had , and placed them on the basket . She grinned at me , “ There ’ s one left . You can do it .” I owed it to her . Passing the basket back to her , I cautiously put in my hand , patting the floor of the pen until it was obvious I had to put at least half of my arm inside . I reached into the right corner and blindly felt around that area , and sure enough , I felt the smooth shape of the egg . I carefully took it in my hand and put it with the rest on the basket , a look of triumph on my face . Helene shook her head at my childishness . “ Let ’ s go get breakfast .”
Two hours later we were all in two different cars ; my mom , dad , and brother , along with Helene ’ s father , Dirk , in the big car , and me , Helene ’ s mom , Susanne , and her brother , Nico , in the small car . The ride to Lermoos was around 2.5 hours , or so Susanne had said . But according to Nico , if his mom was driving , it would only take about an hour . Originally , I thought this was because she knew some shortcuts , but ten minutes into the ride , I realised it was because of how fast she drove . I didn ’ t mind her driving fast , what scared me was that it was pouring rain and the roads were covered in a thin icy sheet , making it slippery enough to be potentially dangerous . Still , we managed to make the ride fun . Nico , Helene , and I had brought along candy and some card games that we could play in the car without getting dizzy . And thankfully , Susanne didn ’ t mind us playing loud music and singing along , otherwise we would have gotten very bored .
We arrived in Lermoos , hungry and sore , but excited for the day that followed . It took us a while to find the hotel , but as soon as we did , we unloaded the cars of our bags and checked in . We dumped the bags in our rooms and left to go find a place to eat . My dad , having spotted it on the way in , suggested we went to the Alpenrose Hotel , one of the bigger ones in the area , to have an early dinner and enjoy the view . Nobody opposed . We walked to the hotel at a tourist pace , occasionally having to stop and wait for my mom as she took pictures of everything she saw , and , more than once , we stopped for my brother and Nico to look in a store for candy or anything as equally intriguing to them . A walk that should have taken ten minutes , at a normal walking speed , took us forty minutes , and everyone seemed to have forgotten about their hunger and sore spots as we looked around the green fields and breathed the fresh air . Eventually we made it to the hotel , found our way into the restaurant , took a table for eight and enjoyed the pretzels they had on the table as starters .
Later that night , when lying in bed , I felt like I belonged in a place for the first time in a while . Moving around as much as my family did was not easy , especially at my age . My brother was young , it was still easy for him to make friends wherever he went . All I had to rely on for a social life was school and my neighbours , but even then , the last place we lived in had not taught me many social skills . I was a socially awkward teenager that did not know how to make conversation with people my age . At least certainly not fun talk . But today , picking cherries and climbing trees and playing with chickens made me feel like I gained back a little of my lost self , or the child I ’ d left behind when we first moved , and it felt good .
“ Sie da ?” Helene next to me whispered . I turned around so I could face her . With the little moonlight seeping in from our bedroom window it was hard to see her face , but it gave her blonde hair and grey eyes a silvery shine , something that was a rather enticing sight . “ What ’ s keeping you up ? It ’ s a long day tomorrow .”
I flashed her a shy smile . “ Thank you for today ,” a little grin broke out on her face . “ I haven ’ t felt that way in ages .”
We turned so that we were both facing the ceiling . We stayed in silence like that for a while . We watched the shadows shift with the amount of moonlight that was reflected from the small pond right underneath our window . Her tired voice broke the silence softly , “ It was my pleasure . Gute Nacht .”
I closed my eyes , “ Gute Nacht .”