heiligabend
Christmas Eve. My mother called from Hamburg; we did the usual conversation where she asks if I'm eating and I say yes.
I didn't go this year. Trains, numbers, the whole situation. It's fine.
Went for a walk at four, when it's already dark. Everything's closed, the streets are empty, every window is yellow. You can see Christmas trees in fourth-floor flats like little lit aquariums.
Climbing back up I counted the stairs to my door. 78. Five years in this flat and I'd never counted. 78 steps, 4 floors, one squeaky one on the second landing.
Frohe Weihnachten, nobody.