Published: 16 Dec 2021

Fabian

You better watch out
you better not cry,
you better not pout
I’m tellin’ you why,
Santa Claus is coming to town…

Yuck… My right hand jerked to the radio, and shortly thereafter the pre-Christmas drone of the local radio station was replaced by the summery mix from my iPhone. Much better. Even though “summery” didn’t necessarily fit the weather and season, and certainly not the road conditions. I carefully steered the heavy SUV along the narrow side road, from which the access road to our mountain cabin would branch off at some point in the white thicket. If I could recognize the access road at all in the prevailing snowfall.

Perhaps it had not been such a good idea trying to escape the pre-Christmas family stress by running off to the lonely cabin. But I just couldn’t take it anymore. Four days to go until Christmas Eve, and the house was already overflowing with relatives who didn’t want to miss out on spending the holidays in the snow-covered mountains. I actually had nothing against the family, but a set of grandparents, plus three aunts, two uncles, two nephews and a niece were a hard test for my nerves, which were actually set up for relaxation. The final straw came when my parents ordered me to share my sanctuary (i.e. my room) with my little brother for the next few days. Okay, Tom was only a good year younger than me, we got along well most of the time – but that was only because we weren’t constantly on each other’s turf. A week or more in one room? That would end in murder!

So I fought for the freedom to retire to our cabin for the time being. At first my parents wanted to force my two nephews on me, who were very keen on the forest and snow, but I was able to block that. I was ordered to be back by the 24th, and then I was allowed to leave.

The weather had served me another happy concession: I was allowed to use my father’s Jeep, with my little Mazda 3 under my butt the trip would have been even more adventurous. I had packed the trunk of the big SUV with food and clothes, so nothing stood in the way of relaxing days. Nothing but the weather, but I would not need more than half an hour now.

Part of my brain was already occupied with what I would do with myself and the world in the next few days. A little skiing, some hiking, reading, and generally lounging away from civilization. There was no phone, no television, no computer at the cabin – the little electricity that was needed was provided by a diesel generator. Although my mother had insisted that I take my smartphone with me, I had no intention of turning it on. Except for the control call each evening, but that was to be my only contact with the outside world for the next few days. What a wonderful idea…

But what was that? Was that my cabin access road already? And why was there a small car hanging in the ditch, nicely wedged between a tree and a snow bank? I stopped and got out. No, that was not yet the access road to our hut, that was just a forester’s road. And why the small car was hanging around there so incongruously became clear to me after a quick look at the tires. Summer slippers. But the car had license plates from our area! Which local was THAT stupid?

The car wasn’t particularly dented, it probably hadn’t been going fast and had simply slid sideways. The snow clearly showed the traces of the attempts to get the car on the road again. Well, no chance, the car could not be moved under its own power until spring at the earliest. I went closer and peered into the car, which I had meanwhile identified as a Ford Fiesta. Empty. I glanced around the perimeter.

“Hello, anyone there?”

No answer. Things were getting stranger and stranger. A native would never set out on this drive with summer tires. And he wouldn’t move away from the car after an accident in the wilderness either, but wait on the spot for help.

However, if he didn’t have a cell phone with him…. Hmm. I hadn’t encountered a car since leaving the main road. Waiting for help could take a loooooong time. I put a hand on the hood. Already pretty cold. Who knows how long the car had been sitting here. On the other hand, there was hardly any snow on the body. In any case, I didn’t really understand the situation. And what do you do in such a case? Right. You ask someone who knows better. I went back to my car, got in and picked up the handset from the dashboard.

“Wolf One for Wolf One-Seventeen!”

“Wolf One listening – geez, Fabian, I told you to keep your hands off the radio!”

Hehe, indeed he had. I could have used the cell phone, but the radio was somehow cooler.

“Sorry, Pops, it’s important. Are you guys aware of an accident on county road 87?”

“An accident? Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. But there’s a car stuck to a tree here, and not a soul in sight for miles.”

“Wait a moment, I’ll see if I can find out anything…”

I waited and looked in all directions some more. There really wasn’t a living thing in sight except me.

“I just checked with the morning shift again – there’s been no accident reported to us. Can you give me the license plate number?”

“X dash YZ 32.”

“I’m checking. And you say there’s no one on the scene?”

“No, just the empty car. I guess it wasn’t a bad crash, but the car only has summer tires on it and it’s stuck for the time being.”

“Hm. According to the license plate, it’s a Ford, seasonal plates, actually deregistered from November to April. I’ll see if I can reach the owner. Will you please stay on site?”

“All right. I’ll take a look around and see if I can spot any tracks.”

“Good, I’ll get right back to you. Wolf One out.”

To explain, Wolf One was the call sign of the county’s police dispatch center. My dad was on duty there at the moment; he wore the hat as a chief inspector. And with that he was in my eyes exactly the correct person to contact in case of accidents and other mysteries.

I got out of the car again and went back to the crashed Ford. There were a few footprints around the car, but one of them was the most interesting: it apparently led away from the car, along the forester’s road into the woods. Because of the snowfall, there wasn’t much of it left to see, but where the path was particularly well protected by trees, I could clearly see footprints. Pretty big footprints…

“Wolf One-Seventeen for Wolf One!”

I sprinted back to the car.

“One-Seventeen is listening.”

“Faby, I can’t reach anyone at the owners place. Did you find anything else?”

“Yeah, footprints leading into the woods. Forester’s road 12a, by the way.”

“Into the woods? What kind of idiot is that!”

“Wolf One, radio discipline!”

“Shut up, kiddo.”

“Pops, maybe he thought it was 14a? Then he’d get to the Stone Valley Inn via the trail. That wouldn’t be half as far as the K87 back to the main road.”

“Then he’d be in for an unpleasant surprise.”

Indeed. Forester’s road 12a led in a wide arc through the forest, with only a single path branching off from it, which led across some steep climbs to our cabin. In this weather and the current snow conditions, it would take several hours.

“What do you want me to do? Are you going to send someone here?”

“I guess I have to. I’ll alert the mountain rescue squad and send a patrol car to you. Can you still get through with a normal car or do I have to send a four-wheeler?”

I quickly looked around. The road was already pretty snow-covered, and it continued to snow. Not particularly heavily, but continuously.

“A normal car would probably make it this far – but if you want it to get back as well, a four-wheeler would be safer.”

“Smart ass. Okay, I’ll initiate everything.”

“Do you want me to follow the footprints?”

“Fabian, this is not an adventure game. I don’t want my people having to look for not only the driver but you as well.”

“I can drive the car into the forester’s road, because of the trees the snow is not that high here.”

The answer took a moment, someone was probably thinking hard.

“Fine, but only as far as you can get by car, I don’t want you trying to find the driver on foot! Promise me that!”

“I promise.”

“Good, check in every fifteen minutes whether you’ve found anything or not. Wolf One out.”

I put the radio handset in its cradle, got out, walked around the car and sat in the driver’s seat. As soon as the engine was running, I rolled down both front side windows and turned off the radio – maybe I could hear calls for help. Then I carefully maneuvered the SUV off the road and down onto the forester’s road. Fortunately, I already had some experience with such driving situations. Although I had only had my driver’s license since my 18th birthday, which was just six months ago, my concerned parents had sent me to a driving safety training course – with the professional who also trained the local police and rescue services. The course also included a few hours of off-road driving, which I now benefited from.

Fortunately, under the loose fresh snow was a packed snow cover – obviously the forester’s road had been used often in the last few days. Nevertheless, I rolled more or less at walking speed only, I did not want to take any risks.

Behind the first bend I found – nothing. Behind the second one as well, and also when I came around the third one, I saw nothing but snow and trees. There was also nothing to hear except the engine – the snow muffled all sounds. However I saw human footprints and also those of animals, it was clear that I was not completely alone in the forest.

I did not know how far I had gone into the forest already, I had forgotten to look at the odometer. But I had already been on the road for a good 20 minutes and fortunately I just remembered that I was supposed to report to my dad regularly. I turned the radio back on.

“Wolf One for Wolf One-Seventeen.”

“Wolf One listening.”

“Sorry, so far I haven’t been able to spot anything. But the tracks lead further into the woods.”

“Okay, keep driving, but slow and easy. We’ve got another …“

“Hold on!”

“What’s going on, Faby?!?”

Interesting question. I had found someone – or rather, someone had found me. However, it could hardly be the driver who had been in the accident.

“Pop, a dog is running at me.”

“A dog?”

“Yes, he came around the corner of the path, and now he’s standing in front of the car, wagging his tail.”

“Just watch out, not that it’s a stray with rabies or whatever.”

A stray, in the middle of winter? Probably not. Besides, the dog looked far too well-groomed for that.

“Doesn’t look like it, Pop. It’s a Golden Retriever, and it’s well fed and well cared for. Now he’s barking at the car.”

The dog barked, wagged, kept turning in the direction from which he had come from. Maybe he wanted me to follow him? Sure enough, he ran a few steps away, turned, barked again, and waited. It was almost like in the Lassie movies.

“Pop, I’ll go after the dog and get back to you.”

“You do that, but like I said, be careful.”

“Will do. Over and out.”

I concentrated on driving and following the tail-wagger, who now, realizing I was following him, fell into a steady trot. After two more turns in the road, he suddenly sped away about a hundred yards and started to jump around a human sitting on a pile of felled trees. The human was hugging the dog and petting him – so presumably he hadn’t frozen to death yet. Slowly, I scooted closer.

“Wolf One for Wolf One-Seventeen!”

“Wolf One copy.”

“I think I got the driver. Squatting here on a pile of logs, still looking pretty much alive. I’m getting out of the car now.”

“Received.”

I had arrived at the log pile in the meantime, stopped the car and got out. The dog owner rose from his seat, and I eyed him up and down. Jeans, quilted jacket, boots, scarf, gloves and hat – well, at least he had given himself some winter equipment, if not his car. He was young and – as far as this was recognizable underneath the thick clothes – sporty, and from under the cap wide-open brown eyes looked at me.

Holy shit… NO! Not him! Why me of all people? This couldn’t be true….

I had suddenly recognized who stood opposite me, and also the dog inserted itself now smoothly into the picture. And also my opposite realized who I was, the small grin of the mouth fell together in itself, and the jaw folded down.

“You?”

“YOU?!?”

Reiko

Unbelievable. Fabian, of all people. Okay, I was very happy that someone had found me at all, and even more so someone with a temptingly warm looking car, but did it have to be Fabian?

But let’s start from the beginning. A few hours ago my life was still in order, and I was on my way to my girlfriend Melanie. I had come home a day earlier than planned from a training trip with the German Red Cross, where I was doing a voluntary year of community service, and I wanted to surprise Melanie with my visit. We had been having some stress lately, and I hoped to make things better with a bouquet of flowers and a small gift. The surprise worked out – however, it was not a nice one. Let’s put it this way: finding my girlfriend in bed with my hitherto best friend was not exactly one of my favorite happenings. As a result, I was now missing a girlfriend, and my former best friend was missing two teeth.

After making sure our local dental plumber got some business, I ran home. I was in a daze and didn’t really know what I was doing. When I got home and my sister started yelling at me about “Storm in Lover’s Land” or something like that, it was clear to me that I had to get away. Aunt Resa in Rabach had been nagging me for a long time already to visit her (and use that opportunity to repair her shower stall), so I decided to head there. I quickly packed up a few things, grabbed Arko, our (actually my) Golden Retriever, and headed out. Stupidly, my car was in the workshop, but there was still my mother’s old Fiesta in the garage. Hardly anyone drove it anymore anyway.

Sadly, the car’s condition matched the rare usage, which I only noticed when I had left the cleared streets of the village behind me. I could hardly keep the car in the lane, but fortunately there was almost no other traffic, so that I had the whole width of the road at my disposal most of the time. If I had been in my right mind, I would have turned around anyway, but that’s not what happened.

I was fighting my way along the K87 when suddenly the tires lost their last grip and I slid into the ditch with the car rudderless. Fortunately, I was traveling very slowly anyway, so that everything happened almost in slow motion and neither Arko nor I were injured. The car didn’t seem to have suffered any major damage either, but after a few luckless attempts it was clear to me that there was no way I was going to get it on the road again on my own.

So I was stuck. After waiting a few minutes and hoping that some other car would show up and bring help, I realized that I would have to help myself. Well, I had my cell phone with me…

…didn’t I? Shit! The cell phone was in my backpack. My backpack was where I had left it the last time: in the hallway of Melanie’s apartment. The day was getting better and better!

After another five minutes without a soul showing up, I realized that I’d better get on my way back to civilization. I looked around and recognized the area. Or at least I thought I recognized the area. From here it would be about 10 kilometers along the road back to the main road – but via this forest path I would get to the Stone Valley Inn, only three or four kilometers, always nicely downhill, and from there I could make a phone call. It’s obvious which way I decided to go, isn’t it?

So Arko and I trudged through the snowy winter forest. The dog seemed to have a lot of fun, at least he raced enthusiastically around me in big laps.

At the beginning I managed to walk quite well, under the new snow was firm soil, so that I did not sink in much. The clear air made sure that slowly but surely my mind cleared up, which didn’t really make it easier for me to deal with Melanie and René. As I said, there had been problems between Melanie and me, but I actually thought that they were small problems that we could have solved together. Obviously Melanie was of a different opinion….

At what point I first noticed that there was something wrong with my path, I can’t say anymore. I had been walking for about three quarters of an hour when my doubts became bigger and bigger. Somehow I had the way differently in memory, it did not go constantly downhill as it should. But maybe around the next corner…

Fiddlesticks. After the next corner there was only one more corner, and it became more and more clear to me that this was not the way to the Stone Valley Inn. What now? Should I march back to the car and hope that someone would come along there? While I was thinking about it and walking slowly, I suddenly slipped, and the next moment I was lying on the ground.

Fortunately, it was not a hard fall, I was able to catch myself to some extent, and the soft snow also helped. Nevertheless, when I got up, I found that my right hip had taken some damage, and I could walk only with difficulty. The pile of wood at the side of the path came at just the right moment, and I sat down to collect my thoughts and to think about how to proceed.

Arko had noticed that something was wrong with me and sat down in front of me in the snow.

“Well, big guy, I got myself into a mess here.”

“Woof!”

I guess that was supposed to mean “Yes, you dumb ass!”. I gently stroked the silky fur on his head. Suddenly that head jerked up, and Arko’s ears perked up.

“Do you hear something, Arko?”

“Woofwoof!”

Translation: “Sure thing, you deaf nut!”

As if I could help it that dogs hear so much better than humans. After a while, though, I heard it, too: engine noise! Some vehicle was coming along the path, slowly but steadily approaching. It was a heavy engine, well, a small car wouldn’t make the trip here anyways.

“Run, Arko, check it out and get help!”

The dog had apparently understood me, because he raced away, towards the source of the noise. A few minutes later, he reappeared at the bend in the road, followed by a large, red SUV slowly inching its way along. Saved. Thank God.

When Arko caught sight of me, he rushed to me and jumped on me, and shortly after I felt his tongue in my face. He was probably also glad that we were no longer alone in the wilderness.

In the meantime, the off-road vehicle came closer and closer until it stopped at a distance of three or four meters from my woodpile. The driver’s door opened, the driver jumped out of the car and came toward me. A tall, slender, young man wearing a fur cap with earflaps approached me, only to stop, completely puzzled and perplexed.

“You!”

And I, too, had recognized him by now.

“YOU?!?”

Fabian

Reiko. Reiko Heilmann. Ice hockey star of our little town, constantly surrounded by girls, almost certainly dumb as bean straw (I’m just saying: summer tires!), and generally someone I could well have done without saving.

While I was staring at him and he at me, his dog was happily jumping around us, and I couldn’t resist, I just had to pet him. I squatted down and started cuddling him. After all, he wasn’t responsible for his stupid master.

“Well, you sly little fellow, you’ve lured me here nicely.”

“Yeah, Arko’s a smart one.”

I looked up at Reiko’s face, where surprise had given way to a slight grin.

“He must be, he has to do the thinking for his owner, too.”

The grin turned back into a rigid mask.

“Why are you driving through the snow with summer tires, and why are you traipsing around in the wilderness completely disoriented?”

“None of your business!”

“Yeah, right. But getting you out of this mess, that’s my business, isn’t it?”

“I didn’t ask to be rescued by you!”

“Well great, then I can get the hell out of here!”

We stood close, staring furiously into each other’s eyes. Then a low, menacing growl was heard from our feet. Arko did not seem to be happy about our quarrel.

Very slowly, we relaxed again, and we probably wouldn’t jump at each other’s throats this time (yet).

“Can you take me somewhere where I can make a phone call and wait for someone to pick me up?”

I sighed. Well, since I was here anyway….

“Get in the car first.”

“Do you want Arko in the back?”

“No, he’ll have to sit at your feet, the trunk is full.”

“Okay.”

Now, as Reiko walked to the passenger door, I saw for the first time that he was limping.

“Did you hurt yourself in the accident?”

“No, I slipped earlier.”

“Badly?”

“No. Why the sudden concern for me?”

“I just don’t want to have half a corpse in the car and then have it completely die on me on the way.”

“Don’t worry, you won’t get rid of me that easily.”

Crap. I got in on the driver’s side. The engine still running, I rolled up the windows and turned the heater to full blast. Reiko sat next to me, the dog in front of him at his feet. I reached for the radio.

“Wolf One for Wolf One-Seventeen!”

“Wolf One listening.”

“I found the driver.”

“Any injuries?”

“Just a slight bruise from a slip and a bruised ego.”

“Well, that’s all right then. I’ve reached the parents in the meantime, they’re pretty worried.”

“As I said, everything’s okay. Driver and – more importantly – dog are fine. I’m taking them both down to town now, but it may take a while.”

“Faby, there’s a problem. K87 is closed in both directions. Snow drifts and broken branches, there’s nothing we can do about it for now.”

Ohoh, that didn’t sound good at all.

“And what does that mean for me now?”

“For both of you, it means that you should go to the cabin. And as quickly as possible, not that the way there is also blocked. There you can wait comfortably in the warmth until the situation has relaxed a bit.”

Help! Not that! I looked over at Reiko, who was also giving me a pained look.

“Don’t you think we can get through to the town in the SUV?”

“No! The danger of you getting stuck is far too great, and then I’d have to send more people out into the snow chaos to rescue you. So let’s go, get ready! Report back when you get to the cabin. Wolf One, out!”

Reiko

The school faggot, of all people, had to find me! Two years ago, Fabian what’s-his-name had caused THE scandal of recent school history at our High School, when he had answered an eighth grader’s “Are you gay, dude?” with “Yes, I am. Next question!”.

Okay, I had to give him some kind of respect for the way he so dryly blurted that out and abruptly silenced 50 people in the immediate vicinity. I had not expected that from him. I didn’t really have anything against gays, but what he said afterwards I still thought was stupid. When someone asked him what had pushed him to this completely surprising coming out, he answered something like “Now I can finally officially stare at the cute guys.” And that’s exactly what he did extensively from then on. There wasn’t a reasonably good-looking boy over 14 in school that he hadn’t flirted with.

This and his status as a school genius (he had even skipped a grade and had therefore finished high school a year earlier than me, although we were the same age) contributed to our growing estrangement. In kindergarten we had been the best of friends, in elementary school until he changed classes we were still quite good friends, but from then on things went downhill. I couldn’t relate much with his “highly intellectual” world – and he not with my hockey world. After a while, I thought he was just a nerdy bookworm and let him know it. In return, he made it very clear that he thought I was a brain-dead jock. From then on we avoided each other as much as possible. And now he of all people had to find me…

Fabian made it clear to me again that I was an absolute idiot in his eyes. Okay, just walking into the forest, into the wrong way on top of it, was certainly not a brilliant performance – but just waiting at the deserted street would not have been ideal either.

And now I was sitting next to him in the car, Arko at my feet, hoping that the heating would soon provide a comfortable temperature. My rescuer reached for the gear knob of the automatic transmission, and the car started rolling. Oddly enough, further in the direction I had been marching, which would only take us further away from the road.

“Where are you going?”

“To find a place to turn around? Or should I back up the whole way?”

Which I guess had proven my stupidity to him once again. After about two hundred meters we reached a fork in the road, which Fabian now used to turn the car around. Then I remembered something.

“Doesn’t this path here also lead to your cabin?”

I had never been there, but knew roughly where it was.

“Yes.”

“Then why don’t we go this way?”

“The trail is too steep, at least in these weather conditions. We’ll backtrack to the road and then take the correct access road.”

“Okay. Then I can take my bag out of the car, I didn’t want to carry it earlier.”

“Wow. That’s a sensible idea. You’re getting smarter…”

“Asshole!”

“Pleased to meet you, Roecker.”

I didn’t mean to, but I had to grin a little. Quick-witted Fabian had always been, it was something I had admired about him since I was a little boy.

We drove on in silence through the white splendor, and fifteen minutes later we had reached the unconventional parking lot of my poor little car. Fabian pulled over, and I set about getting out.

“Ouch…”

“What is it?”

“Nothing much, just my hip hurts a little.”

“Sit tight and give me the keys, I’ll get your bag.”

I looked at Fabian in amazement. He was going to help me? Completely voluntarily, without my asking him to? My surprise must have been obvious, because he shrugged and held out his right hand to me, demanding the car keys. I rummaged in my jacket pocket and handed them to him.

“Here. The big gym bag from the trunk, and the bag next to it. There’s food and stuff in there for Arko.”

Fabian

Hmm. The dog seemed to be very close to his heart, which got me into a bit of trouble. On the one hand, I was convinced that someone who loved animals couldn’t really be a bad person – on the other hand: Reiko was just Reiko.

I got out and went to the unfortunate summer Ford. The quicker I got it over with, the quicker we’d get to the cabin – and the idea of being stuck in a car somewhere, snowed in, scared me a little.

The lock on the trunk was frozen, but as an experienced, hardy mountain dweller, I naturally had a bottle of de-icer spray in my jacket pocket. Shortly thereafter, I packed the required gym bag and bag of dog paraphernalia into the SUV’s trunk.

“Anything else you need from the car?”

“No, thanks, that’s all. I travel light.”

Just as well. I locked the Fiesta again, took off my thick jacket, which I no longer needed in the now well-heated car, got in, and off we went on the drive that would now hopefully take us to the cabin. At the start the wheels spun a little, but then the electronic helpers intervened, and it went forward reasonably fast.

It was snowing harder and harder, and the road conditions got worse by the minute. After about a kilometer I discovered the access road to the cabin and carefully steered the car into the deeply snow-covered path. Reiko peered somewhat doubtfully through the windshield.

“Can we get through there?”

“Yeah, no problem. There’s no normal forest floor under the snow but a gravel road.”

Since we were also renting out the cabin to tourists, a reasonable access road had been imperative. Not that some city slicker with a lowered VW Golf could sue us for damage to his car.

The road led through the forest for about 2 kilometers, always slightly uphill, and after a larger number of curves, the trees opened up in front of us, and in a clearing we spotted the cabin.

“Pinch me!”

“Why? So your dog can bite me or what?”

“THIS is your cabin?”

“Yes?”

By now we had arrived, and I reached for the radio.

“Wolf One for Wolf One-Seventeen!”

“Wolf One listening.”

“We’ve arrived at the cabin safe and sound, Pops.”

“Thanks for the info, I’ll pass that along to your mom and Reiko’s parents so everyone can be relieved.”

“Tell mom I said hi.”

“I will. She’ll be very sad that you probably won’t be there Christmas Eve, I doubt the roads will all be clear by then.”

And I regretted that soooo much, the beautiful big family celebration! However…

“Pops, that’s still four days away! Do you think the weather will be that bad?”

“We just got a severe weather warning in from the weather service, new snow up to a meter is to be expected in the next two to three days. In addition, there will be strong winds with the corresponding drifts. So you better not expect to return anytime soon.”

That didn’t sound so good, this morning the weather report had sounded quite different. But that was just the way it was in the mountains, the weather sometimes changes between lacing up the left and right shoe.

“Okay, Pops, we’ll survive.”

Hopefully. With Reiko at the cabin. For days.

“Well, that’s what I think, you’re both old enough. Okay, I have to take care of other things. If anything comes up, call or radio in an emergency. Your mother is guaranteed to call tonight, so turn on the cell phone!”

“Will do.”

“Good. Wolf One – out!”

I hung up the handset, and we got out of the car. Reiko was still staring wide-eyed around the area.

“You call this a cabin?”

“What else?”

“Geez, it’s a full-blown house!”

Well, I guess you could look at it that way. I went to the door and unlocked it.

“Come on in, I’ll fire up the generator and the heater.”

It was dark in the cabin, which was because the shutters were closed and the only light coming in was through the open door. I grabbed a flashlight and marched to the equipment room. Behind a heavy, thickly padded door was the diesel generator, which I started with the push of a button. Fortunately, it started immediately. I left the room, and after closing the insulating door, hardly anything could be heard from the generator.

“Let there be light!”

With these words, I flipped on the light switch for the main room. This was a combination of living room and kitchen, where kitchen meant a bottle-fired gas stove with three burners and baking oven, a sink, a coffee maker, and a microwave. A small counter with three bar stools separated the kitchen area from the living area, where two armchairs, a two-seater and a three-seater stood around in front of a fireplace. On the ground in front of the seating was the proverbial bearskin – albeit an artificial one. Otherwise, the room – as well as the entire rest of the cabin – was covered with wooden planks.

“Wow, a palace.”

“Now don’t get carried away…”

“Are there more rooms?”

“Yes, or do you think we’ll sleep here on the bearskin?”

“Sounds romantic…”

I had to agree with Reiko on that one. I should probably try it out with a suitable boy when I get a chance.

“There are two bedrooms, a big one with a double and two single beds and a small one with a double bed.”

“What about a bathroom?”

“Is also available, including a shower.”

“Whew, good to hear that. I saw the outhouse out there and was already fearing the worst.”

Well that really would have been extremely unpleasant, especially now in winter!

“Nah, that hasn’t been in use for ages, it’s just decoration.”

“So it’s a palace after all. How did you actually get that cabin? There’s officially no building allowed out here as far as I know.”

“The whole thing originally belonged to the Federal Border Patrol, they had a base here. After reunification, of course, it was no longer needed, so we were able to buy the cabin for little money. They also left behind the generator, we then renewed the sanitary installation and renovated a little, and that was it.”

Reiko

Here a little renovated, there a little renewed, that was it. That could be called the understatement of the year. I had to admit that I was impressed by the house in the forest.

“I heard that you also rent out the cabin. So why is it all empty now at the height of the season?”

“Actually, the cabin would be occupied, but we got a cancellation two days ago. The people who booked the cabin over Christmas have a death in the family and had to fly to Australia. Now we don’t have someone coming until the 29th, and they’ll stay until January 5th.”

“Well, I guess I have to thank them, only because of that you came around and were able to find me.”

“Rescue. Not find. Big difference. Yeah, thank them.”

Blah blah blah… I would probably hear that over and over again now.

“Will you help me open the shutters?”

Well, that was the least I could do.

“Sure.”

“Okay, you open the windows and unlock the shutters from the inside, and I’ll go around the outside and fix the shutters.”

Cool, I didn’t even need to go back out in the cold.

“Just here in this room?”

“No, through that door are the bedrooms. But start here in the living room with the far left window.”

“As you wish.”

Fabian went back outside, Arko glanced back and forth between the door and me, then decided to follow my host. Unloyal fellow. Well, the dog was downright snow-happy, no wonder he took every chance to get out.

I went to the first window, opened it, released the latch on the wooden shutters and pushed them open.

“Ouch! Are you trying to beat me to death or what?”

Oops… Fabian had already been standing in front of the window, waiting for me to open it. I guess he hadn’t counted on my momentum.

“Sorry! How could I know that you’re standing right in front of it. Are you okay?”

“Yeah, no harm done, must have been more the scare.”

I had to grin slightly. In my head I saw the headline of tomorrow’s newspaper: Death by shutter! Exclusive report on pages 2 to 5!

In the meantime Fabian had hooked the shutters to the wall of the house and we went to the next window. There I was much more careful in pushing open the shutters, but Fabian had also kept plenty of distance.

“You don’t need to disappear quite so far into the forest, or are you afraid of me?”

“Reiko, you are unpredictable, one MUST be afraid of you.”

Hmph.

“I guess I’m not the only unpredictable one.”

“What do you mean?”

“What was that about your completely surprising answer to a certain question from a certain eighth-grader? That wasn’t exactly predictable either!”

That seemed to make Fabian think a bit, anyway, he silently hung up the shutters, and we moved on to the next window. We worked through this one in silence as well, and I made my way to the first bedroom, where my first reach was for the light switch. Here I found a relatively narrow double bed in one corner, and in another part of the room were two single beds across the corner. In addition, there was a large closet, a small table and two chairs – that was it in terms of furnishings. After looking around I went to the first of the two windows, opened it and unhooked the shutters. Outside, an impatient Fabian was already waiting for me.

“What’s taking so long? Hurry up, I want to get back in too.”

“Take it easy, an old man is no race car!”

So we proceeded swiftly, and a few minutes later we were done with all the windows. I had a little trouble convincing Arko to come back into the house, but eventually he too had had enough snow fun and came trotting into the house. Which presented me with a bit of a problem.

“Fabian, do you happen to have a big towel to dry off the dog? I don’t have anything with me, I wasn’t planning on hiking through the snow with him.”

“Hold on, I’ll get one.”

My host disappeared, only to reappear moments later with a huge bath towel.

“Is that enough?”

“Yes, thank you, you could wrap two of Arko’s kind into that.”

I set about drying the dog, whose fur had a few clumps of snow caught in it. This was not one of Arko’s favorite activities, but he obediently let me do it.

Fabian, meanwhile, had got rid of his jacket and boots and set about lighting a fire in the open fireplace.

“Reiko, can I start a fire or will that cause problems with your dog?”

“Nah, he knows perfectly well that fire is dangerous, he won’t go near it.”

“That’s good.”

“Hehe, a fire in the fireplace? Are you in the mood for a romantic evening?”

“Nah, but it saves electricity. The electric heater will eat the hair off your head otherwise.”

“Well, that’s good then. I would have had to disappoint you anyway.”

“Disappoint me? With what?”

“In terms of a romantic evening – I’m not available.”

“As if I’d be interested in spending a romantic evening with YOU…”

“Haha, just admit it.”

Fabian

Reiko wasn’t cocky at all! As if I would take the first best opportunity to make a pass at him! AT HIM! Really…

Whereby… Reiko didn’t look that bad. Well-trained body, nice face, fuzzy brown hair – I was actually more into blond, but I was quite capable of making exceptions. But wait, it was Reiko, and he had made it pretty clear that he was absolutely not interested. And I would never admit that to him anyway!

“Okay, Arko is dry.”

Reiko released his dog from the bath towel, and he took advantage of the freedom he had gained to sniff around the whole cabin for a while. My two-legged guest now also took off his jacket and shoes and then joined me at the fireplace, where in the meantime small flames were flickering on the wood.

“I just realized that your cabin is not a palace after all. Something very crucial is missing.”

Nice, he hardly arrived and started to criticize already!

“So? What’s missing?”

“Underfloor heating.”

Reiko pointed to his socked feet, with which he stood on the quite cold wooden floor. I had immediately put on warm slippers and was thus protected.

“There are some slippers in that closet over there, help yourself. Will be quite a while before it’s really warm in here.”

“Thanks.”

The fire in the fireplace was burning quite nicely by now, it probably wouldn’t go out so easily again. Time to warm up from the inside, too. Let’s see what I had brought with me.

“Shit!”

Reiko looked in my direction in wonder.

“What’s wrong?”

“All my luggage is still in the car, now I can get dressed again and bring it in.”

Now Reiko burst out laughing.

“Hahaha! And you accuse me of not thinking before I do something.”

“Blah blah blah…”

I reached for my boots, put them on, and slipped into my jacket. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Reiko doing the same.

“You don’t have to come out again, it’s my stuff I forgot.”

“How ungrateful do you think I am? You helped me, I’ll help you.”

Hm. Sounded reasonable. And different than I had imagined Reiko to be.

“Okay, thanks.”

With some effort, we managed to keep Arko from rushing right back out into the snow. I opened the trunk, and Reiko looked inside in amazement.

“Shit, what are you lugging around! Are you going to feed a whole army or what?”

“Be glad that I’m carrying so much. Otherwise you would have to starve now.”

“I’d have to starve? We’d have to starve!”

“No, not us, just you. I would have brought enough for me in any case.”

“How selfless you are.”

“It’s one of my great strengths!”

“I would never have thought that.”

Before a wrong impression arises: that was already a rather friendly teasing, no real argument. I don’t know why, but somehow I didn’t find the idea of being stuck at the cabin with Reiko for the next few days that bad anymore.

We had to go twice to get everything into the cabin, well, I had a lot of canned goods and drinks with me to be stored as well. When we had finally stowed everything and freed ourselves from the winter clothes once more, it had already become pleasantly warm in the cabin. The fire in the fireplace was crackling, and I turned off the electric heater.

“I need something warm to drink and something to eat now. How about you? Tea, coffee, cocoa, mulled wine?”

“What are you drinking?”

“I’ve got some Christmas tea mix here.”

“For me, too, thank you. It’s still a little early for mulled wine.”

“Afraid I’ll get you drunk and then do bad things to you?”

“Hahaha… You and what army?”

“Pah… Don’t think you’re stronger than you are.”

“I don’t. And I especially don’t think YOU are stronger than you are.”

Reiko, in the meantime, had dropped into an armchair and was now grinning cheekily at me. Arko lay at his feet and dozed off. I decided not to delve further into the subject for the time being and went to the kitchenette.

There I loaded the electric kettle and started it. While it was doing its work, I prepared the teapot, took cups and plates out of the cupboard, prepared sugar and lemon, and so on.

“A piece of Stollen, anyone?”

Stollen: a traditional German Christmas pastry

“I’d love to. Can I help you with anything?”

“Nah, you’d better sit tight, I know where everything is and I can manage fine on my own.”

“Just an offer.”

“To which I will return with thanks when there are dishes to wash.”

“It’s a deal.”

I turned back to the countertop and put the tea on with the now boiling water. Suddenly, I felt someone standing next to me.

“Can you put some water in here for Arko? Preferably not ice cold.”

Reiko handed me an aluminum water bowl, which I now filled with water from the tap and a little from the kettle.

“Here. Does he get anything to eat too?”

“No, not now, he’ll get his food later. About 7pm is his time.”

I looked at the clock: it was half past four by now, which was also made clear by the darkness that had fallen.

“Not even a piece of Stollen?”

“No way, that would be much too heavy on his stomach! So please don’t go for it when he starts begging.”

“Oh, he begs?”

“Yes, we haven’t been able to break him off that habit yet. At least with strangers – with us he knows exactly that he doesn’t get anything from the table.”

Would I be able to resist begging, cute dog eyes? That remained to be seen. Arko was already slobbering away at his water bowl, and Reiko carried the plates with the Stollen to the sitting area.

Reiko

Finally sitting comfortably, just wonderful. Slightly in thought I leaned back in the armchair and didn’t really notice how Fabian brought the tea, turned down the electric light almost completely and then sat down opposite me in the second armchair. I must have tuned out everything around me for a while, and suddenly I was startled by my host.

“Hello, anyone at home in the upper room?”

“Huh, what? Oh, I see. Sorry, must have been somewhere else with my mind for a moment.”

“Dig in and drink before the tea turns to iced tea.”

Good idea, I was thirsty and could also use something warm for my insides. I still felt the long snow hike in my bones, and I was only slowly getting really warm again. The tea tasted good, two more squirts of lemon and it was perfect. And the Stollen … like from another world.

“HmTheMhStolHmStolleMhishmmmmmdelicious!”

“I should hope so, I baked it myself.”

Excuse me? I chewed down quickly.

“YOU baked the Stollen?”

“Yep. So be aware of the honor of eating it. Usually only family and a few close friends get some of it.”

That reminded me of something.

“We used to be that…”

“What?”

“Close friends.”

That had probably hit Fabian harder than I had intended, at least he gave me a pained look.

“Yeah… We used to be…”

To be honest: I missed those times. Before the great estrangement, we had done lots of things together and had lots of fun together. We had been almost inseparable. Maybe…

“Fabian?”

“Yes?”

“I guess we’ll have to get along here for the next few days. What do you say we try to be friends again, at least for this time. Would make things a lot easier here. If it doesn’t work out, we’ll just forget about it afterwards and go our separate ways again. If it works out – all the better.”

My host looked at me thoughtfully, then sipped from his teacup.

“Just an idea, if you don’t want to…”

“Yes, yes, you’re right. Your suggestion just surprised me. I thought you couldn’t stand me.”

I sighed.

“Fabian, I can’t stand the way you act sometimes. In general, though, I have nothing against you, not at all.”

Fabian looked slightly doubtfully in my direction. Then he seemed to have come to a decision.

“Okay, let’s give it a try. And just for the record: I don’t have anything against you either. Not most of the time, anyway. I just have something against some of the jerks you’ve surrounded yourself with over the years. I’m constantly afraid of running into them alone in the dark.”

I couldn’t leave that uncommented. Sure, some of my friends were neither the brightest nor the friendliest, but that also applied to Fabian in a slightly different way.

“Well, some of your brainiac friends are no better in their arrogance than the worst dumbasses from my surroundings.”

Now my host grinned at me – was that a good sign?

“True. And on the subject of arrogance, I guess I’d better do some soul-searching myself.”

“Self-awareness is the first step to improvement…”

“Well, I hope you relate that to yourself a little bit, too.”

I refrained from answering and toasted Fabian with my teacup.

“Well then, to good friendship.”

“Ditto.”

We drank tea, munched on Stollen, and I had to wonder again about Fabian’s baking skills.

“Did you really bake the Stollen yourself?”

“For the third time, yes, I did.”

“Cool. You really do seem to have a lot of talent. I’m sure you’ll make a really good housewife for a man someday.”

I gave him a friendly grin to take the possible edge off the words.

“Idiot!”

“Sorry, couldn’t help myself.”

“You’re not getting any more of that Stollen!”

Oh. Now that was harsh. I didn’t really deserve such a bad punishment.

“Come on … Faby… Please, please, forgive me!”

“Faby?!?”

Oops…

“That’s what you used to call me…”

I actually did that. Long, long ago it had been.

“And even then, I couldn’t refuse you a request when you begged like that.”

Ah! Done!

“Thank you, thank you, thank you! Is there anything I can do for you? Do the dishes? Mop the cabin? Shovel snow? You name it and I’ll do it!”

Fabian

Interesting offer. I looked challengingly at my guest.

“You would do anything?”

“Yes!”

“Have you thought this offer over really carefully?”

At that moment, Reiko probably realized that he’d better be careful with such promises. Anyway, he turned bright red in the face and started stammering.

“No. Uh… I… I didn’t mean it like that… You know!”

How he fidgeted! But I wasn’t going to be like that for once and decided to let him off the hook.

“I get it. I don’t want you to get in trouble with your girlfriend either.”

I guess I had put my foot in my mouth, Reiko’s face darkened and he literally slumped in his chair. Oops…

“Reiko? What is it? Did I say something wrong?”

He sighed and looked at me sadly.

“I caught Melanie in bed with another guy earlier…”

“Shit. Sorry, I didn’t mean to remind you of such nasty stuff.”

“That’s okay, you couldn’t have known.”

“Is that why you were so messed up that you took off with summer tires and then wandered through the woods?”

“Yeah, probably. I just wanted to get away from home. By the time I started to realize that the car wasn’t winterized, it was too late.”

My God, I was actually starting to feel sorry for Reiko. I must be getting soft in my old age.

“Just a week I was away, on Red Cross training, and already she jumps into the box with René.”

Ouch. Wait a minute!

“What? Isn’t René your best buddy?”

Reiko looked at me in pain.

“Yeah, great, isn’t it? My girlfriend and my best friend. And they don’t even have the decency to tell me to my face, they just do it behind my back. Who knows how long this has been going on – and how long it would have gone on if my training hadn’t been a day shorter than planned.”

Well, too bad for everyone involved.

“And, is René still alive?”

“Yes, unfortunately.”

What, Reiko hadn’t had a go at his former best buddy?

“However, he’ll probably have some problems nibbling on gingerbread this Christmas.”

Ah, yes. Would have kind of surprised me if Reiko had let that go so easily.

“So you beat him up good.”

“No, I only hit him once. And my right hand still hurts a little from it.”

Something like that comes from something like that.

“And your girlfriend?”

“The stupid cow didn’t say a word the whole time. After I had taken care of René, I rushed out and went home. I even left my backpack with my cell phone at her place.”

“And that’s why you ran off into the woods?”

“Yeah, I didn’t feel like sitting around idly and ending up freezing to death – I hadn’t encountered another car on the road the whole time.”

Okay, that at least explained why, as someone who should have known better, he had pulled off the road.

“Stupidly, I took the wrong road. They all look so much alike in the snow.”

I had to admit that this was true. If I hadn’t known my way around particularly well because of our cabin, I probably wouldn’t have been able to distinguish between the different forester’s roads.

“Fabian?”

“Yes?”

“Thanks. If you hadn’t come, who knows what would have become of me.”

A small-town edition of Oetzi, probably.

Oetzi aka The Iceman: a natural mummy found 1991 in the Oetztal Alps

“No problem. I was going to catch me someone on the way here anyway, to wash dishes and clean up around here for me while I was having a good lazy time.”

Reiko chuckled, well at least he wasn’t quite as down anymore as he had been a moment ago on the subject of his faithless girlfriend.

“Yeah sure, I’ll be your house slave now.”

I loved it when a plan worked out.

“My plans for Christmas fell through anyway. I was going to spend a few nice days with Melanie – pooh-pooh.”

And with that, his mood improvement was gone again.

“Hey, I realize this hurts a lot right now. But be glad you found it out at all. And besides, I guarantee you’ll find something better for you. With your looks, you really shouldn’t have any problems with that. And then you’ll find a girl who appreciates what she has in you.”

Could someone pinch me? Or maybe Arko could bite me! I was complimenting Reiko here!

“You say that so easily. But I was with Melanie for over a year and a half. And that’s what I want. I want a solid, lasting relationship, not just a bunny for bed. I’m not like you.”

WAIT A MOMENT!

“How am I supposed to understand that?”

Reiko looked over at me seriously.

“Well, I hope you don’t kick me out of the cabin right away, but you just have quite a reputation in the relationship department. Jumping from one affair to the next.”

Ouch, that hurt. Was my reputation really that bad?

“What’s the matter, you’re not jumping down my throat.”

“Is that really how you see me?”

“That’s how a lot of people see you. You flirt with anything with a dick and at least three hairs around it, don’t you?”

I stared piercingly at Reiko.

“Sorry, Faby, but I thought if we were friends again, I’d tell you the truth.”

Great. But what did he just say? If we’re friends again, we’ll tell each other the truth? Well, then maybe I should try that.

“Reiko, it may seem that way, but in reality it’s a little different.”

Doubtingly, my old, new friend looked in my direction.

“What do you mean?”

Okay, cards on the table.

“Reiko, it’s true, I like to flirt, but that’s all there is to it.”

“What are you saying?”

I sighed. But I had started it, now I had to follow through.

“I’ve never had a relationship with a boy, let alone sex. Well, and not with a girl anyway, but that’s obvious.”

Reiko

What… No… Fabian wasn’t serious now! Or perhaps he was? I eyed my counterpart sharply.

“You’re kidding me, right?”

Silently he shook his head, and I suddenly realized that Fabian had not lied to me!

“I don’t believe it! Fabian, Mr. Sex on legs, is still a virgin!”

“Yeah great, I hope you’re happy!”

I should probably pull myself together a bit, although this confession had really knocked my socks off.

“Sorry, but that really surprises me.”

“Reiko, be realistic for once. Okay, I flirt a lot, but that doesn’t mean that anything will come of it. Think about it, we’re in a small town here. How many gay guys our age do you know here?”

I didn’t have to think too hard.

“Three. You, Markus Zimmermann and Ralf Vollmer.”

“Well, Markus and Ralf are so in love with each other and absolutely monogamous that I have nothing to expect from them.”

That’s right, they were a couple for two years or so already. They were so in love with each other that it seemed downright cheesy.

“The two of them only have eyes for each other.”

“Yep. And so far, unfortunately, all my attempts to change a cute boy’s mind about his sexuality have failed.”

Well… Maybe not changing minds, but there were those rumors…

“But at school it was always rumored that anyone who wanted to get a blowjob could get it from you.”

Uhoh. Judging by the pained look on Fabian’s face, I had just put my foot in my mouth so deep that it almost came out of my butt.

“Yeah, I’ve heard about those rumors too. But believe me, they’re really just rumors. Even I wouldn’t stoop that low to just blow some guy in the school bathroom. I’m not that desperate for sex!”

The pinched face showed me that Fabian again told the pure truth. Interesting how one could be so wrong about someone, if one only looked at the reputation without looking closer.

“I want a boy for myself, for a long time relationship, not just for sex. Just for sex I would not jump into the box with anyone. There has to be more to it.”

Obviously, we were more alike in this relationship thing than I would have ever thought.

“Sorry, Faby, I didn’t mean to offend you. I’m sorry that I even thought that way about you.”

Oh my god, he actually had tears in his eyes!

“It’s okay, Reiko. It’s not like we spent the last few years as the best of buddies. I guess I too saw more the image you show in public, and not the person behind the picture.”

“Faby?”

“Yes?”

“I’d like to get to know you again. You, not your reputation, but the real you.”

He looked at me in silence for a long time, then a grin spread across his face.

