# 2 | View: Barbara



I'm through ... I think. Everything looks the same, I can't tell the difference. But when I look back, I see part of the branch that I rammed into the muddy ground. Speaking of the muddy ground ... I'm wet, dirty and absolutely smelly. I get up ... the window cannot be seen from up there, and if you come from further away, the tall fern and the mound of earth are in the way. How am I ever going to come back? First I look for a branch in this world too, and stick it in the ground. But I don't think that will be enough ... but I still have the knife. I go to the trees around the window and carve a 1cm wide ring around the chest at chest height. If I search long enough, I should find it again. But now the next problem ... where to go now? I have no sense of direction, what do you have friends for? But here I am alone, nobody who knows ... just me.

I've made up my mind, I'm going out straight away, so when I'm out the window, just ... well, straight. The path is relatively flat, I'm on the edge of a steep slope like the one I slipped down. If I had noticed earlier, I could almost have saved myself the carving.

Is my mother looking for me yet?

As I said, the ground is level, nothing overgrown, I'm making good progress. Then I notice, I'm thirsty, I only had a glass of tap water today, then we're off, and now it will certainly be about noon.

Hunger? No, strangely not. But all the more thirsty ... are there no sources here?

The ground has damp spots, but ... I'll keep my eyes open, but I have to keep going, I want to get out of the forest. My father once said that if I got lost, all I had to do was go downhill. The problem: everything is flat here. Well, then the easier it is for me to find the window again.

Is she looking for me yet? What is she thinking? Has my mother even noticed that I'm not there?

As I said, I don't have a watch, I have no idea how much time I've already spent in this world ... in this new world that so far looks exactly the same as the one I come from.

I'm still wet and dirty, another reason I want to get out of the woods ... it's damn shady here, I'm freezing. Is it cooler everywhere here? I was still sweating in our forest, but ... then I was still dry.

Should I turn back, go back? Sneak back here at night? With food, clothes, what do I know ... backpack? Or forgot the window? No, that doesn't work, I live too far away, and ... forgot? I've dreamed of half my life to find such a window, over time I've grown more and more into the belief that it exists, and now I'm finding confirmation ... or am I just crazy?Am I still in our forest? It doesn't look any different, and ... was there really a window? I try to remember, try to resist the urge to go back my way and look.

Think about it! It's about different! But what? Look around! Think about how you want to find the window again!

Mountains, exactly! There are no such large flat surfaces at home, I must have landed somewhere else.

Do I actually have a split personality? Or is that just the spinning of a pubescent fifteen year old? Or is it maybe my daemon? Um ... I think it's spinning around, I'll answer that ...

I get slower and slower when I think so much that I should hurry ... then I get warmer too.

There, something yellow next to me ... a chanterelle? Yes. I'd better take it with me, I don't know if you can eat it raw, but maybe I'll meet people who want to trade my mushrooms.I think I'm thinking too much again ...

Well, I now pay more attention to the ground and harvest chanterelles, with toadstools the only type of mushroom that I can identify. Oh no, I still know the parasol, the schnitzel mushroom. You bread it, fry it in the pan, and ... well, it really tastes like schnitzel.

Did I mention that I think too much? It's not good for me to be alone, I think I'll be wrong ...



I'm slowly getting hungry too, did I actually eat something last night? I don't think so ...

I run faster, this damn forest sucks! Wait a minute ... are these blackberries? It won't fill you up very much, I'll get fox tapeworm ... it doesn't matter.

In the meantime I have decided that this world has to look exactly like ours in terms of animals and plants, because if a being had come through the window or a seed had flown through ... but our forest is perfectly normal.

My thought really annoys me ... can you actually do something about it?Yes, talk ... to other people. Or sing ... I've decided never to sing voluntarily, why should I? Perhaps out of fear of uttering such weird tones as my cousin? But she doesn't mind either, and I've told her so many times ... I miss her, she's been on vacation for a week now. Well, then at least she won't notice that I'm gone.



