Driving home for Christmas
PART I
“This is radio three live on air on this cold and snowy Monday evening. Hello, do we have someone in the line?“
“Ohhh hey! Yeah! Here is Kathrin! I want to greet my friend Anika! She is just the best! We were on the Christmas market in town all day and I just want to tell her that she means the most to me!“
“That is very well spoken of you Kathrin! I am sure she likes this greeting! Well, we have still some time before the news are coming up, do you also have a song wish for us?“
“Oh, uhhh, mhhm actually, yes, I wish me “Last Christmas” please, if that is possible?!“
“Last Christmas, it is! Thank you very much for your call Kathrin and have a wonderful evening. This is Luke from the happy hour live here on radio three on this snowy evening at 9:56 pm local time.“
“Oh for Christs sake, no!” With a push on the the screen that was neatly implemented into the dashboard, the radio fell asleep once and for all. “What is wrong with those people?“, Eduard focused back to the street in front of him. Snowflakes find their way down towards earth tonight. Softly, they land on the fields, the trees but unfortunately also on Eduard’s windscreen. “I can’t see! Damn it! Fucking weather!” Wuuuuuuuuuppppppp! The windscreen whipper starts his heavy duty work. Rather aggressively it forces the tiny and shimmering snow-crystals to move aside, making space for the dark night ahead. He was driving back home from work, or at least he tried to. “One idiot after the other! Move into the right lane, idiot!! If you can’t drive, then don’t do it!” He flashed the Renault in front of him back into the lane where it belongs.
“What a jerk!“
“Hey Anika, calm down! Just let this idiot through.“
“Yeah, you are probably right, Micheal. This is totally unsafe what this idiot is doing here under these weather conditions.”
“Don’t let this person destroy your moment! It’s not every day that your personal song is played in the radio, don’t you agree?“
300 meters in front, Eduard continued his quest through the traffic. Finally, the left lane seemed to be free. Effortlessly the Porsche accelerated even under these difficult circumstances. Relieved Eduard took a deep breath in and finally calmed a little bit down. The snow that has fallen throughout the whole evening and the larger part of the afternoon seemed to have hit this place more than any other. But Eduard didn’t care about that. The left lane belonged to him now, finally! Only as the white lines of the road blurred away underneath the grayish cover he slowed down a little bit, allowing the car to sail into the darkness ahead. “We don’t want to overdue it, do we?” Eduard petted the leather coat of the dashboard in front of him lovingly. “We will be at home quite soon.“
5 km behind, Anika and Michael were still driving into the same direction. The only difference, Last Christmas has been replaced by the evening news. With a firm grip Anika steered her Renault carefully through the night. “Look at the snowflakes! They look like little crystals!”
“Yes, they do! It is finally Christmas!“
Today was the first day of snow in the area. “The Christmas market atmosphere was so much better with snow, don’t you agree? But when we are back at home, I need a hot-water-bottle, a tea and probably a bath.“
“You mind if I join?”
“Idiot!”, she smiled and added. “But you can have a tea if you behave like a gentleman!“
Back in the front, the darkness of the night got disrupted by something. Far ahead on the other side of the valley an alternating orange light glared around the left sweep of the Autobahn. “What might that be? I guess it is just a car from the winter service, clearing the road from its snow cover.” Letting go off the accelerator pedal, the Panamera Sport Turismo decelerates slowly in the eights gear towards the brightness of the alternating light…
Part II
Previously on “Driving home for Christmas”. Eduard was on his way home after a long day at work. So were Anika and Micheal, they were at the Christmas market together with Anika’s friend Sophie, who greeted her live on the radio. As the snow fall got heavier and heavier, Eduard saw an orange alternating light at the far end of the road.
