Melting the Ice

13; Habseligkeiten

"Habseligkeiten"

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(noun, plural) Voted the most beautiful German word, the concept of Habseligkeiten is stunning yet, difficult to explain. Literally defined as belongings, Habseligkeiten are the small treasures and property, which define our happiness and sentiments. Although these possessions hold a dear place in our heart, they are useless to another person, such as a gold coin a child found during a treasure hunt in the woods. Overall, Habseligkeiten is characterised as beautiful personal belongings, which evolve from personal meanings: compassionate or sad attachments. 

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The first thing I do the next day is heading to the bank. After my morning workout, of course. I make sure I don't go to the same bank employee I usually go to. I don't have any reason for that, basically, I just don't want them to know I've got money from someone and then maybe question when and how did I get it when I was here just days ago, begging for more credit.

Whatever.

I hand employee the check and he looks at it sceptically. He then explains he has to make a call to the owner of the check because it's a big amount of money and I get nervous because of that. The way I acted towards Zach last night, the way I escaped out of his car, might've made him mad and I hope he didn't change his mind.

But the bank employee comes back and proceeds on with the task, telling me everything is alright. I exhale out in a relief. 

Minutes later, I'm holding 200,000 dollars in my hands. I haven't seen that much money in my life, let alone held it in my hands. I breathe a little heavy when I look at it. This is it. My safe line. The cure for my problems, as weird as that sounds.

The first thing I do with the money is paying the bills for the hospital. This is the most important thing and it can't wait anymore. And then I pay the electricity and water. I have to be careful with this money now. Even though it seems like a lot of money now, I realise it really isn't when I pay for everything. 

And that's why it's really important I save as much as I can and not spend it on the unnecessary things. I also go grocery shopping - finally. I don't buy much, just cheap, necessary things so that I can survive. I don't eat much, anyway, so the food is not really a problem. It's still necessary. 

I don't have time to go home and hide the money somewhere, so I have to take it with me to the ice hall and put it in my backpack. I feel uncomfortable leaving the backpack anywhere that someone could steal it. It feels like everyone knows that I'm carrying a huge amount of money with me. 

I'm actually surprised to see Zach on the bench with two of the hockey players when I get to the ice hall. I sit down beside Zach, leaving some space between us, and start removing my shoes. I don't really want to be the first one to say hi to him because I still don't know where we stand and I don't want him to embarrass him in front of his friends. 

When I sit up with my shoe in one hand, I notice Zach shifted so that he's not facing me. When my eyes find his face, I see he's smiling. "Hello, Analeigh," he confidently greets me.

I've got eyes only for him in that moment. And I blush for some unknown reason. "Hey," I breathe quietly. The movement behind Zach catches my attention and I see his two friends leaning forward, watching me with interest. 

I quickly bend down again, grabbing my other skate and putting it on so I don't have to look at them. 

I take a deep breath before I sit back up again because I know I must be read as a tomato now. Zach is grinning at me now, not even hiding it in front of his friends. "Yo, Zachary, won't you introduce us?"