2025-07-10, 03:59 PM
Monday
It was actually ridiculous. But Chris was nervous. He was on his way to his holiday job at the magistrate's office and today was the first day. He was always a bit nervous when he met new people, and he didn't know anyone at all, not even any of the other holiday workers, as his friend Andreas had unfortunately not got the job. He headed for the entrance and was about to ask the porter where he could find room 513 when he saw that there were already a few young people standing outside the porter's lodge. Chris joined the group and approached one boy: “Excuse me, are you a holiday worker too?”
“Hi, yes. The whole bunch of us here. We're all supposed to wait together and then we'll be picked up and assigned, the gatekeeper told us. But you still have to go to him so that he can tick you off his list.”
“Thank you.” Chris marched to the doorman as instructed and gave his name. Then he went back to the group and stood around a little lost in the area. The others didn't seem to know each other either, as everyone was looking around conspicuously inconspicuously, playing with their cell phones or smoking.
“Don't you know anyone here either?” Came a voice from behind him. It was the boy he had spoken to earlier.
“No. Do you?”
“No, neither do I. What's your name anyway?”
“Chris.”
“Hello, I'm Max. Which department have you been assigned to?”
“Wait, building services administration.”
“I'm with the fire police.”
“That sounds great. What do you do there?”
“No idea. But it's probably not as great as it sounds. You've probably never had a holiday job at the magistrate's office?”
“No, have you?”
“Yes, that's why I know what I'm talking about. I was with the cemetery gardeners last year.”
Chris grinned.
“Don't grin!” laughed Max. ”That's a serious job! It was quite a slog. I mowed the lawns all over the cemetery, trimmed the hedges, weeded various graves, all that kind of stuff.”
“Sounds incredibly exciting.” Chris' sarcasm could not be ignored.
“Yes. And because daisies aren't really fulfilling as conversation partners in the long run, I applied for an office job this year. Maybe I'll get an answer for once when I talk to someone.”
“Hey, look. I think we're off now.” Chris poked Max in the ribs.
A young woman in a costume walked up to the gatehouse and came back out with the list of names.
“Good morning, everyone. I'm Mrs. Nikolic. I'm going to see who everyone is here first. Then we'll walk through the building together so that you don't get lost and then I'll assign you to your departments. So let's get started. Adam Marion ....” ”Good, everyone here. Let's go”
After Ms. Nikolic had checked that everyone was really there, she led the whole group through the building.
That was really necessary, because it was a huge block. Chris looked unobtrusively over at Max, who was marching along beside him as if it were a matter of course. He was pleased that he had found someone so quickly. And such a good-looking, likeable boy at that. He was usually the shy type. The tour ended in the canteen.
“Before I 'hand you out', a few organizational matters. There's a children's party at the swimming pool the day after tomorrow. There will be all sorts of play stations for which we need supervisors. You would be the ones to do this and we would be delighted if you all came. I don't think you'll mind a day at the pool, even if you have to work a bit. Please be at the main entrance on time at 8.00 am. If anyone doesn't want to come, please let me know afterwards. They'll have to work, of course.”
The young woman then took the individual people to their respective departments.
“Great, a paid day at the swimming pool. You're going too, Max, aren't you?”
“Of course, do you think I'm going to miss it? It's sure to be a fun day. Besides, they've announced 30 °C for Wednesday. That's far too hot to work anyway.”
“Which one of you is Christian Nelskamp?” Chris spoke up.
“You're actually assigned to the construction department, but they wanted the girl from last year again. You'll get her job with the fire police, okay?”
“Sure, I don't care,” Chris replied. He cheered inwardly. This was the same department Max was going to work in.
“Good, then I still need Maximilian Schütze, Melanie Adam and Katharina Lehner.”
“Hey, cool.” Max whispered in Chris's ear. “Same department!”
“Right, march off, ladies and gentlemen.”
And so they trotted after Ms. Nikolic. When they arrived in the department, she introduced the young people to their boss for the next four weeks, Mr. Schmalfuß. He first explained to the four of them what their future tasks would be. The girls were allowed to organize various files that had accumulated over the year, scan them, then punch holes in them and file them in folders. The two boys had been given a special task. As no one was really responsible for the archive, it was a real mess. Chris and Max had to clear all the files from the shelves, dust them and the folders, dispose of all the files between 1960 and 1980 and sort the rest alphabetically.
“Holy shit. Did you hear that?”
“Unfortunately. Loud and clear. Didn't I tell you that working for the fire police wouldn't be very exciting?”
“Well, at least we'll have some peace and quiet. How do we get started?”
“The best way is to get the containers where we can throw the old files.”
“Ah Max?”
“Like what?”
“You didn't happen to remember how to get into the cellar, did you?”
“Sure! I'm an orienteering genius!”