…Having reached a traveling speed back in the low two digit range again, the corner which was not more than a small bend seemed to close in at the end a little bit. Nothing challenging for the Porsche. As the intensity of the orange light increased, he sensed nothing of the upcoming situation. “I am coming closer!” Relaxed, Eduard used the moment to adjust the climate control in his car. It started to get pretty cold recently and normally he wasn’t even wearing a jacket while driving. He liked the free movement of his shoulders, which a jacket was messing up completely. As he started to regret not wearing his warm leather jacket today, he finally saw the source of the orange light. As expected it was a car from the winter service, but as he looked more careful now, he detected three of them. The first one was moving slowly in the right lane around 500 meters in front of him, the second at least 1 mile ahead in the distance and the third one, well, it looked as if it wouldn’t move after all. “Interesting“, he thought, as he could make out some other colors mixing up the orange in the distance. “There must have been an accident or something like that, it looks as if the the road is closed.“
Suddenly, the missing jacket became his smallest problem. Relentlessly he pushed on the button of the center console, waiting eagerly until the infotainment system would spring back to life. Of course he had switched it off earlier in order to prevent the Christmas song torture. But he didn’t thought about the consequences this would cause. As the wide screen finally sprang back into life, immediately a dark red color undermined his current position on the map. Next to an orange warning sign he could read, “Road closed“.
Back in the Renault behind the evening news were suddenly disrupted rather unprofessional by the overexciting commentator. “This is radio three with a traffic warning for the A3 in eastern direction. There has been an accident with multiple cars. The road is closed for now, please take the exit at km 48 the latest. If you can not leave the Autobahn any longer stay calm and set up the rescue alley for the emergency services who may need to arrive.“
“Is this us?” Anika asked in shock. She was never really good on the orientational side of things, but something told her that they were heading east.
“Yes, this is us, unfortunately! And we have already passed the exit. There will be no other one for the next 10 km’s or so.“
Even more carefully now, Anika steered her car through the night. As she increased the grip on the steering wheel significantly, the lines of the road which she used for orientation started to disappear underneath a very thick layer of snow.
“Everything will be fine!“, Michael told her a couple of seconds later, trying to break the silence once again. It has been their third date and so far, he really seemed to like her a lot, maybe even too much already.
As the Renault tried to find its way through the snow desert that was laying in front of them, suddenly the orange lights also appeared in their visual field. Hoping to do not to see them until the next exit down the road, they both accepted their destiny rather quickly.
“I hope nothing serious has happened.” Anika replied while decreasing the speed of the French car even further. Having heard more than enough horror stories about collisions at the end of traffic jams, she was always careful to keep enough distance to the car in front. Well, today, this didn’t seem to be a problem after all, due to the fact that there were literally no other cars around them for miles.
Standing at the end of the traffic jam for almost 3 minutes already, Eduard loosened his seatbelt and reached for his leather jacket that he had thrown onto the backseats before starting the drive. “That could be a long night“, he told himself and started to switch off any unnecessary equipment in the car. As the ambient light faded away, the darkness from the outside entered the sports sedan rather quickly. It wasn’t bad after all, the positive effect was a noticeable increase of his visual field right from the get go, but Eduard didn’t even realized that. “Thank god my tank is almost full.” Eduard was always afraid about a situation like this, where he would run out of fuel and probably freeze to death in the middle of nowhere. Of course such a situation has never happened to him and it was never even close, but still, as soon as the gage indicated a nearly half empty tank, some kind of internal process piloted him to the next fuel station for a refill automatically.
“This is it, the end of the traffic jam.“
“Yeah you are right, Anika, but have you already seen what I have seen?“, Michael tried to sound mystical.
“No! What? What is there? Tell me!”
“You really haven’t seen it yet?“
“That’s not funny! Tell me, please!“
“Oh, I will, but first you have to figure this out on your own.” Michael ended his sentence with a naughty laugh.
“Idiot!“, Anika replied eagerly and couldn’t prevent to start laughing as well. She really started to like this guy. While their first dates were more of a disaster than anything else. Today, Michael flipped the coin around and had impressed her quite a lot. He was smart, funny, just a normal guy. He had a good job and already his own house. In the words of her mum, he was “the perfect man”. She advised her to take him as long as he would be available, which didn’t really motivated her to give him another chance.
Slowing down underneath the 30 km/h barrier, Anika immediately realized the thing Michael was talking about.
“No way! There is no fucking way!” Anika started to fall into an even deeper laugh now. “There is no fucking way! Is this really the Porsche dude?“
In the left lane, a silver monster of a Porsche was waiting at the end of the traffic jam.
“Hell yeah! It is!“, Michael screamed out loudly without being able to hold back his high pitched laugh he prevented all day from appearing.
“That is called karma, bitch!“, Anika yelled out in triumph, ignoring the fact that they were literally sitting in the same boat at the end of the traffic jam.
