# 4 | View: Barbara

I'm lying in bed ... Here in the house there was still one free, no idea for whom ... I haven't slept in a bed for days, as I said, always on the floor next to it ... it's cooler there. But it really doesn't seem that hot in this world, they probably don't have any climate problems here yet, no floods that last for weeks.



Good Morning! Well, it's still dark, but I have to go to the bathroom ... otherwise I wouldn't have got up until around noon.

Now I realize again that I was on my feet all day yesterday, my feet hurt like hell.

Next to my ... um ... next to the bed are my clothes, freshly washed and neatly folded. I change quickly, now I can look for yesterday's bathroom ...

I found it and am now sitting at the breakfast table with the other two.

"My name is Lisa, what's your name actually, little one?" Lisa ... will I see the others in my class again?

Then I remember ... Philip will have to wait a bit for the next email ... it would be so long, this time I even have something to tell ... oh, answer ... lie? Lizzie? No, I can't ... and why should I?

"Barbara." The stranger, the cruel, the bearded (I got it from the Latin book). ... I really have the feeling that with every new meaning of my name I've changed ... sounds really stupid, but ...

I was really wondering what is on these cards for me ... my sister, Maria has one of these ... Maria, the beautiful ... you can't write the cruel one on it, nobody buys that!

What was the woman's name again? I guess I digressed a little ... Lisa, my friend Lisa ... Lischa - Lisa ... Well, she won't hear from me for a long time either, maybe she thinks yes, I've overlooked her again.

"Nice name." I think it's nice too ... although I sometimes wonder why parents call their child "the stranger" ... What the heck.

"My name is Janosch." Janosch's dream hour ... At least I will be able to remember the names of the two.

I look out the window, it's getting light ... and my vision is blurred.

"I think I left my glasses one level up, can I find them quickly?"

"We can't forbid you to do that, but watch out. If the younger ones find you, you won't come back so easily. Besides ... the one we want to introduce to you is definitely still asleep.

"Um ... is there a way up there? Otherwise ..." Otherwise I'll slide down all the time, muddy, muddy, muddy ...

"I'll show you upstairs."

Janosch has gone back, I'm sitting on the edge of this ... crater? Actually ... whether something happened? Maybe these levels were created by the pressure waves ... What am I doing here, planetary history?

So ... I think I should find the river again, right now I'm still on the side of the stairs.I look down again, the city is very big, consists almost entirely of flat houses, only on the edge are higher, probably lookout posts ...

But I still don't know where they have their cattle and their food ... should I ask Janosch?

So, I've separated from this sight, looking for the river ... for the river that is not allowed to flow into the city. I find it, it turns off and seems to flow along the plain for a long time ... maybe to the city of the children, they will also need water ... children? Those are also 30 and 40 year olds ... to the city without old people, that is probably better said.

I walk down the river towards the source ... is it upstream or downhill?

This time I'll go barefoot right away, my shoes are in Janosch and Lisa's house. My feet are on the verge of blistering, I'm walking in the wet grass ... protect the calluses.

How far was it actually? Yesterday everything was dark, so I can't remember the surroundings, everything looked so different.

Who do you want to introduce me to? Someone else in my world?

I ... I can't decide, should I go home right away? Get your glasses and go through the window?

I could be home tonight ... without a knife, cloth bag and shoes, everything is at home ... bullshit! Everything is up to Lisa and Janosch. At home ... that was a stupid 'thinker' now. Well, it would have advantages if I left right away, I could still claim to have lost my way in the forest, maybe even the police would believe me ... I wouldn't have to say goodbye to Janosch and Lisa ... if I, however, stay longer ... what should I say when I come back?

The mushrooms ... I just passed them, it can't be far. I would never have thought of throwing them away to mark the way. Thank you, coincidence!

But ... back to the main idea ... the police must have been there ... media?God help, I'm just some stupid kid who comes home late ... or not at all? If I left right away, I could really prevent the worst from happening, I can come back sometime ... and here alone I can't do anything for the old people anyway ... how can you actually help them? The younger ones have to worry about them, after all they get older too ...

