13 January, 2014 “At least you love her,” the woman at the window mumbled barely audible. “That’s the only thing that matters.” Sam, sitting at the far end of the kitchen table, lost in thoughts, froze at his mother’s words and instantly looked over to her. “What did you just say?” Sam managed, dreading the worst. “I’m just glad that it happened with somebody that loves her....and cares for her”, she added staring into the distance with a peaceful expression already reconciled with her deadly fate. Part of her was not there anymore. She was in limbo.

When she came into his room at night, he would not think anything bad of it. Not even when she flung back the sheets on his bed, lay beside him and snuggled up to his back. They had done that a million times as children, and even as teenagers. She was still a teenager, wasn’t she? Looking for comfort, for sure. They had forged the old bond of trust anew, and everything was as it was back then, wasn’t it?

November, 2005 „Why do you have to do that to me? Don’t you have any shame?!” Alice was leaning against the bed post, clenching her fingers tightly round the neck of an almost empty bottle of beer, a desperate edge to her slurred voice. She had been drinking since the early evening. It showed.