“Okay, I think I’d like that too. I guess we have quite a bit of time for that in the next few days.”

Oh God. And all that time without a TV or computer, how was I going to survive?

“Is there at least a radio or something at this place?”

“I brought one, and my MP3 player.”

Well, at least something.

“And what else can we do here?”

“Hiking. Skiing – although with all the fresh snow, that might be problematic. And somewhere in a closet there are a lot of books and games.”

“Games?”

“Yes. Those things with game pieces, etc. etc., you know, that old-fashioned stuff from the pre-computer age.”

“Haha, don’t act like you’re not as spoiled by technology as I am.”

“Okay, you caught me. But that’s what I was looking forward to, to be honest: being here away from the computer and the boob tube. To get away from the overstimulation of everyday life. And I think, after your experiences today, you could use some peace and quiet, too.”

I had to agree with him on that one.

“And what are we going to do with the rest of the day?”

Fabian looked at the clock, and reflexively I did the same. It was already half past five by now.

“Well, I’ll take off my warm clothes first, then I’ll lie down for an hour. Is it okay for you if we have dinner after seven?”

“No problem, your Stollen was very filling.”

Fabian grinned cheekily at me.

“You ate enough of it, after all.”

“Hehe, sorry, couldn’t help myself. It’s really very good.”

“Thanks. Good, then we’ll do it like this, first a break, then dinner, then I’ll prepare the beds.”

“Okay. And you’re right, now that it’s nice and warm in here, I think I’ll go change too.”

“You can change in the big bedroom, I’ll take the small one.”

I nodded, grabbed my bag and disappeared into said room. There I got rid of my jeans and sweatshirt, then an idea came to me. I left the room, knocked on the small bedroom and entered. Fabian was rummaging in one of his bags.

“Faby?”

He turned to me.

“Yes?”

“You said something earlier about a shower…”

“Yes. Do you want to take one?”

“Would that be possible? I’ve been working up quite a sweat trudging through the snow.”

“I fired up the water heater right away, so there should be enough hot water. Towels are in the closet by your room. Do you need anything else?”

I thought about it for a second.

“Nah, thanks, I should have everything else with me.”

“Well have fun.”

“Thanks, I think I really could use a warm shower right now.”

I turned and prepared to leave the room.

“Oh, and Reiko?”

I turned back to Fabian.

“Yes?”

“If you were trying to turn me on with your outfit: sorry, it didn’t work. It looks rather ridiculous.”

Oops… Okay, I guess I really didn’t look very attractive in my long army underwear. I gave Fabian the finger, then headed off into the warm rain of the shower…

Fabian

Honestly, this was a typical straight guy. How could one pack one’s body in such an unflattering way. Especially if you – like Reiko, which I had to admit – had a nice looking body. Well, here in the mountains one was dependent on warm clothes in winter. But there were also other possibilities than these flabby Bundeswehr longjohns.

Oh well, Reiko was the one having to live with that. I looked for my book from the bag, then I also undressed. Well, not completely undressed! It was not that warm in the hut. I got rid of my thermal underwear (of the skintight, sporty kind!), then I put on jeans and T-shirt again and went back to the living room.

Reiko’s four-legged friend was already waiting for me there, still lying in front of the armchair where his master had been sitting until a few minutes ago. Now his tail was rhythmically thumping on the floor.

“Well, Arko, has everyone left you?”

The dog got up and came trotting to me, so I did what he probably expected me to do and petted him. In the distance, I heard the water from the shower. Any further thought of the fact that my guest was not 10 meters away from me stark naked under the water, I decided to quickly ignore. Fortunately I had something with which I could distract myself.

“Arko, your lazy master has disappeared, and I have to take care of the dishes.”

The dog looked at me and wagged his tail. Maybe he knew that from his master.

Well, there was no point in doing the dishes just now, I had to do the dinner dishes later, too, so I just quickly put the cups and plates away, then I made myself comfortable on the couch. I did not get further than two pages in my book, then my eyes fell shut…

Suddenly I was awakened by the clattering of dishes. I blinked a few times, then I could see what had woken me up. Reiko was busy spreading plates and glasses on the table. I yawned heartily.

“Ah, good evening sir, are we back among the living?”

“Yes, you had to wake me up with that clatter.”

“Sorry, but I thought I’d prepare dinner. And I’m afraid that doesn’t work completely without noise.”

“What time is it?”

“A quarter past seven.”

Already that late. I swung my legs to the floor and wanted to get up.

“I’ll help you, Reiko.”

“Forget it, you just sit tight, it’s almost all done. Arko got his food, I found some bread and sausage and stuff, and also put on some more tea. Or did you want something else to drink?”

“Nah, tea’s fine. We can have something cold later.”

“That’s what I thought, too. So sit back, we’re almost ready to eat.”

Well, if that’s what he wanted, I certainly wouldn’t stop him from working alone. I watched Reiko pour the tea and gather some more cutlery. He was now wearing a dark blue fleece house suit – in which he looked much better than before in the olive green long comrades. A few minutes later everything was ready, he sat down at the table with me, and we enjoyed the delicacies my parents had packed for the cabin.

“Well Fabian, with these supplies we could feed half an army. Who’s going to eat all those canned goods?”

“We always have an emergency supply of shelf-stable food here. Sometimes the cabin dwellers are not able to shop for a while.”

“Like we right now?”

“Yeah, it’s not the first time the cabin has been snowed in. If a larger family is stuck here, we don’t want them to starve to death. It’s always such a hassle to get rid of the bodies afterwards.”

Reiko laughed heartily, but calmed down quite quickly.

“Sounds logical – I guess the two of us will have to be careful not to completely overeat with all that stuff, though.”

“Well, I have enough self-control – don’t you?”

“Hehe, not when I see all the good stuff. I’m really struggling with myself there.”

You couldn’t tell by looking at him.

“Oh, by the way, when this is all over, of course I’ll pay you for what I ate here. And also my share of the diesel costs.”

There was really more brain in his head than I would have given him credit for a few hours ago. If he really were such an egotistical airhead as I initially thought, he would never have come up with such an idea.

“You don’t have to.”

“I will pay my share, end of discussion!”

Okay, okay, I wouldn’t fight with him over a little thing like that. We kept eating until we were really well fed. Arko seemed to be full too, at least he didn’t even try to beg for anything from the table.

“Okay, I’ll do the dishes as promised. I’m your house slave, after all.”

I couldn’t leave it at that.

“Nah, you have prepared the food, I’ll do the dishes.”

Reiko looked around briefly.

“There’s enough space here. I’ll do the dishes, you dry them off. Deal?”

I could live with that.

“Okay, deal.”

So we did, and within no time the traces of our meal were gone. While Reiko was now sitting down, it occurred to me that I had almost forgotten something very important. I grabbed my cell phone and turned it on. After a few seconds, two bars of the network indicator lit up – not much, but still, it worked, even out here in the wilderness.

“Do you have any reception out here?”

“Yes, unfortunately.”

“Why unfortunately?”

At that moment, a whole bunch of beeps began to indicate the arrival of lots and lots of text messages. I sat back down in my chair and pointed at the cell phone.

“That’s why.”

“Hehe, Faby, you seem to be a man in demand!”

“It’s just always the wrong people asking about me, unfortunately.”

I looked through the text message list – all messages about missed calls. And they all came from a number I knew well, my parents’s. My mother would probably never get that I was no longer her little boy she had to keep an eye on every spare minute.

“Oh, who’s always asking about you?”

“My mother. I’m going to get quite an earful because the phone was off for so long.”

“Haha, almost sounds like my own.”

“Trust me, yours can’t be that bad.”

I deleted the next message, the list slid forward one position, and lo and behold, a number popped up that I didn’t know!

“Hmm… Who was that?”

“What is it?”

“Someone here has been trying to reach me whose number I don’t recognize.”

“Hehe, do you have a secret admirer?”

“I wish. Wait a minute!”

I thought of something.

“What number do YOUR parents have?”

“Why?”

“Well, maybe it was them. I would imagine that my dad gave them my number. He had to explain to them where you were anyway.”

“You’re right, that could be.”

“So?”

“So what?”

“Your number!”

“Oh. Sure. *****.”

“Congratulations, a slam dunk. You want to call them back right now?”

“Nah, nah, you better call your place first before your mom rubs the skin off her fingers from all the calling.”

At least that would have the advantage that she would stop trying to reach me all the time. But well, I shouldn’t be like that, so I hit the speed dial.

Reiko

Fabian’s mother seemed to be even worse than mine, looking at the number of her unsuccessful call attempts. While the good son now faced his fate and called said mother, I reached for the book Fabian had put on the coffee table.

Peter Conrad – The New Beginning. What was that supposed to be? I read the text on the back. Well, a gay youth story. Not really surprising that Fabian was into that kind of thing, but it wasn’t really something for me. But wait, didn’t he say something about a closet full of books? Maybe there was something suitable for me in there.

“Hi mom, it’s me.”

Ah, he had reached home base.

“Yes, I know, but I ha…”

Ouch, the poor guy didn’t seem to be getting a word in at all!

“Yes, but…”

Grinning, I studied the selection of books and found something for me pretty quickly – the latest Harry Potter volume. And if ANYONE tells my hockey buddies, I’ll visit him at night!

“Yes, we are well supplied, the pantry is full, the diesel tank too.”

The cell phone battery probably won’t be soon.

“Besides, if possible we will only heat with the fireplace, we have more than enough wood for it.”

I sat back down in my armchair, carefully stepping over Arko, who had made himself comfortable right in front of it and made no effort to give my feet a little more space.

“Yes, mommie dear, I’ll tell Reiko to call his parents.”

Oh, they must have called Fabian’s parents already.

“And that’s why I have to end the call now, so that Reiko can take care of calling his parents. We don’t want them having to wait too long for a sign of life from him.”

Which, of course, was the only reason for cutting short the conversation with his own mother. Not!

“Say hi to Pops and the others for me.”

With eyebrows raised in annoyance Fabian looked over at me.

“Yes, mom, tomorrow evening we’ll talk again. But I’ll leave the cell phone off during the day, otherwise the battery will run down too quickly.”

There was the charger, after all, but there was no need to remind his mom of that.

“Well then, bye!”

My host ended the conversation and sank down in his chair, relieved.

“Exhausting?”

“You can say that again! To this woman, I’m not 18 but 8 at the most, if even that old.”

“Hehe, well, typical mother. You never really grow up for a mother.”

“That’s probably how it will be. Hashtag mother: here, now it’s your turn. Your mother has already called mine twice to see if she’s heard anything from you.”

Oh God, now it was time to have a not-so-nice talk, about running away, with the car on summer tires. But I couldn’t avoid it forever anyway, so it was probably better to get it over with right away. Fabian handed me the cell phone.

“What about Arko, he has to go out once more later, doesn’t he?”

I thought about it for a moment, actually I didn’t feel like another walk in the woods, even more so in the dark.

“Yes, but we’ll just send him out the door for a bit, that’s enough.”

“Okay, then have a nice phone call. I’m going to jump in the shower real quick, so you’ll have some privacy.”

“You do that, have fun.”

I’d rather not think too much about WHAT kind of fun Fabian would possibly have in the shower!

While he now disappeared into the back rooms, I dialed my home number, and after only two rings, the call was answered.

“Heilmann.”

“Hi Nicole, it’s me.”

“Reiko!”

“That’s the one.”

“Finally you call! Is everything okay with you? Mom and Dad are worried out of their skins!”

“Oh, and you weren’t worried about me?”

“Nah, more like hoping to inherit your room!”

Typical my sister. Somehow she was always picking on me. But I also picked on her, and she could take as good as dishing out.

“Why did you run away like that, you idiot?”

On the other hand, we mostly got along very well and had almost no secrets from each other.

“I caught Melanie in bed with another guy.”

“Ouch! I guess my comment about a storm in lover’s land hit too close?”

“Indeed, that was the last straw to kick me off track.”

“Sorry, if I had known that, I wouldn’t have made that comment.”

“You’re about to be even more sorry very soon.”

“Why is that?”

“The other guy was René.”

“What?!?!?!???”

I had expected this surprised outcry. Not only because Nicole knew, of course, that René was supposed to be my best friend, but also because I knew that she secretly, or rather not secretly at all, had a big crush on him.

“That asshole!”

“You can say that again.”

“Great, it all came together for you. But don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll find someone better than that unfaithful bitch Melanie, someone who really cares about you.”

“Funny, that’s pretty much what Fabian said, too.”

“Oh yeah, that’s right, you’ve ended up with the fag.”

“Please don’t call him that.”

“Why? You’ve called him that often enough!”

“Yeah, and I’m ashamed of that by now, okay? So please don’t do that either.”

“Well, that’s new!”

“Actually not, actually it is quite old. Fabian and I used to be best friends, and HE never betrayed me the way René did.”

“Ahem… Reiko?”

“Yes?”

“You don’t have a crush on him, do you?”

“Me? A crush on Fabian? Nah, sis, never! I’m straight through and through, and I intend to stay that way. But that doesn’t mean Fabian and I can’t be friends again.”

“Well then, that’s fine. Okay, mom almost rips the phone out of my hand, so talk to you later! And remember, you better sleep with your back to the wall!”

“Hahaha…”

I could still hear Nicole’s giggling, then my mom’s voice rang in my ear.

“Reiko! Glad you finally called!”

“Hi mom, sorry I couldn’t call earlier.”

Well, I could have, but she didn’t really need to know that.

“And, son, how are you? Did you make it through the accident all right? Mr. Roecker said something about a bruise!”

“Yes, Mom, I’m fine. I didn’t get the bruise from the accident, I slipped in the woods later, but I hardly notice it anymore.”

“Well, that’s good then. Do you get along with Fabian? You two weren’t exactly the best of buddies in the last few years.”

“I know we weren’t, but we’re working on it. We’ve cleared up some misunderstandings, and I guess we can become good friends again.”

I not only thought that, I hoped that. Funny how you can completely change your attitude toward a person in a matter of hours.

“Glad to hear that, kind of reminds me of the old days, when you two were hardly ever to be found anywhere without the other.”

Well, long, long ago.

“And since Mr. Roecker says you’ll probably have to endure quite a while up there, it would be really good if you got along well.”

“I know. As I said, things are looking pretty positive. Has Fabian’s father said HOW long we’ll be cut off here?”

“He certainly doesn’t think you guys will be out of there by Christmas.”

“He said something on the radio about a severe weather warning.”

“Yeah, there’s probably going to be some more snow coming down. And even when the snowfall has stopped, the main roads will have to be cleared first. But he’s assured me that you have enough supplies up at the cabin to last you a whole month if necessary.”

Hopefully it wouldn’t take that long, but the supplies would probably last through a couple of weeks.

“Yes, mom, we don’t have to starve or freeze to death.”

“Well, that’s good then. Okay, I think we should end the call, this is all going on Fabian’s phone bill.”

“Okay, you’re right. Please say hello to the others for me, and tomorrow you can call here on Fabian’s cell phone, you already have the number.”

“That’s exactly how we’ll do it. By the way, René was here earlier, but he just dropped off your backpack and disappeared again immediately.”

That asshole actually dared to come to my home!

“Why did he have it anyway?”

“Mom, let Nicole tell you about it, okay? We should really break up now.”

“Fine, whatever you say. Now then, behave yourself and help Fabian if you can. And take good care of Arko!”

“Don’t worry, I’ll do that. Well then, talk to you tomorrow evening. Bye.”

“Bye, big guy.”

That was the end of the conversation. And it had gone over entirely without reproach for my hasty departure! Relieved to some extent, I leaned back in my chair and immersed myself in the book.

Fabian

After I had left Reiko alone with the cell phone, I went into the bathroom and tried out first of all whether already again hot water was available. It was, so now I could treat myself to a little shower pleasure. After a look at the clock, which already indicated shortly after eight, I decided to put on my pajamas right after showering, so I took them with me into the bathroom, together with my nice thick anti slip socks.

In the bathroom I undressed, and since I had no desire to wash my hair again and then having to dry it off once more, I put on a shower cap, then I got into the warm water jet. While I was soaping up myself, I suddenly remembered that not so long ago another naked boy had been standing in exactly the same place – and immediately something stirred in the middle of my body. I wondered if Reiko had felt the same way. Well, after his experience with Melanie and René probably not. But that should not stop ME! Especially with having to spend the next days in the proximity of this quite handsome guy. So I did what one does in such a case, and hoped that I would be spared from wet dreams and similarly embarrassing events in Reiko’s presence. It was always embarrassing enough when Tom noticed something like that – although the situations in which he caught me jerking off or such things and those in which I experienced the same with him were more or less equally numbered. But away with the thoughts of my brother. Why roam in the distance, when the good is so close? I gave myself to these wonderful feelings…

…and just as I was approaching the climax, the water became significantly colder, and all my mood was ruined! Damn it! I had forgotten that the content of the hot water tank was limited, and now the water was starting to get really cold!

Well, God punishes small sins immediately. All thoughts of cute boys were driven out of my head with one blow, and also driven out was the blood from another not quite unimportant body part. As fast as I could, I rinsed myself off with the now almost icy broth, then only a quick jump from the water jet saved me from a miserable frostbite death. Thanks a lot!

Shivering, I dried myself off, even the heating didn’t help much, so I hurried to slip into my pajamas. After putting on my socks, which also served as house slippers, I took one last angry look at the shower stall and wandered back to the living room, discarding my day clothes in the small bedroom on the way. Reiko sat comfortably in an armchair, reading … Harry Potter? Now that’s something I didn’t expect.

“I’m back. I see you found a book.”

“Yes, I did, you have a really large selection here.”

“Well, if there’s no TV, then there need to be at least enough alternatives. Did you reach your parents?”

“Yes, I did.”

Reiko looked up at me, gave me a quite a stare, then burst out laughing. What was going on now!

“What’s so funny?”

Still laughing, Reiko pointed upward. What did he mean by that?

“Fancy … hihihi!”

Huh?

“Your head, Faby!”

My head? I reached up with both hands and immediately knew what Reiko was so deliciously amused about. Due to the surprising cold snap, I had completely forgotten that yes, I still had the shower cap on my head! And to top it of it was such a funny pink thing with colorful flowers on it. Argh!

“Suits you really well … hahaha … is that the official coming out model?”

As quickly as I could, I tore the still somewhat wet shower cap off my head, although it was too late anyway.

“Hahaha. That’s not mine, that’s someone else’s!”

“Oh, your brother’s?”

“Nah. Some guests forgot it here, and since then it’s been hanging around in the bathroom.”

“Yeah sure, anyone can say that.”

“Blah, blah, believe it or not.”

I dashed back to the bathroom and got rid of the ugly foil thing. By the time I got back to the living room, Reiko had finally calmed down.

“Sorry, Fabian, I didn’t mean to make fun of you.”

How generous. But oh well.

“That’s all right. To be honest, I probably would have laughed in your place, too.”

“Hehe, most likely.”

“I’ll go see about the beds, they still need to be prepared.”

“Wait, I’ll help you with that.”

I had no objection to that, it was certainly better with two people. But there was still one thing to clarify.

“Where do you want to sleep, in the master bedroom or the small one?”

“I thought we’d sleep in the big one, there’s more space, right?”

Us? Did he really want to sleep in the same room as me?

“We can do that, but you can also get a room to yourself.”

“Why would I want that?”

Reiko looked at me with his head tilted, and I didn’t quite know how to answer.

“Well… I thought… I thought you wouldn’t like it so much…”

“You thought I’d rather sleep in a different room than you because I might be uncomfortable sharing a room with a gay guy?”

That’s exactly what I thought, but I couldn’t get a word out, only nodding my head slightly.

“Fabian, you moron, that you’re gay doesn’t bother me, get it? It’s not like you’re going to jump me at night!”

Not? Crap…

“Besides, I still have my guard dog with me.”

With that it was clear that Arko would spend the night in the bedroom with us.

“Okay, Reiko, whatever you say. I just didn’t want you to feel uncomfortable in any way.”

“Let me worry about that.”

During this exchange of words, we had arrived at the master bedroom. That we would both sleep there was quite convenient, because all the bedding was in a large closet in this room. I went to it now and picked out two sheets, two comforter covers and two pillowcases. And then the devil rode me.

“So, honey, are we going to take the double bed, or what?”

Reiko stared at me with wide eyes and open mouth, then a grin spread across his face.

“Hehe, separate rooms one minute, and then a double bed the next? You should decide what you want.”

I grinned back cheekily.

“I know what I want. Do you know what YOU want, too?”

“I sure do.”

Oh, now I was getting excited!

“I want that single bed under the window over there.”

Too bad. Oh well. I grabbed a full bed set and walked over to said bed.

“Well then, let’s go, I thought you wanted to help me?”

That’s exactly what Reiko did then, and pretty quickly his bed was made.

“Well, let’s see if I’ll be able to sleep here. I hope the mattress isn’t too soft.”

A beggar making demands! Reiko sat down on the freshly covered bed and rocked a little on it.

“Well, does it meet your requirements?”

“Yes, seems to be just right.”

“Puh, thank god, not that you ended up complaining to the tour guide.”

Reiko chuckled softly to himself.

“Nah, the bed is fine. I do have one small complaint to the tour guide, though.”

Oops?

“Yeah? What’s there to complain about?”

“Oh you know, there’s that cheeky tour guide shamelessly flirting with the guests again.”

Oops. Had I really been flirting with him? I hadn’t noticed – but in retrospect I had to admit that he had a point.

“Oh, I’m very sorry about that. What could the tour guide do to appease the esteemed guest?”

“Sit down, let’s think about it together.”

What was going on in Reiko’s mind? But being a well-mannered host, I sat down next to him on the bed.

“Well, Reiko, do you have any ideas yet?”

“Hmm… I think… Well, I think… Yes, I know it now!”

“So, what?”

“Since the staff is prohibited from flirting with the guests, there will be a contractual penalty.”

Funny, I didn’t even know we had a contract. And Reiko hadn’t paid anything for his accommodation. But okay.

“And what does this contractual penalty look like?”

“Very simple, like this!”

With these words, his right arm reached behind me, he dragged my upper body first forward then over to him, and the next moment I found myself laying over his knees.

“What are you doing?”

“Naughty little Fabian is going to get a spanking!”

A spanking? But before I could even start to complain he did what my dad had not done for at least five years: he spanked me!

“Ow, what are you doing!”

“I just want to clear up the situation, not that you’ll attack me at night!”

At these words, he continued to pound my poor rear end, only stopping after about 10 not-so-gentle strokes.

“There, I hope that will teach you a lesson!”

He let go of me, and as quickly as I could, I got myself back upright and, more importantly, a safe distance away from him.

Reiko sat on the edge of the bed grinning and seemed to be very pleased with himself. I, on the other hand, was rubbing my poor bottom, which had only been protected by my pajama pants.

I couldn’t quite figure him out. Okay, in the past, when we were still best friends, we often wrestled and did other things like that. However, a few years had passed since then, during which we had nothing to do with each other at all – and now, on the very first day, he lapsed back into the behavior from our childhood days?

“Reiko, you’re crazy!”

“I know, Faby. But we had unfinished business anyway.”

What did he mean by that?

“Unfinished business? What unfinished business?”

“Remember the night after your seventh birthday?”

Huh?

“I can see you don’t. I spent the night at your place that night, and that’s when you and Tom did something really mean to me that I never really got revenge for later.”

What really mean thing did we do to him? Wait a minute! There was a memory crawling through my brain!

“Ah, looks like you remember now!”

I actually did.

“You’ll have to admit that those few spanks were absolutely harmless in comparison.”

Harmless. Painful it had not been at all for Reiko at that time, in contrast to what was just done to me.

“That was so embarrassing back then, especially when your mother noticed.”

What a wonderful memory, my backward area didn’t hurt so much anymore. What had happened back then? Well, Tom and I had wanted to try out the ancient trick of dipping a sleeping person’s hand in a bowl of warm water and then having him wet the bed.

And what can I say: the trick had actually worked! Reiko had woken up in a wet bed, which of course had caused his head to turn red and Tom and I to laugh. Our mother, however, had not been so enthusiastic about it, although there was still a rubber mat under the bed sheet anyway, because Tom still had nightly accidents from time to time. And Tom was the one who lost control of his blabbermouth a few days later, so that Reiko found out that his accident had not been a real accident. He had sworn terrible revenge, but nothing had ever come from it. Until today…

Reiko

Well, Fabian didn’t expect that! One could say a few things about me, but certainly not that I had a bad memory. And the incident at that time even today was amongst the most embarrassing ones of my whole life. Now I just had to take revenge on Tom, but there would certainly be an opportunity for that, too. Especially now that I was friends with his big brother again.

However, not only Fabian was surprised by my action – somehow I was surprised about myself, too. If someone had told me twelve hours ago that I would become that “intimate” with Fabian, then I would have declared him crazy. But now? I felt somehow comfortable in his vicinity (No! Not as some of you might think now!). It was almost like before, when we had been through thick and thin together, it felt as if the last six or eight years of estrangement had been literally wiped away.

“I hope you’re not planning on getting revenge on Tom, too.”

“Sure, he’ll get his turn too! Why shouldn’t I?”

“Because that’s my little brother, and if you tried anything on him, I’m afraid I’d have to stop you by any means necessary.”

My, how cute, big brother Fabian to the rescue.

“Faby? Reality check. Your little brother is half a head taller than you and besides, he is a big judo jock. I don’t think he needs your protection.”

Maybe I should be glad that Tom had not been present during my revenge on his brother, otherwise he would probably have protected Fabian against me.

“Now, how about it, should I help you with your bed too?”

Slightly doubtful, Fabian looked at me.

“Okay, but only if your ’help’ doesn’t end up like it just did!”

I had to laugh.

“I promise, I’ve had my revenge, you’re safe from me.”

Together we set to work, and shortly thereafter the second bed was also completely ready to be slept in. My host yawned heartily.

“Well Reiko, to be honest, I could just lie down and fall asleep right now. The day has been quite eventful and exhausting.”

I couldn’t agree more with him, I wasn’t planning on staying up much longer either.

“Then go ahead and do it. I’ll let the dog out the door for a minute, and then I’ll call it a day, too.”

“Nah, it’s not that easy. I still have to turn off the generator and stuff.”

I hadn’t thought of that at all, it would be quite a waste of diesel if the thing would run all night. But wait a minute…

“Say, if it’s off, then we don’t have any power, do we?”

“Right. Why?”

“Well, then we won’t have any lights!”

“Hehe, you’re a really fast thinker. Are you afraid that you won’t find your way to bed then?”

“Idiot.”

“Take it easy, look, the petroleum lamps on the night stands are not dummies but real and ready for use. Also, I’ll show you where we have flashlights for emergencies.”

Petroleum lamps. That felt like a trip to the Middle Ages!

“Well, here we go. You let the dog out, I’ll make sure that all the electrical appliances are turned off.”

That was exactly what we did, I shooed Arko into the dark night (which was not so dark because of the snow and the moon shining now and at least at the moment no clouds) and prepared the big bath towel for the dry-rubbing of the tail-wagger. Arko probably had no big desire to romp through the snow, he came back to the cabin door after only two or three minutes, where I received him with a mix of drying him off and cuddling him. Due to the shortness of his excursion, there fortunately was not much to rub dry, so that task was done quickly.

“Well, has Arko peed himself out for the day?”

“I certainly hope so.”

“And how long will he last now?”

“Well, he’ll have to go out around eight at the latest.”

“That’s okay, I was afraid that he would wake us up at six or so.”

Well, I didn’t want to advise the dog to do that! At eight was bad or rather early enough.

“Here, take this flashlight and then come with me. I’ll show you how to operate the generator.”

As Fabian said this, he thrust a brightly shining flashlight into my hand, then turned off the lights in the living room so that the room was lit only by the slowly burning out fireplace, and then went ahead toward the room in which the power generator was hidden. I followed him in the glow of the fire and flashlight, and a moment later we were standing in the noise of the diesel generator.

“So, it’s really quite simple.”

Fabian had to speak quite loudly for me to understand him, but then he pushed a button and the roar of the diesel slowly died away.

“This thing really only has two buttons: on and off. When you press ’on,’ it takes a few seconds, then the engine starts, and shortly after that, full power is available.”

“Let me guess, when I press ’off,’ the machine goes off.”

“I hope you don’t expect me to applaud that ingenious thinking.”

“Hehe. Even I get that.”

“Great. Please remember that too, you’ll have to use this knowledge soon.”

“Why?”

“Simple: when you get up tomorrow morning to let the dog out, you can start the generator right away, so we’ll have hot water and heating as soon as possible.”

Ah yes…

“And here I thought I was a guest!”

“Nah, you’re a house slave, you said so yourself.”

“Okay, okay, I’ll take care of it in the morning.”

Fabian

Well, he’ll better! And I would make sure to be the first to use the warm water in the morning. Maybe, and really just maybe, I would then leave Reiko a few liters for brushing his teeth, etc.

“Okay, now that’s actually all done and settled, and we can hit the sack.”

I was really tired by now and longed for a soft, warm bed. Maybe read a few more pages, if my eyes didn’t fall shut on their own before that.

“Do we need to do anything with the fireplace?”

Meanwhile, we had arrived back in the living room, where only a few small flames still flickered in the wood embers.

“No, I added a few more small logs earlier, so they can still glow slowly now, and the place won’t cool down completely overnight.”

“Okay. I’ll go to the bathroom one last time. Wait a minute. Does that even work now? No water pump works without power, does it?”

“True, but the toilet flush works without power, by gravity, the tank is at the top.”

“I see. But doesn’t the water freeze?”

Yikes, Reiko was asking really intelligent questions! I guess he really was nowhere near as dumb as I had imagined in the last few years.

“The diesel charged a big battery pack, and that runs a little electric heater and a small circulating pump. That’s enough to keep the water from freezing overnight.”

“And what if the cabin sits empty for a few days in a row during the winter? Will the batteries last that long?”

“No, but the generator has a timer for that, it runs automatically every day around noon for an hour, heats up briefly and charges the batteries.”

“It all seems really quite cleverly set up.”

“Most of it still comes from the Federal Border Guard. But they only got smarter after the whole installation blew up on them one winter.”

“Hehe, I guess that wasn’t very pleasant. Well, I’m off to the bathroom. Let’s see how I do in the light of the flashlight.”

Should I tell him or not? Well. He was my friend again, so I didn’t want to be like that, and I called after him.

“Reiko?”

“Yes?”

“You can try it with the flashlight, of course, but it would be smarter if you just flipped the light switch.”

He looked at me big.

“Huh? I think the power is off…. Wait. Don’t say it, I already know. The bathroom light runs on the batteries too.”

I grinned.

“Right.”

“Ah. Thanks for the tip, that makes things easier.”

He disappeared in the bathroom, and I went to the bedroom, trailed by the scratching of Arko’s claws on the hard wood floor. By the light of my flashlight, I lit the petroleum lamps one by one with the lighter that was strategically placed on a night stand, and the bedroom was bathed in the flickering light of open flames. The flashlight landed on my night stand, as did the book I had brought with me, I threw back my covers and made myself comfortable. That felt nice…

I closed my eyes, somehow I didn’t really felt like reading anymore. In the background I heard the toilet flush, soon Reiko would appear here and I could watch him undressing. Oops. Away with these thoughts!

Just at that moment, I suddenly felt a heavy weight on my feet! What was going on now? I opened my eyes, lifted my head a bit, looked at the foot of my bed – and looked into the brown eyes of Arko, who had made himself comfortable there! Now that didn’t look right!

“Shoo! Get down! That’s MY bed!”

I guess I could just as easily be talking to a wall, the dog didn’t budge.

“Get down, Arko! Go and annoy your master!”

“He knows very well that he’s not allowed to do that with me, so he’s probably trying it with you.”

Unnoticed, Reiko had come back into the room and looked amused at the bed situation.

“He must be allowed to do it with someone, otherwise he wouldn’t try it in the first place, right?”

“Oh, Faby, I didn’t realize you were a dog specialist, too! But you’re absolutely right, Nicole often lets him in bed with her when he sleeps in her room.”

Oh great, and I now got to suffer from his sister’s inconsistency.

“Come on, Arko, get down!”

Oh, his master’s voice seemed to work, at least the dog slowly and reluctantly descended from his chosen sleeping spot – which my legs were happy about, he was quite heavy!

“But there we have a little problem now, Fabian.”

I didn’t like problems at such an hour.

“What kind of problem?”

“I don’t have a blanket for him with me, at my aunt’s he would have had his own sleeping blanket. And I don’t really want him to sleep on the cold floor.”

Hmm, that sounded reasonable. Just as reluctantly as Arko had left my bed, I now struggled to get out of it. In the closet with the bedding I had seen something earlier, which I remembered now. The old army blanket would ensure that Arko had a warm place to sleep.

“I think I have a solution for that problem.”

I went to the closet and pulled out the blanket.

“Will this do?”

Reiko smiled at me with relief.

“Yes, great, that’s fine!”

There you go. I spread the blanket between our two beds and showed it to Arko.

“You can sleep here, you shouldn’t live like a dog.”

The furball seemed to have understood what I wanted him to do, he ran up to the blanket, sniffed around a bit, turned in circles three times and then settled down with a clearly audible sniff.

“Okay, Reiko, any more problems to solve? Or can I go back to bed now?”

“Thank you very much, kind sir, I guess all problems are solved now.”

I hoped so too, and with this pleasant thought I lay down in my bed again. Meanwhile, Reiko flipped back the covers of his bed and then began peeling off of his house suit. And, of course, I wasn’t looking at all! His muscular upper body became visible, and that was something he really didn’t need to be ashamed of!

“Don’t you want to take a picture, that would last longer.”

Crap! He had caught me!

“Um… Sorry … I’ll turn around.”

“Haha, don’t be, we’ve seen each other naked often enough.”

However, that was many years ago, and at that time, naked boys’ bodies had not been that interesting to me yet.

Reiko slipped into the top of his pajamas, and I was already very curious about what would follow now. Somehow I had the feeling that Reiko knew exactly that and also took advantage of it, in any case he did not make the slightest effort to hide his naked backside from me when he took off the pants and his retro shorts and then put on the pajama pants. Only he did not do me the favor of turning around at least once in between.

“Okay, Mr. Roecker, that was enough peepshow for today!”

How unfortunate. And after my nasty cold shower surprise, my own pajama pants had suddenly become VERY tight.

Reiko put his day clothes on a chair, then came my way! I wondered what would happen now?

Reiko

Poor Fabian, I had probably heated him up quite a bit, hehe. Well, that was not so bad, in the quite cold bedroom. As I now approached him, he looked at me with big eyes. What he probably thought now would happen?

Two steps before his bed I stopped and went into a crouch.

“Good boy, Arko, now sleep.”

I petted the dog’s silky fur on his head, looking over at my host with one eye. He seemed a little disappointed that it wasn’t HIS head I was petting, but that’s where I drew the line. I got up, walked over to my own bed and let myself sink into it.

“That feels good!”

Finally stretching out, finally calling it a day, a day that had really been pretty extreme.

“Do you want to read some, Fabian?”

“Nah, I’ve had enough for today, I’ll turn off my lamp now. But you can still read, it doesn’t bother me.”

“Thanks, but I don’t think I feel like it anymore either. How do you turn off the lamps?”

“You just have to turn the little wheel until the wick disappears, then the flame goes out automatically.”

I did just that, and almost at the same moment both our petroleum lights went out.

“Ah, that feels good. Finally, some rest for my eyes.”

True, I too found the darkness, brightened somewhat only by a little moonlight or its reflections from the snow, very pleasant.

“Good night, Reiko.”

“Good night, Faby.”

Silence returned, now and then from the direction of the living room could still be heard the crackling of wood in the fireplace, otherwise I perceived only the soft breathing of Fabian and Arko.

“Oh, and Reiko?”

Oh?

“Yes?”

“I’m glad I found you.”

A few hours ago, it had sounded quite different.

“Faby?”

“Yeah?”

“Me too.”

“Fine. So sleep tight.”

“Same to you.”

It was hard to believe how this day had changed my life. Just a few hours ago, I had a girlfriend and a best buddy, and was actually quite content with my life. Now, half a day later, I no longer had a girlfriend or a best buddy, but I guess I had my old best friend back. And somehow, as hard as it was for me to admit it, I felt even more content than before. How to understand the human mind. Over these profound thoughts I fell asleep, accompanied by the steady breaths of Fabian, who was probably already slumbering in Morpheus’ arms, dreaming about … no, I didn’t want to know!

I was awakened by a rather unpleasant coldness on my left foot. I quickly pulled it back under the warm blanket, then slowly and carefully opened my eyes. The room was in light twilight, and a glance at the clock told me that it was just before eight in the morning. It was time to make sure Arko got out the door to do his business for the first time in the day. I looked at the dog blanket – but there was no Arko to be seen!

Where was he at this early hour? My eyes wandered around the room and very quickly brought me the answer to my question. My spoiled four-legged friend had probably found his blanket a bit too uncomfortable, he again was lying curled up at the foot of Fabian’s bed! Under his blanket I recognized that my host had pulled his legs in a little, so that Arko did not lie directly on him. I had to grin, then I addressed the dog very quietly, so as not to wake up Fabian.

“Arko. Come on, get down!”

The dog didn’t move from his comfy spot.

“Come on, before Fabian finds out!”

“He found out a long time ago, or why do you think he’s huddled up in bed like that?”

Oops.

“Sorry, Fabian, did I wake you up?”

“Nah, I’ve been only half asleep for a while now, just dozing around.”

“Why didn’t you kick Arko out of bed?”

“Hahaha. I did that twice tonight, but as soon as I fell asleep, he jumped up again. The third time I just gave up.”

“I’m really sorry, I didn’t notice that.”

“How could you, as sound asleep as you were. You probably wouldn’t have been awakened by an elephant jumping into your own bed.”

“Hehe. That’s right, I always sleep very soundly.”

“Well great. But now that you’re finally awake, maybe you could talk that little rascal into jumping out of my bed.”

All right, that was the least I could do. Besides, I knew the magic word that I could use to chase Arko off the bed.

I worked my way out from under the covers, meanwhile watched curiously not only by Fabian but also by Arko. My God, the slippers were cold! I should probably take them with me under the covers in the future. With a hearty yawn I got up and went to the room door.

“Arko, Gassi!”

With a huge leap, the tail wagger jumped off the bed and had overtaken me before I even reached the door.

“I’ll have to remember that, just say ’Gassi!’ and I’ll be rid of the pest.”

I turned briefly back to Fabian, who by now had his head propped on his elbow.

“Well, but don’t rejoice too soon, if you put the word in your mouth, you’ll have to really let him out, otherwise he’ll get a tiny bit upset.”

Then it could happen that he no longer lay quietly at the foot of the bed, but downright trampled on the bed owner, until he finally was ready to follow the words with deeds. I had experienced that myself…

“That’s why I have you. Oh, and please don’t forget to start the generator.”

Such a slave driver.

“Okay, okay, I’ll take care of it.”

I would have done so anyways, after all, I also wanted to have hot water and the other conveniences of electricity as soon as possible.

Fortunately, the living room wasn’t as cold as I had expected; the fireplace had probably been burning for quite a while, even though it seemed to be completely out now. I went to the front door to let Arko out, and the next moment I was glad that this door opened inward. Otherwise, we probably would have been completely locked in!

There was a good 25 centimeters of fresh snow in front of the door, Arko first looked at it a bit puzzled, then he took a running jump outside, only to immediately sink into the snow up to his belly. But that didn’t seem to bother him, he jumped around barking happily and made his way to the next tree to do his morning chores. Which reminded me that I had things to do, too, so I went to the engine room, pressed the famous red button, and shortly thereafter the diesel came to life. It was so loud that I quickly retreated and closed the soundproof door.

Fabian

“Pretty loud, that thing, isn’t it?”

Reiko had probably not expected me, at least he was a bit startled at my words.

“Don’t sneak up on me like that!”

“What was I supposed to do? With all that noise, you wouldn’t have heard anything less than an alarm siren.”

“That’s true. Fortunately, the sound insulation is really good.”

Otherwise it would probably have been hard to bear.

“Why did you get up already too, I thought you wanted to stay in bed a little longer?”

I had actually intended to do just that, but somehow I wasn’t in the mood to stay in bed.

“I wanted to quickly restart the fireplace first, so we’ll have it a little warmer soon.”

“Good idea, although I don’t think it’s that cold in here.”

I had to agree with Reiko on that, it really was still quite pleasant. But that was no reason not to make it a little better, so I spent the next few minutes getting a fire going again. My guest, meanwhile, called the bed-jacker back into the house and rubbed him dry.

After that we visited the toilet (individually!), made up the beds (together!), then it was time to worry about breakfast. Shortly after 8:30 we sat comfortably at the table, drank coffee and devoured freshly baked rolls with Nutella.

“Have you seen how much it snowed last night?”

I certainly had, a look out of the window had been one of my first official acts of the day.

“Yeah, I guess since we got here yesterday, it’s added a good 30 centimeters.”

At the moment it was only snowing lightly, but if the storm warning was to be believed, that was only a brief respite.

“So what are we doing today?”

That was a good question. My first idea was skiing, but with all the powder snow, I guess that was out for the time being.

“I don’t really know yet.”

“Well, I’ll tell you one thing, Faby, I don’t need another snow hike like yesterday today.”

Hmm, why not, actually? With the right equipment, it might even be a nice thing to do.

“With normal shoes I don’t feel like it either, but we also have snowshoes here! With that, it shouldn’t really be a problem.”

“Snowshoes? Those big things that keep you from sinking in the snow?”

“Those are the ones.”

“That might work.”

“It sure would. One thing’s for sure, we can’t sit around here all day either, we’ll be at each other’s throats after two days at the latest. Apart from the fact that your dog has to go out every now and then anyways. And sometimes for longer than three minutes.”

“You’re right. So we’ll go hiking later?”

“Unless you have a better idea, we should.”

“Okay. So, what do you think, is there any hot water yet?”

We had power back on for three quarters of an hour now, so the water heater had been running for a correspondingly long time.

“Yeah, it probably won’t be really hot yet, but it should be warm enough to brush your teeth and such by now.”

“Fine, I’ll just get ready real quick then, if you don’t mind.”

Hmph. I had planned to be the first to benefit from the warm water this time. Oh well.

“Go ahead. But I’m warning you! If you use up all the warm water and I have to wash myself with ice cold water, I’ll sabotage your snowshoes so that you sink in miserably!”

Cheekily, Reiko grinned at me.

“Okay, I’ll try to hold back on the water consumption.”

He should, if he knew what was good for him. While Reiko now disappeared into the bathroom, I cleared the table and looked again after the fire in the fireplace. It was blazing happily now. I added two more logs so that it would not go out during our absence, then I sat down in an armchair and played a little with Arko, who had brought a toy ring from somewhere. This activity was still going on when the dog’s master came back into the living room in his anything-but-fancy long underwear.

“Arko seems to like you, he doesn’t bring his toys to just anyone.”

“Well, he just sees right through me. What’s not to like about someone like me?”

“Haha, if you think so. Okay, the bathroom is available, and there should be a few drops of warm water left too.”

“I hope so for your sake!”

“Now I’m scared!”

“You should be!”

With those words, I retreated, got my day clothes, and did all the things in the bathroom that one should do at the start of the day. And Reiko’s life was also safe – for the moment anyway – he had actually left me some warm water.

After putting on my thermal underwear, I stowed my pajamas in bed, then joined Reiko in the living room, who was sitting in an armchair reading in the Harry Potter book.

“Okay, I’m ready. Shall we leave right away, or wait a little longer?”

Reiko looked at his watch.

“Nine-fourty. What do you say we leave at ten?”

“Okay, we don’t have to rush.”

So I too settled down and reached for my book. Fifteen minutes later we got up.

“Say, Reiko, what kind of clothes did you actually have packed? Just jeans and stuff?”

“Yes, unfortunately, I did not expect to romp around in the snow.”

Now this wasn’t exactly the best winter gear, but then again, not really a problem.

“Come with me, I think I have something suitable for you.”

We went into the small bedroom, where I opened the closet.

“We have some snowsuits here that Tom and I have outgrown, mostly still our old kids’ suits. Some of the lowland natives among our guests don’t even think that far ahead, and then they’re glad to find something at least for the kids.”

“Well, I’m the same size as you, so what doesn’t fit you anymore shouldn’t fit me either.”

“True, but there’s also one of Tom’s here that fit him until recently, so it’s about your size and mine. The blue one there, just try it on.”

Reiko reached into the closet, spread out the bright blue jumpsuit and stepped into it.

“It’s a little tight, but otherwise it fits pretty well.”

“Well, Tom’s a judoka, not a beefed-up hockey warrior. What do you think, will it work?”

“Sure, it’s definitely a lot better than just jeans.”

It certainly was.

“Are we ready to get going? I’ll keep this on in that case – otherwise I’d better take it off again, because it is a bit too warm for indoors.”

“Yes, I’ll get dressed right away, too. You can go ahead and go to the storage room, that’s where the snowshoes are.”

“Storage room? Where is that?”

“Same direction as to the generator room, only not the second but the very first door. The storage room serves as additional sound insulation to the living area.”

Reiko nodded and moved away, and I, too, left the small bedroom to go across the hall to the big one, where I pulled out my own bright red ski jumpsuit from the closet, which I then filled with my godlike body.

Reiko

Fabian’s family had apparently really thought of all eventualities. Even with a snow suit my host could come up, I had really not expected that.