“It’s gonna be a cold night! I hope we do not need to wait for too long.“, Michael replied as he removed his seatbelt and tried to make it more comfortable on his passenger seat. “Do you have some snacks and a blanket for me?” He added quickly, waiting for her to start laughing again.
“Of course I have, right next to the bottle of Champaign and the caviar on the back seats!” Anika responded ironically and added. “But maybe you can ask our neighbor over there, I am sure he has some delicacies stacked up somewhere in the car“.
“Actually this is a pretty good idea, I bet his seats have a massage function!”
“Well, in case you haven’t heard, this car has such a feature as well!” Anika heard herself saying, while asking herself what the fuck she had just done.
Michael realized the offer not directly, which made the situation even more embarrassing for her. “But anyways!” Anika disrupted the silence. “Should I turn off the lights to save some fuel, there is not much left anyways.“
“Not yet, wait until some other cars will stand behind us.”, Michael advised.
“Yeah, you are properly right.“
Back in the Porsche on the left, Eduard has reached for his MacBook and dived back into his work. Tomorrow was Christmas eve, as everyone knew of course, therefore he needed to send out the e-mails before the software would properly prevent them from getting trough. “Oh, hell no!” To his surprise, or rather not his surprise, Eduard realized that he hasn’t invested a single thought about the fact where he was currently trying to send out his e-mails. Being surrounded by trees on nearly all sides, he could just see the end of the traffic jam and a white car standing next to him. But that was it. “Damn it!“. But anyways, Eduard had a lot of other things to do that he could also do offline. Pressing the seat adjustment memory button number two on the door panel next to him, his steering wheel moved slowly to the front, while his seat was moving in the opposite direction. Having done a lot of work sessions in his car already, he had memorized that position years ago very shortly after he had collected the car from the dealership.
“Look at that! Now he is even working!“, Michael commented the obscure situation from his sun lounger like seating position. “I really like that guy!“, he added while he let his glance follow the silhouette of the car to its back.
“How can you like that idiot?” Anika fired back. “He is a total dick! He probably thinks that he is something better!“
“Why do you think that?” Michael wondered, following the perfect shape of the car back to the front until he reached Anika’s forehead.
“He must be! Don’t you remember how he literally pushed me to the side?“
“But anyways, let’s do not talk about him. Lets rather talk about us“, Michael thought, but said nothing.
“Can you increase the temperature just a little bit?“, Michael finally broke the silence once again.
“Sure, why not!” Anika replied, reaching for the adjusting body in the center console. “But we need to be careful about our fuel management. There is really not that much left.”
Michael looked Anika in the eyes, “Well, in case we really need to make a cut back, I will sincerely consider changing to the dark side over there!“, he stated out philosophically, trying to stay serious as long as possible and pointing to the spaceship next to them.
“Don’t even think about that!” Anika replied enthusiastically and added “The force you need to use, the side you should not change!” Well, it wasn’t as perfect as Master Yoda would have said it, but Michael got the joke.
“Finish the December report, checking the bank accounts, call Jenny and ask her about the current status of the project.“, Eduard read the tasks on his to do list. “For how long am I standing here already?” Eduard checked the time on his wrist watch. Only 20 minutes have been gone. “Why are there no further emergency cars arriving?“, he wondered, moving his head to the left side in order to see a little bit more of what was happening in front. As his glance transitioned to the left, staring into the opposite lane, he realized that there were no cars driving after all. “Since the moment you are standing here, how many cars have you seen?“, he asked himself realizing that he hasn’t seen or heard any car in the last ten minutes or so. “There must have happend something serious!”
Part III
Previously on “Driving home for Christmas”. As the road was closed due to an accident, there was no other way for them, as to stop at the end and wait in line. Eduard with his Porsche on the left, while Anika and her friend Michael are standing on the right. While the two are talking to each other, Eduard uses the time for some more work.
…”Here is Apollo 13! The eagle has landed! I repeat, the eagle has landed!“, Michael bursts out laughing, while trying to make some cracking sounds as if he would speak through an imaginary radio device. “This was the best touch down of a snow flake I have ever seen!“, Anika responsed ironically and moved closer to the windscreen in front of her. In fact, that little frozen water crystal has been landed perfectly on the Renaults windscreen. “What a weird thing that must be, falling down from heaven onto this very windscreen, totally naked and getting looked at by two strange people sitting in a car!“, Michael added, and forced Anika back out of her daydream. It was close to 11 pm already but still, nothing has changed or moved. Well, that was not totally right, there was one thing that had indeed moved and this was the needle of the Renaults fuel gage. It was very close to falling into the red zone already.
