them how much time must have gone by. “What time is it?“, Anika asks immediately. “It is close to 8 am!“, Eduard responses after checking the time on his watch. “Eight!!! What? Really? The time was flying by so fast and I haven’t even tried the massage function of your seats!“, she answers, looking eagerly for the button on the right side of her seat. They were all laughing. “Look! The car in front of us, has it moved?“, Micheal points to the front. “Oh yes!“, Eduard comments from his position in the drivers seat. “It seems like the road block is over!“, Eduard says sadly, looking to the passengers in his car. “It was a pleasure to meet you, guys! We definitely need to keep up! Can I have your numbers?” “Sure“. “Have a great Christmas, guys!“, Eduard says as they were leaving the car seconds afterwards. “See you next year! Same time, same place!” “Hopefully not!”
“Wuuuuuuuupppppppppp“, the windscreen whipper starts his heavy duty. Rather aggressively it forces the tiny and shimmering snow-crystals to move aside and making space for the dark night ahead. He is driving back home from work, or at least he is trying to do so. “One year has already passed by! Time is flying, unbelievable!” Eduard thinks about the night he had spent on this very road one year ago with total strangers. With a smile on his face he flashes the slow moving idiot in front of him to the side. As the car accelerates again, Eduard feels some goosebumps rising up on his for-arm. “It is getting cold again!”
The end
dream | act | succeed 
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