The waterfall, I can already hear it rushing, now, behind the bend in the river, I see it too ...

Please leave the glasses intact! I would feel guilty if it were broken because of me ...

Who did I just ask for something? God? Do they even believe in such a thing? Do I even believe in such a thing? Actually ... I don't know. I once read a book, I think Fire Dream, there was ... I don't know, the belief described there ... was beautiful. One of my favorite books. Are there any books in this world, famous authors? Probably yes.Do the stories resemble those in our world?

There, the rock I was lying on ... nothing! But ... I was almost sure that she had to ... Maybe she is ...

Yes there she is. It was in the grass next to it, probably slipped down ...

Hi! There was a snail on it ... how do I get rid of it now? I take my T-shirt ... stupid habit of cleaning everything that is dirty ... in the meantime I almost only have T-shirts with grease stains on the front ... Well, the slime is gone, at least the worst. .. and I have my glasses back.

What now? Back to my parents, my family, everyone I know ... or stay here, in the city of the old ... or go to the young?

I want to go home, really! I can come back sometime ... Hopefully Janosch and Lisa will think about where I am. I'm really almost homesick ... and I can't stay here forever, neither do I! And now I'm coming home ...
How long will it take me? What will my parents say? I'm barefoot ... oh no, and then through the forest ... pleasant! But ... whether they will ask, scold? I ... no, it's getting harder ... I definitely think so.

I'm going ... I'm going to go. First up this path ...







What can I say? I'm so scared ... I'll lie, yeah. Definitely in front of my parents ... Maybe I'll tell someone the truth ... Anna, my weird singing cousin, or Philip ... he may have never read HDM, but ... well, he started , and then returned the book to me ... The book means a lot to me, I hope he still reads it ... why does it mean a lot to me? I believe. And well, now I am even confirmed in my faith ... If I should show Anna the window, I have to take her photo from her beforehand ... otherwise she would take thousands of them and ... someday someone would see them . Lately she took a picture of me too ... I hate that!So inconspicuously she picked up the photo ... if my reactions were maybe faster, but she got me right.

Julia would be perfect to take away, of course, she loves HDM as much as I do, and ... at least once we were very similar, could talk to each other forever ... I haven't seen her for almost a year, I miss her. Since then I've never had a really best friend ... well, Anna, but she's my cousin.

Oh, and Kris, but she ... she recently decided to leave school and then to me: Oh, I think we sat next to each other ...

It was a great friendship when she doesn't even remember it. At that time she just sat away from me without saying a word, at first I thought it would only be as long as Caro was sick ...
It hurts to think about it. Doesn't make coming back any easier ...

Should I call Julia? After all, we got along pretty well when contact broke off ... it wasn't always like that.But ... I called her first, she wasn't there ... and didn't answer again. No, better not ...

The forest is starting again ... do I think the window is good? Well, actually I just have to walk along the slope if I've got too far left or right, I've scratched the trees.

I'm slowly almost panicking ... well, a really uneasy feeling in my stomach, like when I think about the main class tests this year, or ... no, actually exactly this feeling. French will be terrible ... English would still work, through the many mangas and fanfictions that I read, my vocabulary has improved, I think ... but Franz? Oh, what the heck, I'll survive it. And if not, nobody can stress me out about it anymore ... kind of a tempting thought.

Couldn't I have brought a jacket with me? It's really freezing cold in this forest! And I'm hungry again too, haven't eaten anything since breakfast.What was there for lunch at home? Maybe they're still looking for me ... it's hard to imagine what's going on ... worry, think I ran away, call friends ...

and what if i come back? What if I'm gone forever? Am I officially dead then?

And ... what I've really asked myself before ... the people from the internet, do they think I just forgot them? Nobody thinks that their chat partner might have died ...

And therefore this fear, panic ... how will the others react, how did they react?

If I imagined something like this earlier, time stopped over there, or at least I had someone with me ...

But no, I discover a window when I'm