“Do you think we can still come home with that little amount of fuel?“, Anika asked excitedly and exchanged a very worried look with her passenger. “There are still at least some 30 km left. Do you think your little race car can handle that?“, Michael replied softly, trying to calm her down a little bit.
Meanwhile on the left. As the snowfall continued to burry the Porsche underneath a thick layer of white snow paratroopers that have jumped from the sky into their suicide mission, Eduard was still working on his computer. “At least I have finished all my tasks!“, he said, after ending the phone call with Jenny. “But what to do next?” He stored his computer back into the little leather cover he was carrying around all day and tried to have a look outside the window to the front. “How long will this take?“, he wondered, closing his eyes and starting to do his breathing exercises.
“I am really not sure if we should run the engine any longer! We will not be able to drive back home otherwise!“, Anika was now obviously concerned about the fuel issue they had. “Ok, why don’t we switch it off real quick and see how long it will stay warm and comfy in here?“, Michael replied with a soft, but decisive voice. Seconds later, Anika switched off the engine. As the interior lights went on after pulling out the key from the ignition lock, they were both looking themselves in the eye. “What a date this is!“, Micheal thought and imagined laying cuddling with Anika underneath a blanket on the backseats. “What a disaster! Now we are going to freeze to death.” She thought, and saw her dad in front of her eyes, saying to her over and over again. “Why aren’t you going to the gas station earlier? I don’t get it, kid! I really don’t get it!“
Eduard hasn’t noticed anything about the ongoing scene in the car next to him. In fact, he had not even a single clue about the fact that this was the very car he had pushed of the road with his aggressive flashing of the Porsches headlamps hours ago. For him it was just another idiot crawling in front of him. Checking his watch again, the time didn’t seemed to go anywhere. “That’s what my meditation guru was talking about last year in that fancy workshop!“, Eduard recalled from memory. “This is supposed to fun? Living in the most boring moment ever!”
Moving back to the right, the coldness of the outside seemed to find its way into the inside of the car faster than expected. “It’s coming from everywhere!“, Anika said out aloud while turning her head to the right. “What do you think? Should we just start the engine again? Or really sit that out?” Michael seemed to think about this for a little moment, or at least it looked as if he would do that. “I mean, we can do that but if we can not drive home in the end, this is not really helping us anyways, is it?“
“Yeah, you are properly right! So we just push through, right? Together!“
“Of course! I will not leave you for that heated massage luxury seat over there!“, pointing to the snow covered Porsche on the left. They both started to laugh again! “I mean, it would be enough space for us two!“, Michael wondered.
“Breathing in, holding, still holding, and out.“, Eduard inhaled the heated air inside his car. Freezing, or worrying about not being able to drive home once this road close was done, nothing that seemed to come up on his radar. He was just trying to get this damn breathing exercise right. “Damn it! Where was I?“, Eduard lost track of the breath count he was currently running on. “I was already in the two digit area, damn it!“.
“It is fucking cold!“, Anika thought while breathing into her fists to keep them as warm as possible. “Just think about something else!“, Michael was telling himself over and over again. “Let’s just use the situation and get to know her a little bit better, bro! Hey! Good idea! Thank you my inner self!“, he added to his inner monolog and thought about a possible way how to do that. Finally, Michael took all of the courage he had, leaned a little bit closer towards her to the left and said. “What is big, grey and eats little white Renaults for breakfast?“
“I don’t know? An idiot with a small dick who need to over compensate that with his car?“, Anika replied!
“Right! Now it is your turn!“
“Ok, I can’t see something that you can see, and that is green!“
“Green? Mhhhhh!“, Michael looked around. “Green? What is green? Nothing is green here. Everything is white!” Michael replied, “I have no clue! What is it?“
“It is the hope that we will survive this night!“
Part IV
Previously on “Driving home for Christmas”. As the road was closed due to an accident. Eduard to the left and Anika and Michael to the right were still waiting for the roadblock to be finally over. While Eduard was working on his breathing exercises after he had finished his tasks for work, Anika and Michael were freezing in the Renault.
