11 years ago

  Lena ran through the corridors of her uncle's rge estate. During the Christmas season, she and her fathers were always in the seat of government for a few days. They arrived two days before the holiday and stayed until after the start of the new year. About two weeks in total.

  The clones met for an annual conference. They talked about boring stuff and Lena was not allowed to disturb them. The girl didn't want that either. She preferred to py, look at a book, and py hide and seek with the employees (without telling them...).

  From the rge window in her room, she could see all the way to the harbor of the isnd, where Burgstadt stood and waited.

  The city was huge, compared to the isnd. A monster that could tear down the government building. But Lena was used to the sight of this monster made of iron and wheels.

  For the seven-year-old girl, the hallways and rooms of her uncle Ferry Goldbird were much more interesting. And today, with Christmas only a few hours away, the corridors seemed more and more magical to her. She ran over the red carpets and climbed on window sills, hid behind curtains, stole the keys from the staff, and hid them.

  (In such a way that they would find the keys. Lena was not mean. Just cheeky.)

  Servants decorated for the celebration. In the days before, they had been busy cleaning, but now fairy lights were hung up, window pictures made of gss and shimmering metal hung from the high windows. Bubbles and snowfkes made of gss sparkled at the ceilings. They hung down like ice crystals. It was even snowing outside.

  But the snow was not white, but grayish. The fkes were darkened by the smoke of the cities waiting in the harbor. The steam engines ruined the otherwise beautiful, albeit poisonous, white.

  "Lena! Be careful!" A man who looked like her father stopped the girl. Lena had almost run him over. "Why are you in such a hurry?"

  "Uncle!" Lena hugged the man in front of her. Socrate Goldbird. Only the emblem on his vest, a golden brooch showing a snake and a shining candle, told the girl which uncle was standing before her.

  The ruler, her uncle Ferry, carried a phoenix that rose from the ashes. Her father had expined to her that this was a very old, special symbol. Her father, on the other hand, wore a dragonfly that flew past a pocket watch. On Soan's chest rested a mouse, moving between gears, and Soel carried a bull and crossbow.

  "The Christmas tree!" the girl replied to her uncle. "Uncle Ferry said a particurly beautiful one would be set up in the salon this year!"

  "Oh!" Socrate smiled. "But the tree is a surprise for tonight when Santa Cus has hidden all your presents underneath! You must not see the tree before that!"

  "Stuuuupid! Just don't tell them, will you?" Lena hugged her uncle all the tighter. "Besides, Santa Cus doesn't exist. Even if it existed, how would it survive all the poison out there? And how was he to get into the cities and vilges?"

  "Magic?"

  "Magic doesn't exist!" the girl announced sternly. "I'm not a baby anymore. I know that the gifts come from you, Dad, and the other uncles."

  "Don't forget Mina!" Socrate winked at her. "I heard she had something for you too."

  Lena nodded. "Last year she gave me a neckce! With a sparkling gear on it. I wear the neckce every day!"

  "I'm sure Mina will be happy about that. And now, off with you! Go py. And, don't let me catch you by the tree. It’s a secret. Your father and all your uncles have something important to discuss now. Please don't disturb us, yes?"

  "Sure. Very important, if you don't gossip about each other!" Pouting, Lena let go of her uncle and ran away.

  "Cheeky!" her uncle called after her, ughing. "We're just doing that... Sometimes."

  At midnight, after a magnificent festive meal, the unusual family of clones and the hologram of a mechanical woman sat in a magnificent salon. The walls were decorated with amber. Golden ornaments adorned the high ceiling. In front of a firepce of stone and cheerfully painted tiles stood a tree of gold and gss. Gears turned inside and drove a train that drove between the branches. A bird seemed to be singing. It moved its beak and wings while the music came from a music box. The bird was sitting on one of the higher branches. Out of Lena's reach.

  But the girl had already lost interest in the beautiful tree. For the time being. (At some point she pnned to get the beautiful bird from the tree and hide it in her room!) Now, finally, she was allowed to open all her presents while she nibbled on the cookies that were in a bowl. The bowl originally stood on the coffee table where her uncles and father sat and drank mulled wine. But Lena had dragged the bowl to the tree.

  She loved cookies!

  Especially Christmas cookies.

  Eating sweet biscuits, the girl unwrapped the many gifts that y under the tree: new clothes, toys, a pretty charm bracelet on which the emblems of her uncles and father sparkled... The best gift was a music box. A bird, like the one on the Christmas tree, sang lovely songs.

  In an orphanage, far away from the magnificent feast and the magnificent tree, a little boy sat at a window. From his pin bed, he saw the streets of Level 3. No one was still on the road there.

  For him, the party was already over. The orphans did not receive any expensive gifts. They had sung a Christmas carol together and eaten a few simple cookies under a tree made of paper. For dinner, there was a broth with more vegetables in it than usual and a slice of sweet bread with a little butter.

  Throughout the year, the orphanage saved up to be able to celebrate a nice party with the children. To cook a good meal, and to distribute gifts. An employee dressed up as Santa Cus every year. He carried all the gifts in a sack. And it was distributed among the excited girls and boys. And there was a warm hug for each child. There was probably no happier celebration in the whole of Burgstadt.

  This is what every Christmas looked like, but the children always looked forward to it. To the cookies, to the joint crafting of the Christmas tree, and to the small gift that each child received. This year, each child received a metal yo-yo. The year before, it had been small roundabouts.

  Flo pressed his yo-yo to him. It was red and even glittered a little. He observed the false sky and held his yo-yo in the false moonlight so that it shone and shimmered in it. Snowfkes danced through the night. Flo put the yo-yo under his pillow and touched the window. He was looking at the wrong snowfkes in the wrong sky. The picture was pretty. He had never seen the real sky before.

  sasi