Dirk Lützelberger - Secret doors

After a delicious dinner they sat together at the counter of the restaurant and discussed how to proceed.

"That’s not how I’d visualized things. I’m so sorry, but I don’t want to ruin your vacation either."

"Mom, I miss Dad too, but we have to stick together now. You still have me and Stefan, and we all need each other."

Gwen smiled at Phil’s words. Much like an adult, she noticed again and took him in her arms.

"I just need to pull myself together and I’ll be fine."

Stefan also tried to contribute something to improve the mood. "Or we could cut our vacation short and you could rush back to work. Maybe this will help to clear your mind. But we just broke off of that daily routine to clear your mind."

Gwen shook her head vigorously. "You can’t be serious, can you? I don’t want to cut short my holiday, it’d be a pity for the good time and the money. I’ll find a way to cope with it here. I’ll talk to our family doctor as soon as we get home. I’m sure he’ll have a good idea. Okay, let’s go do something fun and plan our next few days so I have something to do and distract myself."

Stefan backed off when he noticed that he had probably stung a vespiary here. He and Phil could only agree with Gwen’s words, as they both wanted to experience more on this holiday and left it at that.

Chapter 5

The plans for the next days were quickly put together last evening.

Gwen was looking forward to a wellness day at the nearby Vital Resort. The reception of her accommodation helped with the reservation and they compiled an all-round carefree package for Gwen. It was planned to explore the sauna landscape with its five saunas and the hot springs resort extensively. In addition, a wellness package consisting of body peeling and a massage was also included. The men joined the visit to the thermal baths but left the wellness treatment exclusively to Gwen. This was not for men, they said and reaped only a shake of the head from Gwen.

Stefan organized the boat tour on the Altausseer lake for the next day. With a picnic basket, which he had organized through their reception, they set off to explore the Altausseer lake by solar boat. The weather played along and the twenty-seven degrees Celsius were easily bearable with a little breeze on the lake. On the opposite bank of the lake they finished their trip and had a picnic at the hunting lodge on the meadows. Nobody really wanted to think about the way back, when they were all lying on the blankets with fat bellies, looking up at the sky and the water. Stefan watched Gwen very closely and he thought she had relaxed a bit. Either it was the spa day or today’s trip that made her think of something else. But he also knew that it would take some time until she had overcome her nadir.

Stefan gave them the choice of returning to their car by boat or on foot, to go back to their accommodation. In the meantime, Phil had already figured out another geocache which was supposed to be hidden at the lakeside. So, he took the adults’ choice off and they got up to walk. About midway to their parking lot, Phil found what he had been looking for.

Spurred on by his success, he had set his mind on making the next day a geocache hike.

"This is where we turned the other day, to get to the ziplining. This time we have to continue towards the clearing" Phil shouted excitedly, jumped up from the bench and ran ahead.

"We’ve been on the road for several hours now, and maybe we should start thinking about the way back" Gwen interjected and massaged her thighs and calves.

"Now let’s go to the clearing so Phil can retrieve his Travelbug, which is said to be hidden there. He had already planned this for the other day when we turned off for the ziplining. After that, I suggest we head back."

Gwen nodded in agreement and moaned as she rose from the bench and started moving. With every step she took, she felt the sore muscles in her calves. With all that desk work, she was no longer used to the physical exertion.

Phil had already run ahead a bit excitedly, but then stopped to wait for them.

"Come on, I still want to find the Travelbug" Phil yelled to them.

"What is this, anyway?" Gwen admitted to having no idea what he and Stefan were actually talking about.

"Mom, it’s simple. I’ll explain it to you again. In some geocaches there are not only things to swap and a logbook in which you can sign in, but sometimes also small coins or other items with pendants or a minted identifier. You can look them up on the internet and read about the assignments these little guys are supposed to do. Some of them just want to explore the world and are happy if you carry them with you for a long time and just put them back into another cache far away. Others, for example, only want to see churches in Germany and still others want to explore all the castles in the world. The one I expect in the next cache wants to go back to Germany and we can do him that favor, can’t we?

"But then you have to go back to Kiel and find a geocache in which it fits. Some of the ones we had found in the last few days were only very small" Gwen said when they caught up with Phil.

"Yeah, sure, I’ll do that!"

"Same as the other promises you make to clean your room or unload the dishwasher or take out the garbage?"

"What are you so funny all of a sudden, Mom?"

Stefan sensed that the mood was about to change, took Gwen’s hand and pulled her uphill. "You and I will take care of this when we get home. Please don’t worry, Gwen. Now, let’s find the clearing and make the final climb to find this Travelbug. Then we’ll head for the valley. I’m getting awfully hungry, aren’t you?"

Gwen said nothing and tried to put on a face as friendly as possible.

When they reached the clearing, they stopped for a short time to get their bearings. Phil started his geocaching app to find out the exact distance and direction. With a few simple movements and magic circles of his mobile phone, he had calibrated the compass and was now waiting for the exact GPS signal. Stefan looked at Gwen and winked at her. Then Phil walked off slowly and watched the compass needle on his phone very closely. It was only one hundred and eighty-one yards away and they would leave the clearing and turn back into the forest, that was clear as daylight. The needle swayed a bit but kept pointing towards the forest. Ninety-two more yards and Phil slowed down. Gwen and Stefan followed him at some distance and talked about the evening program ahead of them. Forty-three more yards as he came around the bend and looked up from his cell phone. He saw the gradient. And he saw something else that left him standing there rooted to the ground.

Gwen, too, took a deep breath when she saw her son standing there petrified. She quickly grasped the situation and realized that the person in the ditch needed help – if it wasn’t already too late.

She sprinted off and gave Stefan a harsh instruction, "Try to call an ambulance!"

In her head the images of Paul’s birthday party were replayed. How they celebrated, toasted and how Paul collapsed. When Michael Peters, the medical examiner, immediately went to the scene and tried to help Paul. How they called the ambulance and took Paul to the hospital. And finally, how all attempts at resuscitation were unsuccessful and Paul died that night. Gwen felt like she was walking in slow motion and the images in her head seemed surreal. As if the images were hovering over her as she walked here in the woods in the mountains to the person in the ditch and she was watching everything as an outsider. She was right in the middle of it. As if in a trance she reached the ditch and knelt down next to the motionless body.

"Hello" she shook it, "can you hear me?" She turned the person on their side. It was cold and stiff. She looked into a disfigured and dirty face but put her ear to its nose and watched the chest. There was no sign of breathing. No sign of life. Gwen sat resignedly beside the dead.