my first girlfriend was Christa, she never had time. Christa already made dinner for her two older brothers and their parents in kindergarten, Salad and ravioli. Christa's parents were busy lawyers, they were way cooler than any other parent, that I knew, but they were never there. Sometimes Christa came to eat with us, and we were amazed, that Christa an hour after my mother had cleared up, still eating. When she was nine, Christa stood down in the basement on her school-free afternoon and ironed her family's laundry, lying around in huge heaps. Like her older brothers, Christa was too bright for our elementary schools, so when she was thirteen she went to the junior high school. Her grades in math were very bad, although she crammed for hours, she had to repeat a grade. And later she went to the teacher training college. Christa always wanted to be a teacher, she had this kind, to teach everyone, just, because she already knew and understood everything, what we other children were unaware of, also regatta driving, looked after small babies at night as ten-year-olds, Snwoboarden, which was still an insider tip back then, and talk about the exchange year in America, the land of unlimited opportunities.
If Christa ever had a childhood, I do not know, but when she flaunted all her obligations and responsibilities, her voice was deep, like that of an older woman. And her face had this ageless look at ten, who lacked any childishness. Christa contemptuously called me Finöggeli and Bébé because of my delicate appearance. And because I couldn't do anything without Christa.
When we were little, About six or seven, we played in Christa's parents' dark, petrified sauna room “the little waterman”. Christa knew how to operate the sauna and let water into the adjacent stone pool. Most of the time I was the Aquarius woman, who sat up to her hair in the Aquarius house and cooked fish. Christa, the little waterman, often went ashore, sat on the shore (the pool wall) and fished.
Once Christa didn't make it, turn on the heavy faucet and direct the hose into the basin, in which we again “the little waterman” wanted to play. No matter how hard she twisted and shook the clasp, it did not work.
So we climbed into the cold, pools about one and a half meters in size, and did swimming strokes on the ice-cold stone slabs. We reminded ourselves, that we had webbed fingers and scales on our bodies. But we didn't play long. Our disappointment was too big, that something our plan – Christa's skill – had thwarted.
(29.7.22)