Dirk Lützelberger - Secret doors

Stefan watched Gwen from the corners of his eyes while he and Phil enjoyed the silent ascent of the balloon and the wonderful view. Only the burner interrupts the silence from time to time with a rumbling ’schuuuuuuuuub'. Up here in the balloon, they didn’t feel any draft because the balloon moved with the wind at the same speed. Phil spotted an ibex and pointed it out to Stefan. Excited, he pointed again and again to the edge of a clearing until Stefan saw the magnificent animal with its two long horns. "This must be a male animal" remarked Stefan, adding, "the females, have only smaller curved horns." Phil just nodded, impressed, and continued to search the ground for animals, while Stefan grabbed Gwen around the waist.

"This is the best birthday present I’ve ever had."

"I’m glad! Then I have met my target." Gwen smiled in agony.

"Are you all right? You’re so quiet while ballooning. Are you not feeling well?"

"Yes, yes, everything’s fine." She leaned over to Stefan and whispered in his ear, "I’m just thinking about the past, but we can discuss it later."

After the very gentle landing, they helped to pack the balloon back into a handy, but murderous package and hoist it onto the trailer. After that, the three balloonists were baptized as they should be. While the pilot recited the dictum, the three balloonists were raised to nobility one after the other and received their certificates. Back in their apartment, they finished the day with a bottle of champagne, which Gwen had put in the fridge of her accommodation. Phil was tired and already in bed when Stefan looked at Gwen with a pleading look. She understood immediately.

"You’re probably wondering why I was a little quieter than usual when we did the ballooning." Stefan nodded in agreement.

"I was lost in my thoughts about Paul, as you can imagine. I just can’t turn it off overnight, even though I thought I could handle the situation easily. But that is not the case. Whenever I come to rest and we do something nice, I have to think back to the good times with Paul. Today, when we silently ascended into the sky, was another such moment. All the memories of my time with Paul were suddenly there again and I had such a helpless feeling when I saw the earth from above."

"I was hoping the peace and quiet would blow away the cobwebs, but it seems to have backfired."

"Well, I wouldn’t say that. Sure, the work helps me to free my mind, but also the time here with you distracts me. I just need more time. You understand that, right?" She looked at him pleading.

"But of course, my darling. Please don’t worry. I’ll be with you and help you in any way I can." He moved closer to her and handed her the glass of champagne. "And now, toast again, and look forward to the next few days. The variety will let you forget the past."

Gwen raised her glass and they clink glasses.

"You’re right. I am looking forward to the next days and the ziplining. Phil doesn’t know about it yet and it should be a surprise for him too. I had imagined it would be harder to get him out into the fresh air, but with geocaching he has found a new field of activity, which automatically leads him into nature."

Gwen looked at the clock and was startled at the advanced hour. The day had literally spun away. They drank up and Gwen pulled Stefan promisingly upstairs into the bedroom.

The sunrise the next morning unfortunately happened without any of the three taking notice. They slept late, because the ballooning had been quite exhausting in the end. After an extensive breakfast, they made their way to the top of the 'Loser', to look for geocaches and hopefully find them, as Phil said. Gwen gave Stefan a conspiratorial look behind Phil’s back as they set off. Phil also found the first cache right by the side of the road. It hadn’t been a challenge for him anymore, since he already knew the most obvious hiding places. It took him only a few seconds to imagine the most suitable hiding place at the given GPS position. And mostly he was right! Stefan and Gwen applauded and motivated him to keep going while they kept an eye on the time. At a parting of the ways they would have actually gone further uphill to reach the summit, but Gwen and Stefan agreed that they would try the rest of the way on another day, as some fog came up. So, they would better go back towards the valley. They looked at Phil to see if he bought their story. Phil looked at the summit, and also noticed the clouds approaching. With some muttering, and disappointed that he couldn’t find the other geocaches at the clearing and in the forest behind it, he joined the two adults who had already walked a few yards. Immediately Phil started to locate new geocaches along the alternative path. His eyes were fixed on his mobile phone, so he didn’t notice when they reached the entrance of the ziplining park. He looked up when the adults suddenly paused. After he realized where they had led him, he acclaimed them.

"You did that on purpose!" came the reproach from his mouth with a grin.

"Sure" Gwen replied, "we can still get the other geocaches tomorrow, but here we have a surprise planned for the time being. But don’t think that this is going to go on all day, my friend."

Phil put his cell phone in his pocket and while Gwen and Stefan were paying, he was already greeted by the leader of their small group. Ziplining was new territory for the three of them, which they now wanted to experience the first time. Their leader’s name was Ben and he was twenty-five at most, as Gwen assessed him from the gut. He had shoulder-length blond hair, which he had tied up in a braid. He would have made a good surf instructor, Gwen thought as she caught herself staring at his muscular body. Ben did a good job explaining the harness with all the straps very professionally. He then helped everyone in and fastened the straps. Last but not least everybody got a helmet, because they should play it safe, as he said.

The first descent was only about 50 yards long and they could already see the end between the trees, but at first nobody dared to start. But that was usual, Ben said, and Stefan decided to be the first to face the downhill. Stefan looked a bit cramped when he was pushed out by Ben and started the descent to the end point hanging only on a carabiner on a rope. There a helper was already waiting to receive him. When Stefan lifted his thumb to signal that everything was okay, Phil came in second. He also completed the first distance masterfully and was proud of his courage. Gwen was suddenly not so sure whether all this was a good idea but didn’t let on when she was nudged down the first downhill. She held on tight to the rope and tried to look down as little as possible. Was she afraid of heights? No, it wasn’t a fear of heights, but why couldn’t she enjoy the ride? The helper Jenny picked her up and she concentrated on getting solid ground under her feet again.

"That was great, Mom! How many more departures?"

"We’ve booked the tour with six departures, so there’ll be five more" Gwen heard herself say.

"Well, move on to the next one. I’d like to go first!"

Stefan took Phil by the hand and together with Jenny, who must have been about the same age as Ben, they went on to the next starting point. Behind Gwen something rumbled. Ben had arrived and unlocked the carabiner.

"Come on, lady, let’s not keep the others waiting!"

Was she supposed to take that as a compliment or was he alluding to her age? You are really snippy today, there is nothing to please you, Gwen had slapped herself in mind. Well, maybe the fun will come with the further descents, she told herself and started moving.

The fun never came. Also, the further departures she was rather grumpy, and Gwen did not want to give up. What was wrong with her, she asked herself several times. Usually you were always up for fun of this kind and had gotten involved in new adventures, but in the last weeks everything was different. The reason seemed to be very obvious to her. She could turn it around as she wanted, but she had finally arrived in the deep mourning for Paul.