“Your word in God's ear canal. I certainly won't find my way down there.”
The two of them set off and Max did indeed find the storage area in the basement with somnambulistic certainty, grabbing two wheelie bins and rumbling back upstairs. Once back in the archive, they began to systematically take the old folders off the shelves one by one, look through them and take out the files from 1960 to 1980 as requested. Soon empty folders were piling up on the floor, the containers were filling up and the two boys were covered in dust from top to bottom. Suddenly Max began to giggle.
“What is it?” asked Chris.
Max just laughed louder and pointed at Chris. He just looked at him questioningly.
“Come on, I'll show you.” Max grabbed Chris by the arm and pulled him towards the sink and the mirror in the archive. When Chris looked at himself in the mirror, he knew why Max was giggling. His face looked as if he had swept a chimney with it. He had to suppress a grin.
“Ha, ha. You go ahead and laugh. But make sure you don't look like that soon.”
“My dear Chris, unlike you, I'm not a piglet.”
“Piglet maybe not, but you still have a sooty face!” And before Max knew it, Chris had run his dirty hands down his face. The two of them wrestled around and giggled inanely. When they heard a door slam, they stopped abruptly, looked at each other and started chuckling again.
“Stop it, I can't take any more.” pleaded Chris.
“I'll stop if you stop.” Max gasped. And they continued to giggle. When they finally got themselves together, they carried on working until lunch. They went to the canteen together and chose a menu. When they had finished eating, Chris said: “And what are we going to do now until 2pm? It really sucks that we have a two-hour lunch break here.
hours for lunch. What are we supposed to do in that time?”
“Why don't we go to the city park? At least we can lie in the shade for a while and doze.”
“OK. I hope I don't fall asleep, tired as I am.”
“Well, if you do, I'll wake you up, I promise!”
“Yes, by pouring water over my head. I've only known you since this morning, but I wouldn't put it past you.”
“Well, you've got a good opinion of me,” grinned Max.
“You've only got yourself to blame.”
“Yes, yes. Off we go, or do you want to stay here?”
The lunch break in the park flew by and the rest of the day didn't drag on too long either. And both boys were glad when they were able to go home at 6.00 pm.
Tuesday
The next working day wasn't very exciting either. It soon became routine. Max and Chris sorted out old files, disposed of them and piled up folders on the floor.
Wednesday
Fifteen minutes before eight on Wednesday, Chris was standing in front of the swimming pool. Some of the others were already there, but Max wasn't yet. Of course, he arrived just two minutes before eight.
“Hello, I thought you'd rather spend today in our beloved archive.”
“Anything but that. The three weeks we're still locked up in this dungeon are enough for me.”
“Well, it's not that bad. At least it's nice and cool there.”
One by one, everyone started to arrive, including the people from the play bus who had brought all the play stations with them, and together they set up the stations. Chris and Max volunteered to supervise the bouncy castle. In retrospect, however, this turned out to be a mistake, as the bouncy castle was the kids' favorite game and the two of them were constantly surrounded by people, whereas some of the other places were yawningly empty. But at least the time passed quickly and before they knew it, it was already lunchtime. The whole group, around 15 boys and girls, met further back in the bathroom, where it was a little quieter, and made themselves comfortable on blankets and bath towels. The sandwiches and drinks they had brought with them were unpacked and they were fooling around and having a lot of fun. Until suddenly ...
“Hey, look at those two faggots over there!” shouted Manfred.
Chris got hot.
“Fuck off, you fucking homos!”
“That's disgusting. Now they're even groping each other!”
Two young men had walked past near their campsite, holding hands. As Manfred let out his rant, one of them turned around, gave Manfred the finger and provocatively put an arm around his friend's waist and kissed him on the mouth. When the two of them had long since disappeared, the small group was still on edge.
“Why are you getting so artificially upset?” asked Melanie. “Did one of them do something to you?”
“What do you mean, artificially upset? Do you think it's normal for two guys to make out or fuck each other in the ass? When I see something like that, it makes me puke!”
“Exactly, two men doing it together, that's disgusting.” Vanessa stood in for Manfred.
“I really can't understand that. What's so disgusting about kissing another person?” Melanie asked sharply with raised eyebrows.
“Nothing, but two men - or even two women - that's completely unnatural.” Manfred got upset.
“Exactly.” Vanessa agreed.
“You're so sick, both of you!” Chris exclaimed. “You couldn't care less what they do when they're in bed together. It hasn't occurred to you that they love each other, has it? If you can't watch when two people like each other, then don't watch. Nobody's forcing you to.” Chris had really worked himself up into a rage.
“You're a little pansy yourself, aren't you? Does it turn you on to look at the boys' dicks? Max, watch out when you're bending over in the archive!” Manfred laughed dirty. He didn't notice that the others - with the exception of Vanessa - didn't find his joke very funny.
