Friend

She looked in her hands. Small hands, without any fold. The hands of a five-year old who seizes he world. She spent hours every day to take things in hand. She stroked cats, dogs, hamsters and guinea pigs. Mum's skin she stroked. She took her hands, in order to handle food and the world was like one big different impression in her hands. Everything was felt.

And yet there was one thing her hands were longing for, to touch this thing, and couldn't yet. A Barbie doll. Her own Barbie doll. A friend just for her alone, she could clothe and that would feel comfortable in her hands.

Her friends had these dolls, but her parents were against them. "Oh darling," mother used to say, "but this is all just profiteering. The world has other beauty ideals as the blond dolls. You will become perhaps engineer or manager. You do not need Barbie dolls."

It didn't matter to her what she would be twenty years from now on. She understood nothing of the world of adults. She wanted a girlfriend and should it matter how the girlfriend looked? Why not blond, because Katrin was blond too and Katrin was her best friend.

So she dreamed of Barbie dolls. Many beautiful Barbie dolls and her puppet in the midst of them - her doll, her friend. She touched Barbie and felt the love for this doll grow in her and tenderly stroked the doll. Oh Barbie, if the mom would let me only come to you. For hours the little girl dreamed of her doll.

Then the birthday of the little girl approached and she had slept restlessly. Early in the morning she jumped out of bed and ran into the living room to her gifts. Whether this time she would get a Barbie doll?

From the size of the packages only one package would come into question, it was elongated and had the proportions of a Barbie doll. Happy she took the package into her hands and was startled. It felt too heavy. With worried anticipation she unwrapped the package and saw a pair of binoculars. Attached was a note she could decipher slowly, 'For our young researcher, in love your Mom. "

Dull she took the binoculars in her hand. A cold subject with large insect like eyes. She looked through it and saw the world around her peculiarly close.

Meanwhile mummy had came into the room and looked at her with joy. "Happy Birthday my small darling. You're now six years old."

She smiled disappointed at her Mummy. Mummy frowned.

"Don't you like the binoculars?" She took it in her hand and stroked it. "I always wanted them as a child. Instead, there were only puppets and dolls. While the boys played with binoculars and pocket knives."

"Mummy?"

"Yes."

"You would like to be an engineer?"

"I think so darling."

Since then it was all clear to the girl. Mom gave her what she herself would have been happy with.

"And then you hated your toys?"

"Yes, my mother never endowed me what I wanted to have. It was terribly my dear. As soon as I could, I got rid of the stuff."

"Then you have nothing more left from your childhood?"

"Some, that's all in the attic, in a carton."

"Would you show me?", asked the little girl.

Mom laughed, "You are the birthday child. You command what we do today. Take your binoculars and then we go to the attic." Mother handed her determinedly the binoculars and went ahead.

Mother was a giant. She wondered if she ever would be as tall as Mummy. Mummy went on the stairs, while she followed on her hands and feet. It was fun feeling the worn places in the middle of the stairs with the hands. On the attic arrived, everything felt dusty and cold.

Mom draw unerringly a box from the plethora of boxes out and opened the box. "Look", with a slightly bored face mummy pointed in the box. She came closer and looked into it. She did not know exactly what she had expected, but then she handed mom determinedly the binoculars.

"There. For you. I take this here." She took Barbie in hand. Blond she appeared there as if the last twenty years hadn't left a trace on her. The world disappeared around the little girl. Two friends had found their way to each other. She took Barbie in the hands pressed her to her heart and listened to all the stories that Barbie now had to tell. Meanwhile mom was watching inconclusive with the binoculars in hand, but the daughter seemed unattainable, in front of the box. Then she hung the binoculars around her neck. "Until later ...?", she asked and when she received no response, she moved on slowly.

Happy and satisfied, her hands lay on the glass. Whether there could be adventures waiting for her at her age ....