Posted on 2010-08-23

Emma was lying flat on her back, a wet towel covering her face, all limbs pointing in different directions, whimpering softly. She was suffering. The radio was tuned to the news, but she did not seem to take any note of it; nor did she note her boyfriend, who had just entered the bedroom.

'... and now the weather forecast on Radio Eins Live and that much I can promise, it's going to stay hot …'

'Switch it off,' Emma sighed. 'This is unbearable.'

George dutifully switched off the radio and sat on the bed next to her.

'Anything interesting on the news?' he asked.

'Nope,' Emma said. 'Angie's in trouble with the liberals again. Something about the Culture Capital, and the A/C in the ICE trains is on the fritz again.'

Once more, she sighed dramatically.

'Imagine that, being stuck in a train somewhere in no-man's land between Bielefeld and Berlin in this weather,' she said. 'I'd snuff it. This heat is my death anyway.'

She wiggled her toes.

'I feel as if I were dead already,' she said. 'How do my feet look? Have I already got livores?'

George pulled on her wiggling toes.

'Hopeless,' he said. 'Decomposition has already set in.'

'You just laugh,' Emma hissed. 'That's exactly how I feel.'

She sat up and pulled the towel off her head.

'Who just called?' she asked.

'Frau Ellmann,' George said and pulled a face. 'Wanted to know if we'd arranged for her nut allergy.'

Emma groaned again.

'Frau Ellmann contracted an allergy against nuts when they came into fashion and now she can't get rid of it,' she said. 'Why did we invite her in the first place?'

'Because she's the wife of Herr Ellmann,' George said, 'and no 'I do' without Ellmann, remember?'

'As if I'd marry you in this weather,' Emma snorted. 'Ten horses couldn't drag me into that frock if it stays that hot.'

'Okay,' George said calmly. 'Without the frock then. Fine by me.'

Emma slapped him with the towel.

'You're nasty,' she said. 'I don't even know why I'm going to marry you.'

'Because you love me?' George suggested.

'Pah,' Emma panted and fell back onto the bed. 'It's far too hot for that.'

'Because my seemingly supernatural beauty has blinded you so much you've been robbed of your free will and will do whatever I tell you?' George suggested next.

'Dream on.'

'Cause I'm going to get you a choco ice-cream from the freezer?'

'That sounds more like it,' Emma said.

'Do I get a kiss?' George asked.

'First the ice-cream,' Emma decided. 'Then we'll see.'