… It is close to midnight, now. Eduard, who was back at his computer, was going through the numbers of an important business deal he wanted to close before Christmas. “Well, I will finish that deal next year, then!“, he said to himself, scrolling back to the top of the sheet. It was the next logical step for his little company. “This will help us to grow even faster!“, he heard his partner telling him over and over again.
Back in the Renault, closing in some business deals was the last thing they would think about. “Brrrr, it is so fucking cold!!!“, Anika complained.
“You do not need to tell me that over and over again, Anika!“, Michael replied, and added his apologize right after. “Sorry, but I get angry quite easily when I freeze to death!“
“I can understand that!“, Anika replied, removing her fists from her mouth.
“Is changing to the dark side still not an option, Master Yoda?“, Michael asked with a smile on his face. But somehow, Anika sensed the flavor of seriousness in his tone.
“Do you think that he will let us in? I mean, you wouldn’t do that normally, would you?“, Anika replied concerned.
“It is Christmas! At least we can try!” Michael replied.
“It is not Christmas, it is three minutes before Christmas!“, Anika corrected him satisfied and added. “Feel free to go over there and ask the grinch if he would let us in! I mean, I am not pregnant, but it is fucking Christmas, isn’t it? Oh, and one more thing!! Please, don’t leave the door open!“
Moving back to the left, Eduard was still scrolling up and down the document on his retina display. “Just make sure that there are no mistakes! And it will be perfect!” As he read through the introducing for probably the one-hundreds time, he could suddenly see something moving out there in the right corner of his eye. “What was that!“, he wondered, looking to the snow covered passenger window. Something was moving out there, he saw it clearly. “What is going on?!“, Eduard stared to move his hand to the locking button of the car as fast as possible. Of course the car was already locked, but still, he couldn’t prevent the urge to double check. “What was that? What is going on?”
Ratschhhhhhh! With a well planned move, Michael started to remove the snow from the passenger window of the Porsche as careful as possible. As the snow was sliding down to his right, covering half of his arm and trousers, he could get the first glimpse of the inside. “Brushed aluminum! Wise choice, wise choice!” With amusement he could see a pair of mid thirty years old male eyes staring back at him through the hole of the Porsches white winter dress. “What he might think who I am? A robber? A thief?“, Michael asked himself and started to make the most friendly face he had ever tried to make on purpose. A couple of seconds later he even found himself waving to a grown-up man, trying to convince him to open the window a little bit.
“What the heck is going on?!“, Eduard looked in shock in the direction of the hole in the snow cover, someone had just made on purpose. “What does he want?“, Eduard asked himself while observing the friendly looking man, waving over excitedly like this would be the departure of a cruise ship. Indicating down towards earth, Eduard understood the message to open the window on the passenger side, but was considering his options for a little while.
“Do I really want to speak to the man? Maybe he has some information about the road close! Maybe he even tells me that this is all over now and that we can finally drive home.“, thousands of thoughts rushed through Eduard’s mind. Convinced, that opening the window just a little bit couldn’t be a terrible mistake, he moved his left index finger towards the button in the side door and opened the window for at least 4 cm.
“Good evening, Sir!“, the stranger started to talk immediately. “My name is Michael and I am from the white Renault next to you. Unfortunately we are suffering from a lack of fuel and sitting in the cold car for over an hour now. Do you mind to let us in? We are two people. Anika, a friend of mine and me.”
“Oh, I see!“, Eduard’s thinking process started to run again. “They must be freezing like hell! Sure, I will let them in!“. “Sure! Please, get your friend and have a seat inside my car.“, Eduard replied instantly and already started to remove his MacBook cover from the right passenger seat. “Thank you! Really! Thank you! I will get my friend!“, the dark figure with the name Michael replied and disappeared into the night.
Wooopp. The window of the passenger door started to move up until its end stop position in the top of the frame again. Even that little chat had decreased the temperature inside the car noticeable. “It must be like hell, to sit in a cold car in the middle of the night!“, Eduard thought and increased the temperature of the climate control ….
