It was seven in the morning when Frida's phone rang on her night stand, waking her from her slumber. She stirred lightly as her hand slowly reached out to grab her phone. Her brown eyes still blurred and tired looked at her screen to see something that made her heart stop. It was Christmas day and she didn't remember setting her alarm so that meant it was a phone call. She looked at her screen to find she was getting a call from all the way in Mexico, from her penpal Jürgen.
She clicked on the answer button and put the phone to her ear. "Hello..." She sighed, sounding tired. Subconsciously, the nineteen year old college student raked her long fingers through her dark hair with her free hand even though there was no way he could see the mess her hair was at the moment.
"Did I wake you, Frid?" Came the voice of her penpal, the voice she so had been longing to hear. He sounded like he felt guilty for bothering her. "I'm sorry. Its seven in the morning in Dortmund, so I thought-"
"No, no. Its fine." The dark haired young woman said into the phone, trying to hide the tiredness in her voice. As everything finally sank in, she felt her heart begin to race with excitement. "I-I can't believe its really you. I like your voice." She admitted to him, feeling a blush coming onto her face.
He chuckled on the other line. In Mexico, Frida knew it was around midnight and people were still awake at his house. In the background, she could hear loud music playing in Spanish. Christmas music. Some of it sounded familiar to her, she had already heard the songs in english or german. She also heard the bustling of people walking around and talking to others. Frida smiled when she heard someone ask Jürgen something rather loudly over the sound of the music. She couldn't exactly catch what they said, but she was able to catch the word novia. Frida wasn't a spanish expert, but she knew that meant girlfriend. A giggle escaped from Frida's lips when she heard another voice moaning into the speaker, "Frida! Fridaaaaaa! Oh Fridaaa, my Frida! Te quiere Jürgen!*"
"Wilhelm, callate guey!** Now what will she think? That I live in a crazy house!" She heard Jürgen complain in a muffled sound. His voice was clear once again as he spoke to her, "Sorry, my brother's being annoying. Please tell me you didn't hear anything he said." Frida noticed his voice was full of embarrassment.
"Mm." She hummed, a smile tugging at the corners of her lips. "I heard him. Whether I understood him is the real question."
"He thinks he's funny." Jürgen sighed.
"I just can't get over how attractive your voice is." She blurted out. Frida had spent the last few months creating an image of him in her head, based on things he would say to her and the presents he would send. She had a mental image of what he might look like and what he might sound like, but none of it was as amazing as his actual voice.
For the second time, the boy on the other side of the phone let out a chuckle. "Thanks. Your voice is nice too. Your accent is beautiful." He complimented.
"And you speak perfect english." She told him. "I'm impressed."
"I did live in the US and Canada about half of my life." He pointed out. "But I can speak to you in German if it makes you more comfortable?"
"That's right." She recalled and responded to his question with, "No. That's fine. If I can speak to you in English then it helps me practice. But really," She continued, impressed, "I didn't expect you to actually be so linguistically multi-talented. I guess in my mind I thought you were just saying that to impress me."
Another person's voice boomed from the other line. "Hani who are you talking to?" It was a woman's voice this time. Her english had a thick accent attached to it, but she had called him honey, she understood it when she spoke.