Pursued by Arko I searched and found the storage room, in which then my assumption was confirmed again. Ski boots and touring skis including ski poles for half a company were stored here, in addition blankets, sleeping bags, and snow shovels filled the room, even a small snow blower was parked in a corner! There was also a whole shelf full of canned food and drinks. I had to acknowledge without envy: When Roeckers did something, they didn’t do it half assed!

And back there were the snowshoes that were supposed to make it easier for Fabian and me to get around in the fresh snow. Large basket weaves with simple bindings to strap the shoes on, just as you would see in movies about old time polar expeditions, for example. I took two pairs off their wall brackets, and Arko sneezed at the dust drifting away.

“Sorry, they haven’t been used in ages, so they haven’t been dusted of in ages, too.”

Again Fabian had literally snuck up on me, and again I winced in shock.

“You know what, Faby? I think I’ll put a necklace with a cowbell around your neck so you can’t scare me like that anymore!”

“Haha, we would have to decide who of us is the ox here first!”

The smile on Fabian’s face took the edge off his words, so I could laugh about it too.

“All right, all right. Here, have a pair. Do we need anything else?”

“Yes, ski poles.”

There were plenty of those, so we each picked out a suitable pair. A few minutes later, after we had put on our boots and Fabian had turned off the generator, we left the cabin. Still in the house, we had strapped on our snowshoes and then literally stepped up into the freshly fallen snow.

It was the first time I had ever walked with snowshoes, and I was surprised to find that I hardly sank in at all. Quite in contrast to Arko, who jumped around enthusiastically, but sank up to his belly in the white splendor every time.

Fabian saw this too, and realized the problem it presented.

“Crap, I didn’t think of that. Unfortunately, I don’t have snowshoes for your dog.”

That would certainly have looked extremely funny.

“I see what you mean. He’ll keep up the jumping around for a while, but eventually he’ll be so worn out from it that he won’t be able to go any further. I have no idea how to move him around then.”

“Yes, I don’t want to have to carry him in my arms.”

Neither did I. Arko weighed a good 30 kilos, you couldn’t expect anyone to carry him for a long distance. But wait a minute…

“Fabian, there was a plastic plastic sledge or something like that in the storage room, wasn’t there?”

“That’s right. You mean we take that with us and then pull Arko with it through the snow when he can’t move around on his own paws anymore?”

“Yes. That gives a whole new meaning to the word ’sled dog,’ but the only alternative would be to leave Arko here alone in the cabin. And I don’t really want that, he wouldn’t do any damage, but he would get extremely bored.”

Fabian thought about it for a moment, then nodded.

“You’re right, that’s a good idea. The sledge is very light, someone can tie it on his back as long as it is not needed. Add a blanket to that, Arko would be able to lay in the sledge warm and comfy, and that should solve the problem.”

We agreed on that plan, and shortly thereafter I carried the red sledge on my back and Fabian had strapped on a rolled-up blanket. Thus equipped, we trudged off after Faby had locked up the cabin.

“Say, how are we supposed to get out of here before spring anyway? With all this snow, even the Jeep won’t make it back to civilization.”

The Jeep had turned into a large mound of snow since the day before, the shapes of which only rudimentarily betrayed the fact that a car was hiding underneath.

“Don’t worry, we won’t be stuck here that long. We have a contract with Road Services, as soon as the main roads are clear, they’ll send a snow blower up here.”

That calmed me down to some extent, for all my old/new friendship with Fabian, the prospect of being stuck here for not just days but maybe weeks wasn’t particularly enticing after all.

“Where are we going now, anyway?”

“We’re not going anywhere specific, we’re just going for a nice spin through the woods. I’ll find us a route with as little elevation change as possible, that’s where the snowshoes do best.”

That sounded reasonable, and so we trudged through the white splendor. We made pretty good progress, and I enjoyed the cold but clear and clean winter air. The snow underneath our snowshoes crumbled away gently, now and then traces of animals could be seen in the snow, but it was very quiet in the forest, apart from our own noises there was hardly anything to be heard.

For the first while we made pretty good progress, and Arko didn’t seem to get enough of frolicking in the snow. One thought nagged at me, though, and I just couldn’t shake it off.

“Faby, can you find your way back to the cabin?”

“Sure, we just need to follow our own tracks if necessary.”

That sounded logical, but something could mess that plan up.

“And what if it starts snowing heavily again and the fresh snow covers our tracks?”

“Well, then…”

What then?

“Then I guess we’ll have to use this.”

Fabian had stopped, reached into a pocket of his snowsuit and showed me a device about the size of a cell phone.

“What’s that?”

“A GPS receiver.”

Now at a closer look I recognized the device.

“And it works here in the forest?”

“Not very well, but better than the GPS of a smartphone, and good enough to find our way back to the cabin.”

“You wouldn’t happen to be in the Boy Scouts, would you?”

“Why?”

“Because you seem to be prepared for everything.”

“My dad insisted on it. Remember the Vormueller case?”

Vormueller, Vormueller… There used to be something. Ah!

“Wasn’t that the mountain rescue guy who got lost himself during a search operation?”

“That’s the one.”

That was three or four years ago. Alois Vormueller was searching on his own for a missing ski hiker and was caught in a snowstorm. He could no longer find his way out of the forest and remained lying against a tree, completely exhausted. His colleagues found him barely alive, and several of his toes had to be amputated due to frostbite.

“And the guy really knew his way around here. If it can happen to someone like that, it can happen to anyone. That’s why I always have that thing with me here in the winter.”

This, of course, made my little fears about getting lost in the snowy forest, where somehow everything looked the same, a thing of the past.

“And, Reiko, still able to go on?”

“Yeah, no problem. This is going really well with the snowshoes, no comparison to my tedious trudging through the snow yesterday.”

“Great, then we can keep on going.”

“Yup. Off we go.”

Or not? While Fabian and I were still perfectly fit, Arko seemed no longer willing to move on his own paws. That I was allowed to experience this, my four-legged bundle of energy was tired!

“Look, Reiko, it looks like the dog sledge will have to be used.”

Hehe, Fabian had noticed it too. I unstrapped the sledge, Fabian put the blanket in the plastic tray, and as if Arko had just been waiting for it and knew exactly what was planned, he jumped on the blanket. Wagging his tail, he looked at us and almost seemed to laugh a little, as if saying “Get busy and pull me!”. Sighing, I put on the sledge line, and then we marched on. Because of the additional load, we were now of course much slower than before.

While we were trudging through the forest, we talked about all sorts of things, especially about the last years, in which we had been such strangers to each other. Fabian told me about his studies, I told him about my hope to graduate from high school this term with more or less acceptable results, we exchanged information about what had happened in the families, and in general we made a big step on the way of getting to know each other again.

After about half an hour, Fabian stopped.

“Okay, Reiko, I’ll take the sledge for now.”

“Don’t bother, that lazy piece back there is MY dog after all.”

“Forget it. I’d be a fine friend if I left all the work to you.”

Oh well, I certainly wouldn’t fight it tooth and nail. I freed myself from the sledge line and looked at Arko.

“Now look at that slacker, Faby!”

The dog of course knew perfectly well that he was being talked about, he raised his head and wagged his tail again. Being pulled around seemed to please him quite a bit!

“Hehe, like Count Coke of the Cake Fork.”

“He’d better not think he can just rely on someone else’s strength all day!”

“Well, for now he can rely on my strength for a while, and then we’ll see. The route I’ve come up with takes us in an arc back to the cabin, at the current pace it’ll take us a good hour to get back there.”

That shouldn’t be a problem, I at least still felt quite fit, and the borrowed snowsuit kept me wonderfully warm and dry.

After Fabian had taken over the sledge line from me and slung it over his shoulder, we resumed our hike and our conversation. This time it was me who stopped after maybe twenty minutes.

“Wait, Faby, do you smell that too?”

The sledge team had also stopped.

“What do you mean?”

“It smells kind of burnt here, doesn’t it?”

Fabian stuck his nose in the air and sniffed. I was absolutely sure I detected a slight burnt smell.

“That’s right, something’s smoking here. Smells like burning wood.”

Yeah, but that itself was kinda weird.

“A forest fire? In the middle of winter?”

“I don’t think so, Reiko. With all that snow, any flame would have gone out pretty quickly.”

“I think so too.”

We continued to hold our noses in the air.

“Can you make out where that’s coming from, Reiko?”

“Good question. I’d say about there, 10 o’clock or so.”

“Could be. I think we should take a closer look.”

I could only agree with Fabian on that. If anything smelled smoky in the woods, you better make an effort to find out why. So we changed our direction and marched toward the burning smell. We could tell that we were on the right track because the smell was getting stronger.

“Reiko, look, is that smoke up ahead?”

I stared stared into the white snowy landscape. At first I couldn’t make out anything, but then I actually saw a pale cloud of smoke between the trees!

“Yes, definitely! Do you have any idea what is there?”

Fabian thought hard.

“Somewhere around here, lumberjacks parked a caravan in the fall, but they left a few days ago and won’t be back this year.”

This was getting more and more mysterious. We kept heading toward the source of the smoke, and two hilltops later we realized that the burning smell was indeed coming from the logging caravan Fabian had mentioned. To be more specific, smoke and the matching smell were coming from its chimney!

“Very strange. Someone has taken up residence in that thing.”

“Stray wanderers?”

“Well, Reiko, there’s only one way to find out. However, at the moment, that seems like the most plausible explanation.”

“Okay, let’s have a look.”

Before we could start moving again, Arko already jumped past us and dashed away (as fast as he could in the deep snow) towards the caravan.

“Look at him, how fast he’s suddenly back on his paws!”

“Well, his laziness is only exceeded by one thing: his curiosity.”

“You should know, he’s your sloth.”

“Haha. So come on, let’s take a closer look.”

Freed from Arko’s burden, Fabian and I were now moving faster again, and determinedly we approached the object of our curiosity. Arko had already arrived there and jumped around the caravan barking loudly, but without getting any reaction for the time being.

“So either they’re deaf in there, or they’re afraid of your dog.”

“You can’t be that deaf not to hear that barking.”

We quickly covered the last few meters, and just as we arrived at what appeared to be a well-heated caravan, its door tentatively opened….

Fabian

It was almost like a horror movie. The door of the lumberjack’s caravan opened with a squeak and a creak. Who would be standing in front of us? The Yeti? Or much worse: The Messner?

Reinhold Messner: famous Italian mountaineer

What now appeared in the doorway, however, clearly had too little hair to be a Yeti, and even for Reinhold Messner the beard growth was still too small or rather non-existent. No, the figure that now looked down on us with a puzzled but also relieved expression was clearly of younger age, if at all then not much older than Reiko and me.

“You found us, thank God!”

Indeed, we had found them. But who were “they?” And what were “they” doing here?

“Who are you, and what are you doing here in this logging caravan? And are there more in there?”

Surprised, the young man looked at Reiko.

“Why do you ask that? Aren’t you guys a police search party or something like that?”

Well, as cute as this guy was, I would have definitely volunteered to join any search party, but just like Reiko, I continued to be completely in the dark.

“No, we’re not a search party, we were just on a little hike in the woods when Reiko here smelled smoke from your furnace. And because we couldn’t make sense of it, we wanted to see who was burning wood here, and now here we are.”

“Oh. And here I thought you were looking for us.”

“Yeah who are you anyway, and why would anyone be looking for you?”

Even as Reiko asked this question, another caravan occupant pushed past the door opener.

“I’m Jasmin, and this is my brother Jonas. We were going for a little walk in the woods yesterday with some kids of guests of the Stone Valley Inn, and we got lost.”

That couldn’t be true!

“You have children with you? How many? And how old are they?”

“You better come in, not that all the nice heat disappears through the open door.”

Jasmin was right, so Reiko and I took off our snowshoes, then followed Jasmin and her brother into the caravan. Squeezing between our legs was Arko, whose appearance in the caravan was commented on with a multi-voiced shout of joy from children’s throats.

As the source of the cheers I quickly made out five children, about the age of ten, twelve, one boy looked a little older. The five were sitting on the floor, huddled close together, probably trying to warm each other up a bit more. Although the cast-iron stove seemed to be glowing, it was not particularly warm in there.

Between the kids Arko scurried around and let himself be petted and cuddled. Reiko was probably even more surprised by all this than I was, at least he stood in the middle of the caravan with his mouth open and couldn’t get a word out. I, on the other hand, was starting to think clearly again.

“You left the Stone Valley Inn yesterday? And then got lost?”

“Yes, as my sister said, we wanted to go for a winter walk with the kids of some guests. I’m training to be a hotel clerk at the Inn and was assigned to childcare. Jasmin is visiting me for Christmas, so she went along.”

The one-eyed man leads the blind one, or what?

“In the beginning there were no problems, it just snowed a little and we had a lot of fun. Then it slowly snowed more and more, and wind came up. We wanted to turn around and follow our own tracks back, but suddenly we couldn’t find them anymore.”

With a knowing nod, Reiko looked over at me. Well, I guess my dad’s GPS idea really was damn useful thinking. Now if only those careless guys would have used one.

“But then how did you end up HERE of all places? You guys are really far away from the Stone Valley Inn.”

“Really? I don’t know, we kept walking the way we thought we had to take. But I guess by that we got really lost.”

That was almost an understatement. The troop had apparently taken a reaaaaallllly big detour, getting further and further away from their actual starting point. They had probably even passed fairly close to our cabin, but without noticing it.

“Well, we were starting to panic, it was snowing harder and harder and it was getting dark, then luckily Jonas saw this caravan here. We didn’t know any other way to help ourselves, we picked the lock and made it as warm as we could.”

Well, no one would probably blame them for that, that was about the only sensible thing they did in the whole mess.

“Are you all okay, or are there any injuries or other medical problems?”

“No, thankfully we’re all okay, it was just the kids that got a little scared when it got dark.”

Quite understandable

“We snuggled up and kept warm overnight, always thinking that surely they would find us soon.”

Very optimistic…

“Then when we heard the dog earlier, we thought that a search party had found us.”

“You got the wrong idea, we didn’t know that anyone was missing.”

“But they must actually be missing us and looking for us!”

“Well, Jasmin, I’m sure they are, but the last time we talked to anyone was yesterday afternoon, so we didn’t hear anything about your disappearance.”

Reiko hit the nail on the head, and I too wondered very briefly why we hadn’t heard anything about a search operation. Oh well, they probably wouldn’t be looking for the group so far away from the Stone Valley Inn, and second, with the low cloud cover, there certainly couldn’t have been any helicopters involved in the search (which was guaranteed to happen!). Then something else occurred to me.

“Don’t you even have a cell phone with you?”

Jonas looked down at his feet contritely.

“Yes, I do, I brought mine. But I tripped and fell on it shortly after we left the Stone Valley Inn, and it hasn’t worked since.”

Well great, to all the misfortune they added a whole bunch of bad luck. I took a look around, the kids were still enthusiastically involved with Arko, who was taking all the childish attention without complaint.

“Come on, you two, put your jackets on, we’ll confer outside about what to do next.”

The little ones didn’t need to hear everything, I was glad that they were distracted from the messy situation for the time being. Shortly after, the four of us were standing outside in the clear winter air. Well, in the not-so-clear winter air, the wood stove was still spewing out some stinky smoke.

“What are we going to do now? Can you show us the way back to the Inn?”

“Jonas, you don’t seem to have a clue just HOW far away you’ve gotten from that one!”

“How far? How long would we be on the road?”

I didn’t have to resort to the satellite miracle to answer that question.

“On the direct route it’s about an hour and a half, more like two in these snow conditions.”

“Well, that’s okay.”

“No, Jasmin, it isn’t. The direct route goes through Devil’s Hole, and you can’t go that way with the kids, especially in this weather.”

The Devil’s Hole was a deep valley cut through which some paths went, but they were all very steep. And because you couldn’t see exactly where you were putting your next step with all that snow, a crossing was out of the question. Especially with children.

“Why?”

Before I could answer, Reiko was already explaining the reason to the two lost people.

“Crap. And the indirect route?”

“It goes around the Devil’s Hole and takes at least three hours in these conditions.”

I still wondered how the troop could have gotten this far in the first place. But brooding over it didn’t help.

“Is there a road around here where they could pick us up with a car?”

Reiko and I laughed.

“There is a road, but there won’t be any cars on it for the next few days. Everything here is buried in snow, and we’re stuck in our cabin, too.”

“Damn, and it’s all my fault! We should have turned back as soon as the snowfall got heavier!”

They really should have done that, but it was pointless to blame him for that now. He was sure busy blaming himself anyways – and he would hear more of that from several sides at the end of the adventure.

“Give me a moment, I’ll call my dad first, so that he can call off the search operation.”

“Your dad?”

“His old man is the head copper around here …. oops … sorry, Fabian. The chief of police. And he’s guaranteed to have the hat on in the search for you. Oh yeah, I’m Reiko, by the way.”

While Reiko was explaining all this, I had pulled my cell phone out of the breast pocket of my snowsuit and turned it on. Sure enough, it found the net, quite weakly, but it should work. It repeated the ceremony that had already happened the night before when I turned it on: several messages came in about missed calls, both from our home number and from my dad’s cell phone. It was this one that I dialed. After three rings, I heard his voice.

“Fabian, I’m sorry, I don’t have time for you at the moment, we have a total mess here right now.”

I should be glad that he had answered at all. I should probably turn off the caller ID when I get a chance. But I better hurried now, before he hung up again!

“I know, Pop, the reasons for that total mess are right here beside me.”

Silence for a few seconds.

“What do you mean?”

“Dad, I guess that the mess is because seven people from the Stone Valley Inn are missing, including five children. And those same seven people are within five meters of me.”

“Say that again!”

“I’ve got a pretty contrite hotel trainee here from the Stone Valley Inn, his sister, and five kiddies.”

“My God!”

“Yes, son, what do you want?”

“Stop with the jokes! Did they find our cabin or what?”

“Not exactly, we found the lost hikers. They had taken up residence in a lumberjacks caravan before nightfall. We spotted them on our own little hike, actually Reiko smelled their stove.”

“How are they doing, are they all okay?”

“Looks like it, probably just a little through the wind from what they experienced. Physically, everyone seems to be okay.”

“Well thank goodness! You have no idea what’s been going on here since last night!”

Oh, I certainly had my suspicions and ideas about that.

“The missing persons report came in pretty late, so we could not send out people because of the darkness. Helicopters couldn’t fly the whole time, and for 2pm today the Air Force promised to send out a couple of Tornados with thermal imaging cameras if possible. But luckily I can call all that off.”

“Yes, you can do that. But now tell me, what should we do next?”

“Well, that’s really a problem. Where exactly is this lumberjacks caravan?”

“It’s a good three hours walk to the Stone Valley Inn.”

“Shoot, that’s a hell of a long way, especially for the kids.”

Well, we had that figured out already.

“It’s only half as far to the road, Pops.”

“That won’t help, I’d have to send out a tank to get through there right now.”

“Is it that bad?”

“Yeah, all the snow has knocked down a lot of trees. No getting through with normal technology, and it’s going to stay that way for a while. But tell me… How far is it to the cabin?”

Ouch. Somehow I had feared that this question would come.

“About an hour cross-country, an hour and a half on a tolerable trail. But none of them have snowshoes!”

“They wouldn’t have them for going to the road either. Faby, I’m really sorry, I know you wanted to have a quiet couple of days. But this comes first. Get all of them to the cabin, it’ll be a little crowded, but otherwise you should have plenty of everything there.”

Yup, that’s exactly what I was afraid of.

“Okay, Pops, really seems to be the only option.”

“Yes, it is. I’ll try to find a way to get to you as soon as I can, but I can’t say if it’ll be tomorrow, the next day, or three days from now, or even later.”

Beautiful prospects. But there was nothing I could do about it.

“All right. We’ll get back to you when we’ve all arrived at the cabin.”

“Great. In the meantime, I’ll inform the parents that they don’t have to worry anymore. When things have calmed down a bit, you can have the rescued call their folks sometime. By the way, I’ll pay your phone bill this month, don’t worry.”

I would have served him that bill anyway.

“Okay, I’ll talk to you later, but it may take two hours or so.”

“No problem. And Faby?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m proud of you, son.”

What pleasant tones. But I guess I should stay honest.

“Reiko smelled the smoke and called my attention to it.”

“Then give him my thanks, and tell him that I’m proud of him too. Okay, I have some work to do here now, so goodbye!”

With these words my dad ended the call, and I looked around.

Reiko

Although I only heard part of the phone call, I pretty much got what was planned.

“We’re taking everyone back to the cabin?”

“Yes, Reiko. I’m supposed to give you greetings from my dad and his thanks for sniffing out the Sunday hikers. He says he’s proud of you.”

That’s the kind of thing you like to hear.

“Ahem, I don’t mean to interrupt, but could you tell us what exactly is going to happen now?”

Jasmin’s curiosity was understandable, but Fabian probably didn’t want to explain everything two or three times.

“Let’s go back into the caravan, and I’ll tell you all together what’s going to happen next.”

We went back into the caravan, and while Fabian explained the plans to those present, I slowly noticed that this Jasmin actually looked quite nice. Dark brown, long hair, nice, open face, maybe ten centimeters shorter than me, and (as far as I could tell under the thick clothes) well built. Staying in the same cabin with this girl for a few days? Interesting idea…

“Cabin sounds so small, do you have enough space for all of us?”

I had to laugh for a second.

“Don’t worry, kiddo. They call it a cabin, but it’s a full-blown house, we can all fit in there. And there’s plenty of supplies of grub, firewood, and diesel for power, too.”

Fabian grinned at me.

“What Reiko says is true, you don’t have to worry about that. But on another note, it would be quite useful if we all knew who we are dealing with. So this is Reiko, I am Fabian. The furball belongs to Reiko and is called Arko – and sometimes he even responds to it. We already know Jasmin and Jonas, but we don’t know the kids’ names yet.”

Reasonable idea, always just saying “little one” would probably not work in the long run. Shortly thereafter we knew that the two girls were named Manuela and Ricarda, the boys were named Christoph, Felix and Patrick. Manuela was 11, Ricarda, Christoph and Felix 12, Patrick fell a bit out of the age group at 14.

“Well then, let’s get going!”

The kids rose from their seats, with Arko constantly running around between them, the dog really basked in their attention. Well, he’d always been great with kids.

“Faby, I’m going to turn off the stove, we shouldn’t really leave it running.”

“Good idea. Do you know how to do that?”

How was I supposed to know? I had grown up in the age of central heating running on natural gas or oil.

“I don’t know, but I’ll figure it out somehow.”

“I know how to do it, I’ll help you.”

Jasmin knew about this sort of thing? Well, it was really nice of her to help me, hehe. While the rest of the gang was now leaving the caravan, Jasmin skillfully pulled the flue off the stove.

“Here, you can grab the two handles, they are warm but not hot.”

“And where do I put this thing?”

“You put that out in the snow, a little away from the caravan. Then we’ll throw snow on the flames, and the thing can cool down.”

Hmm, that sounded logical. I grabbed the not-so-light stove and carried it out of the caravan, always careful not to flick the glowing parts against me somewhere. Outside, I put it in a place I thought appropriate, then Jasmin and I shoveled snow into the flames, which died out rather quickly. The wood was still glowing, though, not to mention the cast-iron stove itself.

“And now? Do we have to wait until this thing is completely cold now, or what?”

“No, we’ll leave it here.”

Leave it standing all by itself? Just like that, out in the open? Jasmin must have noticed my doubtful look.

“Well, first of all, no one will come by here anyway who would steal the thing. And besides, the caravan is open, so the stove wouldn’t be much safer in there than out here.”

Where she was right, she was right. And with the low temperature, it would cool down quickly and not set the forest on fire. So we left the stove in the snow and walked over to the others, who were already standing there ready to leave, waiting for us.

“All done, Fabian. How do we do this now, which way do we go?”

“We’ll take the same path as before, it’s a bit longer than the shortest way, but reasonably level.”

Good decision, the walk through the deep snow without snowshoes would be strenuous enough as it was, especially for the kiddies. Fortunately they wore at least clothes fit for the weather, so they would be warm and dry. Then I remembered something else.

“Say, Jasmin, would you like to take my snowshoes? You’ll do much better with them than without.”

She smiled at me! Oh my, what a sweet smile!

“No, thank you so much for the offer, but I can’t walk with those.”

Well, that really shouldn’t be a problem, but if she didn’t want to…. However, I would feel pretty stupid if she had to struggle through the deep snow and I walked comfortably on snowshoes next to her. And that I wanted to walk next to her, there was really no doubt for me! I had to get rid of the snowshoes somehow….

“Fabian, are you going ahead with Jonas? I’ll take the back with Jasmin and make sure we don’t lose anyone.”

With a slight grin on his face, Fabian looked at me.

“Okay, we can do that.”

Had he recognized my deeper intentions behind this proposal? Well, never mind.

“Jonas, do you want to take the snowshoes?”

Jasmin’s brother looked at me questioningly.

“And what about you, don’t you need them yourself?”

“Nah, we’ll push the whole gang ahead of us, stomping down the snow.”

Most likely that wouldn’t help much with the few people we had in front of us, but what the heck.

“All right, if you’ll let me have them, I’ll be glad to give it a try.”

Ha, worked! I handed the snowshoes to Jonas, who strapped them under his feet, and after a few trial steps, he seemed to be doing just fine with them.

“Well, folks, let’s get going! Jonas and I will go first. If we’re going too fast for you, let us know. But we should hurry a bit, there is more snow announced, the sooner we are in the cabin, the better.”

With these words Fabian and Jonas turned around and our gang of wannabe-yetis started to move. I quickly put the sledge on my back, not needing it for now, Jasmin took over the blanket, then together we formed the end of the merry convoy. The two guides on their snowshoes set quite a pace, but the kiddies probably didn’t want to be surprised by heavy snowfall again, they kept up the pace well, although they – like Jasmin and me – sank quite deeply into the snow with every step. Arko took it easy now, he didn’t jump wildly through the area, but walked more or less in a civilized manner in the middle of the group of children as good as he could.

We walked purposefully through the forest, and our group stretched out a bit.

“Your brother is doing an apprenticeship at the Stone Valley Inn?”

“Yes. Jonas was very lucky to get the job. At home, he just kept getting rejections.”

“Where is that anyway?”

“Our home? We come from a small village near Leipzig.”

Okay, they were really quite far away from home. As we walked along, I learned a few more things about my companion. She was 17 years old, went to high school, wanted to study something with pedagogy later and spent her Christmas vacations with her brother.

“Hehe, now you’ve stumbled right into a pedagogical internship!”

I pointed to the crowd of children in front of us.

“You can say that again.”

The four younger kids were chattering happily among themselves, throwing snowballs at Arko, and seemed to be in good spirits overall. Older Patrick, however, had broken away from the others a bit and was walking on his own between the group of four and the two leaders. Funny. I pointed this out to Jasmin.

“What’s wrong with him?”

My companion sighed.

“Patrick’s been like this all along, doesn’t seem to enjoy anything and always separates himself.”

“And why is that?”

“There seem to be several reasons for that. Well first of all, of course he’s older than the others here, and in that age group, 2 years make a huge difference.”

Okay, I could relate to that, they were indeed worlds apart.

“Then he didn’t want to come on the hike at all, he’d rather do something with some older teenagers. But they’re all over 16 and in turn didn’t want him around because he would have cramped their style. He was the only one in the 13-15 age group at the Inn.”

The worries of a teenager’s life.

“That’s why he actually wanted to stay at the hotel, but his parents insisted that he join us. You can imagine just how enthusiastic he was about it.”

That I could, yes. Having to deal with a bunch of eleven- and twelve-year-olds as a fourteen-year-old was uncool enough. But it was even less cool to be forced to do so by one’s own parents.

“Well, and to top it off, he doesn’t get along with Jonas.”

Weird, Jonas had given me the impression that one could get along with him very well, easily. Just like with his sister…

“Why is that?”

It took a moment before Jasmin forced herself to answer.

“I really don’t know if I should even tell you this. But maybe it’s even better that way, through Patrick it would come out pretty quickly anyway.”

Now I was curious!

“Do you see Jonas’s beanie?”

Sure I saw the colorful thing, it was hard to miss.

“Yeah, so?”

“Don’t you notice anything about it?”

What should I notice about it? These knitted hats were very fashionable at the moment, I wore one myself. Even if mine wasn’t quite as colorful in the rainbow colors.

Wait a minute. Rainbow colors? Was that supposed to mean…

I stopped and stared at Jasmin.

“Your brother is gay?”

Jasmin had stopped as well, propping her arms on her hips and striking an altogether belligerent pose.

“Yes, he is. Do you have a problem with that, too?”

I just couldn’t help myself. Deep inside, my body began to shake, and shortly thereafter I burst into a massive fit of laughter….

Fabian

Not even 24 hours ago, I thought that I would have a few cozy days all to myself. Not even 12 hours ago I assumed to have a few cozy days together with Reiko. And now I had another 7 people to take care of! And among them were 5 kids! This was a perfect example for “Even the best plans don’t survive the first contact with the real life.”.

Jonas had strapped on his snowshoes, which Reiko had sacrificially left to him. Of course, he was completely without ulterior motives, my old new best friend. That he would slip away to the end of the group without snowshoes but with Jonas’s sister was simply a great sacrifice on his part. And in three days, Santa Claus himself would come to the cabin via the chimney.

When I saw that everyone was ready to depart, I gave the command to leave, and our platoon began to move. Jonas was doing very well with the snowshoes.

“Have you used these things before, Jonas?”

“Nah, this is my first time. Works really well though, you don’t sink in and you can move quite quickly.”

That was the whole point of snowshoes, after all.

“How old are you, anyway?”

“Nineteen. And you?”

“A year younger. And you want to be a hotel clerk?”

“Yes, I like dealing with people, so I guess it’s quite a suitable job for me.”

Probably. Whereas the working hours in that kind of job would be too stressful for my taste.

“But you’re not from around here, are you?”

“Not even close! We come from Saxony, Leipzig area, to be exact.”

Oh? He knew how to cover that up quite well!

“But that doesn’t show at all.”

Okay, I had picked up a small trace of a dialect, but I hadn’t figured out what kind of dialect it was.

“Well, I had to work really hard on my speech pattern, for the people here to understand me!”

I snorted. Yes, I would expect that with someone from Saxony!

“Although Saxon is the original dialect of Germany’s high culture!”

I gasped with laughter.

“Hahaha… And what else do you dream about?”

It would be nice if he said “about you” now – but I should probably forget that hope.

“Don’t laugh, that’s true. Even the old privy councilor Goethe spoke Saxon. And the old poetry king is without a doubt one of the most important German cultural assets.”

“Yes, of course. But you’re neither a privy councilor nor a king of poetry. So it’s just as well that you can talk properly.”

“Our parents made sure from the very beginning that we spoke proper High German. We didn’t want to have to rely on an interpreter when visiting foreign cultural philistines.”

Ouch, philistines. That had hurt.

“It wouldn’t be that good for your job either, I guess.”

“That too. They even invited me to the job interview by phone, to check whether I speak any reasonable High German at all.”

Hm, yes, a dialect-speaking hotel employee was certainly not a good advertisement for the house. No matter what dialect it was. The Stone Valley Inn catered to the upper middle class, so even the local employees had to make an effort to use a proper pronunciation.

“You know what surprises me a little, Jonas?”

“No?”

“That they sent you and your sister off with the kids.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, in these weather conditions, even natives get lost from time to time – you don’t really send out migrants. Especially not with a bunch of kids!”

“Well, you’ll have to ask Mr. Ziermayer about that. He was going to do it himself, but then he suddenly didn’t have the time, so I was forced to do it.”

My dad would definitely have some serious words with old Ziermayer about it. That had been pretty irresponsible.

“Well, everything turned out all right.”

“Fortunately, to be honest I was getting more and more scared. The first time such a big responsibility, and promptly everything goes wrong.”

“You can probably be blamed the least, you are not used to the area here and the rapid weather changes. You must have just started training this fall, right?”

“Yeah, I’m still the absolute rookie at the hotel.”

“Well, there you have it. Don’t worry too much anymore.”

“Your word in God’s ear.”

I looked around at our posse, it was going well, and everyone still looked fit and cheerful. All except the oldest boy, who was trudging along about ten meters behind us, somewhat discontented. I wondered what kind of louse had crawled under his shirt?

At the very back of the column were Reiko and Jasmin, who were apparently engrossed in a lively conversation. Was something brewing there? I mean, Jasmin didn’t look bad at all – for a girl, that is!

“Say, how old is your sister?”

“Seventeen, she’ll be eighteen in March. Why?”

“Because I kind of have a funny feeling that Reiko has some interest in her.”

“Hehe, and I had a funny feeling earlier that Jasmin has some interest in Reiko!”

Well that sounded good.

“Have you guys been friends for a long time? You and Reiko?”

“Well, depends on how you look at it. We’ve been friends for 15 years – but we’ve also only been friends for one day.”

“Huh?”

So I explained to Jonas the somewhat complicated subject of my friendship with Reiko, but without elaborating on the reasons for our years of estrangement.

“A nice story…”

Somehow it sounded a little sad, the way Jonas squeezed out those words. Before I could think about it, however, loud laughter rang out from the end of the marching column. We stopped and looked around, just in time to see Jasmin give Reiko a resounding slap.

“Ohoh… Is your sister always this violent?”

“Not really, he must have done something really stupid if she reacts like that.”

Since there were a good 100 meters between us, we couldn’t hear what was going on with the two of them. However, we saw how Reiko became serious again, rubbed his left cheek and explained something to Jasmin. After a while, she raised her hand again, and hesitantly stroked Reiko’s wounded cheek. Reiko held very still, this new softer touch seemed to please him. The next moment, however…

“You idiot!”

With these words, Jasmin pushed Reiko away from her, causing him to fall backwards into the snow. Now it was Jasmin who burst into loud laughter. The “idiot” had probably not been meant really seriously, in any case she now prepared to help Reiko up again. But she hadn’t reckoned with his vindictiveness, because no sooner had he grabbed her hand that he pulled her down to him in the snow.

In the meantime, everyone had stopped and marveled at the spectacle. Arko had scampered to his master and now jumped around the duo rolling in the snow, barking loudly and almost drowning out their joint laughter.

“Doesn’t seem like it was that serious, does it, Jonas?”

“Yeah, looks like they made peace already.”

I guess I should do something about this, we really didn’t need any more delays.

“Eh! You back there! Could you arrange to get back to vertical and keep walking? Would be very nice indeed!”

“Yes yes, old slave driver, we’re working on it! Take it easy!”

Well, hopefully. Jonas and I watched with grins as Jasmin and Reiko stood up, brushed the snow off their clothes, and started moving again. That was the signal for us to do the same, and so we marched on.

“Jasmin is visiting you for the holidays?”

“Yes, she’s been begging and pleading.”

“Are your parents here too?”

Our area was just the right neighborhood to spend a nice white Christmas with the family.

“No!”

Oops. That sounded pretty sharp! I looked in wonder at Jonas, who was now stomping along beside me with a pinched face.

“Uh… Sorry. Looks like I’ve put my foot in my mouth, I didn’t mean to. Sorry.”

Jonas sighed.

“That’s all right. You couldn’t have known that. My parents and I … we don’t talk anymore. In fact, I’m dead to them. They no longer have a son – and I no longer have parents. End of story.”

That didn’t sound good at all. I probably should have left it at that, but foolishly, my curiosity got the best of me once again.

“Why?”

“You have to know everything in detail, don’t you?”

“Sorry, Jonas. You don’t have to tell me, that’s entirely up to you.”

That’s how he seemed to want to keep it, anyway, we walked side by side in silence for the next few minutes. Suddenly, however, my companion broke the silence.

“I’m gay and they can’t handle it. They kicked me out of the family. Even Jasmin got into huge trouble when she told them she wanted to visit me here. They tried to forbid her to come, but in the end my little sister got her way.”

Holy crap. I silently sent a prayer of thanks to heaven for my tolerant parents who had been great about my coming out. I knew that wasn’t necessarily the norm, but it was the first time I’d seen how such a thing could turn out.

“I’m sorry, Jonas. I wish I hadn’t brought it up…”

“As I said, you couldn’t have known.”

That was true.

“And now?”

What did Jonas mean by that?

“What and now?”

“Are you shocked, disgusted, or what?”

Aha, that’s where the wind was blowing from.

“Yes, I’m shocked and disgusted.”

“Shit, I suspected it! I guess you’re a homophobic asshole too.”

The cute boy beside me had understood me totally wrong.

“No, Jonas! It’s because of your parents that I’m shocked and disgusted, not because you’re gay!”

Hesitantly and somewhat incredulously, Jonas looked over at me.

“Are you serious?”

“You bet I am. Your parents are idiots if they disown you just because you’re gay.”

A smile of relief spread across Jonas’ face. And that relief could certainly be amplified a bit.

“I was luckier, mine took it in stride.”

“WHAT?!?”

As if rooted to the spot, Jonas had stopped and was now staring at me with his eyes wide open. I smiled back at him.

“Jonas, I’m gay too.”

Jonas’ face reflected disbelief.

“Honestly?”

“Yes, honestly.”

“Wow, I wouldn’t have thought that now. Since I started learning here, I’ve been looking to join a gay youth group or something like that, but haven’t found anyone yet. And now we run into each other in the middle of the forest.”

“Well, the ways of fate are unfathomable.”

God the smiling face of my counterpart was extremely cute!

“Shit, another faggot! Is that a plague or what?”

Ohoh. It was Patrick who was now looking at us with a pinched face. I gave him the finger, whereupon he moved further away from us in the column. Jonas and I, on the other hand, started moving again.

“Say, does the brat have some kind of problem or what?”

“Looks like it, Fabian. Ever since he found out that I’m gay, he’s been acting like a terror chicken. And I really haven’t done anything to him.”

Those were nice prospects for the next few days, stuck with that guy in the cabin.

We marched on quickly. Jonas and I goofed around, told each other a bit about our lives (leaving out the topics “gay” and “parents” as a precaution), and after a while the silhouette of our cabin appeared on the horizon.

Reiko

So that was a real nasty surprise, getting hit in the middle of the most beautiful laughing fit in such a way! Which put an end to my amusement pretty fast.

“What the hell, Jasmin!”

With angry sparkling eyes she looked at me challengingly.

“I don’t like it at all when someone makes fun of my brother!”

That’s where the wind was blowing from! After all, the little sister seemed to have quite a protective instinct towards her big brother. How sweet!

“I wasn’t making fun of your brother at all!”

“You weren’t? It looked like it, though!”

I should probably clear up this misunderstanding quite quickly. Since Fabian was completely open with his orientation anyway, I had no qualms about outing him here and now in front of Jasmin.

“Jasmin, I only laughed because my best friend is gay, too. And it just so happens that he’s walking up there right now next to your gay brother. Next to your gay brother, who I guarantee he finds more than just a bit nice to look at.”

So far I knew Fabian to know that he had found a new victim for his flirt attacks. Only that he probably had no clue that he might even succeed this time!

“Are you really serious now? Fabian is into boys too?”

“Indeed.”

Now Jasmin’s eyes no longer sparkled angrily but mischievously. She raised her right arm again, and I was about to take cover. This time, however, her hand very slowly approached my face, then her fingers tenderly stroked my maltreated cheek. Oh my was that nice, I could endure it forever….

“You idiot!”

In the next moment, before I could even react, she gave me a shove against my chest, and with both arms helplessly flailing around in the air, I fell backwards into the deep snow! Completely befuddled I lay in the white, cold splendor, and this time it was Jasmin, who broke out in loud laughter. Really! What a little devil she was!

“There, come on, I’ll help you up.”

How kind. First she sends me to the floor, then she offers me a helping hand to get up. But not with me, my dear! I grabbed the proffered hand, but instead of pulling myself up, I pulled Jasmin down to me – with the result that we were now both lying side by side in the snow.

“Now that was mean, Reiko!”

“Mean? Who was mean first?”

We both could hardly get out the words because of laughing, we rolled around and over each other in the snow, and Arko jumping in made the chaos perfect.

Unfortunately, Fabian soon reminded us that we actually had better things to do than roll around in the snow, so we straightened up again, freed our clothes from the clinging snow, and followed the gang, which had started moving again.

“You really think that your Fabian could fall for my Jonas?”

Wouldn’t be so bad, actually. Both gay, both quite good-looking guys (if I was allowed to make a judgment about that), both about the same age, both in the same area. There was only one thing left to clarify.

“Yeah sure, why not? Is Jonas still available?”

“Hehe, you want to start playing matchmaker right away, or what? But yes, Jonas is still single. Much to his regret.”

That did sound promising.

“Great. Will you help me set them up?”

Jasmin got a little more serious.

“I guess we’d better not go quite that far out on a limb on that one, Reiko. While I’d be very happy for Jonas if he found a suitable boyfriend, they’ll have to find each other themselves for this to really work.”

What a clever little head she had on her shoulders. She was right, it would be better to let fate take its own course. Which didn’t mean that we couldn’t be of a little help. For example, by giving them enough time together, preferably without a whole crowd of kids around them!

“Okay, maybe it’s better that way. Now to get back to this Patrick guy: he knows your brother is gay, and he can’t deal with it, or what?”

“Yeah, unfortunately, I just don’t get it.”

“Maybe it comes from his parents.”

“No, rather not, they have also noticed that Jonas is gay, and seem to have absolutely no difficulties with it. After all, they even trusted him with their son!”

“Very strange. Usually it’s the parents who have a problem with homosexuality, while the children are more open about it.”

“Well, in this case it’s the other way around. But you’re right, often it is as you say. Like with our own parents…”

“What about them?”

“They can’t accept that Jonas is gay. They literally kicked him out of the family. That’s why he was so quick to accept an apprenticeship so far away from home.”

Now that didn’t sound good at all, and I gradually realized what kind of courage it must have taken Fabian to admit his being gay to his parents. And how lucky he had been with his parents, because I knew that much: they had always fully supported and defended him, even if there had been unpleasant jibes in the village from time to time.

“But now they’ve come here with you to visit him?”

“Our parents? Visit Jonas? Never. I travelled down here by myself. And even that I had to fight for, there were days of arguments about whether or not I was even allowed to come.”

I should be glad that Jasmin was apparently quite assertive, otherwise I would probably never have met her. And that would really have been a big loss!

In the following minutes we got off the subject of being gay again and talked about all sorts of things, and so the time passed quite quickly. And then it was time, in the distance the Roecker’s Cabin (or rather the Roecker’s Palace!) could be seen.

“We’re almost there, Jasmin.”

“Really? That was fast!”

Well, not really, we had been walking for almost an hour and a half after all. But since that time had been pretty interesting and eventful, it didn’t seem that long at all.

“Yes, up ahead, that’s where we need to go.”

Our column was slowly but surely approaching the destination, and the closer we got, the greater Jasmin’s amazement grew.

“That seems like a pretty big cabin!”

“Yep, the term cabin is a bit misleading for it.”

“You can say that again! And I was afraid it was going to be as cramped as that old lumberjack caravan again.”

With seven people in that thing, they were almost piling up on top of each other. Not to mention certain other problems.

“Don’t worry, it will get a little crowded in the cabin with 9 people plus the dog, but compared to the caravan you spent last night in, it’s a great space.”

“Well thank goodness! … Uh … Reiko?”

“Yes?”

“Is … well … is there a bathroom in the cabin too?”

I had to grin, I guess this was really a very important information! Well, let’s see if I could lead her on a bit.

“No, not in the cabin. But out in the yard there’s an outhouse.”

“A what?!?”

“An outhouse.”

“Holy shit!”

What an appropriate choice of words.

“Oh, it’s not so bad. You just have to remember to take some newspapers with you all the time. And the big stick that’s next to the cabin door!”

“What do I need a big stick for in the outhouse?”

“Well, the thing is, there’s a whole bunch of raccoons hanging around, and now in the winter they like to take shelter in the outhouse. So now, when you have to use it, you first stand next to the outhouse, open the door a little, and then hit the back wall a few times with the stick. With the noise the beasts disappear and you can use the toilet undisturbed. You’ll just have to hurry up a bit, because after ten minutes at the latest, the nosy bunch will reappear.”

Jasmin seemed to be torn whether she should believe me or not, but didn’t say anything about the whole topic for the time being. In the meantime, we had already come to within about 200 meters of the cabin.

“You see, back there on the right? That’s the outhouse!”

Slowly she seemed to buy my story, the sight of the little house was probably very convincing.

“What a bummer, and I really need to go now!”

I grinned inwardly as we got closer and closer to the cottage. Arriving at the entrance, there was indeed a large wooden club. Exactly where I had left it yesterday. I actually wanted to carve a hiking pole out of it – but in Jasmin’s eyes it was the last proof of the truth of my story!

The whole team was now standing in front of the cabin, and Fabian opened the door. Jasmin seemed to be in a real hurry now, she dashed forward and grabbed the stick.

“Fabian, is this the stick I have to use to drive the raccoons out of the outhouse?”

I had to hand it to Fabian, he reacted in a flash!

“Yes, that’s it. I suppose Reiko already told you what to do, didn’t he?”

“Yes, he did!”

Jasmin strode quickly to the outhouse, where she first put an ear to the wooden wall and listened. Then she lifted the latch of the door and pulled it open an inch. Carefully she took a step around the outhouse, waved the stick and drummed like mad on the wooden construction!

Of course, not a single raccoon came rushing out – though Jasmin couldn’t see that from where she stood.

“Is it safe now, can I go in?”

I fought hard to talk without laughing.

“Yes, the critters have taken off. But remember, you have to hurry up a bit, you don’t have more than ten minutes!”

Jasmin leaned the stick against the wooden wall and now pulled the door all the way open.

