I got the wine cooler from the cupboard, filled it with a little bit of ice and opened a new bottle. With that temperatures outside I think the bottle can stand a little bit of ice. Alice hastily emptied her glass and pointed with a finger into the empty glass during the swallowing. “Full, completely full.” “Did I overstrain you very much now?” “No at all, Tina. I just didn’t hear you talk so much for a long time. I don’t know exactly whether I am to be pleased for you regarding your realizations or whether I should worry in the first place.” “Don’t worry. I am really, really well. I had simply only the feeling that it’s time to talk about all this with a good friend.” “I understand well. I am pleased that you are back again. We missed you all very much, it was hard for us to see you like that and … it was a fucking terrible feeling for us, because we couldn’t help you.” “It’s fine Al. I believe that it was important for me to walk this way alone.” “Yes, I know, it was just a long way. And you are ready to give Bette a second chance?” “I think yes. Well, I don’t really know how I would react. I mean, nobody knows that. But if I’m assuming that I understood now finally that I still love her, then I would like to give us both a second chance.” “You know now, where Bette lives?” “No, but that is not the question. It doesn’t have anything to do with my decision. I don’t say that everything will go this way and I don’t say that it would be easy. I only know that I would be ready for it now, not more but also not less. Do you understand?” “Okeydokey!“

“If you want to spend some more time with us, Tina, why don’t you come in the Planet tomorrow night? Kit throws an Oldie party.” “Why not, of course. Any dress regulations?” “No, not as far as I know. Thank God she hasn’t thought of a fucking dress regulation this time. The community still speaks about me since the last one.” “What slogan was it?” “Groundhog Day.” I automatically had to laugh. „Let me guess, and you were the groundhog?” “Dana persuaded me. But she wore one of these mayor robes. She said that she could snuggle with me the whole evening, again and again.” I could completely was in stitches. “Look, you also laugh about me and you didn’t even see me. And I looked so nice.” Now it was over. I could not hold myself any longer, the tears shot into my eyes. “You see, now you know, why I don’t like these slogan parties.” Slowly I calmed down again. I understood Alice very well. “Alice, don’t be cross with me. Look … as a child I was on a Halloween party. My mother had sewed a pretty robe of Dracula and my father had tinkered me wrong teeth and mixed ‘blood’ which they evenly distributed over my face and on the clothes. I was very proud, because I thought, I looked pretty genuine. When I appeared at the party, the other children began to laugh. I asked why they would laugh and one said I would look like a bat that had an accident. I left the party howling and my mother needed 3 years, before I dressed into a costume again.”