Furious and red-faced, Chris jumped up and ran off.
“Idiot!” Max shouted and ran after Chris.
At the family pool, Max finally caught up with Chris.
“Hey, wait!” He grabbed Chris by the arm and spun him around to face him. “Why don't you leave the idiots alone?”
“Aren't you afraid they'll think you're gay too?”
“Why would they?”
“Well, Manfred and the others probably all think I'm a fag now.”
“It doesn't matter what they think. Besides, it was only Manfred and Vanessa who got so upset. The others didn't really care. That was my impression anyway. But maybe running away wasn't such a good idea.”
“Mmm.” Chris said and looked carefully at Max. “And what do you think?”
“I think it's none of my business, and if you want to tell me something, you can, and if there's nothing to say, you just don't say anything. I have nothing against gays, if that's what you want to know. My best friend likes boys too.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“So?”
“And what?”
“You too?” Chris asked shyly.
“I prefer girls, but Andreas is a good kisser!”
Chris gave him a big look.
He laughed. “Maybe I'll tell you sometime. But now come on,” Max put an arm around Chris' shoulder and pulled him along, ”our bouncy castle is calling.”
Chris smiled shyly. “Thanks, Max.”
“That's OK.”
All afternoon, Chris couldn't get the argument and subsequent conversation with Max out of his mind. He knew he was gay. He wasn't under any illusions, it didn't really bother him, he'd already gone through that phase. What scared him were the reactions of those around him. What would his parents and friends say?
Would they drop him or would they react as cool as Max? Chris was sure that Max suspected that he was gay, and he was 100% sure that he didn't mind. And Melanie had also stood up for the two boys she didn't even know. He didn't really have any concerns about his friend Tom either. He was the one he had often wanted to tell. But somehow the right situation had never arisen or he had probably never really tried seriously. In principle, he didn't care about Vanessa and Manfred. After these three weeks, he would probably never see them again. And slowly he came to a decision. He would no longer play hide and seek. Firstly, he would tell Tom tonight and he would set an example.
“Hello Chris, come in. I haven't seen you for ages!”
“Hello Mrs. Hartl. Is Tom there?”
“Yeah, sure, he's upstairs in his room. Do you want something to drink?”
“Thanks, I'd love one.”
“Wait, I'll fix you something quickly.”
A few minutes later, he knocked on Tom's room door.
“Yes?” came from inside. Tom was sitting on his couch reading.
“Hi.”
It was actually ridiculous. But Chris was nervous. He was on his way to his holiday job at the magistrate's office and today was the first day. He was always a bit nervous when he met new people, and he didn't know anyone at all, not even any of the other holiday workers, as his friend Andreas had unfortunately not got the job. He headed for the entrance and was about to ask the porter where he could find room 513 when he saw that there were already a few young people standing outside the porter's lodge. Chris joined the group and approached one boy: “Excuse me, are you a holiday worker too?”
“Hi, yes. The whole bunch of us here. We're all supposed to wait together and then we'll be picked up and assigned, the gatekeeper told us. But you still have to go to him so that he can tick you off his list.”
“Thank you.” Chris marched to the doorman as instructed and gave his name. Then he went back to the group and stood around a little lost in the area. The others didn't seem to know each other either, as everyone was looking around conspicuously inconspicuously, playing with their cell phones or smoking.
“Don't you know anyone here either?” Came a voice from behind him. It was the boy he had spoken to earlier.
“No. Do you?”
“No, neither do I. What's your name anyway?”
“Chris.”
“Hello, I'm Max. Which department have you been assigned to?”
“Wait, building services administration.”
“I'm with the fire police.”
“That sounds great. What do you do there?”
“No idea. But it's probably not as great as it sounds. You've probably never had a holiday job at the magistrate's office?”
“No, have you?”
“Yes, that's why I know what I'm talking about. I was with the cemetery gardeners last year.”
Chris grinned.
“Don't grin!” laughed Max. ”That's a serious job! It was quite a slog. I mowed the lawns all over the cemetery, trimmed the hedges, weeded various graves, all that kind of stuff.”
“Sounds incredibly exciting.” Chris' sarcasm could not be ignored.
“Yes. And because daisies aren't really fulfilling as conversation partners in the long run, I applied for an office job this year. Maybe I'll get an answer for once when I talk to someone.”
“Hey, look. I think we're off now.” Chris poked Max in the ribs.
A young woman in a costume walked up to the gatehouse and came back out with the list of names.
“Good morning, everyone. I'm Mrs. Nikolic. I'm going to see who everyone is here first. Then we'll walk through the building together so that you don't get lost and then I'll assign you to your departments. So let's get started. Adam Marion ....” ”Good, everyone here. Let's go”
After Ms. Nikolic had checked that everyone was really there, she led the whole group through the building.