“Oh, and Jasmin?”

“What now, Fabian!”

“You can use the outhouse now, of course … but you could also just go into the house and use the bathroom there. It’s got a flush, and it’s not that cold in there, either.”

Jasmin’s jaw dropped, while everyone else burst out laughing. Even Patrick couldn’t help it!

“You… You… I hate you!”

With these words she came sprinting back and stormed past us in the direction of the cabin entrance. Fabian was calling after her.

“To the left, the door at the end.”

Jasmin disappeared into the house, and we slowly calmed down.

“Reiko, you’re mean.”

“I know, Faby. But when she asked me if there was a bathroom in the cabin, I remembered the outhouse and just couldn’t help myself.”

Fabian chuckled softly to himself, and Jonas also smirked, but then he became serious again.

“Reiko, I can only warn you. You can’t fool my sister like that with impunity. She will come up with something very special as revenge, so be on your guard.”

Oh, I hadn’t even thought about the possible consequences, that had always been a weakness of mine. But Jasmin would surely forgive me and laugh about it herself in the end. She would, wouldn’t she?

“I guess we should all go in now. Reiko, the generator is running because of the timer, but it will turn off in a few minutes. Just press the start button once, please, that will overwrite the shutdown timer.”

“No problem. And then I’ll take care of Arko, to get him nice and dry.”

“Right, and I’ll brief our guests a bit.”

I entered the cabin, followed by Jonas and the kids, while Arko had already scurried through the tangle of legs and into the cabin. In the generator room, I pressed the start button, then grabbed the dog towel and started rubbing my furball dry, while around me the whole pack was busy getting rid of their boots. Well that would be fun with so many people on a heap….

Fabian

It was very hard for me to get back to the serious business of the day after Reiko’s toilet joke. He had thought it up really cleverly, and apparently also brought it across completely convincingly!

“Okay, kids, please first take off your boots and put them next to the door.”

With that the chaos was complete. Five kids bent down to take off their shoes, almost banging their heads together. Jonas and I also got out of our boots, which still had some snow on them – we had, of course, already taken off our snowshoes in front of the cabin. Shortly after, everyone but me was standing in the cabin in socks.

“Take a look in that little cupboard, there should still be some slippers in it. Try them out and see who they fit.”

There would certainly not be enough slippers for everyone, no one could have expected such a massive demand. Well, the others had to put their feet on the bearskin or the seats.

I took a look at the room thermometer: 21 degrees. Quite good, but I would put some more wood in the fireplace.

“Fabian?”

“Yes?”

“What should we do about the clothes? None of us has anything to change into, and the snowsuits are much too warm for indoors. Not to mention that they got a little wet and need to be hung up to dry.”

Crap, I hadn’t thought of that at all! I thought we could just change and be done with it, but only Reiko and I could actually do that, the others understandably didn’t drag their entire wardrobe through the forest. So now what?

“I have no idea. We have plenty of food here, there’s plenty of firewood, we can make electricity and we also have a few sleeping bags. But we don’t have any clothes for you guys.”

“Hm. Okay, then we’ll have to improvise. Can you bring the temperature up a bit more here? Or do you have some blankets?”

“Both. Why?”

“We’ll have everyone take off their snowsuits, they’ll all have something long underneath anyway. It’ll just be a real adventure trip, with improvisation and stuff, like in the Boy Scouts.”

That sounded reasonable, and also seemed to be the only possible solution anyway.

“All right, let’s do it this way. Will you tell the kids? You’re in charge of them, after all.”

Jonas sighed and turned to the kids, some of whom had already settled into their chairs.

“Guys, don’t get comfortable yet, you can’t hang out here in those thick clothes. So please take off your snowsuits.”

Puzzled, the kids looked at him.

“But Jonas, we don’t have anything to change into!”

“I know, Ricarda, but you all have something underneath.”

“You want us to walk around in our underwear?”

“Yes, Manuela, just think of it as some kind of pajama party.”

Hmm, pajamas were, after all, the next problem that would come our way in the evening at the latest.

“Well, I don’t know…”

“My God, don’t make such a drama out of it! It’s well heated here, do you want to drown in your own sweat or what? Alright, I’ll start then!”

Jasmin had returned from her bathroom adventure and had immediately taken command. Well, she wanted to study something in education, so maybe she could handle the situation better than Jonas or me. She began to peel herself out of her snowsuit, she hadn’t even pulled the top back up after the toilet visit anyway. A fact that Reiko of course noticed immediately, who looked now from his squatting position with Arko very attentively upward to Jasmin. Such a naughty boy!

Hesitantly, the children began to uncover themselves as well, and I should probably do that, too, I was beginning to feel quite warm. I signaled Jonas to follow me and disappeared with him into the master bedroom.

“Here we have enough space to undress as well. You should be about my size, you can get a pair of jeans from me.”

While I got out of my snowsuit, Jonas also took off his suit and shortly after stood in front of me in tight thermal underwear, under which a seductively trim bod was visible. I had to turn away very quickly and reached into the closet.

“Here, try these on.”

I handed him one of the pairs of jeans I had brought with me.

“I’ll change over in the other bedroom.”

I didn’t dare expose myself to him any further, although I would have loved to watch him undress!

Indecisively, Jonas accepted the jeans, as if he didn’t quite know what to do with them.

“Any problem? These really should fit you.”

“Yeah, they should, but…”

I looked at him questioningly.

“But what?”

“Well, I don’t know if I should wear them.”

“Oh, don’t worry, I’ll be happy to help you out!”

“That’s not what I mean at all.”

“Then what do you mean?”

“Well, it’s because of me that the kids are in this situation, and I guess I’d be setting a bad example if I basically forced them to walk around in their underwear, but walk around fully dressed myself.”

Oh. I guess his sister wasn’t the only one in the family with a pedagogical touch.

“Well… I don’t care, it was just an offer. You’re welcome to walk around like that, no problem.”

Well, maybe a problem for me.

“Okay, then I’ll do it this way. I don’t want to preach water and drink wine myself.”

“Whatever you say.”

Jonas handed me back the jeans and was about to leave the room.

“Wait a minute. Here, you can have the slippers, or do you want to do without them, too?”

“But you need them yourself.”

“Nah, I’ve got some thick anti-slip socks here, I’d rather wear them than the slippers anyway.”

Doubtingly, Jonas looked at me, so I showed him what I meant.

“Okay, if that’s the case. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

My guest put on the slippers and turned toward the door.

“Will you come right out with me, Fabian?”

“In a few minutes, I want to call my dad first and let him know that we arrived here safe and sound. I’d rather do that here in the quiet and not in the throng of kids out there.”

“Hehe, I can understand that. Oh yes, where can I hang up the clothes to dry?”

“The best place is in the storage room, there are already a few clotheslines prepared. Ask Reiko, he’ll show you where that is.”

“Okay, then see you later. I’ll take care of your snowsuit, too.”

That was really nice of him. I quickly took out my cell phone, then sat down on the bed and dialed my dad’s number while Jonas left the room and pulled the door shut behind him.

“Hi Faby! Everything okay with you, did you arrive at the cabin?”

“Yeah, dad, everything worked out great.”

“Good. Did you hear that loud rumbling earlier?”

Loud rumbling? I hadn’t heard anything like that.

“No, what do you mean?”

“Boy, a whole avalanche of rocks came down here, that were the stones that fell from the hearts of the parents and everyone else after you called in.”

I could imagine that very well. With the parents anyway, but also with the search teams, the tension was always particularly high when it came to searching for missing children.

“Is your cell phone battery still holding out?”

“Yes, no problem, besides, I have the charger with me.”

“Good. When we’re done talking, I’ll call the Stone Valley Inn. There the parents are waiting for word that you have all arrived at the cabin. I’ll give them your cell phone number, then they can call you, and everyone can talk to their respective children. Agreed?”

“Sounds reasonable. As long as they don’t keep calling here all the time, that would be total chaos.”

“Right, I hadn’t thought of that at all. We’ll do it differently, I’ll give the number to an officer of mine, he’ll dial it from a non-display phone, then the parents can talk from that phone. Is that better?”

“Absolutely.”

“Good, then we’ll do it that way.”

“Anything new on the weather front?”

“Not much. It’s supposed to snow hard again tonight, and again during the day tomorrow. Then, if we’re lucky, it’ll stop tomorrow night and we’ll have a few days of peace. As soon as that is foreseeable, we will send out the heavy equipment. Clearing up a way to the cabin has now become the highest priority.”

Well, that was worth something, normally our access road would have been the very last to be done.

“Great, I’ll keep my fingers crossed that this works out as soon as possible.”

“Believe me, we all do that here, too. The parents are really pushing, they want their kids back as soon as possible.”

That was perfectly understandable. And I also wanted the parents to get their kids back as soon as possible. So they wouldn’t completely spoil my pre-holiday rest!

“Something else, Fabian. I have found a way to send you a certain amount of supplies.”

Oh, that was interesting news!

“How so, I thought there’s no getting through to us.”

“Not by normal means, but I remembered that the Stone Valley Inn has a snowmobile with a small luggage trailer. If it leaves in an hour at the latest, it’ll make it to you and back in the daylight.”

“Sounds great! But I guess you can’t take the kids with you?”

“No, that’s too dangerous. If they were adults, we might take the risk, but with kids we’d rather not. Besides, only one could ride with the driver at a time anyway.”

“Okay, whatever you say.”

“Now you’d have to tell me what you’d like us to send along for you, food and things like that.”

We had quite a bit of food stockpiled, but without supplies it was going to be a very one-sided diet, so we should make ample use of this opportunity.

“You got a pen and paper ready, Pop?”

“Yeah, you’re good to go.”

“We need bread and rolls for the next few days, maybe toast would be best. If possible, have them add a second toaster. Butter, fresh sausage and cheese wouldn’t be bad either, some eggs, jam and stuff like that.”

“Got that written down. What else?”

I pondered for a moment.

“We have plenty of coffee there, but tea, milk and cocoa powder for the kids would be good. Oh yeah, and don’t forget sugar.”

“No problem, they have all that at the Inn.”

I assumed so too, they even had their own baker and butcher’s restaurant in the house.

“Can you think of anything else?”

A flash of inspiration raced through me.

“For food that should be it, but tell me, the parents are all there at the Inn too, right?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Then let them use the hour until departure to pack a few things for their kiddies. A change of underwear, a pair of pants and a sweater, sleeping things, washing things, and so on. We’re at a complete loss in that regard up here.”

“My God, I hadn’t thought of that at all until now! Son, you’re brilliant, at least one of us is doing some thinking!”

Well, I guess I really wasn’t a genius, if we hadn’t already stumbled upon the problem, I probably wouldn’t have thought of it either.

“Is there enough space for it on the snowmobile?”

“Yeah sure, it’s not so problematic with clothes anyway, you can squeeze and crumple them a bit.”

“Fine. Maybe ol’ Ziermayer can also see if he can find some things for his apprentice and his sister.”

“I’ll give him the message. So, if that’s it, I’ll jump right into organizing your supplies.”

“You do that, Pop. It’s just starting to snow again, so the sooner you can get the snowmobile going, the better.”

“That’s right. About the phone calls to the parents, I’ll let an officer know. When would be a good time to start making the calls?”

“Not until you are on the way, until then the parents have other things to do. And we also need to get some calm and order into the situation first.”

“Right. So expect your cell phone to ring in about an hour. Better hang it up on the charger in the meantime, it’s probably going to be a pretty long conversation.”

“Will do. Well, talk to you soon.”

“Your mother sends her love.”

“Give her my best. Bye.”

“Bye, Faby.”

And that was the end of the conversation. The announcement of the supply run had lifted my spirits considerably. I was already dreading having to spend the next few days with a whining gang of kids who kept complaining that there was only canned food to eat.

I put the cell phone aside and started to change my clothes. But then I thought of Jonas, who had turned down my offer of jeans in solidarity with the kids.

“Oh shit, what the hell!”

I put my pants back in the closet, grabbed my cell phone and charger, and went back into the living room, where my first order of business was to connect the cell phone to the power outlet. Then I looked around the room. Except for Reiko and Patrick, everyone was stripped down to their underwear by now, and Reiko was probably about to change.

“Faby, I’m going to get changed now.”

“Okay. Did you show Jonas where to hang the clothes?”

“Yeah, he knows where to put them.”

Reiko disappeared, and while Jasmin and Jonas now collected the children’s snow clothes, I first took care of the fireplace. It could still use some new logs, so I added more and poked around in the embers with the poker to make sure there was a decent fire.

“Patrick, get out of your warm clothes, that goes for you too!”

“I’ve already taken off my jacket! I can keep my pants on.”

“My God, don’t make such a fuss! Look, Fabian is heating up the fireplace even more, soon you won’t be able to stand it in those thick pants!”

“The faggots only want to see me in my underwear!”

One more sentence and he would spend the night in the outhouse.

“You’re an idiot, Patrick! As if they’d see anything in a guy like you! Maybe it’s me who wants to see you in your underwear!”

Hehe, Jasmin had really hairs on her teeth. Reiko better be really careful around her.

“Come on now, pants off, otherwise I’ll do it for you. And don’t think that I wouldn’t be able to do it!”

I didn’t have any doubts that Jasmin would be able to do it. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Patrick get up from his chair and, with a pinched expression on his face, pull off the straps of his snow pants. Another battle won, so I could turn my attention to the fireplace again.

Reiko

While I was on the way to the bedroom, I still heard the argument with Patrick. Well, we would have a lot of fun with this little rebel!

After arriving in the bedroom, I pulled the snowsuit down. I had also slipped out of the top part shortly after entering the cabin and had knotted the sleeves in front of my belly, not only because it was quite warm, but also because it was a bit tight and thus restricted my mobility. And to rub Arko dry you had to be VERY mobile!

So as I pushed the snowsuit down my body, I was suddenly very glad that I hadn’t done that right in the middle of the living room in front of the assembled troops. Why? Quite simply. Because the snowsuit was a little tight, I pulled down my underwear together with it and suddenly my most private parts stood there in the open. If that had happened to me in the presence of Jasmin, I couldn’t imagine the embarrassment! Maybe I should change to my ice hockey underalls in the future, with them this could not happen.

Cursing I pulled up my longjohns again and then finally got out of the naughty snowsuit. I briefly considered whether I should put on normal clothes, but doing that I would probably have stood out in the midst of the others just as much as if I was completely naked. So I grabbed the snowsuit and joined the others again. A short detour to the storage room, where I found a place for my snowsuit, then I was ready for whatever might happen next.

I took a look at the crowd, which had become quite quiet in the meantime, even Patrick sat curled up half asleep in an armchair. Without pants, mind you. Well, no wonder, they didn’t get much of sleep last night, they must be completely exhausted. I went over to Fabian, who was sitting on one of the bar stools.

“Seems like peace and quiet caught up with us.”

“I hope so, Reiko.”

“Did you call your dad?”

“Yes, I did, and you won’t believe what he announced to me.”

Fabian told me about the snowmobile plan, and my eyes widened.

“Gee, that would be really great if it worked out!”

“I’m sure it’ll work, dad keeps his promisses.”

Wonderful. I hoisted my rear end onto the bar stool next to Fabian.

“Any idea what to do about sleeping? We don’t have that many beds, so surely the sleeping bags will have to do.”

“We’ll have to think about that later and discuss it with the kids. Right now, I’m glad they’re getting a little rest.”

“I’m hungry!”

So much about rest, peace and quiet.

“And I want something to drink!”

“Faby, scratch that ’peace and quiet arrived’ idea.”

“Looks like it.”

Jasmin, who had been occupying the second armchair until just now, came over to us.

“I’m sorry, guys, but please don’t forget: we haven’t had anything to eat since yesterday, and ’drinks’ have been nothing but melted snow.”

I hadn’t even thought of that! I could tell from Fabian’s shocked expression that it was the same for him. Christoph and Patrick really couldn’t be blamed for their calls for munchies.

“What are we going to do now, Fabian?”

“What are we going to do now? Taking care of that problem, what else.”

Yes of course, stupid question.

“And what are we going to eat? Best something that will be ready quickly, right?”

“Let’s see what the cabin has to offer.”

Jasmin and I followed Fabian into the storage room, where we took a closer look at the canned goods on hand.

“What do you think about goulash soup? We’ll bake up some of the baguettes to go with it.”

I grabbed one of the soup cans, looked really tasty.

“How many of these are we going to need?”

“There are nine of us now, normally I’d say three cans would be enough, but I’m guessing you guys are pretty famished, so better make it five. We can always heat up again what’s left later.”

“Where are the baguettes?”

“Over there in the cabinet.”

I went to the aforementioned cupboard, and sure enough, inside were several packages of baguettes ready to bake, two long bars per package.

“How many of those, Faby?”

“Three packages should be enough, I guess.”

“Okay.”

I took out three packets and closed the cabinet again.

“Uh… Guys?”

Jasmin had been watching the whole time, now she obviously had something to contribute.

“Yeah?”

“Maybe we should take one less can and one less package of baguettes.”

“Why? You guys must be super hungry, I think Faby is right about the quantity.”

“Yeah, but we don’t know how long we’re going to be stuck here. Maybe we should stretch the supplies a bit more, just in case.”

Ah yes, that was a reasonable idea. Of course, Jasmin didn’t know about the announced snowmobile supply run yet, so I quickly told her about it. As a result, relief spread across her face.

“Well, if that’s the case, then we can really take as much as Fabian suggested.”

Good plan, we grabbed the cans and the baguettes and carried everything to the cooking area.

“I’m cooking, guys.”

That was just fine with me, my cooking skills were limited to burning water.

“I’ll get some drinks. Reiko, will you help Jasmin a little?”

Fabian brought this question out with a slight twinkle in his eye – was he the one trying to set up ME now?

“Well, sure I do.”

“Great. Patrick. You were thirsty?”

“Yeah sure!”

“Then come on, the bottles aren’t going to come on their own.”

Lo and behold, thirst got our petulant teenager to finally do something without grumbling and complaining. With Patrick in tow, Fabian disappeared back toward the storage room.

“Okay, I’m going to go find a big pot, can you open the cans for me, Reiko?”

“Sure, Jasmin. After all, I have a dog, so I’ve had a lots of practice opening cans.”

Jasmin laughed at me, a sight I couldn’t get enough of.

“Well, go ahead, human can opener, get started. Jonas?”

“Yes, sis?”

“You could go ahead and get the plates and silverware together. Oh yes, the baguettes also need to be unpacked and shoved into the oven.”

With that, it was clearly settled who wore the hat or rather the chef’s hat here in the cooking area. Well, maybe it was good if someone who actually knew what he was doing took over.

I went for the cans, and as quickly as I opened them, their contents disappeared into a large soup pot. Jonas rummaged around in the cupboards and pulled out a hodgepodge of soup plates, bowls and dishes. Strangely, Roeckers were unprepared for the fact that nine people were going to be spooning up soup in their cabin at the same time – an oversight that would surely be rectified as soon as possible.

“I guess some of us will have to eat with coffee spoons, I only found six soup spoons here.”

“You can give me one of those right now, I need it for stirring.”

Jasmin snatched a spoon from her brother, and while I dumped the contents of the last can into the pot, she turned on the gas burner and started stirring around in the pot.

“Jonas, have you unpacked the baguettes yet?”

“Yes, they’re ready.”

“Good. Reiko, turn on the oven and put the baguettes in.”

Man, she had quite a commanding tone! I should get used to obey her.

In the meantime, Fabian and Patrick had come back and brought a few bottles of non-alcoholic beverages and put them on the counter.

“Patrick, I give you glasses, you distribute them and pour everyone what he wants.”

“Why me?”

Fabian looked down at the teenager, unnerved.

“Because you’re the oldest of your gang and can start taking over some responsibility!”

“All right, all right…”

Patrick resigned himself to his fate and did what Fabian had told him to do, while Jonas was now distributing dishes and cutlery around the table.

“This is going to be pretty crowded, I would suggest that two of us eat here at the bar.”

We quickly agreed that I would supervise the kids at the table with Jasmin, while Fabian and Jonas would keep an eye on the overall situation from the high bar stools. Meanwhile, a heavenly aroma drifted through the room, and I turned back to Jasmin, who was busily stirring the pot.

“Why do you keep stirring this stuff?”

“Because I don’t want it to burn, you simpleton.”

Oh. Interesting! I hadn’t thought of that yet, maybe that’s why I always had bad luck so far in my attempts to cook anything. You just never stop learning.

“Don’t just stand there like a statue, you better make sure the baguettes don’t turn into coal.”

“Yes, Sergeant Major!”

“You nut!”

But she said it with a smile! I was completely blown away. Actually funny, so shortly after the disaster with Melanie. Although it had not gone that great with her for quite a while already.

The baguettes seemed to be just right, so I took them out of the oven. Not without burning my paws. Then on the second one, I was smart enough to use a knife to pull it onto a plate.

“Those things are done, how about the soup?”

Jasmin looked into the pot and nodded her head in satisfaction.

“It’s ready too, we can eat.”

Wonderful. First we filled the bowls of Jonas and Fabian, who also kept one of the baguettes with them at the bar counter, then I carefully carried the big, hot pot to the dining table, where five hungry children’s mouths were already waiting to be stuffed.

“Sit down, Reiko, I’ll fill the bowls. I don’t want this turning into a giant mess.”

Jasmin seemed to have a lot of faith in my skills as a waiter. Not! Oh well. Less work for me to do. I quickly fetched the baguettes for our table, then settled down while Jasmin deftly filled the bowls with steaming hot goulash soup.

“Well, bon appétit everyone. But watch out, the soup is hot! I don’t want to hear anyone complaining when they’ve burned their mouth!”

The warning was probably justified, soon we were all spooning away, and a few minutes later I was surprised what a short work we had made with the previously so large-looking soup pot. Even Fabian, who apparently wanted to get seconds, looked puzzled at the empty pot.

“Empty already? Should we make some more, or are you full for now?”

That’s exactly what I had been thinking. Fortunately, everyone was apparently properly fed for now, no one wanted more. Using 5 cans was the right decision, with one less as Jasmin had suggested, we would still have hungry kids at the table. The baguettes were gone to the last crumb, too. Not even Arko had gotten anything! But it was still a few hours until his usual feeding time anyway, after all it was now just past half past three.

“So, now that we are all well fed and sit together so nicely, I have time to tell you and explain some things.”

All eyes were on Fabian now.

Fabian

The feeding of the predators had gone quite well and in a civilized manner, now the kids were hopefully receptive for a few things I had to tell them.

“Okay, here’s the thing: as you’ve probably heard, we’re stuck here at the cabin for now, and we’re going to be for at least another two days.”

The girls now looked a bit scared, the boys hid their feelings, but not all of them succeeded. Well, they had to know the truth, and the truth wasn’t that bad.

“It’s going to be a little crowded, the cabin isn’t really designed for that many people, so we’ll have to be a little considerate of each other. Everyone will also be helping out a bit, and we’ll start that right after my speech, so a few of you will please help clear the table and do the dishes.”

I thought that was only fair, after all they were all old enough to contribute a little to the common good. I explained what the cabin was all about, how electricity and water worked, etc. etc. There were some questions about the toilet and showers, and I pointed out quite clearly the imperative to conserve hot water. It took quite a while until I arrived at the last point for the time being.

“After that, we’ll have to figure out how to do the sleeping thing, but that won’t be a problem either. We have two bedrooms with several beds and also some sleeping bags.”

Christoph shyly raised his left arm in the air. How cute, as if he was at school.

“Yes, Christoph?”

“We don’t have any pajamas at all, should we sleep in our underwear?”

“That’s exactly what we originally thought you should do, but…”

“But we’re supposed to sleep naked!”

From whom could such an idea come? Only from Patrick, of course.

“Really?”

“No, Manuela, of course not! Patrick is just talking nonsense again.”

Manuela wasn’t the only one who breathed a sigh of relief.

“You don’t have to sleep in your underwear, because I have another surprise for you. Later, a snowmobile will show up here, and it will bring some food – and for each of you some things that your parents packed for you. Sleepwear, washing things, fresh underwear and things like that.”

From the happy faces around the table, I gathered that my surprise was well received.

“Is the snowmobile going back too?”

“Yes, Patrick, we’ll just unload everything quickly, then it will go back to the Inn.”

“Then I can ride along!”

Somehow I had expected that.

“No, you can’t. The driver doesn’t take anyone for safety reasons.”

“We’ll see about that!”

I sighed inwardly. What to do with this boy? Earlier, when he was getting drinks, he had been reasonably friendly, but that had probably just been a slip.

“So, I think that’s all settled for now. If you have any questions, just ask, we have to get along well here, so no false shyness, okay?”

In response, I got “Okay!” from four children’s throats, with only Patrick sitting silently in his chair with his lips pinched together.

“Great. Chris, Felix, you clear the table, please. Manuela and Ricarda, you help Jasmin and Reiko with the dishes.”

“And what are the rest of us three doing?”

“We, my dear Jonas, are taking care of unloading the snowmobile that I hear humming along.”

Sure enough, a loud humming engine approached the cabin; it could only be the snowmobile that had been announced. Actually earlier than I had expected.

“Come on, quickly put on your snow clothes and boots, the thing will be here soon.”

We dashed into the storage room and got back into our stuff, which hadn’t really dried out in that short time. Then, as we stepped in front of the cabin, the snowmobile with a small box trailer in tow just came to a stop right in front of our home away from home.

“Hi Faby.”

“Dad!”

What was my dad doing here? I hadn’t expected him at all!

“What are you doing here?”

“Well, I know my way around here best amongst those who can handle one of these things. So I thought I’d take care of the delivery myself.”

“I didn’t know that you can drive a snowmobile.”

“Well, you’re a long way from knowing everything about your old man! When I was in the army, I drove toys like that all the time, and you never unlearn that. Okay, now quickly introduce me to the two boys, and then we’ll move everything into the cabin as quickly as possible!”

I was still slightly flabbergasted, but introduced my sire to Jonas and Patrick, noticing that Jonas reacted somewhat dejectedly to the obviously very good relationship between me and my dad. Given his own history, unfortunately, that was understandable.

“Well then, give me a hand, boys! Patrick, you can take this big bag here, it’s full of clothes, so it’s not particularly heavy.”

Ah, so dad was able to bring parental emergency packages for the kids. Very nice.

“Jonas, Fabian, there are several baskets of food in the trailer. They’re damn heavy, so you better carry them together!”

They had to be really heavy if pop didn’t trust us to carry them alone. And sure enough, I tried to lift one out of the trailer, but fiddlesticks, I couldn’t get it over the railing of the thing.

“Now wait a minute, you heard your dad, we’re supposed to carry these together!”

“All right, all right. So come on, give me a hand.”

Together we managed to get the basket out of the trailer, and with arms that grew longer and longer, we carried it into the cabin. My dad had already stepped in and took a look at the situation.

“Ah, I see you’ve just eaten!”

“Yes, dad, our lost ones were completely famished.”

“I’ll take your word for it, Faby.”

“By the way, this is Jasmin, Manuela, Ricarda, Christoph and Felix. You know Reiko anyway.”

“Indeed. Hello Reiko, long time no see.”

“That’s right, Mr. Roecker. But I’m very happy to see you right now and here.”

“Oh come on, you’re just happy to see what I brought you!”

Both Reiko and my father laughed, well, the two had always gotten along very well.

“We’ll talk about your stunt with the car sometime after Christmas, when everything is back to normal.”

Now Reiko looked contrite.

“Okay, Mr. Roecker.”

“So, how is it, have you unloaded everything?”

Jonas and I had dragged in two more baskets, at least as heavy as the first, while Patrick had brought a second garment bag into the cabin and now arrived with yet another larger box.

“Careful with that thing, Patrick, the contents are fragile!”

“Is that the eggs in there, dad?”

“No, son, something much better!”

Well now I was really excited. My father took the box from Patrick, put it on the now-cleared table, opened it, and took out a … TV! Not a huge thing, but a very flat LCD TV with a 20 inch screen.

“Wow, dad, where did you get that thing?”

“It’s a noble donation from Mr. Ziermayer, who’s feeling a little guilty about sending Jonas off with the kids.”

That had to be a VERY guilty conscience indeed.

“Do we even get reception out here? And we don’t have an antenna here at all.”

“There’s an antenna, too.”

My father pulled out a small indoor antenna.

“Well, with this little thing we’ll get the public channels at most. Great, then we can watch folk music at Christmas.”

Patrick. As usual.

“Don’t be so cynical, young man. You’ll get plenty of channels, we’re in the DVB-T covered area here.”

“DVB-T?”

Ha, not so smart guy, gotcha!

“Yes, digital video broadcast. With the little antenna, you’ll get over 20 stations. And because of the LCD technology, the TV doesn’t consume very much power either.”

However, we would have to pay a little attention on that topic. The electric heater and microwave took our power grid to the limit when they were running at the same time.

“By the way, your parents asked me to send you their best wishes for the next days. But they should have called by now anyway, right?”

Shit! I knew that I had forgotten something.

“Crap!”

“What is it, Faby?”

“I turned the phone off earlier and put it on the charger – and forgot to turn it back on.”

“You’ll forget your own head someday. But oh well, no big deal.”

My father reached into his jacket and brought out a radio, which he now turned on.

“Wolf One-Nine for Wolf One Karat, come in!”

“Wolf One-Nine is listening. Did you get there okay, boss?”

“Yeah, I am. Listen, my boy’s cell phone was off.”

“Ah… And we were wondering why we just couldn’t get through.”

“Well, shit happens, no big deal. He’s going to turn it on right now, wait five more minutes, then you can call here.”

“Will do, boss.”

“Good, I’ll be on my way back soon, too. Wolf One Karat, over.”

“Received, over.”

“You heard it, Faby. Better turn that cell phone on now before the parents get a fleet of snowmobiles somewhere and come haunting you personally.”

I could really do without that! I walked over to the cabinet where I had put the cell phone, unplugged it from the charger, and turned the phone on.

“I’m leaving again. Listen up, everyone. You are well and safely housed here now, you don’t have to starve either, nothing can happen to you here. Try to make the best of the next few days, it’s certainly nice to be away from your parents for a while, isn’t it?”

The two middle boys in particular grinned at my father.

“There you go. As soon as it’s possible, we’ll send out heavy clearing equipment to dig you guys out of here. It’ll take a few more days, but I’m sure you guys can handle it.”

Physically, for sure. But whether my nerves would hold out was another matter entirely.

Before my father now left the hut, he came over to me once more, hugged me and whispered something in my ear.

“You’re doing just fine, big guy, I’m mighty proud of you.”

With those words he let go of me, waved once more and disappeared outside. Now, while I was receiving the usual you-had-a-call-but-didn’t-feel-like-taking-it messages on the cell phone, I could still see out of the corner of my eye a figure following my dad outside….

Reiko

Well, that was a surprise, Fabian’s father himself had played the riding messenger! And he had really brought a lot, the baskets were full of fine things to eat, even sweets for the kids were not forgotten.

“Reiko, could you and Jasmin stow the food and distribute the clothing packages to the kids?”

I looked at Fabian, who was standing around with his cell phone in his hand.

“No problem, and what are you doing?”

“I’m going to make up the rest of the beds with Jonas.”

Ah yes. With Jonas. Alone in the bedroom. Not suspicious at all!

“Whatever you say. What about the cell phone? It’s going to ring soon, isn’t it?”

“I’ll take care of it.”

The budding educator had spoken, hugh! Jasmin took Fabian’s cell phone and put it on the counter, and now while the two bed-makers disappeared into the back rooms, we stowed the delivered food in the kitchen cabinets as well as in the storage room. I was surprised, either Fabian had known exactly what to order, or the suppliers had known exactly what we would need out here. I was especially happy about the fresh food, without it we would not have starved, but the menu would have been very limited.

Soon the baskets were empty, only a box of milk cartons still needed to be stowed away.

“Reiko, can you get the milk into the storage room by yourself? Then I’ll make sure the kids all get the right clothes bags.”

That’s what you get for being a guy, always having to do the heavy hauling. But well, as a true gentleman I would have done that anyway.

So I carried the milk to the storage room, and when I arrived back in the living room, Jasmin and the kids were already rummaging through the two large plastic bags, which contained smaller bags of clothes. Fortunately, there were name tags everywhere, so the distribution went quickly and smoothly. One thing struck me, though.

“Jasmin, where is Patrick?”

At that moment, the engine of the snowmobile started outside, and shortly thereafter the sound moved away from the cabin rather quickly.

“He went out with Fabian’s dad, I think he tried to persuade him to take him back to the Inn on the snowmobile.”

I wondered if he had succeeded, I really didn’t think so, though. I went to the window and looked out, and there stood Patrick like a heap of misery in the snow.

“Mr. Roecker didn’t take him, Jasmin.”

“I would have been surprised if he did.”

“Do you want me to bring him in? I don’t want him to freeze out there.”

“No, leave him there, maybe he’ll cool down a bit.”

Wouldn’t that be nice? I rather didn’t give myself false hopes, but well, as long as he was out there, he couldn’t spread a bad mood in here. That already was worth something.

At that moment, the cell phone rang, which must have been the long-awaited call from our protégé’s parents. Jasmin answered it, and I quickly told the kiddies.

“Listen, you can all talk to your parents now.”

“Me first!”

Kids!

“Manuela, the order is based on what they agreed on at the hotel, so please don’t fight over who gets to go first. Everyone will have a turn, you’ve already waited so long, a few more minutes don’t really matter now, right?”

They seemed to get that, at least they all nodded in agreement.

“Ricarda? Come on, you’re first, it’s your mom’s turn.”

“Yay!”

Ricarda jumped up, took the cell phone from Jasmin and ducked into the armchair in the far corner of the room with it. Jasmin came over to me.

“I agreed with the officer that no one should talk for more than five minutes, otherwise this is going to be an evening filling event.”

“Good idea. We could have another collective call like this tomorrow evening, it’s certainly better than hours of single phone calls.”

While Ricarda talked with her parents, I took care of the dishes with Jasmin. Actually, some of the kids were supposed to do the dishes, but they were a bit too excited at the moment and only thought about being able to talk to their parents. Oh well. Fortunately it wasn’t too much work.

Second on the phone was Manuela, who now replaced Ricarda, at the end of her five minutes, Patrick finally reappeared in the cabin, just at the right moment, because when she noticed him, Manuela called him over.

“Patrick, it’s your turn, your parents are on the phone!”

Shoulders drooping, he trudged over to her and grabbed the cell phone.

“Yes?”

That didn’t sound very enthusiastic. He listened for a while, then took advantage of his parents’ first pause in talking to get a few words in himself.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Bye!”

With these words, he pushed the cell phone into my hand, from which the stunned chatter of a woman could be heard. Jasmin stared at him angrily.

“Alright, young man, if you don’t want to talk to your parents anymore, then you can take off your warm clothes right now!”

“Yeah yeah, alright!”

“Not alright! Immediately, and make it fast! I’ve had enough of your behavior!”

Patrick seemed to want to say something, but then stopped himself. Better for him, I guess.

“By the way, there in the blue bag are the things your parents sent for you. At least you could have thanked them for that!”

Patrick grabbed the bag and walked off, probably not wanting to irritate Jasmin even more.

“I’ll go change in the bathroom.”

Off he went, and I decided that at least I should have a quick word with his parents.

“Hello? Is anyone from Patrick’s parents still on the line?”

“Yes, I’m Mr. Bolke, Patrick’s father.”

“Great. Reiko Heilmann speaking. I’m sorry, but it looks like your son is not in the mood to talk to you at the moment. Or to talk to anyone at all.”

I heard a deep sigh.

“Yeah, we picked up on that. What’s wrong with that boy, he never used to be like that! He was always sweet and nice, but for the last two months he’s been downright rebellious.”

Patrick sweet and nice? I really couldn’t imagine that at the moment.

“We just don’t know what to do with him anymore.”

That’s wonderful. Something went wrong at home, and now we had to pay for it.

“We can only hope that he won’t cause you too much trouble in the next few days.”

That remained to be seen, but I had already decided to have a very serious word with him if things got too much out of hand.

“We’ll see, he’s definitely going to have to pull himself together a bit here.”

Again, a deep sigh was heard through the phone.

“We know that. We just want to ask that you still take good care of him. I can only say it again: this is not the normal, not the real Patrick you see there right now.”

“Well, we’ll see…”

“Okay, let’s not keep the other parents waiting any longer. Felix Schoen’s parents are next.”

“Alright, I’ll pass the phone on now. Have a good day.”

“Same to you. Bye.”

I heard the phone being passed on, so I guess I should do the same now.

“Felix? You’re up!”

“Yippee!”

The little redhead came whizzing up and literally snatched the phone out of my hand. With him, I probably didn’t have to worry that he’d only talk to his parents in a single sentence, so I could turn my attention back to other things. Fabian and Jonas had just come out of the back of the cabin, holding their snowsuits in their hands to take them back to the storage room to dry.

“What’s gotten into Patrick now? He rushed past us without a word and locked himself in the bathroom!”

“Faby, he tried to talk your dad into taking him back to the Inn on the snowmobile.”

“Why do I get the funny feeling that he didn’t succeed?”

I had to laugh, even though the whole Patrick story wasn’t exactly funny.

“Hehe, how did you ever figure that out!”

“Well, Tom always was and still is the only one who can wrap our dad around his little finger in such a way that he fulfills his every wish.”

Oh yes, I remembered that from the old days! Well, it wasn’t that Mr. Roecker totally preferred his younger son, but as the runt of the litter Tom had always had a tiny bit more freedom than his big brother. Fabian always had to take on a little more responsibility, had to play the role model a little more.

Fabian looked around the living room.

“I see you guys got quite a bit done.”

We really had, by now the dishes were completely washed and put away again, the supplies were also well stocked, the kids had picked up their packages of clothes and were on the parental conference call.

“Yes, we’ve been busy.”

Jasmin smiled challengingly at her brother and my best friend.

“I just hope you did what you had to do in the bedroom! There are some things that can really distract you from doing your work…”

To say that Fabian and Jonas’ heads were now turning the color of ripe tomatoes would have passed as the understatement of the year!

Fabian

Really, that challenging look from Reiko, when I announced that I was going to prepare the beds together with Jonas! I wondered what he was thinking now.

We went to the master bedroom first, after all, that’s where the closet with all the bedding was.

“Jonas, I hope you don’t mind that Reiko and I put you and your sister to work like this.”

The hotel trainee smiled at me.

“Nah, that’s all right. If we hadn’t gotten lost, you would have had comfortable days here and not such a stress as now. It’s only fair and logical that we help as much as we can.”

That was one way to look at it.

“Well then, let’s go, first we’ll make up the two beds here, then we’ll go over to the other bedroom.”

“Okay, but first we’d better get out of those warm clothes again.”

Right. We had already taken off our boots when we entered the cabin, but Jonas was still wearing thickly lined dungarees and a matching jacket, and I was wearing my equally warm one piece snowsuit. We once more freed ourselves from these, and while doing that I noticed again what a well-toned body hid itself under the skin-tight thermal underwear of Jonas.

“Say, Jonas…”

“Yes?”

“Do you do any sports?”

“Yes, I play tennis and squash. Why do you ask?”

“Because it shows on your body…”

Ohoh, hopefully that hadn’t been too direct now.

“Does it?”

Jonas surveyed himself in the large mirror attached to one of the closet doors.

“Yes, you can clearly see that. You have a great body!”

Could someone please tie a knot in my tongue?

But Jonas seemed pleased with the compliment, turning to me smiling.

“Well, Faby, you don’t need to hide yourself either!”

I disagreed completely, though.

“Oh come on, I’m nothing compared to you, a total wimp.”

“Bullshit! Come here!”

Jonas pulled me towards him, stood behind me and turned me to face the mirror.

“Go on, look at yourself.”

I turned my head away instead.

“You’re supposed to look in the mirror, stupid!”

Jonas turned my head in the direction he wanted.

“Well, what do you see?”

Well, what did I see? An absolutely average guy. Rather a bit thinner than average, if you looked closer you could even see my ribs. All in all, really no model material.

“I see a great looking guy trying to hide behind a skinny skeleton.”

“Faby, you’re a dumbass. I think you’re cute! Okay, you could use a few more pounds on your ribs, but if you come visit me at the Stone Valley Inn once in a while, I’ll make sure the chef fattens you up a bit.”

I leaned back into him, held by Jonas’ strong arms.

“You want me to come visit you at work?”

That would be too good to be true.

“Yes, Faby, I would love that.”

His hands gently stroked my chest, it was just wonderful…

“Because I really like you, Faby…”

It was getting better and better!

“And now…”

Yes? Now what?

“… now I guess we should start preparing the beds!”

With these words he grabbed me, lifted me up and threw me onto the double bed. Which probably proved once and for all that Jonas was strong and I was a lightweight.

“Spoilsport!”

“Hehe, remember, work first, then the pleasure!”

I was really looking forward to the pleasure now, even if I would probably have to wait a while for it.

“How are we supposed to prepare the bed if you throw me on it?”

“If necessary, I’ll just roll you out of it.”

Oh, well I didn’t really want to take that risk, so I quickly rose from the bed again and went to the closet with the bedding, where I pulled out four complete sets of sheets, pillowcases and comforter covers.

“Well come on then, slave driver, let’s get to it.”

The two of us working together made sure that we were done quickly, so that after a few minutes we could already move over to the other bedroom, where we also made short work of the double bed there.

“What do you think should we do about the sleeping arrangement? Who do you want to put where?”

You here with me in the double bed, everything else wasn’t important…

Of course I didn’t say that out loud! It’s kind of strange, I was usually never particularly reserved towards cute guys, but now that I had one in front of me for the first time from whom I knew that he was also gay and apparently felt at least a little bit for me, suddenly all my flirting skills and all my courage were gone.

“I’m not sure yet, some of the kids will definitely have to sleep in sleeping bags. Maybe in the master bedroom or even in the living room. We’ll have to figure it out together later.”

“Okay.”

Silently we did the final touches, then the second bedroom was also prepared, and we went back to the big one to get our snowsuits. When we were over there, however, Jonas closed the door once more.

“Fabian?”

Hm, what was he suddenly so serious about?

“Yes?”

“I hope I wasn’t too direct earlier…”

“What do you mean?”

“Well… It’s like this… Right when I first saw you in front of the caravan this morning, I fell for you a little bit. And then, when you told me that you were gay too, I wanted to do a happy dance.”

Those sentences could have been mine.

“And… Well… Faby, I like you. A lot, actually. I know this is all happening pretty damn fast, but I can’t help the way I feel! I’d like to get to know you better, become your friend, and then maybe become a little more than your friend. You know?”

Wow, Jonas was brave enough to say out loud what I so far only dared to dream.

“But I just know so little about you, I don’t even know if you already have a boyfriend! Then my advances would be completely out of line.”

Oh, on that topic I should probably calm him down very quickly! Not that he suddenly stopped with his advances! I had to prevent that.

“Jonas? Look at me, please.”

He had delivered his whole speech with his eyes lowered to the floor, now he timidly raised his head again and looked me in the eyes.

“Jonas, I like you too. I thought you were kind of cute, attractive, sweet from the first moment I saw you, too.”

A hopeful smile played on Jonas’ lips.

“And you don’t have to worry, I don’t have a boyfriend waiting somewhere for me to come home to him.”

Jonas relaxed more and more, and that made his face even cuter.

“What I’m saying is, I’d like to get to know you better too, to become your friend, and then maybe a little more than your friend.”

“Honestly?”

“Honestly. And one more thing.”

“Yeah?”

“Don’t you dare!”

Completely puzzled, Jonas looked at me.

“Huh?”

“Don’t you dare stopping to make advances!”

Understanding spread across his face.

“Hehe! Good! I just didn’t want you to feel pressured by it in any way. If it is okay for you, I can move on.”

Jonas grinned mischievously.

“It is very much okay for me. Because I think I’m a little too chicken for doing that myself right now.”

If Reiko could see me now! Me, the big flirt, he wouldn’t be able to stop laughing!

“Okay, I promise you, I won’t stop!”

That’s what I wanted to hear.

“But now I guess we should get back to the others, right?”

I had to agree with him on that one, unfortunately.

“You’re right. Let’s go then.”

We grabbed our snowsuits and left the bedroom. Still in the doorway, Jonas stopped short, and I walked into him.

“What’s wrong?”

“I almost forgot something!”

“What is it?”

“This.”

The next moment I felt his lips on my left cheek, but only for a short, fleeting moment, then Jonas went on as if nothing had happened, while I almost jumped for joy! It took me a second to regain my composure, then I followed him out of the bedroom.

On the way to the living room Patrick came rushing towards us, pushed past us without a word and disappeared into the bathroom. Shortly after, we heard the key turn in the lock.

“If you ask me, Jonas, this kid has some kind of major problem.”

“Looks like it. But as long as he’s always silent or grumbling, we won’t be able to figure it out.”

I shrugged my shoulders. Couldn’t be helped for the time being, I guess. We went further into the living room, where Felix was on the phone. I asked Reiko what had gotten into Patrick again, and got the explanation. Well, I could have told him before that he would not be successful with begging my dad to take him back to the Inn.

Afterwards, I praised the fact that so much work had been done, and Jasmin confirmed that they had all been diligent. Then, however, she shot off a remark that I was not in the least bit prepared for.

“I just hope you did what you had to do in the bedroom! There are some things that can really distract you from doing your work…”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jonas’ chin drop as well. My God, she couldn’t have known what had gone on between us while we were alone! Or could she?

Reiko

I only had to take one look at the couple with the bright red heads in front of me to know that there was more going on than just setting up beds. I had suspected it, Fabian the old charmer could not resist the temptation to make a pass at Jonas.

