empty and the girl seemed to smile at Bernd from a distance. At least Bernd thought he saw this. But then it happened. She looked directly at him. Overtaxed with the situation, Bernd quickly turned his gaze away and stared into the shelves to his right, pretending to be looking for something else. But it didn’t take long and Bernd stumbled exactly into a small shelf which was in front of him. He dropped his basket and landed straight on the ground with all his spaghetti falling out of his pants. He looked up and only saw the woman at the register looking down on him and visibly working to suppress an upcoming laughter cramp. Bernd collected his things and unwound the purchase as quickly as possible before storming out of the store. Arrived out-side Bernd first had to get rid of his nausea. He ran into the side street behind the shop and, barely having arrived there, had to puke immediately in a high arch. “Man, you can’t take anything either, can you?” Frightened, Bernd turned around. On the back of the shop there was a man in squatting, drinking a can of foreign beer. “I, uh. . . No” Bernd replied.
 “I am Ramùnas. I’m always here, actually. It’s pleasantly lonely here behind the store. But you’re welcome to join me,” said the rocking man. But Bernd still had some plans for the day and so he made his way home again. It didn’t take long and Bernd was back at his property. He brought his groceries into the house, had a drink and then went outside again. The property was really run down. Bernd decided to accept his neighbor’s offer and borrow his lawnmower. He ran over to Walt’s farm and asked about it. He was sent a little further to a building. After Bernd knocked on the door, a tall and elderly gentleman opened it. He was a little pale, he lacked a lot of hair and wore sunglasses. He was naked upstairs, which didn’t seem to bother him. He stared at Bernd for a while, then took a sip from a white can. *sip* “Yeah, what’s up?” he just said. Bernd described the situation to him. “Well. Nice to meet you, Bernd. I’m Hank. Then come with me.” Bernd followed Hank to his barn a few meters further on. “Okay, there’s the good piece in there. Take good care of it, and when you’re done, just put it back in there.” Bernd was really happy about the

helpfulness of his neighbors. Hank went back to his house while Bernd went into the barn. He stood there in all his glory. Quite a chunk from a lawnmower. He looked very well groomed. Since the keys were stuck, Bernd started it without further ado. It roared loudly and began to vibrate strongly as the machine spirit in it awakened to new life. When Bernd had familiarized himself with the shifting, he drove off to his farm, where he first stopped. Bernd decided to take Dette with him at work. After all, this would take quite a while and he didn’t want Dette to get bored. He took her on his lap, turned on a small radio, and turned it on at Thunderstruck, which was still in Hank’s cassette compart-ment. Then he started the engine and finally got going.


It took almost two hours now, but Bernd had mowed his fields almost completely. When he came to the back of the property, he saw two