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November 27th, New York City, USA – Mary

I quickly got used to working in the café. Politely, Carol, Sina and Lenny stayed at the café the whole time while Jack trained me. I saw Sina almost die a long time ago, but I didn't have the heart to just ask her to leave. Because Carol insisted that I was part of the family (with that formulation my heart almost melted), and that there was a family for each other. So they waited beaten three hours at this table, drinking and eating, and had probably exchanged during that time about every new detail that had not yet been an issue when I stood before them again. "And?" Lenny asked me. "I would say Jack is happy with me.", I smiled broadly. Sina was almost cheering. "Then we can finally go!" she rejoiced. Carol shook her head amused. "I have to go home right away, I have a few things to do. But if you want, you can wander around for a while." I looked at Lenny, who immediately seemed enthusiastic. "Sure, gladly." Then I looked at Sina. "I also want to go home. But tomorrow I'll show them the ice rink.", she announced and put on her jacket. My face was slightly warped as I remembered my experiences with it. Not very positive.

We all left the "Cup'n cozy" and parted at the store door. Now it was just Lenny and me. "And where are we going?" I asked him. He smiled. "I already have an idea.", he said, dragging me with him. We walked a bit down the street to the subway station. I just chased after Lenny while he pulled us a ticket and got on a subway. I had never sat in a subway before, there was no such thing at home. That was probably the reason why it seemed scary to me to drive through the dark tunnels. But at the same time, I also knew that I had dreamed of this all my life. A life in civilization, with a thousand people, in the most beautiful city in the world, and that at Christmas. In fact, I quickly realized that Lenny wasn't the biggest fan of the time. He avoided looking into the shop windows and led me silently and swiftly past a choir singing Christmas carols in front of him. Even though it wasn't really Advent yet, New York woke up and gave in to winter.

Because just as we were walking through the streets, I felt the little snowflake landing on the tip of my nose. Suddenly, the world felt like everything was happening in slow motion. I stopped and enjoyed the moment as more and more snow descended on the earth. I smiled wide and looked up as the sky broke and it started to snow. Lenny stopped a few steps away from me and then looked back at me. He pulled his jacket tighter and looked up. He seemed a little cold, and I could see how he hated it. It's a good thing he was going to Australia soon. It was summer there. There was no Christmas there, and more importantly, there he was far away from me. Because I felt something in the air that had nothing to do with Christmas. And I could only hope it would go away soon, otherwise I would be in big trouble.

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