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 tried 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 opened 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 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 their side of society, the right lane. “Don’t worry, Michael! At least we have tried!“, Anika started off the conversation, trying to sound very neutral. “What!? No! It is not a problem! He lets us in!“, Michael replied happily, 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 asked 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 looked themself in the eyes while standing in the middle of the Autobahn. “Please, Anika, go to the front passenger seat!“, Michael demanded friendly and added, “That’s where the massage function will be!“
“Good idea!”, Anika replied with a blink of the eye.
Ah, here they are. Eduard could already see at least one of the strangers through the little hole of his cars snow cover. “Who they might be?“, he started to wonder, but didn’t had much time for that. Clickkkk, with a push on the looking button of his sports sedan, all four door locks immediately sprung open making a mechanical sound.
“Ah, he has already opened the doors for us!“, Michael said and opened the front door for Anika like a real gentleman would do. “What a gentleman you are!“, Anika replied with a smile, before her concerns about sitting next to this ignorant Porsche idiot made her face go back to a very icy expression. “Hello, Sir!”, Anika said in a friendly tone, while entering the car.
The smell of the black leather was the first thing she realized immediately after getting in. “Yummy!“, Anika’s mind 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 didn’t understood it right in that moment.
“Thank you so much for letting us in!“, Michael bursted out immediately after closing the door! “This is so nice of you! Really!”
“No problem! I mean, this car offers more than enough space for all three of us.“, Eduard responsed softly, trying to make a good impression. “Always be nice to strangers!“, he saw his mother telling him back in the old days, when playing soccer after school was the only thing in his life. She always had that softly voice when teaching him a good old lesson about life. “Again, thank you!“, Micheal disrupted the silence. “My name is Michael! And this is Anika, a friend of mine.“, Micheal added, touching Anika on her right shoulder. “Nice to meet you, guys! My name is Eduard!” “Nice to meet you, too!“, Anika responsed, while trying to absorb the interior design features one at a time. “This car is freaking amazing!“, Michael couldn’t hold back to make about a comment about the Porsche, while smiling from one cheek to the other. “Thank you!“, Eduard responsed coldly, “It is quite nice, yeah!” he added 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 disrupted the silence once more. 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 somehow. “Where you heading towards home?“, he added, looking to the guy in the back seat. The chances where much higher that he would 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 answered honestly. “Yes, it was a very nice day!“, Anika started to add to the conversation, looking over to Eduard. “We were meeting 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 responsed shortly, thinking about his ex girlfriend who was doing the same thing all the time. Staring off into the distance. “And you? Where you at the Christmas market as well?“, Micheal heard himself asking, wondering if such a person would even go there. “Haha, No! Actually I am on my way back home from a business meeting!“, Eduard responded. “Ah, I see!“, Michael added, wondering what kind of job this guy 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 asked a bit too directly as he thought. “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 responsed, thinking about the fact that Micheal was so different to this other fellow engineer. “Oh, you are? Cool! Where are you working, Michael?“, Eduard asked interested, stretching his head around to the rear seats. “I do nothing special, I just work at 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 responsed with a smile. “Oh, believe me! Even my own company sucks sometimes! That is just in the nature of a company!“, Eduard said 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 so quickly.
“Well, it seems as if he isn’t an idiot after all, this guy called Eduard.”, Anika thought, adding that “he was actually kind of cute in the way he was speaking. It seems like he was just frustrated and wanted to get 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 were all laughing and had a great time.
Wooooooopppppp, the windscreen whipper opened 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 asked immediately. “It is close to 8 am!“, Eduard responsed 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 answered, 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 pointed to the front. “Oh yes!“, Eduard commented from his position in the drivers seat. “It seems like the road block is over!“, Eduard said sadly, looking to the passengers in his car. “It was a pleasure to meet you, guys! We definitely need to keep up the contact! Can I get your numbers?” “Sure“. “Have a great Christmas, guys!“, Eduard said as they were leaving the car only moments later. “See you next year! Same time, same place!” “Hopefully not!”
“Wuuuuuuuupppppppppp“, the windscreen whipper started his heavy duty work. Rather aggressively it forced the tiny and shimmering snow-crystals to move aside, 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 thought about the night he had spent on this very road one year ago with two total strangers. With a smile on his face he flashed the slow moving idiot in front of him to the side. As the car accelerated again, Eduard felt goosebumps rising up on his for-arm. “It is getting cold again!”
THE END OF PART I from 2019
dream | act | succeed 
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