The two didn’t comment but quickly went into the storage room to hang up their snowsuits. When they came back, the cell phone just changed to Christoph, who was now the last to talk to his parents. Jonas and Fabian sat down at the bar, while I went to the two-seater, in which Jasmin had already settled down.

“Is this seat free?”

“Go ahead, sit down.”

I didn’t need to be told twice. Manuela and Ricarda were sitting on the big couch, and Felix had taken one of the armchairs. Everyone looked pretty tired.

“The kids are all pretty beat, aren’t they, Jasmin?”

“Of course they are. I am, too. Even your cute dog seems to be completely wiped out.”

I had noticed that too, Arko was curled up in front of the fireplace and hadn’t moved for ages. Frolicking in the snow and playing with the kids had apparently driven him to total exhaustion.

“Right. That’s not so bad, it gives us a break from him.”

Arko usually wanted to be kept busy somehow all the time.

Silence returned to the cabin, except for Christoph on the phone, no one spoke, everyone dozed off. I was a bit startled when the boy brought the phone to Fabian.

“Here, thank you so much for letting us use the phone.”

“No problem, Chris. Is the call over or is there anyone else on the line?”

“They hung up, but told us to leave it on.”

“Okay, we’ll do that.”

I assumed that later in the day my parents would also call again. Christoph came over and sat in the second chair.

“Eh, that’s my seat, get out of there!”

I didn’t really need to look up to see who was doing the honors again. Christoph probably didn’t feel like arguing, he got up and joined the girls on the couch, whereupon Patrick threw himself into the vacated armchair.

“My God, Patrick, you’re really doing everything you can to make a fool of yourself!”

Hm, what did Jasmin mean now? I looked at our problem teenager and immediately realized what Jasmin was getting at. The boy sat there in T-shirt and jeans! He had actually changed completely and was now the only one in the cabin who was in normal outer clothing. But somehow I had no desire at all to deal with it now. Besides, Fabian started talking.

“Now that we’re all together again and the phone call is over for the time being, we should talk about the sleeping arrangements.”

Good idea. I’d love to have the small bedroom with the double bed, for Jasmin and me!

“The thing is, there are 9 of us, but we only have 6 beds available. One double bed and two twin beds in the big bedroom, one double bed in the small bedroom.”

“And how are we all going to fit in there?”

Fabian explained that there were also some sleeping bags available, which was met with enthusiasm especially by Christoph and Felix. But the girls also seemed to like this idea.

“I’ll take a sleeping bag! You too, Felix?”

The tween agreed.

“Great, that already brings us one step further. It’s best if you set up the sleeping bags here in the living room, it’s not so cold and you have plenty of room.”

“Come on, Manuela, we’ll take sleeping bags too and sleep with the boys in the living room.”

“I don’t know about that…”

Well, Manuela was the youngest, her hesitation was understandable. Maybe I could throw in a little bonus.

“That’s nice that you sleep here, that way Arko is not so alone at night.”

“Arko sleeps here too?”

That had piqued Manuela’s interest, and my lazy tailwagger raised up his ears, too.

“Yes.”

“Then I want to sleep here too!”

There you go. While Arko now rose and trudged over to the kids on the couch, I looked at Fabian, who grinned and gave me a thumbs up. If that wasn’t teamwork. All that was left was our problem child, who now also spoke up.

“I want a room for myself!”

What had we done to deserve that, what had we done to piss off the good Lord like that?

“Okay, okay, you can have the small bedroom! Let’s us older folks just split into the big one, there are four beds in there.”

If you counted the double bed as two beds. I wondered who would end up in it? In any case, Fabian had chosen the easy way out and let Patrick have his way. That certainly saved us some arguing, but I could only hope that the annoying brat didn’t believe that it would always work like that.

I talked a bit more with Jasmin, who was less and less able to stifle her yawns as time went on. A quick glance around the room showed me that most of the others felt the same way. Of the kids, only Felix was still leafing through the Harry Potter book I had forgotten to put away, the three on the couch were half on top of each other and had long since fallen asleep, and even Patrick had dozed off in his chair, looking as if he couldn’t do anything wrong. What a little devil in disguise he was. I turned to the person sitting next to me.

“Would you like to lie down in bed for a while? You’re about to fall asleep anyway, and I guarantee a bed will be more comfortable than this.”

Jasmin looked at me gratefully.

“I think that would be a really good idea. I barely slept last night.”

I would have been very surprised if it had been any other way.

“Okay, I’ll just let Fabian and your brother know, and I’ll show you where to lie down.”

I rose and walked over to the counter where the two boys were talking quietly.

“Jasmin’s about to fall asleep, so I suggested she take a nap for a while.”

“Sounds reasonable. Jonas, would you like that too?”

“Nah, thanks, I’ll be fine if I can sit down a little more comfortably.”

“You might as well have the two-seater, I’ll find a bed in the back too.”

Fabian raised his eyebrows, I wonder what he was imagining now, hehe!

I walked back to Jasmin and could literally feel Fabian’s grin at my back.

“Come on, let’s go.”

She rose, and I led her into the large bedroom, where, yes, all the beds were ready for use by now.

“Now you have to make a choice.”

“Are you staying here, too?”

What did she want now, for me to stay or for me to leave her alone? Let’s just give it a try.

“I was actually planning on lying down for a bit, too.”

Jasmin walked over to the single bed in which Fabian had spent last night. Too bad. But oh well. I didn’t want to rush into anything, and so far I had no clue if she had any increased interest in me at all.

So what else could I do, I made myself comfortable in my bed from last night.

“Have a good rest then, Jasmin.”

“Thanks. I really need that now. Hopefully the two boys over there can handle the little ones on their own.”

“Don’t worry, they’re all asleep anyway, they’re at least as tired as you are.”

“Well, I don’t know if it’s fair that we’re so comfortable here, and they’re squatting on that weird double chair.”

I had to grin a little at the image of the two rather tall boys on the upholstered furniture. On the other hand…

“They’ll be comfortable, you can count on it.”

Jasmin laughed softly to herself.

“True, you’re probably right. They make a cute couple, don’t you think?”

“Do you think they’re a couple now?”

“Well, from the way they were blushing earlier, I’d bet on it.”

Well, that was fast. But with Fabian I wasn’t really surprised. Although… I had just learned that his reputation in this respect was anything but deserved. Well, anyway. If the two of them would become a couple, then I would be happy for Faby.

“Could be true, Jasmin.”

I waited a moment, but got no response, so I looked over at her bed. Lo and behold, she was already fast asleep. In the middle of a conversation with me! I guess that should give me some time for thinking.

Fabian

My eyes followed Reiko and Jasmin, as they moved in the direction of the bedroom. I wondered if something was brewing between the two of them. I would be happy for Reiko, but there were some problems. Jasmin would go back to Saxony after the holidays, and I had no idea if Reiko would be able to cope with that. I guess one could only wait and hope for the best. Luckily, I didn’t have these problems with Jasmin’s big brother!

“Jonas, go ahead and make yourself comfortable, I’m just going to check on the fire again.”

“Okay, but hurry up or I’ll be asleep before you get to me.”

Well, I really couldn’t let that happen, so I quickly added two more logs, then went to the two-seater, where Jonas had already spread himself out so much that there was no room left for me. His head was resting on one of the armrests, his back was against the backrest, and his legs were hanging over the other armrest. Questioningly, I looked at him.

“And what about me?”

He grinned cheekily at me and raised his left arm invitingly. Ah, yes. Cuddling was what the gentleman wanted. All right, he could have that. Gladly even! Carefully I settled down in front of him, his strong arms moved me into position so that my back came to rest on his chest, his left arm encircled my torso and pulled me even closer to him, then I felt him relax behind me.

“Is it okay like that, Faby?”

I wouldn’t complain!

“Yup. I hope I don’t crush you.”

“No problem, I like it cozy like this. Okay, I’m going to try to get some sleep for a while.”

“Then sleep tight and have sweet dreams.”

“I’ll dream about you, there’s nothing better.”

Oh God, I could learn something from his flirtations! When I get a chance, maybe I should ask him about his past experiences in terms of love and relationship.

I was also tired, but quickly took a look around the room, as good as it was possible from my current position. Patrick was sleeping peacefully in his armchair – what a blessing! The girls and Christoph had arranged themselves on the couch and seemed to slumber as well, even Arko had squeezed in. Only Felix sat in the remaining armchair and browsed through a book. As if he had sensed that I was looking at him, he looked up and in my direction. I wondered how the view of Jonas and me affected him. Was it wise to show us off so freely in front of the kids? We should have thought about that before…

But Felix just grinned and turned back to the book, at least he didn’t seem to have any problems with it. That was a good start.

In my neck I felt the steady breaths of Jonas, a clear sign that he was already asleep. Knowing that everything was alright in the cabin and that I was in safe hands, I could now close my eyes and drift off into dreamland, too.

When I woke up again, the flames in the fireplace were the only light that illuminated the room. I was still cuddled up close to Jonas, but his left hand had meanwhile landed on my thigh. Unfortunately I had to go to the bathroom, so I had to free myself from this comfortable position. Very carefully, so as not to wake up my still fast asleep friend, I lifted his hand off me and worked my way into an upright position. I looked around in the room and noticed that now all children were asleep, only Arko had noticed my movements and looked at me with his large brown eyes. I realized that he might need a bathroom break, too.

So I got up, and before I went to the bathroom myself, I first went to the door of the cabin and opened it a little. When the dog noticed this, he jumped off the couch in one big leap and dashed outside.

I closed the door again so that not too much heat could escape, and quickly did my own business in the bathroom. Arriving back at the cabin door, Arko was already waiting for me, tail wagging, to be let in, so I took him in with the bath towel at the ready. Fortunately this was done quickly, he hadn’t been able to catch much snow in the short time he was outside, although it seemed to be snowing quite heavily again now.

The cabin really offered a beautiful, peaceful view. If only it would stay like this for the next few days, but I could probably forget about that. I briefly considered whether I should lie down again, but then decided against it. I was in the mood for something to drink, so I put on water for a tea.

As I was working at the kitchen counter, I didn’t notice anyone joining me, so I was a bit startled when I was suddenly approached from the side.

“Are you making tea? Can I have one too?”

“Gee, Jasmin, do you have to scare me like that!”

“Sorry, it’s all so quiet and peaceful here, I didn’t want to announce myself by waking everyone up.”

I guess she also wanted to preserve this state of peace as long as possible.

“Sure you can get some tea. Did you catch some sleep?”

“Yes, it was wonderful, just what I needed. But now I’m awake and fit again.”

“I should hope so, we still have a few hours to get through until the kiddies are all in bed.”

Jasmin looked around the room.

“I don’t think they’ll need much more attention today. They’ll be ready for the sleeping bags after dinner, despite the nap now.”

That would be very nice, but I didn’t really dare to hope for it yet.

“This is Christmas tea, would you like some lemon or sugar?”

“No, thanks, I’ll drink it pure.”

“Whatever you say.”

I slid Jasmin her glass across the counter and scooped two spoonfuls of sugar into my own glass, followed by a squeeze of lemon, then walked around the counter and sat on the bar stool next to her. Silently we busied ourselves with our drinks, which were still so hot that we could only drink with mini sips.

“Fabian?”

“Yes?”

“Be honest, please: is there something going on between my brother and you?”

What a loaded question.

“I hope so, Jasmin. Right from the first moment I thought: wow! What a guy! And in the last few hours of getting to know him a little, I’ve noticed that he doesn’t just have a hot body. Honestly, I have a crush on him, and it’s pretty intense. And I really hope that something will come from it.”

She took a deep breath in and out.

“That’s what I was afraid of.”

“Afraid?”

I looked at her questioningly.

“Well, it’s just all happening really fast with you guys, isn’t it? I mean, I’ve been watching Jonas for the last few hours too, and he’s at least as smitten with you as you are with him. Even if maybe you haven’t told it each other that clearly yet.”

Thoughtfully, I eyed the little sister, who didn’t seem much like a little sister at all.

“We’ve started telling each other that. Earlier in the bedroom, we decided that we wanted to get to know each other better. Much better, if possible.”

“So you’re together now.”

I thought back to how good and right it felt in Jonas’s arms, how the touch of his hands had electrified me and his brief kiss on the cheek had nearly catapulted me through the ceiling. I was just setting to answer her question in the affirmative when I was relieved of that task.

“Yes, sis, we are. Although I still have to teach my Faby not to just sneak away from my arms.”

Jonas bent down between us, and I got the second kiss of my life. Well, except for those of my parents when I was a little kid, but they don’t count in this anyway.

Jasmin giggled softly to herself.

“Ha, young love… Just be glad Patrick didn’t see that, he’d be jumping in a triangle again.”

“You know what, Jasmin? I couldn’t care less about Patrick, if he doesn’t like the fact that I love your brother, then he can jump off the edge of the carpet!”

“That’s the spirit, Fabian! Okay, you two, I wish you good luck together, I’m really happy for you that you found each other.”

Even more so under such conditions, fate must have been working overtime to bring us together right here in this wilderness.

“Do you have a glass of tea for me too, dear? Otherwise, I’m afraid I’d have to drink yours…”

“Ha! I may be skinny and weak, but when it comes to grub, I’ll defend it with any means at my disposal.”

“Jasmin, isn’t he cute, my little boy?”

“That’s right, bro, he is.”

Hmph. So I was his little boy. Well, well, that came purely from him being slightly taller. And even slightly older! Oh dear…

“It’s okay, I’ll make you your own glass of tea. Sit down.”

Jonas took a seat on the third bar stool, and I poured him a glass of tea. Fortunately, I had prepared some more of it right away. Once he was served, I sat back down with the two siblings.

“Have you thought about what else you want to do today?”

“No, Jonas, but at least we have already determined that not much more is going to happen. It’s almost six now, we’ll make dinner later and feed the wild anima…kids, and then we’ll see. It’s not going to be a long evening tonight, that’s for sure.”

“That’s good. I’m not quite as tired now as I was earlier, but I’d still like to get to bed as early as possible tonight.”

Together with me. PLEASE!

“Okay, then I suggest that we start with the dinner preparations.”

“What if the kids wake up from the noise, Jasmin?”

“We’ll have to wake them up soon anyway.”

Agreed again.

“Well, let’s go…”

Reiko

I love being kissed awake! Really, there’s hardly anything better, is there? That could only be Jasmin, otherwise there was no one else here with us who would do that.

But wait a minute. Something was wrong here! That didn’t really feel like a kiss anymore! I tore open my eyes, just in time to see how a long dog’s tongue started to lick across my face! Startled, I jerked back.

“Arko, off!”

“Woof!”

A happy laugh rang out from the direction of the bedroom door, through which the only light fell into the bedroom.

“Jasmin!”

“We came to wake you up, dinner will be ready soon.”

I looked at the clock, almost six thirty.

“You were smiling so blissfully in your sleep when Arko started slobbering all over you. What were you dreaming about then? Me?”

“Um… Yes, you… What made you think that?”

“Awww how sweet. Now get your butt out of bed, you still have to feed your dog.”

I really should do that before he started begging all around the kids. That they could resist his brown eyes, I dared to doubt.

“Okay, I’m coming.”

“Good, but you better really do! If I have to come back again to wake you up, it’s not going to be such a wet and happy event.”

I wondered if Jasmin had been a drill sergeant in a previous life. In any case, she had the correct command tone. She disappeared out of the doorway, and Arko dashed out as well. Abandoned by my own dog, seriously!

I got up and followed them into the living room, where the table was already set for dinner. The children were in various stages of waking up, accompanied by the soft Christmas music from the radio. In addition to the fire in the fireplace, electric lights now illuminated the room.

“Good evening, sir. Back among the living, too?”

I yawned heartily.

“Yes, Faby. Someone has to feed Arko.”

When the dog heard his name, he immediately stood beside me and looked up at me, tail wagging.

“Yeah yeah, you mutt, you’re about to get some food! Fabian, where do you have the can opener?”

He handed it to me, and I filled Arko’s food bowl. Filling the bowl didn’t take long, but I knew it would take Arko not even half the time to get it empty again. In fact, he ravenously pounced on his food after I put it with his water bowl. Ah yes. Being a dog definitely had its advantages. You get your food put in front of you, you get petted and cuddled by everyone, someone else even pays the taxes for you!

“Come on, Reiko, we can get started too.”

Dinner went peacefully and very quietly, some of the kids were still so tired that they almost fell asleep while eating. They probably wouldn’t last long tonight. Which was just fine with me.

“Listen up, everyone, please. When we’re done eating, we need to split up a bit. A few of you please help clear away and wash up. The first one is getting in the shower, you know we have to heat up some water in between, so it’s going to take us all a while to get through it.”

I hadn’t even thought of that. Nine people showering one after the other? Now that could be fun!

“Whoever’s finished showering then puts on their nightwear right away, it’s not worth slipping into the day’s clothes again.”

Strangely, there was no grumbling about it at all.

“Reiko, could you go with Jasmin to get the sleeping bags from the storage room?”

I looked at Jasmin, who was back at the dining table with the kids. She nodded at me.

“No problem.”

“Good. Are you all fed now? Great, let’s do it!”

“Just a minute!”

“Yes, Jasmin?”

“The shower stall is pretty big, so actually two of the kids could shower together. That would certainly be beneficial for water consumption, wouldn’t it?”

I thought that was a very good idea, and Fabian was probably also annoyed that he hadn’t thought of it himself.

“Yes, that would work out nicely! It would certainly save us half an hour to a whole hour, which would otherwise be spent on waiting for warm water in between.”

“Good, then that’s settled, too. Manuela and Ricarda, you go first, please. But really just wash and rinse quickly, don’t dawdle, please remember that the next ones are already waiting.”

The two girls nodded and disappeared to get their washing and sleeping things. Fabian called after them that there were towels in the bathroom closet.

“Okay, Reiko, let’s go, the sleeping bags will not come out of the storage room by themselves!”

Like I said, drill sergeant! I followed Jasmin into the storage room, where we pulled out four sleeping bags from a shelf.

“We should take a look at them right here to make sure they’re okay. Not that we’re bringing them into the living room for nothing.”

We rolled up the sleeping bags and inspected them. One actually had a broken zipper, but luckily there was another intact one on the shelf.

“Oh, by the way, Reiko?”

“Yes?”

“Jonas and Fabian are together now.”

Ha! So Flirtking Fabian had struck. Although. When I looked at him, he seemed to be rather tame and shy in the presence of Jonas.

“How do you know?”

“I asked them, and they admitted it.”

“So, what do you think of it?”

“What am I supposed to think about it? I’m happy for my brother, and I hope it’s going to be something real and permanent with the two of them.”

I would be happy for Fabian, too. But it wouldn’t be easy, after all – if I was to believe him, and I actually did – it was his very first relationship ever. Hashtag first relationship…

“Has Jonas had a boyfriend before?”

“Yes, there were two boys at home in the last few years, with whom he was together for a while. Not at the same time, one after the other! Why do you ask?”

“Because it’s Fabian’s first time.”

Jasmin’s head, which had just been bent over one of the sleeping bags, jerked upward. Incredulous, she looked at me.

“Seriously?”

“Yes. I found it hard to believe at first, too, but it’s true.”

“Well, I’m flabbergasted! I wouldn’t have expected that, given his looks. Plus, he’s so nice and friendly.”

“Well… You know what I noticed about him?”

“No, shoot.”

“Since meeting Jonas, his behavior has changed quite a bit.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, usually Fabian flirts with anything that has some facial hair and is between 15 and 25 years old. You know, like little quips and double entendres in conversation and stuff. Towards Jonas, on the other hand: nothing like that is happening.”

Thoughtfully, Jasmin looked at me.

“And what do you conclude from that?”

Well, that was an interesting question. How should I evaluate this change?

“I don’t really know. How about a kind of reverse conclusion? Up to now, he’s been flirting around all the time, has been very offensive, but it’s never really been serious. Towards Jonas all these superficial shenanigans are missing, maybe that’s a sign that Fabian is really serious about him?”

“Hmm… That would be an explanation, of course. And now that you mention it, I notice a change in Jonas, too. He’s usually more the one who waits for the other to make the first move. But when I look at the two of them together, it looks like my dear brother is taking the initiative this time.”

Kind of funny. The two meet, and promptly a total transformation happens to them.

“What about those relationships your brother had before?”

I guess I should still find out. Not that I would have to protect Fabian from Jonas in the end! Even if it didn’t seem like it at the moment, I wanted to make sure my best friend didn’t get hurt.

Jasmin pondered.

“Good question. I can only go by what I’ve witnessed myself, but I’d say it wasn’t the great love both times. I mean, it wasn’t like they were constantly squatting together and couldn’t live without the other, sometimes they didn’t see each other for days or even weeks.”

“How did the relationships fall apart?”

“Well the one boy, Martin, moved to Hamburg with his parents. Jonas was a little depressed for a while, but not really for long. Well, he was 15 at the time. Then it was quiet on the relationship front for a while, until Jan came along. And then that ended with the big family fight because our parents found out.”

“Was it very bad?”

“Bad … I’m not sure if bad is a big enough word to describe it. It was a really nasty situation, too. Our dad had come home from work early and surprised the two of them in the middle of having sex. There was a huge ruckus that ended with Jonas getting kicked out on his 18th birthday and staying with a school friend for the remaining months until he graduated high school.”

“And Jan? Is that why things fell apart?”

“Yes, our parents were blabbing all over the place about what a pervert their former son was. They didn’t know Jan, so they couldn’t out him, but the poor guy couldn’t handle all the pressure. Everyone now knew that my brother was gay, so of course Jan couldn’t be seen with him anymore without giving himself away. So the two of them broke up.”

“Poor Jonas. First his own parents disown him, and then the relationship falls apart because of it.”

“Well, the relationship ending didn’t hit him that hard. He told me later that the sex had been cool, but otherwise they didn’t have much in common.”

Ouch, gay sex, I really didn’t want to think about that.

“And you think it could be different with Fabian?”

“Well, it looks like it to me, Jonas has never looked at Martin or Jan in such an amorous and dreamy way. At least not in my presence.”

“That means you knew your brother was gay before your parents found out?”

“Yes, when the thing with Martin was going on, I saw them making out once, so I asked Jonas about it later. He confessed it to me, and that was it.”

Hm, Jonas probably had practice in letting other people catch him exchanging intimacies.

“Hey you two, are you coming back soon, or are you going to try out the sleeping bags together right away?”

Great, that was Fabian as I knew him – and how he did NOT behave towards Jonas! With a cheeky grin, he pulled his head back out of the door of the storage room and left us alone again.

“He’s right, we should get a move on.”

So we grabbed the sleeping bags and took them into the living room, where we found an orderly mess.

Fabian

Well what did you expect me to think, when Reiko and a girl stayed together in one room for such a long time, hehe. I mean, we are talking about Reiko Heilmann here, THE girl crush of the area par excellence! But when I looked into the storage room, although they made kind of a “Shit we got caught!” impression on me, they were fully dressed and also standing two meters apart. Very funny.

When I returned to the living room, Jonas looked at me questioningly.

“Well?”

I shrugged my shoulders. Something had probably gone on between the two of them, but what, I couldn’t say yet. At that moment, Reiko and Jasmin appeared with the sleeping bags.

“Here we are, we already checked whether the sleeping bags are okay to be used.”

Jonas grinned challengingly at his sister.

“Oh yeah, did you?”

The answer consisted of Jasmin sticking her tongue out at him.

“Now, now, Ms. Future Teacher! What kind of exemplary behavior is that!”

“Fabian, shut up when I’m dealing with my brother.”

“Don’t be so rude to my sweetheart, sis!”

During this banter, everyone grinned, thus it was clear that it was not meant seriously. However, the good mood was immediately cooled down a bit.

“Shit, you’re annoying!”

Annoying was actually only one, and that was Patrick himself.

“Patrick, you’re annoying here! Leave them alone!”

All eyes turned to Felix in surprise. Probably no one had expected a comment from this corner.

“Doesn’t it bother you at all that these two faggots are fooling around here?”

“Why should it bother me? Just leave them alone!”

In the meantime, the two girls had also returned from the shower.

“Or are you jealous?”

Patrick turned bright red, then stormed off in a huff.

“I’m going to take a shower!”

Well, I definitely wouldn’t stop him, although there certainly wasn’t enough hot water available at the moment. Maybe a cold shower would do him some good.

“What an asshole.”

As a responsible adult, I refrained from agreeing with Felix on this point. Meaning that I didn’t voice my agreement out loud!

Over the next few minutes, we moved the furniture around a bit so that there was a nice big space in front of the fireplace for the sleeping bags. Ricarda and Manuela tried it out right away.

“And, are you lying well? Think you can sleep like that?”

The two snuggled into their sleeping bags.

“Yes, great!”

Well then, that settled the issue, one less worry.

“Can we watch TV now?”

That’s right, I had completely forgotten about that thing! Where had it gone, anyway? I looked around.

“If you’re looking for the tv, it’s here.”

Reiko lifted the device from the floor and placed it at the wall end of the bar counter.

“Do we have a free outlet around here somewhere, Faby?”

I walked over to Reiko and showed him where to plug in the TV. Now we just had to connect the antenna, and we were ready to go. It was a device with a built-in DVB-T2 tuner, brand new on the market.

“I can’t wait to see if the little antenna will really be enough out here.”

Our small town was in the core area, where a piece of wire was almost enough as an antenna. But how would that look out here in the woods? There was no other way to find out than to just try. Reiko pressed the power button, and we stared intently at the monitor.

“Here we go! Looks good!”

Sure enough, we had a perfectly clear, interference-free picture. The news was on, appropriately enough, about the onset of winter, which seemed to have a firm grip on more than just our area. White Christmas seemed to be the order of the day for almost all of Germany this year. Now that was something!

“Is there anything left to do now?”

Jasmin’s question prompted me to look around the cabin. The dishes were washed, the place to sleep was set up, the last two kids were waiting for their turn to jump in the shower. Right now it looked like everything we had to do was actually done.

“No, Jasmin, closing time. Make yourself comfortable.”

So she did, together with Reiko she took the two-seater. I, of course, sat down with Jonas, who had already settled on the couch. Together we continued to watch the news, interrupted only by Patrick, who emerged from the bathroom cursing, grumbling something about “ice-cold water” and took off to bed. Well, at least we were spared him for the rest of the evening!

“Should Felix and I go take a shower now, Jasmin?”

“I don’t know, Chris, I think the water needs to heat up again first. Fabian?”

“Right. Better wait another twenty minutes. Then the water will still be not quite hot, but just right for a nice shower.”

“Okay!”

I snuggled up to Jonas and dozed off. Felix had conquered the remote control and was zapping between the channels, Reiko was reading in his book, Jasmin also seemed to be almost asleep again. Christoph had joined the two girls in their sleeping bags, and they were playing a game of Ludo in front of the flickering fireplace. With this peaceful picture, it was almost impossible not to get into the Christmas spirit….

“The twenty minutes are over, you can now take your shower, boys.”

I startled, indeed, the hands of the clock had moved quite a bit further. Chris and Felix stood up, and Reiko stood up too.

“I’m going to take Arko for another little spin.”

I wonder if that was such a good idea.

“You want to take him for a real walk? Not just let him out the door for a little while?”

“Don’t worry, I won’t go far, I’ll stay on the path and within sight of the cabin. With the windows brightly lit, I can always find my way back.”

Well hopefully, I wasn’t in the mood for a night search!

“Can I come?”

“Me too!”

Bummer. The two boys apparently still had enough energy for a little trip in the snow.

“You guys are supposed to be showering now.”

Jasmin, the voice of reason.

“We can do that later, someone else can use the warm water now!”

“Oh yes, please, Jasmin! Fabian!”

I sighed.

“Jonas, what do you think? You’re officially in charge of the kids after all.”

He probably wasn’t really comfortable with that decision either, but still he relented.

“Reiko, would you take them with you?”

Reiko looked sternly down at Christoph and Felix.

“Alright, but then you have to promise me that you will always stay with me and not run off into the darkness somewhere.”

The two promised that, so Jonas resignedly gave his okay too.

“Let’s go then, put on your snow clothes. Don’t forget hats, scarves and gloves!”

“Great!”

With cheers, the boys rushed off towards the storage room, followed by a grinning Reiko, who had to get dressed, too.

“And which one of us is going to take a shower now? We should take advantage of the warm water.”

Jasmin grinned cheekily and challengingly at us.

“It’s quite simple, if the one pair of boys isn’t available, then the other pair goes!”

“You mean Fabian and me? Together?”

“Of course! We have to save hot water, don’t we?”

Jonas and I together in the shower. Naked. What an idea! But was that really a good idea? Today already? Fortunately, my beloved probably had very similar thoughts.

“Nah, sis, let’s not overdo it for once. We prefer to shower one after the other. If Fabian has nothing against it, I will now quickly go through the bathroom, I will only use a little water, so he does not need to wait too long.”

I fell a stone fall from my heart, because showering together would have been a little too fast for me. Even though I could hardly wait to see Jonas in full, naked beauty.

“Coward!”

“Oh yeah? Are you going to shower together with Reiko later?”

That seemed to hit on spot, Jasmin cringed a little and then squeezed out a “No comment!” between her lips. Beaten at her own game.

While Jonas retreated, got his wash and sleep stuff and then disappeared into the bathroom, our three dog handlers emerged fully dressed from the storage room.

“Well, we’ll be on our way. We’ll take two flashlights with us, is that okay, Fabian?”

“Yeah sure, good idea. When will you be back?”

“It won’t take us longer than fifteen minutes.”

I quickly looked at the clock to get an orientation when we could expect them back.

“Okay, but please stick to it, not that we’ll start worrying.”

“Will do. Okay, Arko, let’s go!”

The magic word did not miss its effect, the dog dashed with sliding paws across the wooden floor to the cabin door, which Reiko had opened wide for him. Shortly thereafter I was alone with Jasmin and the two little girls. At that moment, the cell phone rang.

“Roecker.”

“Borken here, good evening. Could I speak to my daughter, please?”

Borken? Daughter? Oh. I remembered that was the last name of Jonas and Jasmin.

“One moment, please.”

I put my thumb on the microphone opening and held the phone out to Jasmin.

“Your dad!”

Surprised, she took the phone.

“Yes?”

I didn’t hear the retort, of course; I didn’t want to be rude and eavesdrop anyway.

“Fabian?”

I looked up.

“I’m going to take the phone into the bedroom for a minute, is that okay?”

I nodded at her. Understandable that she wanted to talk undisturbed in the light of these complicated family conditions.

Now shamefully abandoned by everyone, I grabbed the remote and flipped through the TV channels for a bit. Although I found nothing that really interested me in any way, at least the time passed this way.

A few minutes later, Jonas and the pack of dog walkers reappeared at practically the same time, and gone was my peace.

“Faby, you can take a shower now, there should still be warm water for you.”

I hoped so. I really didn’t want another debacle like the night before. I rose to follow his suggestion.

“Where is my sister, anyway?”

Should I tell him? But I didn’t want to lie to Jonas.

“In the bedroom, on the phone with your parents.”

Jonas contorted his face painfully, but said nothing more about it, instead sitting down where I had just gotten up from. I decided not to expand the subject and made off in the direction of the bathroom.

With the heater and all the warm water that had flowed in the last hour, the bathroom was at a very comfortable temperature, so I peeled right out of my clothes. Should I shower right away or brush my teeth first? I decided on the latter, that way the water heater could do its job a little longer.

When I got under the water shortly afterwards, it actually had a quite pleasant temperature. I hurried up with the washing and did without washing my hair again. Well, tomorrow we could shower distributed over the whole day and less rushed.

I got out of the shower stall and noticed only in this moment that I had completely forgotten to take my pajamas with me into the bathroom. Somehow my mind seemed to be busy doing other things than thinking rationally. Since I had no desire to put on my underwear again, I simply wrapped a large shower towel around my waist, which had to be enough for the way to the bedroom. I quickly put on my anti-slip socks again, and I was ready to go.

In the living room, Jonas’ jaw dropped when he saw me bare-chested, but I just grinned at him and continued on to the back rooms. Just as I was about to open the bedroom door, Jasmin did the same from the inside. She took a step back and looked me up and down.

“Are you trying to get my brother extra hot and bothered with you walking around like that?”

“Haha, I just forgot to take my pajamas into the bathroom with me. But it got his eyes open pretty good!”

“Well… You are a bit skinny, but that can be changed. Apart from that, you’re really cute, I can understand why he has a crush on you.”

I really didn’t think I was that great, but I certainly wouldn’t complain about the compliment.

“I’ll take the phone back up front, okay?”

“Yeah, just put it on the counter. I just have to remember to put it back on the charger overnight.”

“Okay.”

Jasmin disappeared toward the living room, and I hurried to get into my nice warm pajamas. It wasn’t that particularly warm in the bedroom, I was starting to get goosebumps on my torso, and the fine hairs on my arms were standing upright.

Reiko

While Fabian did his half naked performance, I was busy rubbing Arko dry while Chris and Felix took their snowsuits back to the storage room. I had to grin at the sight of Jonas’s derailed facial features. My God, he had really been hit hard! I wanted to tease him a bit about it, but Jasmin’s appearance put a stop to that plan.

“Jonas.”

It seemed as if she had spoken against a wall, her brother not responding and still looking ahead with a transfigured expression.

“Jonas!”

“Uh… What is it?”

Jasmin sat down next to him.

“I just got off the phone with mom and dad.”

Jonas made no comment at all.

“The hotel had informed them that we were missing.”

“And that should be of interest to me why?”

Jasmin sighed.

“Jonas, they were asking about you, too. If everything was all right with you.”

Doubting, Jonas looked at his sister.

“About me? You don’t believe that yourself.”

“Yes, I do, mom said they were very worried about both of us.”

Her brother’s reply sounded bitter.

“Allow me to laugh about that. After all, it would be the first time in almost two years that they showed any concern for me!”

“They did, though.”

“Well, that’s great, I’m glad. You told them I was okay?”

“Yes, I did.”

“Good, then the topic is closed.”

Jasmin seemed to want to say something else, but then refrained.

“Shall we go take a shower now?”

Chris and Felix had reappeared. I looked at the clock.

“Wait another ten minutes, Fabian is just out of the bathroom. But you can go ahead and get your washing and sleeping things.”

While the two of them were doing this, I had also finished with Arko.

“Be right back.”

Remembering the trouble I had had taking off my snowsuit last time, I preferred not to take it off in front of Jasmin this time either. I went into the bedroom where Fabian was in the process of pulling up his pajama pants. My entrance seemed to have startled him a bit, at least he couldn’t get the waistband up fast enough.

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to peel anything off you.”

“Oh, it’s just you…”

Just. How nice. Who had he been expecting?

“It’s just me? Who did you think it might be? Jonas? Well, wouldn’t be surprising. The way you hyped him up with the presentation of your naked skin…”

“Idiot. I just forgot to take my pajamas into the bathroom.”

“Excuses, nothing but excuses.”

“Oh, believe what you want!”

Hm, hopefully I hadn’t teased him too much.

“Sorry, Faby, I didn’t mean to tease you.”

Fabian sighed and sat down on the double bed.

“Reiko?”

“Yes?”

“I’ve got a crush. Head over heels. Up to my ears. Skin deep.”

I had noticed that, too. I carefully stripped off my overalls, this time managing to keep my long johns where they belonged.

“And? Is that bad? That’s more of a reason to celebrate, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, it is… It’s just… Well…”

“You’re nervous because it’s the first time, aren’t you?”

Fabian lay back on the bed and stared thoughtfully at the ceiling.

“Yes. I’m literally beside myself! My God, a thousand times I’ve imagined what it would be like to fall in love for the first time for real. I’ve thought about how I would act, what I could say, how I could express my feelings. And now it’s happened, and everything is totally different.”

Somehow that sounded very familiar, even though those feelings were no strangers to me for two or three years.

“Let me guess. You have a tingle in your stomach. You know exactly what you want to say, but you can’t get the words out. You want to take Jonas in your arms and not let go, but at the same time you don’t dare to touch him.”

Fabian raised his head and looked at me, puzzled.

“How do you know?”

“Because that’s how I felt with my first real love, Faby. First girlfriends or boyfriends are always special. No wonder you’re so rattled, it’s completely new territory for you.”

“So you think that’s normal?”

“Absolutely. These are all just signs that you’ve really hit it off. You’ve really fallen in love, you don’t just think he’s nice or cute, there’s a lot more to it than that, isn’t it?”

“Yes. I’ve found some guys nice or cute before, but I’ve never felt like this.”

“Well, there you have it. You’re in love, and that’s great, especially since your love is reciprocated. So enjoy it!”

Relieved, Fabian smiled at me.

“You really think so?”

“Sure. Now off to your sweetheart, don’t leave him alone for too long.”

He didn’t need to be told twice, and with that I was alone in the bedroom. My old best friend Fabian, freshly in love! And I was allowed to stand by him. Who would have thought that!

When I arrived back in the living room with my snowsuit in my hands, I just saw Chris and Felix disappear in the direction of the bathroom. Fabian and Jonas were sitting close together on the couch and were busy with themselves, Jasmin was standing at the kitchen counter drinking a glass of tea, and the two little girls in their sleeping bags seemed to be asleep already – although there was still some hustle and bustle around them. With them lay Arko, who only indicated by a soft tap with his tail that he had noticed my entry. I quickly took my snowsuit to the storage room to dry, then went to Jasmin at the counter.

“Would you like some tea too, Reiko?”

“No, thanks, I’ve had enough for today. I don’t feel like having to go out to the bathroom in the middle of the night.”

I heard a soft giggle from the direction of the couch.

“Yes, Faby? You were going to say something?”

“Nothing, nothing…”

“Come on, cough it up!”

“I just remembered the night after my seventh birthday again.”

I felt the blood rush to my head.

“Shhhh!”

“Hey, you wanted me to tell why I was giggling. Besides, you’re the one who reminded me of that old story yesterday in the first place.”

Hopefully Jasmin didn’t want to hear that old story!

“What are you talking about?”

Crap, probably would have been too much to expect that such a nosy female wouldn’t stick her nose into it. And Jonas had also perked up a bit and looked expectantly back and forth between Fabian and me.

“Go on, tell your girlfriend!”

Jasmin wasn’t my girlfriend at all, at least not yet, but oh well. I had to go through with it, so I told her how Fabian and Tom had tricked me. The following laughter was as expected: big.

“Hahaha, great! Maybe we should try it tonight and see if it still works on you!”

“Don’t you dare, Jasmin! Besides, I finally got revenge on Fabian yesterday after many years, and you certainly don’t want to experience such a punishment.”

“Revenge? Punishment? What have you done to my little boy!”

“You should ask him that yourself, Jonas.”

Jasmin’s brother turned his head to Fabian and looked at him questioningly. His head, however, had now turned a bright red himself, and he made no move to answer his friend.

“Go on, Faby, tell him! Or I will!”

“Okay, okay! Reiko put me over his knee yesterday and spanked me. There, satisfied?”

Again there was laughter, and I was glad not to be the target this time. Then Jonas looked at me sternly.

“Reiko, let’s get one thing straight! You will not touch Fabian again, do you understand?”

Oh, someone else in the Borken family must have been blessed with a fair amount of protective instinct.

“All right, I get it.”

“I hope so! If anyone is going to spank Fabian in the future, it’s going to be me!”

Fabian gawked at Jonas with wide-open eyes, while the rest of us laughed again.

“Haha, yes, Jonas, do that! Teach your little friend some manners!”

“That… you’re not serious now, are you, Jonas?”

The latter grinned cheekily at Fabian’s face.

“Who knows? You better not try to find out. No bowls of warm water at my bed, got it?”

Fabian hurried to signal his agreement, then he too joined in the general laughter.

“What’s going on here, why are you all laughing so much?”

“Nothing for little kids, Christoph. Are you ready for the sleeping bags?”

They were, and shortly thereafter Felix and Christoph were also tucked well and warmly into their sleeping bags.

Fabian looked around with relief.

“There, that takes care of all the kids, now we can go to bed soon, too.”

An idea came to me.

“You two can leave already, Jasmin and I will finish this, then we’ll join you.”

Fabian thought about it for a moment, then nodded in agreement.

“Okay. You don’t have to do anything more to the fireplace, you just have to turn off the generator at the very end. By the way, I programmed the timer so that it will turn on by itself tomorrow at seven. Then we’ll have hot water first thing in the morning.”

Now that was really a good idea! It wouldn’t have been so important if it was only the two of us, but now, with the house full, it looked quite different.

“Come on, Jonas, let’s get out of here.”

Shortly thereafter, besides the four kids, only Jasmin and I were left in the living room.

“Do you want to go take a shower now, Reiko, or should I go first?”

“You go first, I want to make a quick call to my house.”

“Okay, see you in a minute then.”

Jasmin disappeared into the bathroom, and suddenly Fabian was back in the room.

“Here, so you don’t have to walk around the cabin half naked like me.”

With a grin, he pressed my pajamas into my hand.

“Hehe, thanks.”

“No problem, I had to come out again anyway. I still have to hook up the phone to the charger.”

“Will that work if there’s no power overnight?”

“Yes, it charges pretty quickly. Now we’ll have power for a while, and when the generator comes on in the morning, it will keep charging.”

Well, if he thought that would be enough.

“I wanted to call my parents again, is that okay?”

“Sure, go ahead. Will you plug the phone into the charger when you are done?”

“Will do.”

“Thanks. So, I’m off again.”

With these words, Fabian took off again, and I reached for the cell phone.

“Heilmann.”

“Hello, Dad.”

“Reiko! I’m glad you called! How are you?”

“I’m fine, thanks, I’m just pretty tired.”

“I can imagine, we’ve heard what’s going on with you guys.”

That probably was the hottest topic in our area right now.

“Yeah, it’s pretty exhausting with all those kids at the cabin.”

“You guys can handle it. Mr. Roecker is very impressed with the way you and Fabian run the place.”

Now that’s what I liked to hear!

“We’ll manage, we don’t have any other choice anyway.”

“Good. Reiko… Nicole told us about the thing with Melanie. Your mother and I are really very sorry. We hope that you’re not too down about it.”

Crap. I hadn’t thought about the subject for many hours, now my dad, of all people, had to bring it up again.

“Yes, Dad. I’ll be fine. It had been cracking for quite a while anyway, even though I would have preferred to break up with her in a different way.”

“I’m sure you would. Tell me, René ran into me at the dentist today, and he had a really fat cheek. You wouldn’t happen to have anything to do with that, would you?”

“No comment!”

“Good, good, I don’t think I want to know anything more.”

And I didn’t want to tell him anything more about it either.

“Okay, dad, we should get to an end. Fabian’s cell phone has already been pretty strained today.”

“I can imagine that. What are you guys still doing today?”

“We’re all pretty tired, the kids are all already in bed or in their sleeping bags, and we’re about to disappear into the bedroom, too.”

“Good, your mom is in the tub right now, but she told me to give you her best. Will you call again tomorrow?”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

“Fine. Well then, good night, Reiko. And keep your chin up there.”

“Thanks, good night, Dad. And say hello to mom for me. And Nicole, too.”

“I will. Bye!”

With that, the conversation ended, I switched off the cell phone and hooked it up to the charger. It would probably take Jasmin a while in the shower, so I sat down in one of the armchairs and read a bit more in my book. The TV had long since been turned off, which was a miracle in itself considering the large number of children and teenagers present.

I was so engrossed in reading that I didn’t even notice Jasmin returning from the bathroom.

“You can take a shower now, Reiko.”

“Did you leave some hot water for me?”

“If you hurry a little, it should be enough.”

Hm, I hoped she was right.

“Are you going to the bedroom already?”

“No, I’ll wait for you here.”

I made my way to the bathroom, where I finished showering just in time as the water started to get uncomfortably cold. Quickly I used the ceramic throne, brushed my teeth, put on my pajamas, and I was ready for the night. Leaving the bathroom I joined Jasmin in the living room.

“There, all done. Now let’s batten down the hatches here, and then we can hit the hay.”

Jasmin rose from her chair.

“Will you show me the generator?”

“Sure.”

I led her into the generator room, where she immediately covered her ears. I quickly pressed the off switch, and the whine died away.

“I didn’t think that thing was that loud!”

“Well, it’s got a lot of power to deliver. Okay, shall we go?”

Back in the living room, we took another look at the four kids in the sleeping bags, who were all sound asleep by now. Arko looked at us and started to get up.

“Stay down, Arko, you sleep here.”

He must have understood my whispered words, he settled back down and curled up between the sleeping kids.

“Will you take the flashlight, Jasmin? It’s pretty dark in here without electricity.”

She reached for the flashlight and flicked it on, and in its cone of light we made our way to the bedroom. Jasmin, however, stopped at the door of the smaller bedroom.

“What are you doing there?”

“I want to see if Patrick is asleep.”

“What do you care about the terror gnome?”

“Shhh.”

Quietly, she opened the door to the room. In the light of the petroleum lamp on the night stand, we saw Patrick lying peacefully in bed, asleep. Jasmin pressed the flashlight into my hand.

“Hold this.”

She walked into the room, neatly covered Patrick, who had kicked off his comforter a bit, then extinguished the petroleum lamp and left the room again, quietly pulling the door shut behind her.

“He didn’t deserve that at all, Jasmin.”

“True enough. But who knows what the reason for his stupid behavior is. And we can’t just let him freeze to death because of it, can we?”

“You’re right. Come on, let’s get to bed too.”

When we stepped into the master bedroom, it was also lit by a petroleum lamp. Fabian and Jonas were lying in the double bed, cuddled up close to each other, not making a sound.

