Fifteen years in a childhood paradise

arranged for Fräulein Müller to come and look after us. By then Fräulein Parr was our teacher, as Fräulein Müller had married. So she came with her husband. It so happened, that she had married a Herr Müller, and we should have called her really 'Frau Müller', but we kept calling her 'Fräulein Müller', much to the amusement of others, when her husband was around. Herr Müller taught me quite a few card tricks, which came in handy later on when I wanted to impress some of my school mates. Those were happy days in Zakopane. They teased me terribly with Daudi, but I didn't mind. I think I even gave her a kiss once under the stair case. We returned home, full of all the new experiences, and very grateful, that from then on we could ski.

*

When I woke up next morning, I thought I was still in Zakopane. But the contours of our bedroom reminded me, that we were in our home. Suddenly I remembered why I must have dreamed of Zakopane the night before. We were going to ski this morning!

"Wake up, Günter, the sun is up. We wanted to go skiing, or have you forgotten?"

He turned around, saw the sun streaming into our window, stretched, and gave a big yawn.

"No, I haven't forgotten." We got up, dressed in our track suits, and went down for breakfast. "We are going on the Kiesberg this morning," announced Günter, "it's a glorious day. No wind. Skiing should be fun."

"Okay, but just watch out, on the northern side, where the trucks get their gravel from. It's very steep there and the edge can easily collapse. Just stay away from the edge."

Mutter is always warning us of any possible dangers, but we knew to stay away from that side. The Kiesberg was a large hill towards the end of our village, right next to the lake, a gravel deposit. According to legend, a glacier had pushed all the gravel in front of it during the ice age and had come to a stop at this point. When all the ice had melted, it had left the gravel hill and formed our current lake. The Kiesberg was easily reached via the lake, and it had some slopes that were pretty steep.

"Let's go up on the easy slope," Günter said, "and then down on the steep end."

"I think I will first go down the easy slope a couple of times and practice my parallel stops, before tackling the steep slope. I'm always a bit scared at first, going straight down that side."

"Okay. I'll go first, and then you can follow me." Günter was off. I followed about ten meters behind. There were some steeper patches, as the hill undulated down to the lake. We both practiced

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