She had no idea what woke her – maybe her bellyache? It wasn’t as bad as it had been on her first day of school, but almost. Maybe Suzanne would be able to get her a hot water bottle? Mira got up and shuffled to the door, which was unlocked again. Maybe Suzanne had done that when she had come back home and kissed her goodnight. Mira turned the doorknob and looked into the hallway. Everything was dark. She felt her way along the wall to her sister’s room.
Her bed was empty.
Suzanne hadn’t come back home yet. Mira’s belly hurt again and rubbing it with one hand, like her mom had shown her, didn’t help. Mommy was already asleep, and Mira didn’t want to wake her. Maybe she could ask her dad. He was obviously still awake, because the light shone from underneath his door. She knelt on the floor and stared through the banisters. Asking daddy for anything was always difficult and she was almost certain that he would get angry about her disturbing him. She couldn’t even imagine that he would actually go into the kitchen with her to fill the kettle, and then bring her back up to her bed with a hot water bottle.
Maybe it was better to just go back to bed. She sighed softly and was getting up, when she suddenly heard a voice coming from behind her Dad’s door and getting louder. She couldn’t really understand what the man said, but she knew that this was not her dad talking. It had happened before that he had had visitors at late hours, but usually these people would not argue with each other. Instead they would laugh and drink a lot. This here was something else.
Then Mira heard her dad, just as loud, but somewhat subdued. She knew she wasn’t supposed to, but she leaned in to listen. It was her father’s voice. But somehow it wasn’t. Something was very different. What she heard was not the voice of a grumbling and maybe angry bear, but instead… Her curiosity grew bigger than her fear of getting into trouble, so she slowly wandered down the steps. Her hand held on to the banisters tightly and her little feet felt for each next step in the darkness. She didn’t really know why she hadn’t turned on the light. Finally, she arrived at the bottom of the stairs and slightly curled her naked feet as they hit the cold stone floor of the large hallway. She could hear her daddy and the other man talking simultaneously and although she could make out the words, she didn’t understand what it was they talked about. Or why the two were arguing and yelling at each other. She accidentally put her thumb into her mouth, but she immediately pulled it out again. After all, she wasn’t a little girl anymore!
“I will never let that happen!” she heard her dad yell. His voice sounded very aggravated and unusually high, like mom’s voice would when they were arguing. Jarring and almost painful to the ears. At first, the other man was silent, then he answered so quietly that Mira couldn’t really hear what he said. “I will kill you, you ungrateful bastard”, screamed daddy. Mira cringed. “Bastard” was one of those forbidden words, for which she had once been grounded for an entire weekend. And now her dad had said it himself! Mira’s initial fear had somehow disappeared completely. Instead, she was now extremely angry at her dad because he couldn’t punish her for something that he would then go and do himself. That was simply unfair.
Something popped. The noise wasn’t very loud and was more like the sound that those dusty bottles from the basement make when mommy and daddy opened them, when they were celebrating something. Mira walked closer to the door and she wondered why it was suddenly so quiet. Shouldn’t daddy and his friend be laughing and happy by now? She put her hand on the knob and was just about to open the door, when it suddenly swung open. In front of her stood a large man. She couldn’t really make out his face.
The next thing she felt were two hands that grabbed her under her arms and lifted her up.
“Hey”, he whispered. The man shifted her in his arms and then put his hand to the back of her head to press her face against his neck. “Where is your room, sweetie?” he asked, while he was already climbing the stairs. Mira struggled a little bit, but he held her close. This man did not smell so good - not as nice as Mister Knister or mommy. She did recognize the smell, but she couldn’t remember what it was. “Everything is fine, little one”, he whispered and then Mira remembered that she did know him. He was mommy’s friend and he had once allowed her to ride behind him on his motorbike. It had only been a few very slow circles, but she had liked it a lot. It had tingled in her belly like crazy, but she had held onto him really tight and had not fallen off.
“Here”, she said softly and wiggled a little when they came to the door to her room. The man opened it carefully and then quickly walked over to her bed, where he put her down. He even tucked her in!
“Sleep tight”, he said, and he almost sounded like mom when she told Mira that it was time to go to sleep now. Mira closed her eyes and felt that she really was very tired. The man put Mister Knister into her arms, and tucked the blanket tightly all around her, just like mommy did. And then he left.