The Second Book

Frozen in Time

The elaborated cake glowed in its perfection with ease and confidence. Glancing through the glass door of the freezer, Laura suffered a twinge of jealousy: How could this calorific masterpiece appear so effortless, unfazed by distance and time? She however, had neither special coating nor enhanced substrates to steady her against the forces of time.

Resolutely, Laura pushed her cart further down the aisle. She suspected it was unhealthy to feel jealous towards frozen food. When had nostalgia and regrets crept in?

Maybe it was because she had turned forty last year. Or there were suddenly suspicious lines on her face that seemed to stick around and could not be shaken off with a good night’s sleep. It had been aggravated by the realisation that she had spent more time as an adult living in China than anywhere else. Surly, living through that kind of rapid development of an entire country could make anyone feel like having lived already several lifetimes?

After a moment, she reflected how with a slight increase of temperature, the pretty cake would melt into an unsightly brown puddle. At least that was unlikely to happen to her! 

Most likely, it had been the too many hours spent this week spent researching on cold chain management that had messed with her head. So, was it surprising that it did not get much better when she returned home only to get unsettled by a piece of mail?



That eerie sense of gloom and doom thickened when she opened the snowy white letter embossed with glimmering red letters. ‚Kindly be invited to our twenty year reunion‘. Her eyes went blurry. Startled, she dropped the card into the shiny bin under her stylish desk.

She took a deep breath, realised that she was way too emotional this morning and bent down to retrieve the card for a second glance.

A bad choice. Although, as it turned out, neither her first nor, unfortunately, her last. 

Her thoughts meandered back to her time in 1997 as she arrived as exchange student in China. What a marvellous time they had had! Full of anticipation and excitement they explored life in a foreign universe. She sighed, back then, all of them were in their early twenties and out for adventure.

Little did they know that they would get more of an adventure that they had bargained for. Laura felt that some parts of that adventure should best be left in the past. It had been fun days until the fun was gone. She felt no urge to revisit that time.

Suddenly tired, Laura sank back into her chair. Little green buds on the branches of the tall maple tree right outside her window were braving the cold and welcoming spring. They seemed certain that the dark days of winter lay behind them. Laura envied their optimism.

But then, those decades in China have been carried on a wave of optimism. Encircling her tree were rows of houses, all from design options A to E, some muddled vision of Italian country villa meets concrete jungle. Beijing suburban paradise. Enclaves of comfort, design and security for all who had benefited from the opening and fast growth of the economy.  

So much had changed. When she came to China those twenty years ago, she had been considered rich and sophisticated simply by virtue of coming from developed Germany. Now, if she would sell her parents‘ house in Berlin, that money would barely buy her a garage space in Beijing.

China has changed massively over the past decades. But how much had that changed her? Did that change render past pain meaningless?

She had worked hard to forget about those early days. A lot of questions had been impossible to answer. Best not to think of them: do not think of the dead girl!



More to come soon!