Gerade versuchten sie erneut heraus zu finden, wer es von ihrem Standpunkt aus schaffte die Pfeiler der Brücke mit einem Stein zu treffen.
„Weißt du, was mein Papa mir neulich erzählt hat?“ wollte der Eine wissen.
„Nein. Was denn?“ erkundigte sich der Andere und hielt inne.
Er war gerade dabei gewesen einen weiteren Stein zu werfen.
„Papa hat erzählt, dass als er so alt war wie wir, der Fluss ganz dick zugefroren war.“
„Der ganze Fluss?“
„Ja, Papa sagt, die konnten sogar mit Autos rauf fahren!“
„Wow! Das möchte ich auch mal machen! Mit dem Auto auf einen Fluss, das muss cool sein!“ sprudelte es nur so aus dem Jungen heraus.
„Find‘ ich auch. Lass uns die Daumen drücken, dass das dieses Jahr wieder passiert!“ schlug der Erzähler vor und ballte seine Hände, sodass seine Daumen jeweils von seinen Fingern eingeschlossen waren.
Sein Freund ahmte sogleich die Geste nach.
„Meinst du das reicht?“ fragte er nach einem Moment.
„Bestimmt.“ bestätigte der Andere und beide lösten ihre Hände.
„Ich fänd’s schon cool, wenn wir nur auf dem Fluss Schlittschuh laufen können.“ sagte er dann und hob einen weiteren Stein auf.
„Au ja, das wäre auch cool!“ bestärkte ihn sein Freund und warf den Stein, den er in die Tasche gesteckt hatte.
~~~~~~~ ❄ ~~~~~~~ ❄ ~~~~~~~ ❄ ~~~~~~~ ❄ ~~~~~~~ ❄ ~~~~~~~
The boys played at the river bank like they did every day.
They were trying to again find out who would manage to hit the pillar of the bridge with a stone from here.
„You know what my papa told me the other day?“ One of them wanted to know.
„No. What?“ The other asked and paused.
He had just prepared to throw a stone.
„Papa told me that the river was frozen really thick when he was our age.“
„The whole river?“
„Yes, papa said they could even drive a car onto it!“
„Wow! I would like to do that too! Driving the car onto the river, that has to be cool!“ The remarks all but bubbled out of the boy.
„I think so too. Let’s squeeze our thumbs* that it will happen again this year!“ Suggested the boy who had told the story and clenched his fingers so that his thumb was enclosed.
His friend imitated the gesture right away.
„Do you think that’s enough?“ He asked after a moment.
„Sure“ The other agreed and both of them loosened their hands.
„It would be cool if we could at least go ice skating on the river.“ He said then and picked up another stone.
„Oh yes that would be cool too!“ The other encouraged his friend and threw the stone he had put into his pocket.
Behind the Scenes
I hope you enjoyed the twelfth story.
This is the second time, I mentioned rivers freezing over and it was in fact in the late 90s that the river that lies nearly before my doorstep did just that.
I still remember everyone gathering on the river with sleighs and ice-skates and in the far distance someone was using a car to cross it.
I’m not sure if it ever managed to freeze that strong again.
Another river people are eagerly awaiting to freeze completely is a part of the Alster in Hamburg. Whenever it would happen many booths and people would come there to celebrate the Alstereisvergnüngen (Alster-ice-delight).
* „Squeezing the thumbs“ is a literal translation of „die Daumen drücken„, the English equivalent would be „crossing the fingers“ but I preferred the picture of the fist-squeeze (thumb between fingers), so I changed the translation. Otherwise I would have to change the description completely (fingers overlapping).
PoiSonPaiNter
© For the story by me and for the picture by EdMooney Photography. Do not use or repost either without my or his permission.