It was one of those days again when you didn't know what to do with yourself. The heat settled heavily on the land and drove out the spirit of life that was otherwise attributed to this area. Cedric groaned in the shade of a cherry tree that swayed gently in the wind and was apparently the only living being that enjoyed the sun.
This was probably the only place in the whole of Awey Ville where it was a little bearable, thought Cedric, and opened his eyes a little to see the plump, red cherries glistening in the sun. The leaves rustled in the gentle breeze as the parents of birds handed their young the sparse masses of food that they had been able to peck from the dry ground. It hadn't rained for weeks, so you weren't surprised that the little ones seemed to be screeching louder than before, before they opened their mouths hopefully to receive the meager harvest from their breadwinners.Cedric was a dreamer and so it was nothing special that he looked lost in thought into the treetops and expected something extraordinarily clever and useful to fall on his face with which he could escape the heat. The house had been too hot, especially because his cat had somehow managed to demolish the fan. His beloved fan, which he had stolen with cunning from another customer of the local electronics store. It had lasted for three days and Cherry, Cendric's cat, had already pushed the fan off the dining table with one jump, whereupon it stopped making a sound. At first Cedric had threatened Cherry with food withdrawal out of anger, but knew how ridiculous the whole thing was and went into the garden,
where he now lay and watched the cherry tree. Cherry wandered around, hoping to soften her master's good-naturedness so that he might get a caress from him. "You know very well that it's way too hot for me to cuddle.", Cedric said, tilting on his side to watch his cat, who had sat down on the old chair that was standing next to the tree trunk. They both looked at each other for a long time. Cherry lay flat on his stomach, purring, and let her four legs relax dangling below.
"Oh Cherry.", Cedric sighed and also lay down on his stomach to get a better look at his cat. Cedric was a loner, just like cats were.
And although he sometimes wished he had someone with him who would understand him and hug him like he did with Cherry, he didn't make enough effort to put an end to his loneliness. He'd rather stay home than go out for drinks with his college colleagues. How had he got this far, he thought sometimes. Why did he live in his own house, which was in the pampas, but was still his own, and why had no one ever doubted him? Doubtful that he could handle himself. Sometimes Cedric thought, when he was in his deep phases, that his family wanted to get rid of him and therefore gave him the money for the house.His father was a wealthy company boss whose job Cedric found confused because he simply did not understand why one could still get so rich from the production of lamp oil these days. His father probably exported diligently to South America or to the monasteries of Tibet. He had no idea about it and he didn't really care. Cedric was 23 now and was busy thinking about his own future. Under no circumstances did he want to take over his father's business. Fortunately, his big brother Frank, the pride of the whole family, had gotten ahead of him and announced his takeover to Daddy. His father had hugged Frank warmly and praised him for his ambition. A short time later, when they looked for a house for Cedric and were able to deport him to Awey Ville within four months, at least that was how it seemed to Cedric.
The only person who was still in regular contact with him was his motherAlice. She had bought an internet connection especially to be able to write regularly with her "little one", as she affectionately called him. It was also she who made him come to the family celebrations and not spend the Christmas or Easter holidays alone with Cherry in front of the television.
But Cedric himself rarely received visitors. Now and then the pizza delivery man or the postman, but no one else. There had been a time when a girl named Carolin had visited him. She was maybe seven and often rang Cedric's doorbell to wish him a good day and to give him flowers. She was a pretty blonde girl who liked to sit on the swing that was hanging on the cherry tree when Cedric moved in. Sometimes Cedric sat next to her on the chair and watched Carolin, laughing, rocking back and forth. He had never seen so much joie de vivre and that was why he admired her.