“I would have been very surprised if those two hadn’t hogged the double bed.”

“Let them. I’m happy for my brother that he found someone. And that looks cute, the two of them lying there like that, doesn’t it?”

I nodded in affirmation. I had to admit, the idea of two men lying in bed together had always made me shiver before, but what I saw in front of me now looked so normal, so natural, that at that moment my opinion on the subject turned 180 degrees.

“Too bad I don’t have a camera here.”

Hehe, that would really be a picture worth capturing for posterity. But it wasn’t to be.

“Off to bed, Jasmin. I’ll turn off the petroleum lamp, then I’ll lie down too.”

“Okay, I’ll hold the flashlight for you.”

That was a good idea, because from the night stand with the petroleum lamp to my bed it was quite a long way, I had to go around the whole double bed with the sleeping lovers. With the help of Jasmin’s luminosity I managed it without any accidents, and shortly after that I was in bed.

“Good night, Jasmin. Sweet dreams.”

“You too, Reiko, good night.”

Jasmin turned off the flashlight and it got really dark in the room. It had snowed pretty heavily during our dog walk, neither the moon nor the stars had been visible in the sky, and it was correspondingly dark outside.

What a crazy day that had been. And I had thought that yesterday with all its disasters and surprises could not be topped! Well, one thing was clear: the next few days would probably not be boring either. Rather the opposite! Today the kids had been tired, but tomorrow they would be overflowing with zest for action, and we would have our hands full with keeping them reasonably busy. What the hell was there to do with five kids here?

With these profound considerations I fell asleep at some point, without having found a solution…

Fabian

When I woke up and carefully opened my left eye, I was rewarded with the most beautiful sight I could imagine. Right in front of me lay Jonas, his eyes closed, his face completely relaxed, a smile on his lips. We had changed positions during the night, he was now lying on his back, I on my stomach next to him, my head turned towards him. My left arm lay possessively over him. That’s mine, I’ll never give him back!

When we had come into the bedroom the night before, there was no question about where we would lie down. The double bed was ours, Jasmin and Reiko would have to live with the leftovers!

When we then lay close to each other, sleep overpowered us very quickly, we didn’t even realize how the other two had gotten into the room. With that it should be also clear that – although we lay together in the bed cuddled up closely to each other – except sleep nothing else happened.

It slowly became lighter in the room, and I used this to look at the face of the boy I had found with an outrageous load of luck. Quite smooth skin, a few cheeky beard fluffs, that was all. Apparently Jonas had shaved quickly the night before. A cute snub nose protruded from his face, above it two eyes with long, delicate eyebrows. Simply sweet.

I could not resist, my left hand wandered up Jonas’ upper arm. I stroked his cheek, then ran my fingers very gently through the tangled blond hair, at the base of which a millimeter in the brown natural color was already peeking out of the scalp. Tenderly I stroked the head. He didn’t seem to notice, at least nothing changed in his steady breaths.

“You should wake him up, even if it’s hard. It’s getting close to eight.”

Hmpf, how mean. Reiko could spoil the most beautiful morning.

“And Jasmin is already out too, at least her bed is empty.”

I sighed.

“Okay, if I absolutely have to…”

“Yes, you have to. I’ll go and shoo Arko out of the door.”

Reiko walked out of the bedroom, leaving me with the task of snatching my treasure from Morpheus’ arms. Well, it really shouldn’t be THAT hard for me.

The first thing I did was blow gently across his face, which didn’t show any results except for a little wrinkling of the nose. Okay, now with a little more effort! My head-petting hand now scurried a bit more vigorously through Jonas’ hair, but again: my darling did not wake up. What now?

Maybe I should become a little more courageous. I supported myself with my right arm and pushed my head over Jonas’. Very carefully I lowered my lips to his. Hopefully my courage would not fail me at the last moment! There it happened, our lips touched!

And I realized that I had been tricked again. Jonas’ eyes popped open, I suddenly felt his hands on my neck, and the gentle touch of our lips became much more from one second to the next. At first I was startled, but then I fully surrendered to the feelings of the moment, and it was even more beautiful than I had ever dreamed. After our lips had been pressed together for a few seconds, Jonas gave me a little space, and our faces separated by a few inches.

“Are you okay with this, Faby, or am I moving too fast?”

Yes, on the one hand, he was a little too stormy for me. On the other hand, though: I liked it. And I wanted more of it! So I refrained from a verbal answer and pressed my lips on his again.

That was probably for Jonas the sign that he did not need to hold back any longer, we fell fast into a wild smooching session. Although this was all completely new territory for me, I dare say that I was a good student! We rolled around each other in bed, hands were everywhere, we just could not keep them of each other, which of course had an effect on our whole body. And so it came, as it probably had to come: little Fabian began to stir, and also in the pants of Jonas it was slowly getting tight. Two souls were fighting in my chest, one wanted to go all the way – the other one was afraid of its own courage and wanted to take its time. The second one won…

Carefully, I pushed Jonas a little away from me.

“What wrong, Faby?”

A little worried, he looked down at me.

“I… It’s just… Jonas, if we go on now, I’ll have to wash my pajamas.”

Jonas grinned at me.

“Hehe… I know what you mean, feels the same to me. Should we stop instead?”

No, screamed the first soul, but by now I had cooled down a bit, and the voice of reason was able to prevail.

“It would probably be better. Besides…”

“Yes?”

“Besides, this is moving a little too fast for me. I mean, we’ve only known each other since yesterday.”

Hopefully he didn’t take offense. I realized that unlike me, he wasn’t a newbie to sex, so maybe he was disappointed that I wasn’t ready to go further.

“I love you Jonas, I want to try everything with you too, but please give me a little more time.”

Annoyed he didn’t seem to be, he kept smiling at me.

“Are you very angry with me?”

Astonishment showed on his face.

“Angry? Why?”

“Well… Because I don’t want to go any further yet.”

Jonas leaned down and gave me a gentle kiss on the forehead.

“Faby, I’m absolutely not angry with you, rather the opposite. You’re absolutely right, this is all happening a bit too fast.”

Relief flooded my body.

“Besides, I would never forgive myself if I pushed you into anything you weren’t ready for. So please promise me that if that happens, you’ll talk to me, tell me if I go too far or too fast, okay?”

At that moment, I immediately fell much more in love with him.

“Promise!”

“Great. So, what do you think, should we torture ourselves out of bed now? Not that the others will end up thinking we did exactly what we just decided not to do yet!”

Reiko might think that anyway, he was guaranteed to still have the idea of me as the great seducer and bed acrobat in the back of his mind. Still, Jonas was right, of course, we really should face the rigors of the day.

“If we have to…”

“We have to, unfortunately we are not alone here.”

Not alone was a huge understatement. I sighed.

“Alright, go ahead.”

Jonas looked at me questioningly.

“What do you want me to do?”

“Get off me, or how else am I supposed to get out of bed?”

“Oh. Right. Too bad. It was so cozy just now.”

Nonetheless, Jonas rolled off me, sat up on the edge of the bed, pulled on his slippers, and then stood up. I made no move to follow him, which of course he quickly noticed.

“What about you? Don’t you want to get up too?”

Want to? Nah, definitely not.

“I can’t get up, Jonas, I think I’ll have to lie down for a while after all.”

“Pfff, forget it! Don’t pretend to be tired.”

Such a killjoy. All right, but he should at least do something about it. I stretched out my right arm in his direction.

“Help me up, you big, strong man!”

Jonas shook his head with a grin, then grabbed my arm and pulled me out of bed. However, if I thought that the action was over now … Fiddlesticks! With his strong, tennis-trained arms, he just kept pulling, and the next moment I was lying over his right shoulder! Just above my rear end, Jonas’ right arm clasped me, his left gripped a little lower around my thighs, and all I could do was kicking my arms and legs.

“What are you doing?”

“Oh, I figured if you were going to be so lazy, I’d carry you all the way out to the living room right now, otherwise you’d take forever.”

“Come on, put me down!”

“Nope. Stop kicking, it won’t do you any good anyway!”

I’d noticed that too, his vise like arms were no match for me.

“Make it easier on both of us and lie nice and still! Or else…”

“Or else what?”

“Or else this!”

Jonas’s left hand let go briefly and landed with a hefty smack on my butt.

“Ouch! All right, all right!”

“Good. I’m glad Reiko pointed out to me how to get you under control.”

I would make sure that soon the wet bed of over ten years ago would seem like great fun to Reiko! At the moment, however, I had no more options for resisting the inevitable, so I kept quiet. After all, the way I was hanging over Jonas’ shoulder gave me a nice view of his shapely rear end. Not bad at all…

My weight didn’t seem to bother Jonas, he didn’t seem to feel it at all, briskly he walked to the room door, opened it, and then marched with me into the living room.

Reiko

I was awakened by the soft sound of a door being carefully pulled shut. Who was that sneaking in or out of our room? Blinking, I opened my eyes and looked around in the dim light of the approaching day. Of the two boys in the double bed, I could only see Fabian; Jonas was hidden from my gaze by him and the feather quilt piled high.

I let my eyes wander and discovered that the second single bed in the room was empty. It must have been Jasmin who had sneaked out and was responsible for my awakening. Was it already time to get up? I glanced at my watch.

Half past seven. Actually much too early to get up, but Arko would have to get out of the cabin for his morning duty, and also the kids would probably not sleep as long as we older ones would like to. Reluctantly, I pushed my comforter aside, sat up, and then rose after tucking my feet into my slippers.

As I stood I noticed that I was not the only one in the room who had stopped sleeping. Fabian was petting his sweetheart’s hair and was so engrossed in this activity that he hadn’t even noticed me getting up. Accordingly he was startled when I addressed him. He didn’t seem to be very enthusiastic about this disturbance and the prospect of having to get up soon, but I couldn’t take that into consideration. Besides, why should he be able to lie down comfortably when I had to get up?

I grabbed some fresh clothes and made my way to the living room, where there was already quite a commotion going on. Patrick was sitting in an armchair fully dressed, the other two boys were also already wearing day clothes and were in the process of rolling up their sleeping bags.

“Good morning.”

I got to hear the same thing, even Patrick managed to get his jaws apart for once.

“So where are the girls? And where’s Arko?”

“Ricarda and Manuela are in the bathroom with Jasmin, and we already let Arko out.”

Well, that sounded good.

“Has the dog been out long, Felix?”

“You’ll have to ask Patrick, we weren’t here when he let Arko out.”

I looked at our problem case.

“Five minutes or so.”

That should be enough for now, he would get to spend a lot more time outside later. I went to the door, opened it, and found that there had been quite a bit of fresh snow over night as well. Even now it was snowing away happily.

“Arko!”

“Woof!”

“Come on, get in here!”

In a cloud of swirling powder, the tailwagger came running up, and I just managed to fend off his attempt to jump on me, all wet and cold.

“Don’t you do that!”

I pulled Arko into the cabin by his collar and reached for his towel, sighing.

“Can I dry him off?”

Stunned, I looked at Patrick, I really didn’t expect such an offer from him. But if he asked like that…

“Sure. Here, give him a good rub down. Pay particular attention to the snow nodules on the paws.”

“Okay.”

Now that this task was assigned, I could turn my attention to other things.

“Chris, Felix, will you help me put the table and the other furniture back in place?”

Together we turned the substitute bedroom back into a living room.

“I guess you guys are through the bathroom already?”

“Yes, Felix and I woke up when the generator kicked in. We got up soon after that, too, thinking it would be good to be done already when the rush of the others started.”

“You’re two really smart guys.”

Pleased, the two boys smiled at me. What simple things were enough to please them.

A few minutes later, the girls also showed up ready for the day. After the greeting Jasmin made a short roll call.

“Only Jonas and Fabian are still missing. I wonder if they’re awake yet?”

“They are, when I got out Fabian already had his eyes open and I told him to wake up your brother and then come out with him.”

“Good, then hopefully they will show up here soon.”

I wasn’t that sure about that, but I banished my dirty thoughts to the rearmost corner of my brain real quick.

“I think I’ll take advantage of the empty bathroom now and get ready quickly.”

Before I could put this into action, however, I was distracted by another event.

“Now put me down already, you strong muscle man!”

Even as I turned around to see what Fabian probably meant, loud laughter already started around me. Which, however, was completely justified! The sight of my best friend, how he was carried into the room placed over his boyfriends shoulder with the legs first, was extremely funny! Not even Patrick could completely escape the humor of the moment.

“Bro… Bro… what are you doing with your sweetheart?”

“The little lazybones wouldn’t get up, so I just had to help him along a bit.”

That should finally make it clear who wore the pants in this relationship.

“Put me down, Jonas! Please!”

Fabian kicked his legs, which brought him a slap on the butt as his only success.

“I’ll put you down in a minute. Girls, could you please get off the couch?”

Ricarda and Manuela jumped up, Jonas approached the seating furniture from behind, then elegantly unloaded his load into the cushions over the backrest.

“There, little one, now you may lie down again!”

He didn’t lie comfortably, though, because immediately Arko jumped on top of him and started licking him across the face.

“Ew! Leave me alone, Arko!”

Resounding laughter filled the room, and after a few seconds Fabian himself now joined in – despite his bright red head.

“Jonas, you’re nuts!”

“True. But that’s why you love me so much, isn’t it?”

Fabian could only shake his head, laughing. For Patrick this probably was going too far again, the smile disappeared from his face, and he turned away from the two loverboys.

Slowly everyone calmed down again, and I disappeared into the bathroom, where I did the usual morning chores and changed clothes. When I came back out, the breakfast table was already set, the coffee maker was bubbling, and the smell of fresh baked goods was coming from the oven.

“Reiko, is there any hot water left?”

“Yes, Faby, no one has taken a shower.”

“Okay, then Jonas and I quickly dash through the bathroom. But please leave us some of the breakfast!”

“Whether you get anything depends entirely on you. So you’d better not mess around but hurry up!”

This blunt threat from Jasmin’s mouth drove the two of them out of the room, like lightning they disappeared in the direction of the bathroom.

“Reiko, don’t just stand there, pour the kids some cocoa.”

“Yes, Mrs. Sergeant Major!”

“Be glad I’ve got my hands full with other things, recruit, otherwise you might be in for a treat right now!”

I hurried to comply with Jasmin’s instructions and poured hot cocoa into the kid’s pots. When I got to Patrick, he looked at me pleadingly.

“Can I get coffee?”

I guess someone suddenly felt VERY grown up, and wanted nothing to do with a kid’s drink like cocoa. I looked over at Jasmin questioningly.

“Okay, he can have coffee, but with lots of milk.”

The teenager agreed to this compromise, so he got a half cup of coffee from me on my next round, which he filled up with milk himself.

A few minutes later, the steaming drinks had been joined by freshly baked baguettes, and just when there was nothing left to do, Fabian and Jonas showed up to sit at the table. Very clever!

In keeping with the age of the participants, the food provided was devoured at lightning speed until there was hardly a crumb to be seen anywhere. Then we came to the question that I had already racked my brains to answer.

“What are we going to do all day long today?”

If we didn’t come up with something clever to keep the kids busy, this could really be a DAMN long day!

“What does the weather say?”

“Same as yesterday morning, Fabian. Lots of fresh snow, and it’s still snowing.”

This caused great joy among the younger kids, only Patrick and us older folks seemed to get that this also meant we’d be stuck here longer.

“We could build snowmen!”

“Or an igloo! Or a snow castle!”

“Wait, wait, take it easy! It’s still nice and early, we don’t need to rush!”

Jasmin’s pedagogical streak showed up at just the right moment.

“I suggest we listen to the weather report on the radio first, and then we’ll see. We don’t have to go out right now.”

The weather report was a good idea, I got up and turned on the radio. It wasn’t long before the nine o’clock news began, at the end of which came the weather report, as usual.

“Snowfall will ease during the day and stop altogether by late afternoon. The snowfall area moves off to the west. At its rear, cold polar air will flow into the forecast area. Daytime temperatures will range from -6 to -4 degrees as winds ease, with severe frost to -10 degrees expected at night under clear skies.”

The snowfalls were moving off, so that was at least some good news!

“And here’s the three-day outlook: our area is increasingly coming under the influence of high pressure. Clear winter weather prevails, no further snow is to be expected for the time being. Strong winds will decrease, only in the mountain tops isolated squalls are still to be expected. Temperatures will reach only -10 to -8 degrees during the day, at night they will drop to -15 degrees, in isolated areas -20 degrees can be reached.”

Fortunately, we were sitting here in the warm and had thick clothes with us!

“Finally, a message from the German Weather Service: the storm warning for our area will be lifted today with effect from 6pm.”

That sounded pretty good, even though the traffic reports that followed the weather report still painted a disastrous picture of the road conditions.

“So, you heard it, it’s going to slowly stop snowing today. I would suggest that we keep ourselves busy in here in the morning, and in the afternoon we do something outside in the snow.”

The kids grumbled a bit, but then realized that they couldn’t spend the whole day outside anyway. So, after the table was cleared and the dishes washed, two rounds of games were formed. While the four youngest fought each other in Ludo, Jasmin, Jonas, Fabian and I played Monopoly. Patrick had decided he’d rather read a book and retired to his bedroom with some mystery novel. Arko had accompanied him, the two had probably made friends. Should I feel sorry for the dog?

Soon we were so engrossed in the game that we didn’t even notice how time passed. With the little ones, everyone seemed to win once in a while, with us, on the other hand, we fought long and doggedly, until Jonas got the upper hand in the end. No wonder, since the hotel trainee had strategically placed hotels around the playing field. He took us out like Christmas geese!

“Ha, I won! Well, how about it, another round?”

“Brother, look at the clock.”

Of course, Jonas wasn’t the only one to do so, Fabian’s and my eyes automatically wandered to the time indicator as well. It was already shortly before eleven!

“We should start thinking about what to serve for lunch today.”

And especially who would cook it.

“How about spaghetti and tomato sauce? Goes fast, is easy, fills you up.”

“Good idea, Jonas, you cook!”

Puzzled, the newly appointed chef stared at his sister; he probably hadn’t expected that. But he agreed, on the condition that Fabian would help him. And for that one, of course, a request from Jonas was tantamount to an order!

“Alright, we were the laziest ones this morning, so we’ll take over lunch. And what are you doing in the meantime?”

“We’ll take Arko for a spin, I’d say. Jasmin, you’re coming with us, right?”

“Yes, and the kids are all coming too.”

Enthusiastically the kids jumped up, I guess they really couldn’t wait to get out in the snow.

“Whatever you say. Let’s go then, get your snow gear and get dressed! Departure in ten minutes!”

The children dashed off, and Jasmin made her way to the storage room as well.

“Will you bring me my snowsuit, please, Jasmin? I’m going to get Arko and Patrick.”

“Will do, good luck with Patrick.”

I wondered if I would need that. Or if he was in a somewhat responsive phase again? There was only one way to find out, and I was treading that job now. I knocked on his room door and entered.

Patrick was lying backwards in bed, next to him was my dog, his muzzle on Patrick’s chest, letting the boy scratch him behind the ears. The two of them seemed to be getting along really well.

“What’s up?”

“We want to go for a walk with Arko. Are you coming?”

“Who’s we?”

“The little ones, Jasmin and I.”

“The fags aren’t coming?”

I sighed, but refrained from giving him an attitude adjustment, there was no time for that now.

“No, Fabian and Jonas aren’t coming, they’re taking care of lunch.”

“All right, I’ll come along. I just need to grab my jacket and boots real quick.”

As he moved to stand up, I saw a lot of bare skin under his jeans.

“First you’ll put on your long underwear, and then instead of jeans, your snow pants.”

“I won’t freeze!”

“Either that or you’ll stay here.”

For a moment it looked like he was about to make a scene, but then I guess the desire to romp through the snow with his new furry friend won out.

“Okay, okay, I’ll change! But you’ll have to wait for me!”

“Then make sure we don’t have to wait TOO long. Come on, Arko.”

I left Patrick’s room, and a few minutes later everyone was ready to leave.

Fabian

Cooking spaghetti with Jonas, well, it could have been worse. We would manage that. But for now we wanted to wait until the noisy mob disappeared in the snow. I snuggled up to Jonas, and we watched the goings-on together.

First the four little ones appeared, with their snowsuits in their hands, and dressed themselves chattering. Shortly after, Jasmin followed, already dressed, and pressed his snowsuit into the hand of Reiko, who had fetched Arko. At that moment, Patrick also shot up and dashed across the room to the storage room in his underwear. Reiko got into the snowsuit, then looked at me questioningly.

“Fabian, can I take the cell phone?”

I guess that was a sensible idea.

“Yes, take it with you. Oh, are you familiar with the GPS device?”

“Yes, at the Red Cross we also have one. It’s a different model, but I can manage.”

“Good, then take that along, too. Better safe than sorry.”

My father would tear me a new one up to the hairline if someone were to go missing again while under my care.

“Do you think that’s necessary?”

“I’d rather not take any chances.”

“Okay, whatever you say.”

Reiko retrieved the two devices and stowed them in the pockets of his snowsuit. Meanwhile, Patrick reappeared as well, and after everyone was done putting on their boots, one by one they disappeared out of the door, and an almost eerie silence returned to the cabin.

“Alone at last.”

I casted a challenging glance at my first ever boyfriend.

“Oh, do you have something planned for me that the others would have disturbed?”

“Yeah sure I do!”

Oh. Now I was getting excited!

“And what would that be?”

Jonas grinned at me.

“Cooking, what else?”

I sighed.

“Too bad…”

I pushed myself a little closer to him and was about to press my lips to his when the door opened again.

“We forgot to set a time to be back. Oops… Sorry…”

Reiko once again had the uncanny talent to barge into a room in the most unsuitable situation. Just like with that stupid bitch Melanie. Like two caught sinners, we looked at the door.

“Really? You’re supposed to be cooking, you don’t have time for these games!”

Jonas and I looked at each other briefly, then we both gave Reiko the finger salute. The latter, however, just laughed at that.

“Well, whatever. We’ll be back in an hour, and I’m sure we’ll all be VERY hungry by then. So do something for your money! Bye!”

Do something for our money? We got money for this? Well, we should talk about that again in more detail, that would be really nice. Anyway, Reiko now left us alone for good.

“Such a slave driver.”

“He matches your sister, she’s no better.”

“Hehe, have you noticed that, too? She sometimes has a real army barracks tone.”

Poor Reiko.

“Okay, how do we do this now?”

“There’s still plenty of time, we’ll get everything together first, then the cooking itself will go quickly.”

“Well, I’m relying on you, Jonas, I’m not much of a cook.”

“Don’t worry, you’ve got me for that now. Everyone I’ve cooked for so far has raved about my culinary delights.”

“Well, in that case, you’ll play the cook in our marriage.”

“I will if you do the cleaning, little housewife.”

Little housewife? Now that was going too far! I pinched him in the upper arm in a way that he actually felt it!

“Ouch, what did I do to you!”

“Don’t ever call me ’little housewife’ again, got it, big guy?”

Jonas rubbed the sore spot.

“Okay, okay, little one!”

He’ll better stick to that. I could live with “little one”, that actually sounded quite nice.

“Well, let’s go, let’s get the ingredients together, we wont need much.”

And we also had everything we would need available in sufficient quantity. For the next hour we could be seen turning the kitchen into a battlefield, especially since we couldn’t keep our hands off each other on top of all the work. Shortly before the expected return of the hungry gang, we had everything prepared, the dishes were on the table, cutlery was ready, the spaghetti were in a huge pan, in a pot the tomato sauce was simmering gently. Jonas was going to pour the latter over the noodles later and put the whole mixture back in the preheated oven for a few minutes with some cheese on top.

I looked at Jonas and had to laugh.

“What is it, Faby?”

“You have a big blob of tomato sauce on the tip of your nose!”

I had absolutely no idea how that got there.

Jonas rolled his eyes, but he still couldn’t really see the dilemma.

“Clean it up, please, I’m sure that looks totally stupid.”

“Yes, it does. Why don’t you look in a mirror?”

“Nah, I’ve got a better idea.”

A better idea? I had a premonition that this idea would be at my expense again, and that’s exactly how it turned out. Jonas grabbed the spoon he had just used to stir the tomato sauce and touched my nose with it. I had a pretty good idea what that looked like now.

“You’re right, Fabian, that does look stupid!”

Well thank you very much. At that moment, we heard noise outside the cabin, so I guess that meant the others were back from their walk.

“Come on, Jonas, to the bathroom, quick. We don’t want them to see us like this!”

My beloved was probably of the same opinion, so we dashed into the bathroom together, and when we entered the living room again a minute or two later, we looked presentable again.

In the meantime, the wild horde had invaded the cabin, and during the general removal of boots and snowsuits, they put on a truly hellish spectacle. The question of whether they had enjoyed the walk could probably be spared in view of the laughter and happy faces.

“Is there anything to eat soon? We’re absolutely famished!”

Jonas, who had meanwhile shoved the giant pan of noodles into the oven, reassured Reiko.

“Don’t worry, you don’t have to starve. Take off your snow clothes, go wash your hands and so on, then you can sit down already, it will only be a few more minutes.”

The prospect of food drove the Magnificent Seven to Olympic speed in undressing and washing their hands, and while I was still rubbing Arko dry, they took their places at the table one by one. Fortunately, the food was now actually ready quickly, otherwise they would probably have nibbled at each other from sheer hunger!

The movement in the snow and the cold winter air had provided for an enormous appetite, and the meal including the apple puree dessert was polished off within record time. By the way, it tasted really great, if Jonas always cooked like this, I would probably (if I lived with him) actually get a little more weight on my ribs. Though my mom had tried that for years in vain.

During lunch, the kids talked about the walk, how they had let Arko hunt for snowballs, how they had built a snowman, and much more. Unfortunately, they still seemed to have plenty of energy left and were already asking when they would be allowed out again.

“Now we’ll rest for an hour or two, then we can go out again and maybe really build a snow castle.”

Jasmin’s suggestion was generally met with cheers, and so it was a done deal. But how the hell do you actually build a snow castle?

Reiko

And someone says herding fleas was difficult! A whole bag of these beasts could not be more difficult to control than a handful of kids.

“You really want to study something in education, Jasmin?”

“Yeah, why?”

Wordlessly, I pointed to the kids who were throwing snowballs at each other, soaping each other up with snow, chasing the dog around, and generally making a huge hullabaloo.

“Hehe, let them be. The more energy they blow during the day now, the easier it’ll be for us to tuck them into bed or sleeping bags at night.”

Hmm. That was probably true. And when I looked at how the five of them were still romping around, even though we had already been out in the snow for almost a whole hour and were already approaching the cabin again, I realized that we still had a lot to do in the afternoon.

We had turned a comfortable round through the snowy winter forest. Okay, the “comfortable“ only referred to Jasmin and me! We had gotten used to walking through the deep snow, we could manage without snowshoes. But now we were really getting hungry, and I could only hope that Fabian and Jonas had actually used the time alone for cooking and not for any other things! In this respect I didn’t really trust the two of them.

But my worries turned out to be unfounded, when we entered the cabin, the table was already completely set, and as soon as we got rid of our warm clothes, we could start eating. As expected, it did not take long, and everything that the two master chefs had served had dissolved into nothing.

The question of how to continue the day was also quickly answered, so that after the meal some quiet returned. Jasmin and the girls took care of the dishes, the rest of us spread out on the couch, and only Patrick hurriedly disappeared into his room again. I could only wonder about him. Outside in the snow he had been almost as happy and wild as the others, had even participated in building snowmen – but in here he isolated himself again and sought the solitude of his single room. No idea how to figure this one out…

The walk seemed to have exerted me more than I had thought, I must have fallen asleep and was only woken up again by Jonas, who shook me lightly by the shoulder.

“Yes … yawn … what is it?”

“It’s almost two, break’s over!”

How mean. Just a moment ago I had been having such a nice dream. I had no idea what it was about, but I was sure it had been a nice dream. And what was it that was lying so heavily on top of me?

“You can wake up my sister, too.”

Jonas’ sister? I cautiously turned my head and realized that it was she who was half on top of me and asleep. So THIS was a burden I was happy to put up with, of course!

While Jonas was now moving away again, I gently stroked Jasmin’s face, which she answered first with a slight twitch, then with carefully opening eyes and a smile.

“What’s wrong, Reiko?”

“Nothing’s wrong, your brother just woke me up, he said it was time to get up again.”

“Oh. Yeah, I asked him to do that in case we fell asleep.”

“Why did you do that. Everything’s so nice and quiet right now.”

The four younger children all seemed to be asleep, Arko was dozing off, Fabian was browsing through a book, and Jonas was just getting something to drink.

“Shouldn’t we let them sleep while they’re so peaceful?”

“Nah, we better don’t! If we let them sleep now, we won’t get any peace at all in the gang tonight. No time to be tired for us. We’ll get dressed, then wake up the kids, and then we’ll go out in the snow again!”

All right. Better to do something now than to have to deal with a bunch of whining kids in the evening who all don’t want to go to bed.

We got up quietly, curiously eyed by Arko, who probably liked this whole adventure the most of all of us. So many people who played with him, cuddled him and showered him with attention he rarely experienced in one place!

We got dressed, woke up the kids one by one, and twenty minutes later the whole team was standing outside in the snow. Fabian had conjured up some snow shovels, and soon we were all busy building two snow castles at once! Why two? Quite simply, the little ones had decided that they wanted to have a competition for the best castle. So on one side the two girls worked, on the other the three boys. And since we “adults” couldn’t just stand around doing nothing, I joined the boys with Jasmin, while Fabian and Jonas helped the girls. In the ever decreasing snowfall, the walls of our castles climbed ceaselessly upwards….

“Jasmin? Why were you lying on top of me like that earlier?”

Not that I would complain, but I had not expected something like that.

Mischievously, she grinned at me.

“I needed a place to sleep, and you looked so inviting and cozy.”

Hehe, no one had ever called me cozy before.

“Why do you ask, did it make you uncomfortable?”

“No, it just surprised me a little.”

“Why does that surprise you? You’re such a snuggly guy.”

I had to listen twice. Was Jasmin flirting with me now? And did I actually want her to do that?

My train of thought on the subject was abruptly interrupted when a snowball nearly knocked my beanie off my head. While I was still looking around for the source of the projectile, more snowballs were already hailing down on our team. Someone had declared war on us!

Who this someone was did not remain hidden from us for long, the cheering of Manuela and Ricarda spoke volumes! But what they could do, we could do too, and shortly thereafter a real snowball fight was underway. Snow bullets whizzed through the air, those who got hit cursed, accurate shooters cheered, and in the middle of it all Arko raged through the snow barking and trying to intercept the flying snowballs.

The battle surged back and forth, and just as I was about to retaliate against Manuela for a hit, I noticed someone pulling me by the sleeve.

“Shhh. Reiko.”

I turned to Jasmin.

“Come on, let’s let the kids burn off some steam on their own.”

“We can’t leave our three boys here to their fate and enemy superiority!”

“Look over there.”

Jasmin directed my gaze away from the fighting, and lo and behold! Jonas and Fabian had moved away from the scene of war already and were leaning against a tree making out! Well, in that case we might as well retreat, too. I followed Jasmin towards the cabin, where I freed a log from the snow and sat on it. Invitingly, I pointed to my lap.

“Come, sit.”

Carefully, Jasmin settled on me, and my arms encircled her.

“Does this bother you?”

“What?”

“My arms.”

“Nah, leave them where they are, at least I won’t slide down.”

That, and ONLY that, had been my motivation for my arms around her. What? Unbelievable? Bah!

Silently we watched the kids in their snow war. Either they hadn’t noticed that we older ones had retreated, or they didn’t care. After a while Christoph and Felix started to storm the castle of the girls, Patrick didn’t seem to participate for the sake of fairness. While the fighting shifted to Manuela and Ricarda, Patrick knocked the snow off his clothes and slowly came strolling towards the cabin. Suddenly he stopped as if rooted to the spot, stared for a moment in the direction of the older boys still making out wildly, then stormed into the cabin, slamming the door behind him.

Jasmin gave a deep sigh.

“Not again! Just now I was going to say that the boy seems to be catching on, but I guess I rejoiced too soon. If only I knew what exactly is wrong with him!”

These words could have come from me as well, and to be honest: I was finally fed up with this guy!

“Jasmin, let me get up please.”

“What are you up to, Reiko?”

“I’m at the end of my patience, I’m going to get to the bottom of this now! And if I have to sit on him and starve him out: I’m going to find out why he’s making such a drama.”

Actually, I expected the budding educator to try to talk me out of this plan, but Jasmin stood up without a murmur.

“Maybe you’re right. Maybe a man-to-man talk would help, since he didn’t want to talk to me. Maybe you’ll manage to do what neither his parents nor I have managed so far.”

“I will do my best. And believe me, I can be VERY persuasive!”

“Good luck then, Reiko. It would be better for all of us if the matter was finally settled.”

With a determined stride, I followed Patrick into the cabin. The teenager was nowhere to be seen, only his boots were next to the door, so he had probably already adjourned to his room. I got rid of the warm clothes, then went into the lion’s den. Without knocking, I entered the small bedroom.

Sure enough, there was Patrick lying on the bed in full gear.

“Will you tell me what that was all about now?”

“Oh leave me alone!”

“No, I won’t! You won’t leave us alone with your mood swings and freak-outs either! I finally want to know what makes you tick off like that all the time!”

“You have to ask?”

Well, okay, one thing I already knew: the occasion was probably always situations in which he became aware of Fabian and Jonas being gay. But that was still no explanation for WHY he freaked out in those situations.

“Yeah, I have to ask. Does it really bother you that much that Fabian and Jonas are gay?”

So, I had said the g-word. Let’s see if maybe I finally managed to get to the real cause of the boys problem.

“Doesn’t that bother you?”

Ah. The first answer that didn’t consist of pure rejection.

“No. Why should it bother me?”

“Because… Because gay guys are always on the prowl for guys! They want to get into bed with everyone!”

Well, for a while I had believed that too, but I had been objective enough a few years ago to realize that this wasn’t the case.

“Oh nonsense. Gays are just like us, there are such and such. Some want to have sex all the time with every man that’s not up in a tree in time – the others want the man for life. Just like with straight men. With Jonas and Fabian you don’t have to worry at all that they want something from you, they are only busy with themselves anyway. You’ve seen that for yourself.”

“Nevertheless…”

“You really think all the gays would be after you?”

“They are just like Arne!”

Wait a minute. Now I had to be very careful. I was on to some hot thing, probably the reason for Patrick’s strange behavior. But I didn’t have a clue yet what I would discover. Some Arne was after him sexually? Who was this Arne? Was I possibly even stumbling upon a case of abuse here?

“Patrick, who is Arne?”

The boy was about to close himself off to me again, I couldn’t let that happen now!

“Did this Arne do something to you?”

“He kissed me!”

Patrick literally screamed it out. Okay, back to the other question.

“And who is Arne?”

The boy turned on his back, sat up and clutched his knees with his arms.

“Arne is… Arne WAS my best friend.”

His best friend? Well then, at least it couldn’t be some adult who had made a pass at him.

“I see, and this Arne kissed you. Did he do anything else?”

“No!”

Getting the truth out of Patrick was a slow crawl.

“And that’s why you’re freaking out? Just because he kissed you?”

“Yes! No!”

“Well, what now? Yes or no?”

“Yes, kind of.”

I sighed. Now here I stand, poor fool, and I’m as smart as I was before.

“Tell me the whole story from the beginning, so far I have no idea what really happened. So this Arne is … pardon: was … your best friend. And then what happened?”

“We were skating together. After a while we took a break and sat down on a bench. Suddenly he started saying that he had something important to tell me. I was his best friend and all. Well, and then he told me that he was gay!”

That seemed to have hit Patrick out of the blue.

“So what?”

“And then he confessed to me that he had fallen in love with me. With me! But I’m not gay!”

Well, this Arne wasn’t the first guy to fall in love with the wrong person.

“And then he kissed me. Just like that!”

“And what did you do?”

“I slapped him and ran away! I’m not a fag!”

Ohoh, a real teen drama unfolded before my eyes.

“Okay, I get that now, you’re not gay. Arne is, though, and it’s no more his fault than it is yours that you like girls.”

Annoyed, Patrick stared at the ceiling.

“Yeah, I know! Still!”

“When did this happen?”

“Two months ago.”

It had been that long?

“And what happened after that? Did you guys talk it out?”

“Nah. Arne tried to talk to me a couple of times, I guess he wanted to apologize, but I just can’t handle it!”

“You can’t handle what? The fact that he’s gay, or the fact that he fell in love with you?”

“Both. Well. Actually, mostly with the fact that he fell in love with me.”

“What exactly bothers you about that? Think of it as a compliment. I’m sure he’ll accept that you’re just not into guys and he doesn’t stand a chance with you.”

“Yeah, well… But… But I keep thinking… Well…”

Okay, he had to take that last step now.

“What do you keep thinking?”

“Well… I… I keep having this image in my head of him jerking off while thinking about me!”

I couldn’t help it, I had to laugh softly. Poor worried guy….

“And that would be so bad?”

“Yeah sure it would! That’s gross!”

Little kids – little worries. Big kids…

“Tell me, Patrick, do you have a girlfriend?”

“No, not yet.”

“But there must be a girl you like, right?”

Slightly bashful, he grinned at me.

“Yeah, there’s this one in my class…. Chiara.”

“You like her? You’d like to have her as girlfriend? Are you in love with her?”

“Yes.”

“Does she know that too?”

“I think so…”

“And how does she behave toward you? I mean, does she insult you? Does she make a fool of you? Does she find you disgusting?”

“Uh… No. Why would she?”

“Well, you insult Arne, find him disgusting…”

“But that’s totally different!”

“Is it? Now be honest: haven’t you ever thought about that Chiara when you’re jerking off?”

“No!”

“Patrick, please be honest!”

His head turned red, and he stared down at the bed.

“Okay, I admit it. But this is totally different.”

“Why? You’re in love with Chiara – Arne is in love with you. What’s the difference? Just because Arne is also a boy, it doesn’t make it gross or anything.”

Doubtingly, Patrick looked at me.

“Wouldn’t you mind if Fabian used you as a jerk-off template?”

Interesting question!

“Well…”

“See!”

“Let me finish! I admit it would seem weird to me at the first moment, but I guess I could handle it. Apart from that, I don’t think I’d have any chance of getting into Fabian’s mind again! He has Jonas for that now.”

Now Patrick smiled, too, and I could understand a little bit how this Arne could have a crush on him. He really was a cute boy.

“That’s right, those two are totally into each other.”

He could say that again.

“And you think I should just accept it with Arne?”

“He was your best friend, right?”

“Yes, he was…”

“Then the answer should be clear, shouldn’t it?”

“Yes, but what if he tries to kiss me again. Or tries something else!”

“Then you tell him that you’re sorry, that you do want him as a friend, but just as a normal friend, nothing more. He’ll just have to accept that. Even if it hurts him at first.”

Patrick thought hard for a while, then looked at me.

“I acted like an idiot, didn’t I?”

I had to grin.

“Do you want the honest answer or the nice one?”

“The honest one.”

“Okay. Yeah, you did.”

“Shit… I have some people to apologize to, I guess.”

“You should probably do that. To Arne. To your parents. To Jonas and Fabian.”

“All right, all right, I get it.”

This was too good to be true.

“Great. Now does that mean that for the rest of the time we’re stuck here together, we’re only going to have to deal with the nice, cheerful Patrick that sometimes flashed through the whole bad boy business?”

A sheepish smile played around Patrick’s lips.

“I’ll try. I promise, Reiko.”

“Good! Okay, I’m going to join the others again. Are you coming back out too?”

“No, I think I’ll stay here for a bit. I have some things to think about.”

“Do that, you should be quite busy doing that. But if you’re going to stay inside, get out of those warm clothes.”

“I will, Dad.”

“Now don’t get smart with me, little boy!”

I went to the door of the room, but was stopped again.

“Reiko?”

“Yes?”

“Could you tell Jonas and Fabian all this…”

Actually, he’d better do it himself, but I didn’t want to burden him even more. His confession to me was hard enough for him.

“Okay. But you’ll have to apologize yourself!”

“I will, I promise. And thank you, Reiko. For everything.”

“It’s okay, kiddo.”

As I left Patrick’s room and headed back out into the snow, I felt better than I had in a long time….

Fabian

The snowball fight was at its hottest when Jonas and I sort of ducked out the back door, leaving the playing field completely to the younger guys. We rather immersed ourselves in some … ahem … more adult games.

What can I say, it was heavenly. But it would have been even more heavenly if there hadn’t been such a stupid branch constantly pressing into my back. That was the reason why I reluctantly pushed Jonas away from me after a few minutes.

“Sorry, I can’t do it anymore.”

Cheekily, my beloved grinned at me.

“Did I wear you out like that?”

“Dream on, sweetie. I’ve got such a stupid branch in my back, it’s killing me.”

Jonas seemed a little disappointed!

“Alright, let’s go see what the others are doing.”

The others were still throwing snowballs at each other, but the boys were just about to storm the girls’ castle. Jasmin was sitting on a wooden peg next to the door of the cabin, and there was no sign of Reiko or Patrick. We wandered over to Jonas’ sister.

“Well, Jasmin, did you slip away too?”

“Yes, I did, brother dear. After you had deserted the fight so shamelessly, we couldn’t continue to participate, otherwise it would have been too unfair.”

They should be glad that we had given them a reason to break off the fight.

“Where did Reiko go?”

“He’s trying to squeeze out of Patrick what his problem is.”

Patrick? What was wrong with him now!

“What happened, sis?”

“You happened.”

Huh? What did she mean with that? How had we happened? Jasmin correctly interpreted the question marks on our faces.

“Patrick saw you guys kissing again and he freaked out. He ran into the cabin and slammed the door behind him – it’s a wonder you guys didn’t catch that. Although. Scratch that. A jet plane could probably have taken off next to you and you wouldn’t have noticed.”

Were we really that bad already?

“And Reiko went after him?”

“Yes, he must have finally run out of patience, he said that he would get to the bottom of it now, by whatever means necessary.”

“Poor Patrick.”

The siblings looked at me, puzzled.

“Why poor Patrick?”

“Jonas, when Reiko sets his mind to something, he follows through. Whatever is responsible for Patrick going off the rails, Reiko will figure it out. For good or for bad.”

“Is he going to hurt him?”

“No, Jasmin, at least not physically.”

“Good, then I’m reassured. While I’d also like things to finally be resolved with Patrick, violence just isn’t acceptable.”

“Don’t worry, Reiko is not capable of that.”

Reiko was at most capable of spanking ME, he would never do that to a child. Even if the child was annoying as much as Patrick!

For a while we watched the kids who were now fighting in the snow. The boys had conquered the castle of the girls, and now all rolled laughing through the white splendor. Thank goodness for waterproof snow suits!

“Come on, Faby, let’s go build a snowman!”

“Gee, Jonas, haven’t you had enough to do with snow today already?”

“Nah, I can’t get enough of snow. We rarely get any of that in Leipzig, this is just beautiful!”

He was still a real kid himself! Well. I actually enjoyed winter and snow, too, even though I was used to it. So I didn’t let him beg me for long, and shortly after we were busy building the most beautiful gay snowman in the world. Or at least in Europe. The most beautiful in Germany? What, just the most beautiful one in our county? My God, how can you be so picky! And anyway, who actually decides that! But surely not the overcritical reader here!

“Fabian, Jonas, can you come over here?”

Our heads jerked to the entrance of the cabin. Reiko was out again! Now I was extremely curious about what had come out of his meeting with Patrick. Would we finally find out what the boys problem was? Maybe there even would be a chance for lasting peace with the terror dwarf? Jonas seemed to be at least as excited as I was, I could hardly keep up with him on his sprint to Reiko and Jasmin.

“Well, did you get anything out of him?”

“Yes, Faby, I did. I guess the matter is settled, I think we won’t have any more problems with Patrick.”

That sounded almost too good to be true. I couldn’t really trust the peace so fast.

“Shoot, what did he tell you?”

“Wait a minute, Jonas, not so fast. Maybe Reiko isn’t allowed to tell us any more.”

That would be a shame!

“No problem, he even asked me to explain it to you.”

There you go!

“In short: Patrick had a best friend, Arne. And this Arne is gay.”

Well, that’s supposed to happen now and then. Just think Reiko and Fabian. So what was the problem?

“Arne fell in love with Patrick.”

Ouch! At least that didn’t happen to me with Reiko.

“But our Patrick doesn’t like boys, he likes girls.”

Poor Arne! Whereas: the way I had gotten to know Patrick so far, I could also say: lucky Arne!

“Stupidly, Arne didn’t have his hormones completely under control and kissed Patrick.”

Oh dear. Kissing a straight guy, that had to go wrong!

“Long story short: Patrick couldn’t cope with the fact that his previous best friend was suddenly making a pass at him. He had the wildest ideas about what Arne would possibly do to him in his imagination etc. etc. To make matters worse, he then extended this to all gays, according to the scheme that they all only want one thing. Namely him.”

Great!

“Instead of talking it out with Arne, he completely shut himself off, didn’t talk to anyone about it and got more and more into this madness.”

“And he told you all that now?”

“Yes, Jasmin, he did. It actually wasn’t that hard, deep down inside he probably wanted just that: to talk to someone about it.”

“And, Reiko, where you able get his thoughts straight?”

“I think so, Fabian.”

“How did you manage that?”

“That, my dear Jasmin, is my secret, and besides, not meant for girls’ ears anyway!”

Jonas’ little sister pulled a pout, but Reiko didn’t relent.

