And the day had started out so well … Maren thought despondently. She was sitting at her office desk, her head resting in her hands, elbows propped, and her eyes closed. A persistent shrill voice was coming out of the phone’s handset lying on the desk next to her ear.

It was her mother.

Maren had managed to go almost four weeks without talking to her on the phone. But today, she’d tracked her down at work.

“You haven’t been home in a while,” the reproachful voice said.

And I won’t be coming back any time soon, Maren added silently. “I’m just so busy here, mom. I explained this to you the last time I visited.”

She didn’t even bother moving the headset closer to her mouth. Her mother would be able to hear everything anyway. Or likely she’d just hear what she wanted to hear.

“But it’s a holiday weekend — surely, you’ll get some time off! You could come by then and I can introduce you to this …”

Just out of earshot of her mother’s incessant nagging, Maren suddenly heard footsteps. She quickly sat up and tried to look awake — she didn’t want her boss thinking she was slacking off. She really couldn’t handle one of his fits of rage right now, not on top of all this.

“Mom, I already told you — I have to work on holidays, too. The world doesn’t stop just because it’s a public holiday. We still have to cover the news for people you know”

Maren glanced over her shoulder, grabbed the handset and held it to her ear, propping it up with her shoulder.

She began nervously tapping a pencil on the soft desktop mat.

“Are you even listening to me?” her mother asked accusingly.

“I know a nice young man here in Nordhuusen. He would be perfect for you.”

Maren groaned. “I don’t need him,