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The evening had started a long time ago and the darkness of the warm summer night crawled through the tilted window into the room. Only the dimmed light of a small string of lights, which Eric had placed on the opposite wall, illuminated the siblings. While their parents were already asleep, the two laid wide awake on the bed, Eric's legs at the headboard, Sara's at the footboard, their heads next to each other in the middle.
"When we were children, we have always lain like this," remembered Eric and looked up to the ceiling.
"Yeah, I wish we could be children again," sighed Sara. "Unfortunately, life only knows one direction: forward."
For a moment there was silence in the small room, until Eric quietly began to speak.
"I-if it's time and you leave," he had to swallow before he could continue. "Will I never see you again? Will I never be able to laugh with you again, quarrel with you? Am I going to be all alone?"
His sister turned her head aside and looked at him out of her bright blue eyes.
"You will never be alone. I will never leave you completely," she assured him sincerely. "I'm just going to be with you in a different way."
"But you're not leaving any time soon, right?" his voice sounded doubtful and he wanted her to confirm it once again.
"No, not yet. But someday. Until then, I'll help you so that it won't be too hard for you."
"Promised?!"
She stretched out her little finger and let Eric's hack it, "Promised."
"That's good, you and me here. Why can't this be forever."
"You're not really listening," she criticized him sisterly and gave him a knock with her knuckles.
The little knock to his forehead echoed weakly through the room.
"Ah!!" yelled Eric and rubbed the area between his eyes and hairline.
Shortly after he had rubbed the pain away, a second knock, whose sound flew through the room to the sibling's ears, took place. This time it wasn't due to a knock from his sister. The two lifted their heads and looked up, but they couldn't find anything in the room that might have caused the sound. So they put their heads back on the bed. However, only for a few seconds, as the sound was heard again.
This time, he could determine the approximate direction of the noise. So Eric got up and walked towards the window while Sara remained on the bed. The boy suspected the noise coming from there. Again, he heard a brief clacking as he stood in front of the glass. Eric could barely see that a small stone had flown against the transparent glass and caused the noise. Carefully, the boy looked out into the darkness.
In the garden below he could see a couching figure, looking for other small stones. Due to the glow of the street lamp, the only source of light in the neighbourhood, which fell gently on the shade, it became recognizable as Alice. Surprised of the nightly visit, Eric looked over to his sister, who had stood up meanwhile.
Without seeing who was waiting for her brother outside, she said, "Come on!"
Eric still glanced at his sister before opening the window and bending out.
"Alice, what the hell are you doing right here in the middle of the night?!"
"Hey, friend!" she waved back to him in the dark. "I wanna show you something, but you have to come with me."
"Are you nuts?! It's in the middle of the night," he looked back at Sara. "And I have something else to do and no time!"
"Liar," hissed Sara aside.
"Come on!" asked Alice and pulled a sulky face that Eric couldn't see in the dark.
"Yeah, come on. Go!" agreed Sara. "You can't say no forever."
Obviously, it was two against one, and Eric found himself in a dilemma. He wanted to spend the evening with his sister, but she herself told him to leave. Honestly, he was also curious about the crazy girl's plan.
"Okay," he quietly shouted down to Alice, "I'm coming down! Wait!"
The young girl jumped up with both hands in the air and cheered silently. Eric walked away from the window and went to the door.
"I'll be back soon. Y-you're still here when I come back, right?"
"I'm there if you need me."
Along with a queasy feeling Eric walked out of the room and down to the entrance to put on his shoes. He was standing next to Alice in the garden, no five minutes later.
"Now, what do you want?!" he asked with a feeling between curiosity and displeasure about the late disturbance.
"Not here!" explained Alice and pulled his sleeve. "We gotta go down-town first."
"What?!" Eric couldn't believe what she wanted to do in the middle of the night. Yet, he allowed himself to be dragged by an enthusiastic Alice. "I hope it's worth it!"
"Yeah, it will be, definitely!" she promised.
For the rest of the time they were rather quiet, although Eric occasionally silently thought about turning back home to Sara. He didn't do it. Even Alice was rather silent on the bus. Thirty minutes passed while they were riding through the city. As soon as the bus turned into the busy streets, the darkness disappeared and was replaced by the colourful neon lights that shone stingingly into the eyes. Everywhere people swarmed along the busy street, alone or in small groups.