“Just assume that Patrick is thinking a bit more clearly now and won’t cause such stress anymore.”

If that actually came to pass, then I wouldn’t care about how Reiko had managed that at all.

“So, I see a snowman that’s not quite done yet. Do you guys mind if I help out a little?”

“Yes, Reiko, you can’t help with that one! That’s our snowman! Besides, he’s not for you anyway, he’s gay!”

Jasmin and Reiko laughed.

“Well, then I’ll just build my own snowman with Jasmin! Come on, we’ll show the loverboys how to do it RIGHT!”

Such a challenge, of course, we could not disregard, and so it came that after half an hour two cold fellows were standing next to each other. And we could not agree on, of course, which of the two looked better.

“Ours is more beautiful, there’s no question about that!”

“Dream on, sis. Compared to ours, it’s just average at best, while ours is a real piece of art!”

“I’ll turn your face into a real piece of art, big brother!”

How cutely the siblings bickered! I looked over at Reiko, who could only laugh at that too.

“Guys, I have an idea, we’ll let the kids decide which snowman is prettier!”

“Good suggestion, Fabian. We should start calling them together anyway, we’ve really been out here long enough now.”

It was actually after four, it was already getting dark, and I was in the mood for a nice glass of Christmas tea.

Jasmin called the kids together, who had been working on their castles again in the meantime.

“Listen, I think that’s enough for today. You’ve been outside long enough, it’s about time you get warmed up, it’s getting dark anyway.”

The grumbling was pretty low, they must have been quite beat after all that fun in the snow.

“But before we go in, you have an important decision to make. So please take a look at these two snowmen and tell us which one you like better.”

The four of them eyed our snow figures curiously and from all sides, but unfortunately didn’t come to a conclusion that would have help us out. The boys liked the snowman of Jonas and me better, the girls were more into the work of Jasmin and Reiko.

“Well, a classic draw. I guess there’s not supposed to be a winner.”

Jasmin pondered for a moment.

“We could still ask Patrick, then we would have a decision one way or the other.”

“Oh no, Patrick is stupid, he’d just spread bad vibes again anyway.”

“Chris, I think the problem is solved. Reiko had a long talk with him earlier, and he says that Patrick has come to his senses.”

“I don’t know… he was just annoying the whole time.”

He certainly was, but still….

“Guys, everyone deserves a second chance, including Patrick. So please give him that second chance, okay?”

I received a quiet but general agreement, and sent a silent prayer to heaven that peace would finally come to our cabin.

“All right, let Patrick decide. Should I go get him?”

Reiko stopped Felix from rushing into the cabin.

“No, leave him be, Patrick still needs a little time to think. He can still look at the snowmen tomorrow.”

So the decision about who would be Mr. Snowman of the World was postponed for the time being. Whereas the decision was actually quite clear – the girls and Reiko just didn’t want to admit it yet!

“Have you actually noticed something?”

Lots of questioning faces looked to Jasmin.

“What?”

“It’s not snowing anymore!”

Indeed! What had started as a rather dense snow flurry in the morning turned more and more into light snowfall as the day went on, and now there were no flakes to be seen at all. The sky even looked as if the clouds would break up soon.

“Great, then we can go to our parents tomorrow!”

Unfortunately, I had to dampen Ricarda’s hopes a bit.

“I wouldn’t count on it just yet. First of all, the roads and paths up to here have to be cleared, and that will take quite some time. But maybe it will happen the day after tomorrow.”

It would be nice if the parents could hold their kids in their arms again in time for Christmas Eve.

Only the girls were really disappointed, Christoph and Felix grinned contentedly. They seemed to like the prospect of another day without parental supervision.

“So, now we should go inside. You guys please take off your warm clothes right now and hang them in the storage room to dry.”

“Yes, Mommy!”

For this remark, Reiko got a slap on the head from Jasmin.

“You’re the worst of the kids!”

Laughing, we entered the cabin one by one, where the usual undressing chaos began, so I retreated with Jonas to the bedroom right after taking off our boots.

“Okay, here we have a little more space, out there everyone is falling over each other.”

We got rid of our snowsuits, then Jonas took a close look at the closet.

“Are you looking for anything in particular?”

“No, I just wanted to see if the closet has any protruding branches, too.”

“Why?”

“Well, because there’s something to finish, and a branch was bothering you earlier.”

With these words he pushed me backwards against the closet, and the next moment I felt his lips on mine. He really seemed to have a good memory – and an urge to bring everything he had started to a proper end.

Unfortunately, someone else also felt an urge, and that was to interrupt us, at least there was a soft and timid knock on the door of the room. Annoyed, Jonas let go of me and rolled his eyes upward. Helplessly, I shrugged my shoulders.

“Come in!”

Carefully the door was pushed open, and there appeared: Patrick! Now this was the one I had least expected.

“Am I interrupting? May I come in?”

Jonas sighed.

“Yes and yes.”

“What?”

“Yes, you’re interrupting. Yes, you can still come in.”

I gave Jonas a slap peck on the backside. We had decided to give the little guy a chance after all.

“Come on in, Patrick. Sit down somewhere.”

Hesitantly and tensely, our visitor sat down on the edge of Reiko’s bed, while I joined Jonas on the double bed. For a while we looked at each other in silence, then Patrick struggled to speak.

“I… I wanted to apologize to you guys…”

“Oh yeah?”

Jonas didn’t seem to want to make it particularly easy for the boy.

“I acted like a huge asshole.”

“You can say that again!”

I rammed my elbow into Jonas’ ribs, but Patrick didn’t appreciate this action.

“Leave him alone, Fabian, he’s right after all.”

“Still, we had decided to give you another chance.”

“Okay, okay, Faby, I’ll back off. Keep talking, Patrick.”

“Well, that’s pretty much it. I’m sorry I offended you, and I promise it won’t happen again.”

Hmm. That left me with an important question, though.

“Are you just going to say that, or are you going to keep it up? Or will it only last until you catch Jonas and me kissing or cuddling or something?”

“I guess I deserve that. Yeah, I think I’ll be okay with it now.”

“Well I hope so, because I don’t plan on denying myself every little smooching with Faby just because of you.”

I hardly could wait for the next little smooching!

“Okay, that’s really all I wanted to say to you guys. I’m really sorry. I’ll be going.”

Our visitor got up and walked to the door of the room.

“Patrick!”

He turned to us again.

“Yes?”

“Glad you seem to have turned the corner. And thanks for your apology.”

Patrick gave us another shy smile, then left us alone.

“Look at that. Reiko actually seems to have pulled off a minor miracle.”

“Well, Faby, I can’t quite believe it yet.”

I put my right arm around my doubting boyfriend’s waist.

“Jonas, did you notice anything different about Patrick?”

“What do you mean? That he managed to talk to us completely without calling us ’fags’ even once?”

“No, something else.”

Jonas mused to himself strainedly, but came to no conclusion.

“What are you getting at?”

“He was walking around just like us.”

“Huh?”

“In his underwear, Jonas. He didn’t bother to change into jeans.”

“Oh. Right. And you think that means something?”

“If you think about the fact that even this morning he would never have been caught showing himself like that to US of all people, then I think it does mean something.”

Jonas’ doubts were still not completely dispelled.

“I guess you only ever see the good in people, Faby.”

“I try. Otherwise, life can get pretty lonely and messy.”

“All right, I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt for once. Hopefully Patrick will justify this trust.”

Only the future could tell whether that hope would work out, but I was reasonably optimistic.

“Come on, let’s get our things out to dry and see if there isn’t something to eat and drink soon.”

“Just a minute, Faby. We should wait another five minutes or so.”

“Why?”

“Because otherwise we might have to help making coffee and serving food!”

I had to laugh, only Jonas could come up with something like that.

“Don’t laugh! We’ve already cooked lunch today, so we might as well sit down at the made table now.”

Which he was quite right about, so we continued a bit more of what Patrick had interrupted us with….

Reiko

It took quite a while until everyone had peeled themselves out of their snow clothes, then the storm to the toilet started as well. Actually I should do that, too, but in view of the child hordes that would not happen soon.

“What are you fidgeting about, Reiko?”

Jasmin had apparently noticed my dilemma.

“I need to go to the bathroom.”

“Then go!”

I pointed at the gaggle of kids who were already lining up.

“Not a chance.”

“Well… Then go to the outhouse!”

“Ha. Ha. Ha. I don’t want to freeze to death!”

“Wimp. Then you’ll just have to hang on a while longer. Just try to not flood the cabin.”

Hmpf.

“But you can help me a little with the coffee preparations, that might take your mind off your problem.”

I wondered if that would work. Well, I could give it a try. So I spent the next few minutes setting the table while Jasmin put on coffee and tea.

“Is there anything I can do to help?”

I turned around and was pleased to realize that it was Patrick offering to help! The boy seemed to have really set out to make up for a few things from the last few days. Actually, I was doing quite well on my own, but I shouldn’t turn down this offer.

“Can you be trusted with a knife?”

“What?”

“I’m just asking. All that ’knife, fork, scissors, lights – aren’t for little kids!’ stuff.”

“Eh, I’m fourteen!”

He hadn’t acted like that the last few days, but I was going to take his word for it.

“All right. Here, you can cut the Stollen, but be careful with the knife, it’s super sharp.”

It hurt my soul having to share the wonderful Fabian Stollen with all the others, but there was nothing I could do about it. He just had to bake more!

With ardor Patrick concentrated on his task, and then it finally happened, the bathroom was available and I was saved!

When I came back, the kids were already sitting at the table in a relatively civilized manner, Patrick was handing out Stollen and Jasmin was nowhere to be seen.

“Jasmin has gone to get Jonas and Fabian.”

Felix must have read my mind. I decided to make myself a little more useful and distributed tea and coffee. Just in time when I was done with that (and thus all the work was done) Jasmin appeared with the two lovers, who now sat down at the set table. Well, Jonas and Fabian had already taken care of lunch, so I shouldn’t complain.

As I had feared, we put a huge hole in the Stollen supply, I had to see that I got at least a second piece. When the nine-headed eating machine slowly came to rest, Patrick cleared his throat.

“Ahem… Can you guys listen to me for a minute, please?”

Silence fell over the room.

“I wanted to apologize for causing such a hassle the last few days. I’m really sorry, it won’t happen again.”

I had to hand it to him, the kid had character, he actually followed through with apologizing.

“I’m really glad to hear that, Patrick, but I think you need to apologize to Fabian and my brother the most.”

“He did plenty of that already, sis.”

“Oh. Well then, that’s good.”

Respect, the little guy apparently didn’t waste any time.

“Then I would suggest that we forget about the past and only count what happens from now on. Agreed?”

Everyone could probably live with that, even if Felix didn’t seem to trust the peace quite yet. Patrick, at least, smiled with relief; he was probably glad that we gave him another chance.

After that was settled, there was another question to decide.

“So what are we going to do today?”

It had become completely dark outside by now, and the clock showed just before five.

“I want to watch cartoons!”

That’s right, I was glad we had a TV in the cabin. And cartoons were guaranteed to be running on some channel at this hour. That should keep some of the younger guests quiet.

“I think I’m going to take a shower right away, I finally have to wash my hair again. After all, today we don’t need to rush with the showering like yesterday.”

“Good idea, Faby, I’ll do that today too.”

It would not surprise me if the two got in the shower together!

“Then you can scrub each other’s backs.”

Tests, Jasmin should not overdo it! I threw an inquiring look in Patrick’s direction, but he showed no signs of wanting to take this innuendo as an occasion for another freak-out. He noticed that I was looking at him and just shrugged. I nodded encouragingly at him, who was probably well on his way to becoming friends with the idea of a gay couple.

“Can we play Monopoly today?”

“Sure you can, Chris. When the table is cleared, you can spread out on it.”

After that was settled as well, we divided up the clearing and dishwashing duties. That was an advantage of so many helpers, the work went pretty quickly, so that quite soon order was restored.

The girls settled down in front of the TV and found the children’s channel pretty quickly. It would probably keep them busy for quite a while. Christoph and Felix unpacked the Monopoly game and seized most of the coffee table with it.

“Can I play?”

I was curious to see how the two would react to Patrick’s question! They seemed to confer telepathically for a moment, then came to a decision.

“Okay, sit down.”

I breathed an inward sigh of relief. Another step on the road to a peaceful coexistence.

And so the afternoon settled in. Fabian disappeared into the bathroom, closely followed by Jonas, why wasn’t I surprised? The boys played Monopoly, the girls enjoyed themselves in front of the TV, and I made myself comfortable with Jasmin in the two-seater.

“Tell me, Reiko, what do you actually want to do someday? Job wise I mean?”

“I’m going to take over the nursery from my parents.”

“Oh, do you have a green thumb?”

“Supposedly I do. Why do you ask?”

“Well, I could see you doing something in education or something like that.”

I had never thought in that direction.

“You really think so?”

“Well, the way you got through to Patrick: well done!”

“That was a lucky shot. I think I’d rather stick with the green stuff. It’s nowhere near as much stress as a bunch of kids.”

“Hehe, definitely.”

“So, when are you done with school? And where do you want to study?”

“Well, I’ll graduate next year, and I’ll probably go to college in ***.”

What? But that was right around here!

“Why here?”

“Because I want to get away from home, and I like the idea of being near Jonas.”

And therefore close to me, too!

“I think that’s great.”

“Oh yeah, Reiko? Why is that?”

Now I should probably slowly show my colors to her.

“Well… I… Well, the thing is this. I like you, Jasmin. I like you a lot, actually. To be honest, I think I’m about to fall in love with you.”

Jasmin looked at me with wide eyes and a smile on her face.

“I didn’t really want to admit it, mainly because of the long distance between us. I don’t think it would work in the long run. But now that you’re moving down here soon anyway…”

“Not so fast, Reiko. That’s still like 8 months away.”

“Yeah, but that’s a manageable amount of time. And I think if there’s a date set, so to speak, then I can live with the distance for the few months.”

“Hmm. I guess you’re right about that…”

“However, there’s a much more important question.”

Curious, Jasmin looked up.

“And that would be?”

“Whether you even want to be my girlfriend.”

“Oh! Now THAT is something I really need to think about first, though!”

Oh my. With fluttering nerves, I waited for her to decide.

“It’s cute, you’re really nervous!”

Cute is what she called it!

“Alright then, I won’t keep you in suspense any longer. Yes, Reiko, I’d like to be your girlfriend.”

Yippee! I would have loved to do a happy dance in the middle of the cabin.

“On one condition!”

Oh. What was next?

“When I live here, I want to get a bouquet of flowers from my personal gardener at least once a week!”

I grinned at her, now that really shouldn’t be a problem.

“I promise!”

“Good, now let’s get a little cozy, from all the exercise in the snow I feel muscles I didn’t even know I had.”

Jasmin leaned against me, to which I had of course no objections, and so we dozed with the crackling of the wood in the fireplace in front of us. That’s life!

Unfortunately, of course, this could not last forever, about half past five I was startled by the jingle of the cell phone. I had not even noticed that Fabian had turned the thing on again.

“Are you going to answer it, Reiko?”

I had to, since there was still no sign of the owner of the noisy phone. Reluctantly, I severed physical contact with Jasmin and picked up the annoying thing.

“Heilmann.”

“Hello Mr. Heilmann, this is Bolke.”

Bolke, Bolke… Was that name supposed to mean something to me? Oh yes! That was Patrick’s last name!

“Hello, Mr. Bolke, I’m sure you want to talk to Patrick.”

“Actually, I just wanted to ask if everything was all right with him, if he was doing well.”

“You can ask him that yourself right now, I’ll quickly put him on the phone.”

“If he even wants to talk to us.”

Unfortunately, Patrick’s father couldn’t see my smile.

“He will, Mr. Bolke, I think you can count on that.”

“Do you really think so? It would be nice.”

“You’ll be surprised. So, I’ll pass the phone, hold on please.”

I walked over to the three Monopoly players.

“Patrick, your father’s on the phone.”

With a pained look, Patrick reached for the phone.

“I don’t know what to tell him. I’ve been fighting my parents for the last two months, too.”

“You’ll figure it out, cheer up.”

“I don’t know if five minutes is enough time for that.”

That’s right, the other kids’ parents were probably lined up on the phone again, too.

“Look, talk to him for a minute, then get his phone number. Then later you can talk to your parents again at your leisure, no time limit. Agreed?”

“That would be great! Thanks!”

Hopefully Fabian wouldn’t rip my head off for this wasteful use of his air time.

For the next half hour, our young charges talked to their parents while I slowly started to worry about Fabian and Jonas. They didn’t show up at all!

Just when I was about to go to the bathroom for a check-up, the two missing persons appeared. And luckily I had just put my tea glass on the table…

“Jasmin, pinch me!”

“Why, what’s wrong?”

Without further words, I pointed at the two boys who had just returned from the bathroom. Jasmin slapped her right hand in front of her mouth in shock.

“My God, what is that?”

“Do you like my new hair color? I mean, Jonas is all excited about it!”

Where there had been a light blond mop of hair on Fabian’s head before the shower, there was now a wildly tousled collection of bright blue hair! He had actually dyed his hair – which of course also explained why the two of them had taken so much time in the bathroom.

By now, everyone present had noticed the total change in Fabian’s hair color. The reactions ranged from ridiculous (Ricarda) to ubercool (surprisingly Patrick).

“If you think it’s so cool, Patrick, we can still treat you too. I have another coloring pack here, just not blue but green.”

Now Fabian was putting ideas into the boy’s head!

“Cool! Yes! Can we start right away?”

I knew that would happen!

“Take it easy. Think about this very carefully. If you still want it in two hours, we’ll do it after your shower. Okay?”

“Great! But I already know I still want it then!”

“We’ll see…”

Satisfied, Patrick turned back to the book he had started reading after the Monopoly game ended. I, on the other hand, walked over to my best friend.

“You’re crazy, Faby.”

He just grinned cheekily at me while Jonas ran his hand through his boyfriends’ blue hair.

“I don’t even know what’s wrong with you Reiko, it looks awesome. And for a natural blondie like Fabian it fits quite excellent. I think so anyway.”

It would take some time to get used to this sight.

“I don’t know, I think I like it too…”

Oh my goodness! Not Jasmin too! I had a bad feeling.

“So one thing I can promise you, Jasmin, I won’t be walking around like a Christmas tree ornament any time soon!”

“Haha, fine, whatever you say. You’re pretty enough as it is.”

Well that’s what I meant! Shaking my head, I looked at Fabian again.

“You really are always good for a surprise, Faby.”

“I know.”

“Why did you even have the hair dye stuff with you?”

“Because I was going to do it anyway, I was going to surprise my family with it on the 24th.”

“You mean you wanted to shock your family.”

“Hehe, or that! But they’re used to grief, just think of Tom’s goth phase.”

Oh yeah, that had been one of those crazy Roecker things too. Fabian’s little brother had run around in nothing but black for a year. He had dyed his blond hair black, his closet knew only this one color, and he had even painted his fingernails black! In contrast, his skin had been completely pale, he had avoided every ray of sunlight like a vampire who forgot sleeping the day away. Strangely enough, the spook had then been over just as suddenly as it had begun. Okay, compared to that Fabian’s blue hair was absolutely harmless.

“By the way, while you were busy with the hair, the parents of the kids called.”

“Well great, then that’s done for today too.”

“Not quite. Faby, I promised Patrick that he could call his parents again on his own. I think there’s a lot of talking to be done. Is that all right?”

Fabian apparently didn’t need to think about it for long, the answer came like a shot.

“Of course! I’m sure they’ll be happy to get their old Patrick back, too. And he might as well ask them if he can dye his hair.”

I assumed that his parents would allow him to do ANYTHING if he just behaved reasonably again.

“Okay, then I’ll tell him he can call them now, and after that I’ll disappear into the shower. Hot water is already back, right?”

“Yes, we were in the shower right at the beginning, and after that we hardly needed any hot water.”

Well then, everything was settled. I went to Patrick and gave him the cell phone, and while he gratefully dashed off to his room with it, I grabbed my wash kit and went to take a shower…

Fabian

The surprise with my blue dyed hair was really successful! As I had already told Reiko, I wanted to dye my hair anyway, before I would return home on the 24th, and when I told Jonas about this plan, he had been immediately on fire and was only too willing to help me with the implementation.

That had been the only reason Jonas had gone to the bathroom with me. We had showered separately while the other shaved at the sink. Of course we had also had the opportunity to see the other completely naked for the first time, but we ware able to keep ourselves under control, so that nothing more than admiring looks happened.

The rest of the afternoon was very comfortable. The kids played or watched TV, the rest of us read or did other things. One after the other disappeared to take a shower, and Patrick also reappeared and gave me back the cell phone.

“Well, everything cleared up with your parents?”

“Yes, thank you for letting me talk to them as long as I did. My dad told me to tell you that he will pay you for the call.”

“That’s okay, it’s not that big of a deal, my dad will pay my phone bill this month anyway. Did you ask if you can dye your hair?”

“Yes, I did.”

“And?”

He grinned mischievously at me.

“I can. As long as I don’t dye it blue.”

Oh.

“But you can do green?”

“I didn’t reveal HOW I was going to dye it. The only thing dad said was, if possible, not blue.”

Next to me, Jonas chuckled quietly to himself.

“Clever guy!”

He could say that out loud! But well, I shouldn’t care.

“Okay, we’ll see. If you still want it after your shower, we’ll do that.”

“Great!”

With those words, he rushed off to play with Arko for a bit.

“Do you get it, Fabian?”

“What?”

“This transformation of Patrick. A few hours ago he wouldn’t even talk to us.”

Well, Reiko had indeed worked a miracle on the boy.

“Jonas, I don’t give a damn HOW this transformation happened. I’m just glad as hell THAT it happened.”

“True, it makes life here a lot easier and more pleasant.”

Hopefully this transformation was permanent.

“Okay, I’m going to go call my dad and find out if he has any news about our situation.”

“You do that, and in the meantime I’ll go ahead and figure out with Jasmin how we’re going to get dinner on track.”

Jonas pulled away, and I dialed the home number.

“Roecker!”

“Hello Tommy.”

“Faby! Hey, big brother, how are you doing with all the little livestock at the cabin?”

“Haha, don’t forget, compared to me you’re still little livestock yourself!”

“But only you believe that. I can spit on your head, as you know.”

“Yes, exactly once, that would be the last thing in your life.”

Tom’s laughter sounded through the phone.

“Seriously, Faby, how are you doing?”

“Well, it’s a little different than I imagined these few days would be, but I’m doing really well.”

“Fine. So, have you turned Reiko around yet?”

“Reiko? Why would I turn him around?”

“Oh… I just thought… You need a boyfriend, after all.”

“Who says I don’t have a one already?”

“Come on, Faby, I’m your brother. I know what your love life is like, and that all the rumors are just rumors. You don’t have to pretend otherwise with ME!”

Did I mention that Tom was not only my brother but also a smart guy and a really great friend?

“Hehe, still, I wouldn’t change Reiko’s mind. He’s not really my type – OUCH!”

“What was that just now? What’s going on with you, Faby?”

“Nothing, nothing, just Reiko came over and I guess he wasn’t too thrilled with my comment about him not being my type.”

I rubbed my aching upper left arm where Reiko had given me a good smack as he walked by.

“Haha, you better watch out in whose presence you talk about what.”

I guess he had hit the nail on the head there.

“Well, I guess I’ll have to get serious about finding you a boyfriend, big brother.”

“Don’t you dare! Besides, Jonas would definitely object to that.”

“Jonas? Who the hell is Jonas?”

“Jonas is the reason why you don’t need to find me a boyfriend anymore.”

“I’ll be damned! You’re really going to claim that you have a boyfriend? Where did you find him?”

“You’ll laugh, in the middle of the winter forest.”

“Huh?”

“Jonas is the apprentice from the Stone Valley Inn who got lost with the kids.”

Laughter sounded from the cell phone.

“That’s typical again my big brother! Others go to the disco or a club to find a girlfriend or boyfriend – you go to the forest! Why take the simple way, if you can do it complicated.”

“Laugh as much as you want, Tommy. The end justifies the means.”

“I guess it does. Congratulations, anyway.”

“Thanks. But please don’t tell the old folks yet, okay?”

“Okay, I’ll leave that entirely up to you.”

“Great. Now, can you get dad on the horn for me?”

“I’d hate to, Faby.”

“Why?”

“He’s asleep, he didn’t get home until a little after twelve. If it’s something really important I’ll wake him up, otherwise I’d rather let him sleep.”

“You’re right, let him sleep. Is mom there?”

“No, I’m alone with dad, the others are all in town for last minute shopping.”

“Crap.”

“Why? Aren’t I enough for you?”

“Hehe, yes, yes. I’d just like to know if there’s any news for us up here. When we’ll be dug out of here or something.”

“If it’s nothing else! I can tell you that, too. Tomorrow morning, as soon as it gets light, heavy equipment will be used. Even a pioneer company of the Bundeswehr has announced their help.”

Well, that sounded really good!

“Does that mean we’ll be out of here tomorrow?”

“No, I don’t think so. The K87 is completely closed, downed trees and heavy drifts, even with army technology it will take quite a while to clear it. As I understand it, they want to clear the road during the day tomorrow so that it is passable up to our access road. The day after tomorrow, they’ll start again first thing in the morning, and then a snow blower is supposed to reach you at some point during the day.”

Good, then the kids would be with their parents in time for Christmas Eve.

“Well, that’s fine. I’m sure the kids and the parents will be happy to hear that.”

“I think so too, but Faby, this is all still to be taken with a grain of salt, there’s no guarantee it won’t take an extra day.”

“That’s all right, Tom. Okay, I’m going to hang up now, I don’t think the battery will last forever, I need to get the phone back on the charger. Say hello to the others for me, please. Tell mom and dad not to worry, we’re fine up here.”

“Will do. Well then, see you soon.”

“Bye, Tommy.”

I ended the call and walked over to the kitchen counter.

“Well, what are you cooking up?”

“Bockwurst for everyone, it’s quick and not as much work as cutting up lots of sausage and stuff first. So, did you hear anything new from your dad?”

“I could only talk to Tom, my little brother, my dad was asleep. I guess he’s had a lot on his mind the last few days.”

“Understandable. So you don’t know yet when we’ll be freed from here?”

“Actually I do, Jasmin, but I’ll tell you when we’re all sitting at the table, okay?”

She agreed with that, it was the best solution after all.

“Faby, can I have the cell phone again later? My parents want to hear from me every night too.”

“That, Reiko, I have to think about very seriously!”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“You’re still asking that? After what you did to me?”

“What did I do to you?”

I rubbed over my still slightly sore upper arm.

“You didn’t know where to put all your strength, again.”

“Oh. Sorry. But well… You had more or less said that you didn’t find me desirable. And of course that had to be punished!”

“Hm, if you’re that brutal, you won’t be finding another girlfriend anytime soon.”

Cheekily, Reiko grinned at me.

“I don’t need to, I’ve already found one!”

To the great amazement of Jonas and me, Reiko put an arm around Jasmin’s hips.

“Uh… Ah… Are you guys serious now?”

“Yes, Jonas. Reiko and I have decided to give each other a try.”

Well that was really quite a surprise. I had ONE problem with that in particular.

“How is this supposed to work, Reiko here and Jasmin in Leipzig? Are you going to have a long-distance relationship?”

“When Jasmin finishes high school next summer, she’ll come down here and study at the same college as you.”

There was no end to the surprises. Although this was a very positive surprise after all.

“Then I guess all we can do is congratulate you.”

I hurried to join Jonas’ congratulations, and the young couple thanked us happily.

“So, sit down at the table, the Bockwursts are ready, and the baguettes too.”

We took our seats, and shortly thereafter the ritual of feeding the predators began. Then, as the eating machines slowed down, I shared the news about our upcoming release. The prospect of being reunited with their parents for Christmas put satisfied smiles on the kids’ faces.

“Of course, that also means we’ll have some work to do tomorrow!”

Questioningly, they all looked at me.

“Tomorrow is snow shoveling day! When the snow blower arrives here the day after tomorrow, it would be good if the whole driveway in front of the cabin was already cleared of snow as best as possible. Then the driver can turn around and drive back again without any problems. Besides, we need the space, since a few cars will surely come up here to pick us all up.”

That made sense to everyone, and the prospect of having to move lots of snow didn’t seem to be much of a deterrent to the kids. Well they would be surprised tomorrow…

After dinner, Jonas and I did the dishes, while the rest of the younger kids and Jasmin took showers. In between we played, read and watched TV. All in all, it was a very nice, cozy evening. Then it was time.

“Okay, Patrick, do you still want to have green hair?”

The teenager jumped out of his chair.

“Yeah sure!”

Then I guess it was meant to be.

“Off to the shower with you. When you’re done, just holler, and then we’ll turn you into a green plant!”

“Cool!”

Patrick jumped away, grabbed his wash and sleep stuff, and disappeared into the bathroom. Doubtingly, Jasmin looked after him.

“Well that could be fun…. Soon the others will all want to walk around like they fell headfirst into a paint box, too.”

“Don’t be so stuffy, sis! A little color in life can’t hurt. And my hair is dyed, too, after all.”

“Yes, but blonde, and that is a natural hair color after all.”

“You’ll laugh, if I hadn’t already dyed it blond, I’d be walking around with green hair right now!”

“Well, I doubt that the old Ziermayer would be very enthusiastic about it…”

Jasmin, the voice of reason. Well, that’s what Jonas got from his choice of job, he had to style himself a bit more conservatively.

“Faby?”

“Yes?”

“I think we should ask Patrick if it’s okay with him if we do his hair. Or if he’d rather have Jasmin or Reiko do it.”

“Why… Ah. Yeah, I see what you mean. Okay, we’ll ask him when he’s ready. Jasmin, would you possibly take over if that’s what Patrick wants?”

Sighing, Jonas’ little sister stated her agreement.

“I’m ready!”

Someone was in a mighty hurry in the bathroom. Jonas and I followed Patrick’s call.

“We can start!”

“Patrick?”

“Yeah? You’re not going to back out now, are you? I get to dye my hair green, right?”

I had to laugh at his enthusiasm.

“Yeah, don’t worry, you’ll get your green hair. We just wanted to know if maybe you’d prefer Jasmin or Reiko to do it for you.”

“Why?”

“Well… You’d have to take off your pajama top, and we’d have to touch you, too. If that makes you uncomfortable…”

Understanding and a little shame spread across Parick’s face.

“No… It’s okay if you do it.”

“Are you sure about that?”

“Yes. I know now that I acted stupidly, and that I have nothing to fear from you guys.”

I looked at Jonas, who shrugged, so I gave the go signal.

“Well, here we go!”

The dyeing now went quite undramatically, I left the actual work to Jonas anyway, who had already managed it so well with my hair. At the beginning Patrick was still a bit tense, but then he relaxed more and more, and in the end he joked with us quite freely. What a difference to the pinched, almost vicious teenager from a few hours ago! Then, when he saw his grass-green hair for the first time, his grin threatened to break his face.

“Well, satisfied, sir?”

“Great! My parents will make big eyes!”

Well hopefully really only big eyes and not a matching big scene, too. But there was nothing to be done about it now anyway, only a totally shaved head would remedy the situation.

“Thank you very much!”

“You’re welcome. So, you now please clean up a little here, okay?”

“I will, no problem!”

Jonas and I left the bathroom and went back to the living room, where by now it was much quieter. The kids were still watching some movie on TV, but they were all already in their sleeping bags. Reiko was busy rubbing Arko dry, who had probably already made his last walk out the door.

“Well you two, did everything work out with our big little one?”

“Yes, Reiko, he turned one hundred and eighty degrees. Who would have thought that behind the little creep there was such a nice boy. And it’s thanks to you that the nice boy finally came out.”

“I had to do it for world peace. Or at least for the peace in the cabin.”

“Where did my sister go?”

“She’s already in bed, she was totally tired. And I’ll get out of here as soon as I’m done with Arko.”

“You do that. We’ll close everything up here and join you later.”

I settled down on the couch with Jonas, and we watched the flickering flames in the fireplace for a while. After a few minutes, Patrick appeared and also immediately said goodbye for the night.

“Wait a minute, Patrick!”

“Yes, Reiko?”

“Let me look at you first.”

With a satisfied smile on his face, the recolored teen walked up to his “savior” and proudly presented his new hair color.

“Cool, Patrick! Chiara will be all over you when she sees this!”

Green hair and bright red face – now that was a mix! Patrick stuck his tongue out at Reiko, then retreated to his bedroom.

“Chiara? Who’s Chiara?”

“A girl in his class that he adores.”

“Well, the change you triggered in him should increase his chances with this Chiara more significantly than the new hair color.”

“Don’t say that, some girls go for colorful puppies like that!”

We laughed, and the other four kids who had overheard the exchange of words also chuckled to themselves.

“Okay, I’m getting out of here too. Don’t stay awake too long.”

“Yeah, Dad!”

“Boah, not you guys too! Good night, you sleeping bag pirates.”

“Good night.”

Reiko took off, and Jonas and I also decided to bring the day to an end. Unfortunately, the four kids had somewhat different ideas after all.

“We’d like to finish watching the movie.”

Hmm, what were they watching anyway? Oh. 101 Dalmatians. So at least something age-appropriate.

“How long does it run?”

“Until a quarter to ten.”

Hm, pretty late for eleven and twelve year olds, but then again, they didn’t have to go to school the next morning.

“Well, I don’t want to be like that. But when the movie is over, please turn off the TV right away, and then there will be silence in the cabin. Understood?”

The kids cheered and promised to abide by it.

“All right, we’ll do it that way. But you better be ready to get out of bed on time in the morning!”

Again, they were ready to promise me anything. Well, we would see. Jonas and I stood up.

“Don’t you have to go out and turn off the generator after their movie, Faby?”

“No, I’ll set the timer for 10 p.m. now, and then the thing will turn itself off. Whether the four musketeers here like it or not.”

“Hehe, trust is good…”

“…Automation is better!”

“Exactly! So go ahead. Will you check again to make sure the gas stove is off and everything?”

“Will do.”

We did our chores, then wished the TV kids a good night and followed Jasmin and Reiko into the bedroom. I almost expected them to have hogged our nice double bed, but they were quite well-behaved in their single beds.

“Well, did you take care of the offspring?”

“Yes, they’re finishing their movie now, and then it’s bedtime for them, too.”

Surprisingly, Jasmin didn’t protest the TV permission, maybe she was just too tired.

Jonas and I got into our cozy bed and crawled under our blankets.

“Does anyone still need the light?”

No one spoke up, so I reached for the only burning petroleum lamp and turned it off.

“Well then, good night everyone!”

Three voices returned the good wishes, then silence returned. I snuggled up to Jonas, and before I could think much more about the past day, I was already asleep….

Reiko

Something was not right here at all. Why were my feet suddenly so cold? Or in other words: WHAT was so cold on my feet? At least cold enough to let me wake up slowly, although it was still pitch dark.

But that wasn’t all, my bed seemed to have gotten smaller too. Very strange!

“Don’t hog all the space, Reiko!”

Yikes! I startled and was suddenly wide awake. It wasn’t the bed that had gotten smaller, no, the contents of the bed had gotten bigger!

“What are you doing here, Jasmin?”

“Silly question. Warming myself up, of course. I was cold.”

“And so you just crawl under the covers with me?”

“Of course, a boyfriend has to be good for something, right?”

Now that was some logic! But she really did have ice cold feet, there was nothing to argue about.

“And now shut up and warm me up.”

Now that was a request that could be interpreted in different ways, but I assumed that she really just meant “warm me up” in the sense of “don’t let me freeze anymore”. So I allowed her to snuggle close to me, even if this meant that it was a bit colder for ME for the time being. But the physical closeness seemed to work, shortly thereafter not only Jasmin had fallen asleep again, I sank back into Morpheus’s arms, too.

When I woke up the next time, it was brighter in the bedroom than the last time. Much brighter. Actually, the sun was shining through the window! Startled, I looked at the clock – already close to nine!

“Damn it, we’ve overslept!”

My exclamation was loud enough to jolt everyone else in the room out of sleep as well. Which didn’t mean they were actually awake yet, either.

“What?”

“Fabian, we overslept! It’s almost nine!”

“Oh shit!”

“Take it easy, guys.”

How could Jonas stay so calm? The dog had to go out, the kids needed their breakfast, and anyway: we had so much to do today!

“The kids are making breakfast today. I had to go to the bathroom earlier, and I saw that they were already busy setting the table. And Arko was already outside, too.”

“Really, Jonas?”

“Yes. They told me to lie down for another half hour, that they’d call us when breakfast was ready.”

Well. That sounded a lot more pleasant. It would have been very embarrassing if all four of us had overslept. Just at that moment there was a knock on the room door, then it slid open a bit, and Felix’s head peeked into the room.

“Ah, you’re awake, great. Breakfast is ready!”

And he disappeared again.

So I guess we should start getting out of bed, too. Jonas and Fabian had come to the same conclusion and were already working their way up to vertical. Then Fabian looked over at my bed, and his face derailed slightly.

“Jonas, look there!”

Jasmin’s brother turned, looked once, looked twice, then started grinning.

“What are you looking at, brother of mine? Never seen two people in one bed before?”

Jonas started to say something, but refrained and disappeared with Fabian in tow towards the breakfast table. And Jasmin also jumped out of bed now. Out of MY bed!

“Come on, sleepyhead, I’m hungry too!”

Menno, why were they all so cheeky to me in the early morning! But I guess I should hurry up and get out of bed, too, otherwise there might not be anything breakfasty left for me! I put on my slippers and rushed after the three others.

When I arrived in the living room, I saw that Felix had not exaggerated. Breakfast was really ready. Two toasters were in operation, butter, jam, Nutella and some savory delicacies were ready. Coffee and cocoa were steaming in the cups. A glance at Arko: he was lying quietly and contentedly in front of the fireplace, a sign that he had indeed already been outside.

“What did we do to deserve this?”

“Oh, you’ve been taking care of us all the time these past few days, so we thought it would be nice if we did something for you for once. And when I woke up just before eight and saw that none of you were up yet, I woke up the others, and we decided to make breakfast ourselves today.”

That was really a brilliant idea from Manuela. We dutifully thanked the kids, and then the whole pack started to wolf down the food.

“By the way, Patrick, great hair color!”

That’s right, Jasmin saw the greenhead for the first time now. And I also looked closer, now in the natural sunlight, the hair colors of both Patrick and Fabian really came into life. And somehow the green of Patrick stood out even more clearly than the blue of Faby.

“Okay, how are we going to do this today? Fabian has already told us yesterday that we have to move a lot of snow today. Somehow we’d like to organize it properly, it’s really going to turn into work after all.”

“That’s right, Jonas. I’ve already thought up something, what do you think: after breakfast I’ll take care of the dishes with the girls. Afterwards we’ll do some cleaning in here, that’s also needed. In the meantime, you guys go out and start clearing the snow. Later, we girls will make lunch, then everyone will take a break, and after that we’ll all do the rest of the snow work together.”

Of course, it would never have occurred to me to tell the girls to do the housework, but if Jasmin offered to do it herself I had no problem with that plan. The others also seemed to agree with this distribution of work, and so it happened that after breakfast, a visit to the bathroom and getting dressed, all the male inhabitants of the cabin came together to take care of the snow. Fabian distributed snow shovels.

“Now, pay attention. Do you see the red and white poles?”

We looked around, and sure enough, in various places such poles were peeking out of the snow.

“These poles indicate the boundaries of the yard. Everything within the imaginary lines between the poles we should clear of snow as best we can.”

Oh shit. This was a bigger area than I had thought.

“Say, Faby, didn’t I see a snow blower somewhere?”

“Yeah, you did.”

“And why don’t we use it?”

“Because the snow is too high for it. It’s just one of those little things, you can’t have more than 20 centimeters for it to work.”

Bummer. It looked like we had to use our own physical strength to get rid of the white splendor. Oh well, it was probably better if we started to work quickly.

“Reiko, please start with Jonas here at the cabin. I’ll go over to the driveway with the three boys, and we’ll work our way toward each other.”

That sounded reasonable, there was no point in everyone working in the same place and getting in each other’s way. While Fabian was working his way through the deep snow with the little ones, I was already starting to shovel aside the snow in front of the cabin door with Jonas. After we worked side by side in silence for a while, there came what I had been expecting all along.

“Reiko?”

“Yes?”

“What’s going on between you and my sister?”

“What’s going on? You overheard yesterday that we’re together now, right?”

“Yes, I did… I was just a little surprised that you’re already sleeping together.”

I had to laugh.

“Jonas, we’re not sleeping together yet in the way you seem to think. We just slept in the same bed. There is a certain difference. And even that only two or three hours. Jasmin came crawling into my bed at some point because she was cold. That’s really all that happened.”

That seemed to reassure Jonas a little. Still, I thought his question was a little unfair.

“Jonas, Jasmin is about to turn 18, and she knows exactly what she wants, too. Don’t worry, we won’t rush into anything. And besides, I find it a bit funny that you of all people are so surprised.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, you ended up in bed with Fabian on the very first night, after all.”

“But nothing happened between us!”

“Yeah, well, nothing happened between Jasmin and me either! Why do you think it would be different with us?”

Thoughtfully and a little embarrassed Jonas looked at me.

“Sorry. You’re right, it was unfair to think that. And even if something had happened: it would be your decision alone.”

That sounded much better.

“Jonas, I promise you one thing: I won’t do anything your sister doesn’t want me to do. And now that it’s clear that we’re going to be in a long-distance relationship for a while, we’re not going to rush into anything.”

Jonas grinned at me.

“Looks like my sister didn’t get the worst possible boyfriend.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“That’s the way it was meant.”

“Thank you.”

Now that any possible misunderstandings were cleared up, we plunged into work with renewed zeal. Slowly, ever so slowly, the area cleared of snow grew larger. Still, we would have a lot to do here!

Suddenly, Arko jumped around between us, barking loudly, and tried to bite the handle of my snow shovel. Well that was all we needed now – NOT!

The hyper dog wasn’t alone, though; Jasmin and Ricarda showed up shortly thereafter.

“Hey, you snowmen? We thought we’d bring you some hot tea.”

What a service! Gratefully we accepted the cups with the steaming drink.

“Could it be that it is much colder today than yesterday?”

Wordlessly, I pointed to the large thermometer next to the cabin door. It showed 9 degrees below zero – despite the bright sunshine! I was mighty glad that I had let my mom talk me into wearing the warm beanie with the earflaps.

Jasmin and Ricarda worked their way to the other four snow fighters, accompanied by a once again enthusiastic Arko jumping through the snow.

“Very thoughtful, your sister. Looks like I didn’t get the worst possible girlfriend.”

“Haha. Apparently that’s just you, she would never have thought to do that just for me.”

Poor Jonas. We carefully sipped the hot drink, it was just what we needed right now. Our break lasted about ten minutes, then we got back to work with fresh strength.

Fabian

Jasmin and Ricarda showed up at just the right moment, despite the hard work I was pretty cold, and the three younger boys at my side felt the same way.

“Tea. Need tea. Lots of hot tea!”

Ricarda laughed.

“You shall have it, Christoph. Here, but be careful, it’s really hot.”

Well, it couldn’t be hot enough for me, it would cool down quite quickly out here in the cold anyway.

“You’ve already done quite a bit.”

But we had also really exhausted ourselves.

“Don’t worry, Jasmin, there will be still enough left for you this afternoon.”

“I was afraid of that!”

Everyone laughed, but it couldn’t be helped: despite our diligent work now, we’d all have to give it another good whack after lunch. Especially since, after all, we didn’t have to move the snow just a foot away; the paths we had to walk with it logically grew longer and longer the more of the yard we uncovered.

“We’re going back inside, there’s some work to do there too. What time should we prepare lunch for?”

I looked at the clock, by now it was just after eleven.

“Half past twelve? Can you manage that?”

“Yes, no problem. We’ll cook a big pot of Solyanka and make baguettes to go with it again.”

A good idea, hot soup was the ideal stomach filling on days like today. Ricarda quickly collected the empty cups, then she headed back to the cabin with Jasmin and Arko.

“So, boys, can we go on again? You can hold out until half past twelve, can’t you?”

With that, I had grabbed the three of them by their honor; there was no way they would give up before me. With new courage, we plunged into the masses of snow.

We made good progress, and when Jasmin called us to dinner at quarter past twelve, we had cleared a good two-thirds of the yard of snow. However, we were now also pretty exhausted and could use some refreshment and a break as well.

“Come on, guys, let’s go grab some food. That was a hell of a job you guys did.”

Pleased with the praise, but probably also relieved because of the upcoming break, the three of them stomped next to me to the cabin, where we were expected by Jonas and Reiko. These two had also accomplished a lot, so we could go into the siesta with a clean conscience.

Inside, we slipped out of our snow clothes, then the fight began over who would be allowed to go to the bathroom first! But eventually everybody was done, and we all made short work with the Solyanka together.

“Okay, boys, you rest for now. The girls and I will put away the dishes and wash up, then we’ll go out and try our hands at snow shoveling.”

“But you’ve been working all the time too, you’ve earned your break, too. We’d better go out again all together later.”

“Reiko, we haven’t worked as hard as you at all.”

“You guys are girls, though!”

THAT was something the hockey lummox should probably have refrained from saying!

“Reiko Heilmann! What is that supposed to mean now? Do you think that girls are not capable of hard work?”

“I … uh …”

“Well?!?”

“No, no, of course not, Jasmin!”

“Well you better accept that quickly, you junior macho!”

Reiko realized that it would probably be best not to say another word for now, and smartly kept his mouth shut.

