Winter Sun Eyes (Translation Project)

On the mainland

"Just ten minutes - and that's an exaggeration," Freddie asserted, after Marja had lavished whining and complaints on him and now dragged him impatiently behind him. He was angrily trying to free himself from the vice like grip of his little cousin, but she had clawed her narrow, long fingers so firmly into his grey-brown thermal jacket that he simply could not. All this harassment over some stranger girl who probably belonged to some circus family.

No!, Scolded Freddie himself and gritted his teeth that it hurt. Not for the child with the strange name (which he could not remember), but for Marja! Stupid Marja. And stupid, stupid Freddie, for doing this to yourself!

But Freddie took the last part of his thoughts back completely as Marja turned over her shoulder and her bright green eyes radiated such an accusation that he almost laughed. He already knew why he had always been so fond of the little girl. Her curiosity, her defiance, her pride, her big mouth but above all her laughter. Freddie loved to see her laugh. But since the strange girl had disappeared again, this had been rarer than usual, and that was a reason to help her to find it.

Past playing children and many other people whom the two did not even notice in the heat of the moment, they rushed along the windy road, whereby Freddie repeatedly pointed out angrily to Marja that her hair was blowing into his face. If he hated anything, it was when hair blocked his view. That's why he didn't let his grow as long as he used to.

The town to which the harbour belonged was quite small, but must have looked like a big city to Marja. Freddie knew that she had been here a few times with her parents, but always with a fixed destination, such as the dentist or the shopping centre, but with him, he could still remember well, she had been here only once. Freddie had been ten years old at that time and had pushed her in a pram through the narrow alleys full of countless tourist traps. One may have had the impression of beeing in a southern coastal area, only that the souvenirs weren't by far as overpriced as he had often had to experience it in holiday areas. There were simply too few tourists here, who spent there money liberally enough.

Freddie almost forgot - the upset, the tension, the fact that Marja's parents certainly didn't know anything about it... He contemplated the time when the little, chubby girl was sitting in a pram and looked at the world with her big, already then shining green eyes, every passing passer-by, every street lamp, which were already facing each other in the same dirty-green colour in pairs across the one-way street, tilted towards the ground, as if they wanted to observe every driver very closely. And even any junk that hung on a shop's receivables was taken into the curious little girl's hand, but Freddie or her parents quickly took the object away from her before she could put it in her mouth. 

Freddie was called back to the here and now when they had already reached the market square with the old town hall, where, as every Saturday, a few stalls were set up whose owners tried to sell their goods.

"Hey, watch it!", a young blonde woman shouted outraged, her artfully curled hair, which reached almost to her elbows, whirled through the air as her gaze followed the two jostlers. Her hair shimmered like fool's gold in the light of the cloudy winter sun. Angrily her blue eyes glittered like crystal clear water from a mystical grotto, but Marja didn't pay any attention to her. Only the woman's girlfriend, a little younger maybe, giggled.

Grinning, Freddie kept pace with Marja and soon caught up with her so that they were in step. "Say, didn't she look awesome?", he asked casually and amused himself about the unbelieving look that Marja threw at him. As if she wanted to slap him.

"That's funny as hell, isn't it?" she hit him so unexpectedly that he took a frightened two steps aside. "Admit it, you think everything here is hilarious without exception, or you wouldn't be making such stupid jokes!" She did not allow her shrill and loud voice a break for a second before she continued with her eyes sparkling with rage: "Say, you aren't kidding! Why don't you go? You can go and adore some stranger instead of helping me. Come on, go on!"