Perhaps he even envied her a little how calmly and free from all thoughts she could sit there on the swing and swing her feet towards the sky.But this time ended abruptly when Carolin and her parents were in a car accident. Cedric hadn't stepped outside the door for days. He was too afraid that the memories would catch up with him. Not just memories of the happy little girl, but also
of his own childhood, which strangely came back into his life with the death of Carolin, although they had little connection with the fate of the little ones. He felt lonely again in this world that was apparently not meant for him. Someone was constantly snatching the joie de vivre from him, which he could only slowly build up again each time. Only this time it was a little different. The doorbell rang a few days after recovering from the initial shock.
His first thought was "Carolin!". The hope that the little creature would stand in front of his door and hold out a bouquet of daisies to him was so strong that, spurred on by joy, he almost fell down the stairs after slipping on a slipper.Panting, he opened the door, automatically directed his gaze a little further down, to the level of a child's head, and saw a black cat that was purring on the arm of a slightly older lady. Cedric's heart sank into his stomach. "Good morning, Mister Floren.", Said the woman and looked at Cedric with a sad look
at. "I'm little Carolin's aunt. She told me a lot about them. She always wanted me to come along and get to know her, but I didn't think it would happen under these circumstances." She had to swallow a sob and then started talking again.
"The little one here is called Cherry and was Carolin's one and only. Carolin once told me that Cherry would surely like her because she radiates a calm that Cherry could use.
I figured they'd like to keep Cherry. Not only because I don't know how to deal with her, but also because Carolin would certainly be happy if they would take care of Cherry now."Cedric noticed how desperate the woman standing in front of him was and nodded briefly because he didn't know what else to say. He was too afraid that a wrong word would trigger tears. Cedric didn't have any either He knew how to deal with this cat, but was aware that he could somehow make it if he only wanted to. "Thank you," said the woman
and turned to go. "Wait a minute," Cedric had called and then asked where Carolin and her family were buried. He would often visit her grave later and put down bouquets of daisies, wishing he could have said more to her before she stepped out of his life than just a simple "hello" or "want a drink?" There was a lot Cedric in hindsight would have wanted to do better. But every time it was too late or he didn't dare. Now he was lazy under the tree, his cat had long been asleep and he didn't know what to do to make sense of his dayto lend. Slowly he straightened up and looked around. The grass wasn't green for a long time.
It lay there almost groaning and yellowed more and more from day to day. The sprinkler that Cedric had got himself was probably not doing his job well enough and had long since disappeared into the little garden shed that stood at the end of the meadow. Cedric had long since left the will to do something in the garden and so the whole thing resembled a jungle. But a beautiful jungle that a little boy would certainly have had a lot of fun with. Only Cedric found himself too old for adventure games, in which he wandered through the bushes and found natives who took the form of beetles and earthworms.
The only part of his residential area that he knew how to look after was the large front garden, which actually only consisted of a large lawn and the cherry tree. His mother had told him that at least he should keep this place cozy. And he liked to do that too, he even enjoyed mowing the lawn, because it wasn't much work after all.And the cherry tree brought him even more joy than im
In summer it hung full of sweet dark red cherries that were just waiting to disappear into Cedric's mouth. And since he lived there alone, and cats didn't like cherries, he had everything to himself. This had often led to stomach aches, but couldn't stop him from continuing to nibble on the sweet fruits.
Those were the things that determined his life. For school learn yourself
take care of Cherry and the garden and dream. Dreaming of a world that he was allowed to create himself. In which he could start over and forget everything that had happened in his life so far. Once it had seemed to him that everything was open to him. As if he could do anything, even fly.
That was the day he had been tricked into smoking a joint and he had regretted it when the effects stopped and he suddenly found himself alone in the desert. Apparently they'd had some fun with him and left him out there intoxicated.A nice farmer had taken him back to Awey Ville, but he had vowed never to take any drugs again,
or to ever do something with these "friends" again. These were all factors in his starting life as a loner. Who could have known that Cedric would react so sensitively, but people didn't really care, because he had the reputation of being a stupid, dreamy big city boy anyway.
Big city boy because his family actually came from St. Francisco. Cedric's parents had moved to a small village in Nebraska 5 years