It was just after one when the girls were getting ready to head out into the snow.

“We’re taking Arko out with us, Reiko, is that okay?”

“Sure, but please watch him. If he doesn’t move around much anymore, then please bring him back inside. Don’t let him lie in the snow forever.”

“Will do.”

I looked at my watch.

“Jasmin, we’ll come out around 2:30 and relieve you.”

“Okay, but get a good rest first. All your bones and muscles must hurt.”

Oh yes, I felt muscles I never even knew I had. And I knew it would get worse. The soreness would really hit us in the evening. But for now we spread out on the cushions, and shortly after that everyone was asleep or at least dozing. I had of course snuggled up to Jonas again, and so the exhaustion had a very real, pleasant side!

“Well that’s a nice sight for my old eyes!”

How? What? I must have fallen asleep too. I startled up and banged the back of my head on something hard, which turned out to be Jonas’ chin.

“Ouch! Faby, you have a damn hard skull!”

And Jonas a damn hard chin. Carefully, I rubbed the back of my head – that was sure to give me a good bump! But who had roused me so rudely from my sleep in the first place?

I looked up and saw a tall figure standing in the open door of the cabin. Through the bright sunlight coming from outside only a dark silhouette was recognizable, I couldn’t make out who exactly came to visit us. The laughter at our collision, however, sounded quite familiar.

“Dad, what are you doing here? Did you get the road cleared today already?”

“No, Faby, I’m back with the snowmobile. We thought we’d bring you up some more Stollen, a decent sized cold plate for dinner and some nibbles, so you can have a little farewell party tonight.”

“That means we’re really getting out of here tomorrow?”

“Yes, the K87 is almost cleared up to our driveway already, tomorrow morning we’ll start on the last stretch up here to the cabin. By noon at the latest, you’ll officially be part of civilization again.”

Hallelujah! Had the others heard that, too? Although. Which others? Stunned, I noticed that the cabin was empty except for Jonas and me. Even my beloved seemed to notice this now.

“Where did they all go?”

“If you mean Jasmin, Reiko, and the kids: they’re all outside, busily shoveling snow.”

Meanwhile, my dad had closed the cabin door and stepped further into the cabin. I looked at the clock: it was already close to three. Why hadn’t they woken us up? Very strange.

“What the heck! Faby, what have you done to your hair?”

“Dyed it, dad.”

My father shook his head in disbelief.

“Well, I can’t keep up with today’s fashion, I guess I’m too old for that.”

Jonas ran both hands through my tousled hair.

“Well, I like it!”

“Ah yes. Well, that’s all right then, Faby. After all, it’s more important that your boyfriend likes it than that your old dad understands it, isn’t it?”

Indeed!

“I mean, Jonas is your boyfriend, or did I somehow misunderstand your cuddling?”

Oops. Well, there wasn’t really anything left to misunderstand. Besides, he could know, I hadn’t intended to hide it for long anyway.

“Yeah, dad, Jonas and I are together now.”

“I see.”

My dad made a stern face, and I nervously lifted myself slightly out of Jonas’ embrace.

“Well, congratulations, you two!”

Whew! Relieved, I let myself sink back down, and Jonas seemed to relax again, too.

“Jonas, welcome to the family. Oh… Did I say something wrong?”

Dad looked at us in amazement, and since I wasn’t aware of any fault, I turned so that I could look Jonas in the face. And on that pretty face tears were now rolling!

“Jonas, what’s wrong?”

My friend continued to cry and only very quietly managed to get out a single word. Family. Everything was clear to me at that moment. Carefully I changed our positions so that it was now I who took the other in his arms.

“Fabian, what’s wrong with him?”

“Dad, I’ll tell you about that later, okay?”

“If you say so. Did I do anything wrong?”

“No, rather the opposite.”

He was content with that for now, thankfully.

“Does anyone else know about you yet? That you’re a couple?”

“Everyone here at the cabin. And Tom.”

“Oh, your brother’s in on it too? Probably on the phone yesterday, right?”

“Yes. I take it from your surprise that he’s been tight-lipped.”

“Indeed, not a word did he blurt out.”

Good Tommy. There was a reason that he was my favorite brother. I mean, besides him being my only brother!

“Can I tell your mother, or do you want to do it yourself?”

I thought about it for a moment. My mom could get pretty emotional sometimes, so maybe it was actually better if she got a little heads up from dad.

“Go ahead and tell her.”

“All right, I will. She’ll be mighty pleased too, Faby. But this…”

He pointed to my hair.

“…this you’ll have to confess yourself!”

I had to laugh, and Jonas also seemed to feel a little better. Reassuringly, I continued to stroke his hair.

“And Jonas?”

“Yes?”

“You’re the older one of the two of you, so I expect you to keep my son in line.”

Oh, well, I really didn’t need that, I didn’t need a chaperone!

“I will, Mr. Roecker!”

“Just call me Juergen, okay?”

“Okay, thanks!”

“Very well. So, I’ll quickly bring in the few things I have in the sledge. By the way, Fabian? You’ve really done a lot with the snow shoveling, almost the whole yard is cleared already.”

Wonderful!

“But you do realize that you didn’t have to do that, right? The big snow blower would have done that tomorrow in no time.”

Crap, why did he have to bring this up!

“I’m a little surprised you didn’t think of it.”

I sighed, now I guess I’d better come clean.

“Dad, of course I thought of it! But…”

“But what?”

“But this way I could keep the kids busy for a whole day! Yesterday they spent hours building snow castles and playing around, today they would have gotten bored with that. And what else is there to keep them busy with up here? Should they just sit in the cabin and watch TV all day?”

“Oh. So you put them through Occupational Therapy?”

“Look at it this way, dad. When they climb into their sleeping bags or beds tonight, completely exhausted, they’ll do so in the belief that they’ve done something good for all of us. That they have, so to speak, participated in their own rescue. That’s much better than if they’d just been hanging around all day doing nothing useful.”

Understanding spread across my father’s face.

“Faby, you should become a psychologist. That was really a brilliant move!”

“Thanks, dad. But it will only remain brilliant as long as the kids don’t find out about it. If they do, their last hours together here will be a gauntlet for me.”

“I get it, no one will find out from me. But you’ll probably have to clear that up with Jonas, it seems to me that he didn’t know all the glorious details of your plan until now, either.”

“Indeed, Juergen, about the deeper ulterior motives I hear now for the first time!”

“Oh Jonas, I hope you can forgive me again!”

“Well THAT I must think about very seriously! But we’ll sort that out when it’s just the two of us.”

My dad laughed softly to himself.

“That’s right, Jonas, you have to keep Fabian on a short leash, that’s the best way to deal with the brat.”

Well thank you very much!

“Okay, and now I’m really going to get the things inside.”

Said it and disappeared, only to reappear shortly thereafter with one of the already familiar heavy food baskets.

“Here, you’ll have to unpack it yourself. I must get on the way back again, so that I still get home in daylight. Until tomorrow, guys, the longest part of your stay here is over. By this time tomorrow, everyone will be happily reunited with their families.”

This time Jonas managed to get over the family issue without another crying fit. We wished my dad a safe trip back, then we were alone in the cabin again.

“Okay, Jonas, what do we do now?”

My beloved looked at the clock.

“It’s already after three, and the others either don’t seem to need us or don’t want us outside. I suggest we unpack what your dad brought, and then we’ll set up for a coffee break.”

That was a good idea, I’m sure the hardworking snow shovelers wouldn’t be upset if we called them in for Stollen and hot drinks.

“Say, Faby…”

“Yes?”

“You really planned the whole snow shoveling project today mainly to keep everyone busy?”

Slightly embarrassed, I smiled at him.

“Guilty as charged.”

Tilting his head, Jonas looked at me, then burst out laughing.

“Haha. Faby, your dad is absolutely right, you are brilliant. No idea how you came up with this!”

“So you’re not mad at me?”

“I didn’t say THAT! I mean, you could have let me in on it.”

“Sorry, but the more people know about a secret, the sooner it’s no longer a secret.”

“You have a lot of faith in me. Well, we’ll be able to work on that in the coming weeks, months and years.”

I was jubilant, this clearly meant that Jonas was planning a long future with me! I could not imagine anything more beautiful…

Reiko

I woke up, and felt somehow abandoned. Only Fabian and Jonas were cuddled up on the couch, all the others had left. Or wait, Arko was still curled up in front of the fireplace. But that was it.

Yawning, I got up from the chair. It was already half past three, but nobody came to make us work in the snow. A glance through the window outside showed me that Jasmin was hard at work with the kids, and I decided to join them. For a moment I thought about waking up the last two sleepers, but they were slumbering so peacefully that I couldn’t bring myself to do it. So I got dressed alone and left the cabin, even Arko had only a tired blink of one eye left for me and made no effort to accompany me outside. The kids had probably tired him out completely.

Once in the yard, I saw that Jasmin and the gang of kids had done a great job, in fact almost the entire place had been cleared. Well, I wouldn’t complain that there wasn’t much left for me to do. I grabbed a snow shovel and joined Jasmin.

“Well Reiko, slept in?”

“Yes … yawn … thanks. I needed that.”

“I bet you did. Are the other two coming out, too?”

They did that already. Coming out I mean, hehe. But I knew what Jasmin meant.

“When I went out, they were still asleep. I didn’t bring it over my heart to wake them up.”

“Don’t worry, we can manage the rest on our own.”

“Yes, I can see you’ve done a lot.”

“Well, even girls can work hard. And when the boys showed up twenty minutes ago, things went even faster. Okay, and now don’t play the worker’s monument here, do some work, too.”

The voice of my mistress. What else could I do, I started to swing the snow shovel, and with united forces we tackled the last few square meters.

A few minutes we worked in silence next to each other, then Jasmin told me to stop.

“Reiko, do you hear that?”

I listened, but didn’t notice anything.

“What?”

“Kids, please be quiet!”

Our five charges had been making quite a racket all this time; they still seemed to have enough energy to make jokes on the side. Now, however, they too paused, and then I heard it too.

“You mean the humming?”

“Yes. I wonder what that is.”

“Well, to me it sounds like the snowmobile from the day before yesterday.”

“You’re right, that could be it.”

And indeed, the humming sound came closer and closer, and soon the associated snowmobile also appeared between the trees. Shortly after, it stopped next to us.

“Well hello everyone! You guys are busy!”

We gathered around and greeted Fabian’s dad.

“Where is my son? Don’t tell me he’s letting you do all the work here and is lazing around himself!”

“Mr. Roecker, he’s sleeping right now, and he needs it. He works the hardest of all of us.”

“Well, Reiko, is that really true?”

“Yes, that’s the absolute truth.”

“Well, I’ll take your word for it.”

“What are you doing here anyway, Mr. Roecker? We weren’t expecting you at all today.”

“My wife and I thought you might need a little supply of fresh rations.”

I frowned.

“Does that mean we’ll have to hold out here much longer?”

“No, Reiko, just until tomorrow. I guess we’ll be able to get to you by noon at the latest. I just brought some things for you to have a nice last evening up here.”

This was good news. With each passing day, the cabin did feel a little more cramped now, and besides, the kiddies certainly wouldn’t be thrilled if they had to spend Christmas away from their parents. The five little ones seemed happy about this announcement.

“Okay, I’m going to go check on the cabin.”

That was the signal for us to get back to work, and with newly awakened zeal we set to it. Mr. Roecker went to the cabin and opened the door, and at that moment it ran ice cold down my spine!

“Crap!”

“What’s wrong, Reiko?”

“Fabian and Jonas are lying there on the couch in a rather telltale pose! Mr. Roecker will notice what’s going on with them at first glance!”

Jasmin’s face showed incomprehension.

“But Fabian’s parents know he’s gay, and they don’t have a problem with it, do they?”

“Yes, they are totally okay with it, but they don’t know about Jonas yet. Correction. At least now Mr. Roecker knows.”

Jasmin laughed to herself.

“It’s not so bad, could be much worse.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, think about it. The boys are lying there dressed on the couch, that’s all there is to it. It’s not like he caught them naked or even having sex!”

At this idea I had to laugh, Jasmin was absolutely right, THAT would have been worse! On the other hand, I didn’t really want to imagine what two guys would do during sex. Although… I would like to know one thing! Was Fabian active or passive? But I would be careful not to ask him that to his face.

“Reiko, the way you’re grinning to yourself, you must have just been thinking about something VERY naughty!”

“No comment, Jasmin, no comment!”

Laughing, we got back to work. After a few minutes, Fabian’s dad came back out of the cabin, walked over to the snowmobile, and then dragged a large basket inside. When he left the cabin again shortly after, he came over to us once more.

“Reiko, a LITTLE warning would have been really nice. I’m sure you know what a sight I found in there.”

Apologetically, I looked at him.

“Yes, I’m sorry, Mr. Roecker, it didn’t occur to me until the moment you already stepped through the door. It must have been quite a surprise for you to find Fabian and Jonas snuggled up like that.”

“Oh, Reiko, that’s not really what I mean, that was a nice surprise.”

If that wasn’t the problem, what was Fabian’s dad getting at?

“I mean the blue hair!”

This caught me completely off guard, and laughing I choked on my own spit.

“Oh that … cough … that’s what you mean!”

“Yeah right! I was expecting a lot of things, but not my son running around like a walking neon sign.”

That set off the next round of laughter, and I pointed at Patrick.

“Take a look behind you for a minute, Mr. Roecker. Patrick, take off your beanie for a moment!”

Grinning, the teenager did just that, revealing his bright-green heap of hair. Fabian’s dad slapped his hands over his head in mock horror.

“Another one! Well that’s going to be fun tomorrow when the parents find out! Reiko, if they don’t want to take their son back with them because of this, you’ll have to keep looking after him!”

Everything but that! As a permanent father replacement I was probably still a little too young.

“Well, I leave you again. You could prepare yourselves tomorrow around ten for the liberation. You big ones please see to it that the little ones pack up all their things, that nothing is left behind. The same goes for yourselves, of course!”

“We’ll do that, Mr. Roecker. We’ve already cleaned up the cabin a bit today, too, and tomorrow we’ll clean it up again, too.”

“That’s very nice, Jasmin. Well then, see you tomorrow! Oh, Reiko, I left a package for Fabian at the door, would you please give it to him before he gets into his pajamas tonight?”

Well, what might be in this package? But I would probably only find out tonight.

“No problem, I’ll give it to him before he takes a shower.”

“Thanks, Reiko.”

We said goodbye to Mr. Roecker, who got back on the snowmobile and disappeared into the forest with a loud growl. And this time without Patrick begging to take him with him. I glanced at the work that still lay ahead of us.

“Alright, guys, let’s get to it! We should be able to do this in twenty minutes!”

We even managed it in fifteen minutes, and highly satisfied we looked at the result of all our efforts. Everything was now ready here for the reception of our rescuers.

“Look prfmpfffff…”

My words were totally messed up by a mega load of snow that Jasmin had shoveled right into my face. That called for revenge! I pounced on her, and already we were rolling through the snow. The kids did not want to stand there as mere spectators, of course, so that shortly thereafter the most beautiful snowball fight and brawl was underway. I had no idea where they still found all that energy!

Fabian

After my dad had disappeared, we looked first of all what he had brought with him. In the basket we found a large Stollen, two packages of gingerbread, a huge plate with sandwiches and rolls, various snacks and four bottles of children’s punch. Or wait, there were only three bottles of children’s punch, the fourth one contained real mulled wine! So the farewell party could start!

As Jonas had suggested, we prepared everything for the coffee table. I set the table, Jonas cut the Stollen, and then we put the gingerbread in a big bowl. It really looked quite nice.

“What do you think, Faby, when should we put on the coffee and cocoa?”

I looked out of the window and was quite surprised that no one was working anymore, everyone was just rolling around in the snow.

“They seem to be done with the snow shoveling, we can get started, I guess.”

Jonas fired up the coffee maker and milk stove, then we sat down on the couch for a few more quiet minutes.

“Jonas, sorry about earlier…”

He looked at me without understanding.

“What do you mean?”

“Well… About my dad and the ’welcome to the family’ and all. He couldn’t have known that it would bring back such dark memories and even tears for you.”

Jonas sighed sadly.

“It’s okay, no one needs to apologize for that. Not you, and certainly not your dad. He only meant well, after all.”

That was definitely the case.

“I’m sorry, Fabian, I’m afraid that I’m going to sometimes have a depressive phase on occasions like this.”

“I understand that completely, Jonas. But together we’ll get through this!”

I smiled encouragingly at him, and that seemed to go down well with him, the dark clouds disappearing from his face.

“Okay, the coffee is through, the milk is ready too. We should call the others in.”

We got up and went to the door. Outside, a totally crazy sight awaited us: two adults and five children rolling through the snow, soaping each other up with the cold white stuff and seeming to be having the time of their lives. To make matters worse, Arko now dashed out of the cabin and jumped into the fray.

For a while we watched the wild goings-on in silence, then Jonas spoke up loudly and audibly.

“Look, Faby, aren’t the kids cute? All eight of them!”

With that, it was clear that Jonas included Arko as well as Jasmin and Reiko in the term “kids,” which also got around pretty quickly among those concerned. All we could do was quickly retreat behind the door, and the next moment snowballs were landing on it!

“Kids! I’m not a kid anymore! Just you wait!”

“Uh-oh, Jonas, you hit someone in a pretty sensitive spot there.”

“Hehe, looks like it, Faby.”

I looked around and spotted a ski pole. All that was missing was … ah, yes, that fit! I grabbed the ski pole, tied Arko’s towel to it, opened the door a crack, and slid the white flag outside.

“Truce!”

“Are you giving up?”

“Give up? Never! The most we’re willing to do is sign a peace treaty without admission of guilt!”

“That’s not much, Fabian, after the way your better half beat down Jasmin and me. Can you offer anything in compensation?”

We actually could.

“How about coffee, cocoa, Stollen and gingerbread?”

That led to a brief discussion amongst the … kids. And to a question.

“Fabian? Is that homemade Stollen? Baked by yourself?”

Ah. I had Reiko on the hook!

“Yes, it is.”

“Okay, agreed, peace!”

I pulled back the white flag, opened the cabin door and cautiously stuck my head out. Sure enough, the fighting had stopped.

“Well then, come on in and get out of those clothes. They’re bound to be soaking wet.”

While the away team now hurried to get into the cabin and rid themselves of their snowsuits, I made my way to Jonas, who was already pouring coffee and cocoa.

“Faby?”

“Yes?”

“You should patent your Stollen recipe, you could win a Nobel Peace Prize for that.”

“Thanks, honey.”

Five minutes later, everyone was sitting at the coffee table stuffing their faces with Stollen and gingerbread. Exercise in the fresh air really did seem to make you extremely hungry, so it was just as well that my dad had done another supply run.

“What else are we going to do today?”

Ricarda’s question brought the conversations around the table to a halt.

“Well, you’ve noticed that my dad brought over a few more things. Like snacks, punch and some other delicious things for dinner. We can have a nice farewell party tonight!”

Cheers broke out around the table.

“We’ll have a good time, maybe play some games, and then we’ll end our last evening here quite comfortably. Agreed?”

Everyone seemed to be enthusiastic about this proposal, at least I looked at satisfied, smiling faces only.

“Good. But before the pleasure comes the work. Jonas and I will take care of the dishes and so on, and you should get ready for bed. So off to the shower and sleepwear on, we’re having a real slumber party.”

There were no objections to that either. Well, we had been walking around in nightwear the last few evenings anyway.

“Fabian is right, and to make that go reasonably quickly, please shower again in pairs today, otherwise it will take forever again because of the limited supply of warm water.”

During the next two hours there was a lot of activity in the cabin. In the bathroom was a constant coming and going, first Manuela and Ricarda showered, then all three younger boys immediately shared the next load of warm water, later Jasmin and Reiko disappeared together, and I rather did not even think about it.

Those who were not in the bathroom helped to prepare everything for the upcoming party. Nibbles were distributed, glasses for the punch were provided and the cold plate was unpacked. The latter found an Arko-save place high up on the counter.

“Oh, you guys have been busy, so the party can start soon!”

Jasmin and Reiko returned from their shower round, which had turned out shorter than I had feared.

“But you’re not starting without us, got it? Faby and I have to take a quick shower too.”

I guess that meant we’d be getting in the water together, too.

“Then you’ll just have to hurry, we certainly won’t wait forever for you, brother dear.”

What an example of real sibling love!

“Okay, we’re already on our way. We’ll just have to shower with lukewarm water.”

“Maybe it’s better that way, you two. Or even better: ice cold!”

Sooooo not, I really didn’t need that again!

“By the way, Fabian, here’s another package from your dad. I shouldn’t give it to you until you get ready for bed.”

A package? From my dad? For the bed? I had a dark premonition of what it was, so I snatched it out of Reiko’s hand.

“Come on, Jonas, let’s go take a shower!”

“Aren’t you going to open the package, Faby?”

“No, not here in front of everyone!”

“Oh…”

Indeed. Oh. I pulled Jonas into the bathroom, where there was a heavy, warm, humid atmosphere. My sweetheart was still a bit puzzled by what had just happened.

“I have a feeling that you know exactly what’s in that package?”

“I’m pretty sure I know.”

“Well, are you going to tell me?”

“Later, when we’re done showering.”

“Oh, you can’t wait to see me naked again, can you?”

“You got it, Jonas!”

Jonas was a little surprised by this clear, unambiguous answer, then he grinned and began to undress. I did the same, and shortly thereafter we stood in the shower cubicle, which was a bit cramped for two adults. Which I wouldn’t complain about in this particular case, though!

But to be completely honest: nothing happened between us. At least if you left off the mutual back soaping. We agreed to wait a little longer, and therefore we strictly adhered to the rule “look yes – touch no”. For more we would have had neither place nor time anyway, because the water soon became quite cool and drove us out of the shower stall.

While we were drying off, Jonas came back to the confounded package.

“Are you finally going to tell me what your dad sent you?”

I sighed, Jonas probably wouldn’t give up until he got to the bottom of the mystery.

“Just open it and see for yourself.”

Hah was this boy curious! I couldn’t look as fast as he had already opened the package and pulled out the contents. Immediately afterwards followed by an outburst of hilarity.

“What’s this, Faby?”

“It’s my Christmas sleepshirt.”

“Your what?”

“My Christmas sleepshirt. Tom gave it to me four years ago or so, and ever since then it’s been a tradition that I wear it on the nights of 12/23 to 12/27.”

“Well that’s really mega cute! And it comes with a matching hat too! Go on, wear it!”

This is exactly what I was afraid of! I should have made this thing disappear while I still had a chance. Now it was all too late.

“Do I really have to? In front of all the others?”

“Come on, it’ll be fun!”

At my expense again. Great. But of course I couldn’t deny Jonas his wish, not to mention the fact that my dad would definitely ask tomorrow if I had kept up the tradition. So I slipped into the ankle-length, bright red sleepshirt made of thick terry cloth. White tassels were attached to the bottom of the hem and to the wrists and collar, as well as to the opening of the breast pocket. The hat was also bright red, with white trim and white pom-pom.

“Absolutely cuddly, Faby! A little weird with the blue hair under the red hat, but still, totally cute!”

Annoyed, I rolled my eyes. And this is how I was to present myself to the assembled crew!

Jonas was now slipping into his pajamas as well, and then my last reprieve was up, and we left the bathroom for the living room. When we arrived there, and gradually all present discovered my outfit, all conversations died out – to be replaced shortly thereafter by a laughing canon! Great. But what else could I do but play the game, so I bowed to my audience.

“Hahaha… Faby, was that in the package from your dad?”

“Yes, Reiko. It’s my traditional Christmas sleepshirt. I guess my dad thought it was the only thing that would make Christmas complete for me.”

And Tom I would pay back for that someday!

It took quite a while for everyone to calm down, then finally the party could begin! Jasmin and Reiko distributed punch, the whole cabin already smelled of it. For us adults there was of course mulled wine, and Patrick also begged for half a glass. Well, he had finally grown up a bit in the last 24 hours.

“And what do you want to play?”

We thought about it, then Christoph had the idea, which immediately earned approval from everyone.

“How about Yahtzee? We can all play that together.”

This was really a good choice, and soon, in addition to Christmas music and laughter from nine throats, the clacking of the dice on the table could be heard. In between there was eating and drinking, and of course the dog was fed, too, and later let out the door again. The obligatory telephone round with the parents also took place.

About nine o’clock the efforts of the day took their toll, more and more often someone yawned, and I thought that we should come to the end slowly.

“What do you think, do we stop after this round? Some people here seem to be very tired, and tomorrow is a big day.”

Completely uncharacteristic of a group of kids this age, there were no protests against this suggestion, and I secretly congratulated myself on my I’ll-tire-them-out-during-the-day-and-it-will-be-easier-to-get-them-to-bed tactic. After Manuela, the youngest at the table, had won the last dice game, we cleaned up, ate the last chips and sandwiches, then everyone moved into their sleeping bags and beds – after brushing their teeth of course.

I quickly turned off the generator, then followed Jonas into the bedroom, where Jasmin and Reiko had already arrived. This time, they had immediately laid down together in Reiko’s bed. Well, I couldn’t deny them that, so I slipped under the covers with Jonas. It felt good to lie down so comfortably after such an exhausting day!

“Well then, sleep well, enjoy the last night here in the wild.”

“Thank you, Fabian. All in all, it was a great time.”

We could all only agree with Jasmin. I turned off the lamp, then silence returned. Until Jonas whispered something in my ear.

“The sleepshirt is stupid.”

Huh, what did he mean? I whispered back.

“Why?”

“Because I can’t reach into your pants.”

Well, such a bad finger!

“You could push it up.”

Jonas blew on the back of my neck.

“Should I?”

“No, not this night.”

“Okay, but postponed is not abandoned.”

“Right. Good night, Jonas.”

“Good night, Faby.”

Shortly after, his steady breaths told me that he had already fallen asleep, and within a few minutes I too followed him into the realm of dreams.

Reiko

There was nothing better than waking up in the morning in a cozy, warm bed and knowing that you didn’t have to get out yet. I looked around in the bedroom, then my eyes fell on the window. Oh damn! Daylight already! So much for not having to get out of bed yet!

Hastily I worked my way out from under the covers, with the result that I lost my balance and the next moment landed with a loud plop on the floor in front of the bed!

“Ouch!”

“Menno, what a racket you’re making in the early morning!”

From a thick pile of pillows and blankets, Fabian’s blue head peeked out.

“Sorry, I fell out of bed.”

“So what, you could have done it quietly!”

Now that was a sympathetic one. Rubbing my aching rear end, I rose from the floor and slowly my thoughts cleared, noticing a surprising emptiness in the room. I had been lying in bed all alone, and even in the double bed only the scrawny figure of Fabian could be seen under the comforters.

“Have our better halves left us?”

“Yes, they left fifteen minutes ago to make breakfast.”

Oh. Well that was a nice service, for that I would possibly even forgive Jasmin for leaving me all alone in bed.

“And now?”

“Now we wait for them to call us to the table, what else?”

“You mean you want me to lie down again, too?”

“Sure, one has to take advantage of such a situation.”

Hmm. Why not, actually. The hard work from the day before was still in my bones anyway.

“Make a little room for me!”

“Huh?”

I guess I had to help out. I pushed Fabian a little to the side and settled down next to him in the double bed, then I crawled under the covers as well.

“Eh, what are you doing here! You have your own bed!”

I actually had that, but there was no one else in there to warm it for me.

“Don’t worry, I won’t attack you. I’d rather leave that to your Jonas.”

“Idiot.”

For once, I decided to generously overlook this insult.

“You know what, Fabian? I think I’m going to send a thank you note to Melanie and René sometime in the next few days.”

My bedmate seemed to have figured out that he wasn’t going to get any more sleep, at least he turned to me and propped his head on his left hand.

“Why is that?”

“Well, think about it. If those two hadn’t double-crossed me like that, then none of this would have happened. I wouldn’t have driven off headless, I wouldn’t have run off the road, you wouldn’t have saved me, we wouldn’t have become friends again, I wouldn’t have met Jasmin, and you might have been bored to death up here.”

“Hmm… That’s kind of true. Then I guess I should be grateful to them for finding my Jonas.”

“Indeed!”

“Still. I think a thank-you note would be a bit excessive. Why don’t you show your gratitude by not giving René any more visits to the dentist?”

I had to laugh, considering the experiences of the last few days I almost felt a little sorry for René. Besides: I was pretty sure that Melanie would also cheat on him with another guy at some point.

“We had some nice days up here.”

“You’re right, Reiko. I had imagined them completely different, but nice they were indeed.”

There was a knock at the door of the room, it opened and Patrick stuck his head into the room. When he saw us together in bed, he first looked a bit puzzled, then he grinned.

“You can be glad that I’m the one calling you for breakfast and not Jasmin or Jonas!”

“Patrick, you have a dirty mind!”

“Oh, do I, Reiko?”

“Yes, you do. I think it’s great!”

Now all three of us were laughing, and I wondered once again about the transformation that had taken place in the boy. Another good thing that the Melanie-René scene had led to.

“Anyway, if you can tear yourselves away from each other, you should really come out. That is, if you value getting some of that breakfast.”

With those words, Patrick pulled the door to the room closed again, leaving us alone. What he had said, however, was enough of an incentive to drive us out of the bed.

“We really should get out there, not that they’ll really eat it all out from under our noses.”

“That’s right, Faby, so get out of bed!”

We worked our way out of bed, and I grinned again in admiration of Fabian’s extraordinary night attire.

“What are you looking at, Reiko?”

“Oh nothing, nothing… Don’t forget the hat!”

Fabian gave me the famous finger, but put on the red Santa hat anyway. When we appeared in the living room we were (well, Fabian was) greeted with lots of laughter. I got a good morning kiss from Jasmin and saw out of the corner of my eye that Fabian did the same to Jonas, then we sat down at the well filled breakfast table.

“Well, folks, that’s it for our cabin adventure. It’ll all be over in a few hours.”

Over, certainly, but definitely not forgotten. The mood was actually almost a little depressed, somehow everyone had enjoyed the last few days one way or the other. On the other hand, everyone was happy to return to their families, especially the kids.

We had another leisurely breakfast, then the tasks for the last morning in the cabin were distributed. The girls would take care of the dishes, the boys would take care of the sleeping bags, and we big guys would take care of the beds.

“When you pack up your things, please check carefully that you don’t forget anything here.”

The following hour and a half was a bit chaotic, no wonder when nine people had to gather their things and, to top it all off, clean up a bit. Shortly after ten, however, the time had come, everyone had collected their stuff and was waiting for the things that were to come. We had just settled down comfortably when Fabian’s cell phone rang.

“Roecker.”

I tried to listen in, but could only catch Fabian’s side of the conversation.

“Great!”

That sounded positive.

“Yes, we’re already packed and just waiting for you guys.”

Hopefully not too much longer, because unlike the other days, we were all fully dressed, except for boots and jackets we wore normal street clothes, of course with the inevitable long underwear underneath. After all, the thermometer showed twelve degrees below zero!

“Okay, I’ll pass it on. See you soon!”

See you soon? Then hopefully we wouldn’t have to wait too much longer! Fabian ended the conversation and looked smiling in the round.

“I’m supposed to give you a nice greeting from my dad, the snow blower has just started to take care of our driveway. It should arrive here in about half an hour. Your parents are also close by, they’ll come up when the snow blower has cleared the way.”

Cheers broke out among the kids, and I was also relieved. The next half hour flew by, and then we heard a heavy engine humming up the trail to the cabin.

“They’re here!”

Now the kids were unstoppable, slipping into their shoes and jackets, then rushing outside. We older cabin dwellers took it a little easier and still arrived in the yard in time to see the snow blower turn into the already cleared area. Behind them followed two four-wheel drive minibuses of the mountain rescue service, from which – as soon as they had come to a halt – two handfuls of adults jumped and rushed towards the children. The children, in turn, rushed toward the adults, and shortly thereafter scenes could be seen that were otherwise only known from the documents on the fall of the Berlin Wall. Jasmin, Jonas, Fabian and I stood a little apart and grinned to ourselves.

The snow blower driver had also gotten out and came sauntering over to us.

“You’ve done a hell of a job shoveling snow. Wouldn’t have been necessary, though.”

Fabian turned a bit pale, cast an anxious glance in the direction of the children, then put his right index finger in front of his lips.

“Psssssst!”

The snow blower driver didn’t seem to know quite what Fabian wanted from him, but he had already moved on to the next topic anyway.

“I’m going back down now and make the path a little wider. When I’m through, the others will come up too.”

Ah yes, I had wondered why my parents were not here yet. The driver swung back into his snow-slinging behemoth, and shortly thereafter the big yellow thing crept away toward the county road.

The initial cheers of welcome from the children had subsided in the meantime, and now they came over to us together with their parents. Manuela’s dad had apparently been chosen by them to be the spokesman.

“We would like to thank all of you very, very much. It’s been really great the way you’ve taken care of our kids, and they’re still totally thrilled with you and the days here at the cabin, too.”

As our good upbringing and innate modesty demanded, we naturally downplayed our actions, though this was not accepted by the parents.

“Today is a family day for all of us, but we would be happy if we could all meet for lunch at the Stone Valley Inn on the 26th. At our expense, of course!”

This invitation we could not refuse, so we agreed. Then it was time to say goodbye to our protégés, and one by one they boarded the waiting minibuses with their parents. At the very end, a mountain of a man asked me to step aside, where an equally sturdy woman was already waiting for us.

“I am Hartmut Bolke, this is my wife Doreen. Mr. Heilmann, we wanted to thank you again personally for giving us back our Patrick.”

I felt myself blushing with embarrassment.

“But I didn’t do that much at all.”

“No, no, my husband is quite right! You have accomplished in two days what none of us was able to do in two months! Patrick told us everything. We will have a lot to talk about, but the most important thing is that he is talking to us again. Our son is back, and we owe it all to you.”

I launched into the next protest, but was immediately interrupted by Patrick’s father.

“Don’t talk back to me, young man! Just accept that we are and always will be very, very grateful to you. So, now we’re going to get back to our son and enjoy having him back. Even though he now looks like a Greenpeace advertising mascot.”

We laughed, apparently they didn’t seem to have any real problems with their son’s new hair color.

They both hugged me goodbye, then walked to the second bus and got on. At that moment, three large SUVs also came up the driveway and turned into the yard. The vans started their engines, and with a little honking they made way for the new arrivals.

As I walked back to the other three, I eyed the SUVs curiously. The first one was a police jeep, so it probably belonged to Fabian’s parents. The second was my parents’ Landcruiser, and I had to look a little closer at the third until I recognized the inscription “Hotel Stone Valley Inn” on the side. The old Ziermayer apparently did not miss the opportunity to pick up his apprentice personally.

I put an arm around Jasmin and saw Fabian doing the same with Jonas. We watched as first Fabian’s and then my parents got out, actually followed by the hotel boss himself. Suddenly I noticed how Jasmin stiffened in my arm. With a fixed gaze she stared at the couple who were now getting out of the hotel SUV.

“Holy shit…”

“What’s wrong, Jasmin?”

“That…that’s my parents!”

I shifted in a flash.

“Your parents? The ones who kicked Jonas out and tried to forbid you to visit him here?”

“The very ones!”

Now I could only join their exclamation of “Holy shit…”.

Fabian

Up until this moment, everything had gone great, maybe a little embarrassing because of the parents’ expressions of gratitude. But now everything seemed to go down the drain quickly.

Jonas had been alerted by his sister’s exclamation that someone else was getting out of the car behind Ludwig Ziermayer. The poor guy was actually nervous enough, because after my dad he was now supposed to meet my mom, but when he saw his own parents approaching, he began to shake uncontrollably. All I could do was hold him as tightly as possible and hope that my dad would intervene if necessary when the expected unpleasant scene occurred.

The woman and the man behind Ziermayer approached us with a fixed stare, soon the thunder would probably start. When they were within two meters, I wanted to protectively stand between them and Jonas, but they stopped all by themselves. Silently, glances wandered back and forth between the parents and their son, then Mr. Borken spread his arms.

“Jonas, come here!”

Just like that, Jonas would certainly not have complied with this request, but we all now saw the tears on his father’s face, so my boyfriend mustered all his courage and timidly walked toward him. When he stood in front of him, his father hugged him and pulled him close.

“Boy, can you forgive us? We were such idiots…”

Tears were streaming down Mrs. Borken’s face as well, as she now joined the hug. I looked over at Jasmin, who apparently couldn’t quite grasp the whole thing yet. She was still standing frozen in the snow until Reiko gave her a push in the direction of her family. As if freed from a shackle, she rushed to her parents and brother. This was probably the time to retreat a bit, so that the family could have some space and time for themselves for the time being. And there were also my own parents to greet, so I walked over to them.

“Hi mom, hi dad.”

I was getting a hug now too, well, typical my mom. In a moment she would ask if I had always worn my thermal underwear.

“Faby, I am glad that I have you back! Let me look at you! Well, you don’t seem to be starving. But your hair! What have you done with it! But well, you have to know that yourself, you have to run around with it. I hope you always dressed warmly, not that you caught something up here in the snow.”

I knew it. I knew this was coming!

“Mother, let the boy catch his breath. You can see that he is doing well.”

“Oh Juergen, you know how I am! I’m always worried about my boys!”

I was lucky to have a younger brother, that way the maternal concern was at least distributed among two people!

“And so that’s your boyfriend over there? Jonas?”

“Yes, mom, that’s Jonas. I don’t quite get what’s going on there right now, though.”

I guess I didn’t say that quiet enough, the assembled Borken family had overheard my remark, as they were just making their way over to us. Jasmin and Jonas were walking between their parents, who had their arms around their offspring.

“I think I can explain a little bit here. Four days ago the phone rang at our house at night, Jonas’ boss, Mr. Ziermayer, was on the line and told us that Jonas and Jasmin, along with a group of children, were lost in the middle of a snowstorm in the woods.”

That had certainly been quite a shock to them, at least because of Jasmin.

“We were feeling pretty lousy at that point anyway, because it had slowly dawned on us that we were about to lose our daughter as well, after our son. And only because of our own stupidity.”

Surprised, I looked at Mr. Borken, those were really very clear words!

“We immediately packed a few things, got into the car and drove down here without stopping. It was quite a task to get through in the snow.”

I could well imagine, especially for such lowland natives who were unaccustomed to snow.

“On the drive down here, we were extremely worried, and we realized that really only one thing mattered to us: that we get our daughter and son back alive. Everything else was suddenly so unimportant…”

Why did it always need a disaster to bring clarity to people’s minds!

“At the hotel we met the other parents and Mr. Ziermayer, who raved about his apprentice Jonas.”

Ha! Of course! There was nothing to do but rave about Jonas!

“And then came the call that almost made us all collapse with happiness. Someone had found the lost hikers, they were safe, and everyone was fine. You have to imagine that, twelve grown people bawling their eyes out.”

In such a situation, it was quite understandable.

“In the days leading up to today, we had a lot of time to think, and then we also ran into Mr. Roecker, who happened to overhear a conversation we were having. Fabian, I can tell you one thing: no one has ever washed our heads like your dad did!”

I looked proudly at my father, who smiled at me with satisfaction. I already had enormous respect for him, but it had just increased even more.

“But why did you call only once? And why didn’t you tell me that you were already here at the Inn at that time!”

“Jasmin, your father and I, we still had so much to think about. The first call didn’t go so well either, we sensed that you weren’t too happy with us. Then we decided that we couldn’t solve the problem by phone, but only in person, from person to person. It was incredibly difficult for us not to have any more contact with you in the last two days, but I think it was better that way.”

My own dad had claimed that I had a psychological streak in me, and it told me now that it had been the right decision.

“And you’re okay with me being gay now?”

Those were the first words I heard from Jonas since his parents showed up, and he promptly asked the all-important question.

“Yes, Jonas, we’re coming to terms with it. We certainly have a lot to learn, we don’t really understand it yet. But as I said, the only thing that matters to us today is that you are well and happy. If you find happiness with another man, then so be it.”

“I hope so, dad.”

Jonas broke away from his parents’ arms and came over to me.

“You see, this here is Fabian. He’s the man I’m happy with. I love him, and he loves me. Whether you can handle it or not.”

Mrs. Borken smiled at us.

“That’s what I thought. The way he almost went for our throats when we were walking toward you earlier…”

Mind you, I would have actually done that if they had meant my treasure any harm!

“Who would have thought, we come racing down here in fear of having lost our daughter and son for good, and now we even get another son on top of that.”

This was too much for Jonas, with a sob he slumped down next to me, I could just prevent him from slamming down totally. Immediately our dads jumped in as well, but soon saw that I had the situation under control.

“Well, Mr. Borken, I guess the job of protector has finally been taken away from us, our boys have grown up.”

“You’re right, Mr. Roecker. That’s life, just a minute ago the little ones were bouncing around in diapers, and suddenly they’re real young men.”

“And women!”

“Okay, Jasmin, and women.”

Meanwhile, I was holding a crying Jonas very tightly in my arms, but they were clearly tears of joy and relief that he had his parents back. While I was very slowly calming him down, his parents were now getting to know their second son-in-law-to-be, which they were probably even more surprised about than the first.

But what could parents do when their children fell in love? Nothing. And even if they didn’t know it yet: with Reiko they had also made a good catch as a son-in-law.

Reiko’s parents had now also joined our group, as had Mr. Ziermayer. The Heilmanns were of course especially interested in Jasmin, whom they had known only from oral reports. There would certainly be no problems, Jasmin’s open and cheerful nature would quickly walk her way into their hearts.

It was then my mom who urged us to leave.

“Okay folks, shouldn’t we set off now? Faby, you are already expected by the whole family.”

Oh, what a shame, I had forgotten all about that whole family.

“You’ll be glad to get out of here at last, won’t you?”

“And Tom will sleep in my room, mom?”

“Yes, of course, there’s no other way with so many visitors.”

“Leonie, our son doesn’t seem to be very enthusiastic about this prospect. What’s the matter, Faby, don’t you feel like it? Christmas Eve with the whole family?”

I decided to be completely honest.

“Dad, we just spent four days here in a cramped space, nine people plus a dog. And now you’re coming at me with a huge family party. I’m sorry, but it’s like jumping from the frying pan into the fire.”

“I know, but we can’t chase all the relatives out of the house!”

I knew that, too. Alas.

“Couldn’t we at least stay here at the cabin for one more night?”

Reiko’s suggestion was the straw I was now grasping at.

“Exactly! Then we could still recover in peace from the exertions of the last few days.”

“But that’s not possible, surely your parents want to have you with them for Christmas too.”

As expected, the biggest resistance came from my mother. The other parental units seemed a little more open-minded.

“Well, Christmas is 3 days, and if it’s only until tomorrow…”

Reiko smiled gratefully at his mother.

“It shouldn’t be up to us either, we’ve done without our two for so long, so one day won’t make any difference.”

My mother now realized that she was standing in a lost position.

“All right, if that’s what it takes. But you’ll be home for lunch tomorrow, young man!”

Hopefully, by then I’d have recharged my batteries enough to be able to put up with the family clan.

“Wait a minute, we haven’t even asked Jasmin and Jonas if they want to stay here yet.”

Their broad grins were answer enough, and so I guess everything was settled.

Or maybe not. Suddenly, the corners of Jonas’ mouth dropped.

“What is it, honey?”

“I can’t stay here.”

“Why not, son?”

“I’ve got an early shift at the hotel tomorrow.”

Shit, I hadn’t even thought of that anymore. Jonas was the only one of us who had to work.

“Bub, let me worry about that! Your next shift doesn’t start until the third of January, until then I want to see you at the hotel as a guest at most, understand?”

That was the final proof, old Ziermayer was on a massive guilt trip. Usually he was after people’s money even more than the IRS!

“Really, boss?”

“Yeah, sure, boy. I screwed up when I sent you off with the kids, I should have known better. I’m glad I’m getting my apprentice back alive, I can do a few more days without him.”

“Thank you, boss, thank you so much!”

“You’re welcome. Okay, now I have to get back to the Inn, the business doesn’t run itself. Mrs. Borken, Mr. Borken, would you like to come with me?”

“No, Mr. Ziermayer, they’re going to have lunch with us.”

“But Mrs. Roecker, we can’t accept that!”

“Oh yes you can! Now that the boys are staying up here for another day, I’m not going to return home empty-handed!”

“But…”

“Don’t argue. We’ve got plenty to talk about now anyway.”

Thus Jonas’ parents had happily fallen into my mother’s clutches, and they would soon realize that there was no escape from our family. Mr. Ziermayer said goodbye and shortly thereafter sped off, and then we too said goodbye to our parents. It was not a farewell for a long time, even though my mom again acted as if I would be lost in the wilderness for 3 more months.

After a whole tirade of admonitions and well-meant hints, we took the six old folks to the cars. On the way, I pulled my dad aside for a moment.

“Dad, did you have to do that, the sleepshirt thing?”

His laughter filled the forest.

“Yes, Faby, I had to. Tom insisted.”

Ah yes. Tom. Very well. I now had a whole day to think of a very slow, very agonizing way for him to die!

Then it was time, the engines of the SUVs started up, and slowly the two vehicles crawled out of the yard. Reiko held Arko by the collar with one hand, with the other he embraced Jasmin. Jonas had also caught himself again, so that now it was he again who hugged me and held me tightly while we looked after our parents. When the vehicles had disappeared around a bend, we walked silently back into the suddenly so empty cabin.

We would now be able to enjoy this peace and quiet once again for a whole day. It would certainly do our still very young relationships good. But that’s already another story…

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from Germany!

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