My arms are now stabbed, the small appetizer made me even more hungry ... They didn't quench my thirst either.

So, on it goes ... on with my confused thoughts. Should I sing something? But what? I don't know any of them by heart ... well, all my ducklings or something ... I'd better forget that thought.



Do I do it very quickly now ... do I hear something splashing? Water? Have a quick look, I even run, you have to imagine, I RUN! I really must be dying of thirst.

The water flows relatively quickly, it also looks clear ... first I drink as much as I can, then I wash my clothes ... I freeze here, I sit here half-naked in the shady forest and wash myself in the icy mountain spring water ... mountains ?um .. everything is just here. I look around ... a slope like the one I slid down. The landscape seems to be stepped, because down on the slope everything is flat again ... a river flows through the forest, starting from this source.

I wring out my clothes and put them on ... they stick damp to my skin. Should I go on straight away? Yes, otherwise I'll still freeze to death, now I'm holding onto the stream.

But ... if I slide down this slope, I'll be just as muddy again ... great, if I should think I won't.

So I slide down the slope again, now not only are my clothes full, but I was hit too. I wash myself again when I come to a warmer place ... I don't want to go all the way into this icy water right now.

I decide to run as I really feel like I am freezing to death.



It was probably a mistake ... stitch! I let myself fall on the floor and just lie there for now.I notice how much my legs hurt, and my feet only ... I think I get blisters. Well, at least I'm not freezing anymore. I take off my shoes and socks and drag myself to the creek ... somehow there is a lot more water in there than at the beginning, it even looks reasonably deep. It's also not so icy any more, rather pleasantly cool. Since my clothes are still sticking to me and I don't feel like walking anymore, I go all the way into the stream ... with the clothes on and loaded with a pair of hiking boots, a bag with mushrooms and a knife, which I, after thinking about it, stuff it to the mushrooms. I swim a little along the stream, let myself drift now and then ... I think I can make almost faster progress that way.

Soon the forest clears around me, the current gets stronger, in the distance I hear a rustling ...

A noise? If there is really such a step-like structure here ... a waterfall! Panicked, I swim to the edge and try to pull myself up, which is not exactly easy because my entire load in the air is gaining weight again.

Great ... I guess there were a couple of nettles. But I really don't dare to go into the water anymore.

I curse myself inside ... The noise was so quiet, why was I so hasty ... 10 minutes later I reached the waterfall. A deep lake has formed below due to the impact ... as the nettle stings are still painful, I decide to switch back to swimming. This time it is easier for me to come down the slope, a little path has been created. Well, it would also be illogical if the window led into a completely empty world. But why do you think it is laid out in such a way?

I am curious to see if I will meet people soon.

Well, back into the water first.



I bathe briefly and then lie on the edge to let the sun warm me a little ... There are big rocks everywhere, on one of which I have sat down, and my oh so many things are there too.I'm lying on my stomach ... actually I hate the sun and I can do without it shining on my face.



I think I fell asleep for a moment because when I opened my eyes everything was so dark, I think it is already dawn. I think I'll keep going until I find a place to sleep. It's too far to go back.

So I go on dry, I have the shoes slung over my shoulders, the bag with the mushrooms in my hand ... Actually, I could almost throw it away, bathing-drying-bathing-drying is not exactly good for them done.



I threw them away, now I only have the cloth bag and the knife ... and the shoes, of course.

I am now walking on a meadow, everything is still flat, but ... I think I'll hike on, I don't dare sleep here anyway, and since I've only slept, I'm still quite fit.



The moon shines brightly through the cloud corner, I think it will be full soon ... or it was already.I'm glad there isn't a clear starry sky, so it's a little warmer, after all I'm running around here in a T-shirt.

I think this is the first day since ... a long time, in any case, that I was neither on the Internet nor watched TV ... I'm curious to see how far the people here are technically, whether there are any people here at all. .. I'll be going here for a whole day soon, and so far I've only passed uninhabited landscapes. But the footpath ...

How am I supposed to ever find my way back? I'm so