yellow duckling that had been cut out of a different, thinner material and sewn on.The legs of these pants (a girl in pants was something I had only seen tourists two or three times ...) were baggy and too long, so that the hem at the back was frayed from stepping on them. The shoes that had done this were old, grayed out training shoes with two different laces - one black and one red. The whole bold figure might be about my age, about ten years old and read (as I said) in a book. It was a bound copy of a book for young people whose title I had forgotten. It was worn and had a little blue sticker on the spine, like all books in the library.
The girl had probably noticed that I was looking at her a long time ago, but even though I had been looking at her for five minutes, she still did not take her gaze from the book. For my part, I wasn't even aware that I was staring at it, because it seemed so strange and strange to me, as if it were some kind of plant or an object on display that you just look at with interest.My astonishment was all the greater when she suddenly looked out of her book and looked me straight in the eye. There were probably about five paces between us, but I recognized immediately that she had green eyes, green like fresh woodruff. And those green eyes looked straight at me with no shame or shyness. Then this strange girl opened her mouth and said in a completely normal girl's voice: "Well, Tiger. What special to see?".
I didn't answer. No, I stood there like a pillar of salt and kept staring at her. These girls amazed me. Not only did she look absolutely strange and strange, no, she also had the audacity to have a completely normal voice and just speak to me with that completely normal voice. What did I call myself? Tiger? Why tiger? And why did she speak to me. I did not realize that it is perfectly normal to speak to someone who has looked at you continuously for five minutes.But these six words were just too much for me, and also delivered in an everyday tone, with a little cheeky aftertaste, as if she were speaking to a potential opponent. Was that me What did she want from me? Was she expecting an answer? Did I want to give one? And if so, what kind? In retrospect, I think that I could have asked myself, but what I really thought was: Nothing. I didn't think anything, or at most that I actually had to go home because the ice cream in the plastic bag would probably already melt and run out of its can as soon as I opened it at home.
I just stood there and stared at this girl who called me Tiger and was just amazed. And just as she opened her mouth - perhaps to ask me something else - a figure came out of the door of the library and shouted something I didn't understand. What I noticed was that the red-haired girl replied, "I'm coming, Mommy!" and got up from her chair, index finger between two pages of the book.She turned her back and ran quickly towards the door. On the threshold she turned around again, winked at me with her right forest master green eye and called out: “Maybe see you soon, Tiger.” Then she went inside.
I stood there for about a minute and looked at the empty folding chair, then I went home and let the liquid ice run into a bowl that I put in the freezer to get the dessert back into a firm shape for Sunday.