That was really necessary, because it was a huge block. Chris looked unobtrusively over at Max, who was marching along beside him as if it were a matter of course. He was pleased that he had found someone so quickly. And such a good-looking, likeable boy at that. He was usually the shy type. The tour ended in the canteen.
“Before I 'hand you out', a few organizational matters. There's a children's party at the swimming pool the day after tomorrow. There will be all sorts of play stations for which we need supervisors. You would be the ones to do this and we would be delighted if you all came. I don't think you'll mind a day at the pool, even if you have to work a bit. Please be at the main entrance on time at 8.00 am. If anyone doesn't want to come, please let me know afterwards. They'll have to work, of course.”
The young woman then took the individual people to their respective departments.
“Great, a paid day at the swimming pool. You're going too, Max, aren't you?”
“Of course, do you think I'm going to miss it? It's sure to be a fun day. Besides, they've announced 30 °C for Wednesday. That's far too hot to work anyway.”
“Which one of you is Christian Nelskamp?” Chris spoke up.
“You're actually assigned to the construction department, but they wanted the girl from last year again. You'll get her job with the fire police, okay?”
“Sure, I don't care,” Chris replied. He cheered inwardly. This was the same department Max was going to work in.
“Good, then I still need Maximilian Schütze, Melanie Adam and Katharina Lehner.”
“Hey, cool.” Max whispered in Chris's ear. “Same department!”
“Right, march off, ladies and gentlemen.”
And so they trotted after Ms. Nikolic. When they arrived in the department, she introduced the young people to their boss for the next four weeks, Mr. Schmalfuß. He first explained to the four of them what their future tasks would be. The girls were allowed to organize various files that had accumulated over the year, scan them, then punch holes in them and file them in folders. The two boys had been given a special task. As no one was really responsible for the archive, it was a real mess. Chris and Max had to clear all the files from the shelves, dust them and the folders, dispose of all the files between 1960 and 1980 and sort the rest alphabetically.
“Holy shit. Did you hear that?”
“Unfortunately. Loud and clear. Didn't I tell you that working for the fire police wouldn't be very exciting?”
“Well, at least we'll have some peace and quiet. How do we get started?”
“The best way is to get the containers where we can throw the old files.”
“Ah Max?”
“Like what?”
“You didn't happen to remember how to get into the cellar, did you?”
“Sure! I'm an orienteering genius!”
“Your word in God's ear canal. I certainly won't find my way down there.”
The two of them set off and Max did indeed find the storage area in the basement with somnambulistic certainty, grabbing two wheelie bins and rumbling back upstairs. Once back in the archive, they began to systematically take the old folders off the shelves one by one, look through them and take out the files from 1960 to 1980 as requested. Soon empty folders were piling up on the floor, the containers were filling up and the two boys were covered in dust from top to bottom. Suddenly Max began to giggle.
“What is it?” asked Chris.
Max just laughed louder and pointed at Chris. He just looked at him questioningly.
“Come on, I'll show you.” Max grabbed Chris by the arm and pulled him towards the sink and the mirror in the archive. When Chris looked at himself in the mirror, he knew why Max was giggling. His face looked as if he had swept a chimney with it. He had to suppress a grin.
“Ha, ha. You go ahead and laugh. But make sure you don't look like that soon.”
“My dear Chris, unlike you, I'm not a piglet.”
“Piglet maybe not, but you still have a sooty face!” And before Max knew it, Chris had run his dirty hands down his face. The two of them wrestled around and giggled inanely. When they heard a door slam, they stopped abruptly, looked at each other and started chuckling again.
“Stop it, I can't take any more.” pleaded Chris.
“I'll stop if you stop.” Max gasped. And they continued to giggle. When they finally got themselves together, they carried on working until lunch. They went to the canteen together and chose a menu. When they had finished eating, Chris said: “And what are we going to do now until 2pm? It really sucks that we have a two-hour lunch break here.
hours for lunch. What are we supposed to do in that time?”
“Why don't we go to the city park? At least we can lie in the shade for a while and doze.”
“OK. I hope I don't fall asleep, tired as I am.”
“Well, if you do, I'll wake you up, I promise!”
“Yes, by pouring water over my head. I've only known you since this morning, but I wouldn't put it past you.”
“Well, you've got a good opinion of me,” grinned Max.
“You've only got yourself to blame.”
“Yes, yes. Off we go, or do you want to stay here?”
The lunch break in the park flew by and the rest of the day didn't drag on too long either. And both boys were glad when they were able to go home at 6.00 pm.
Tuesday
The next working day wasn't very exciting either. It soon became routine. Max and Chris sorted out old files, disposed of them and piled up folders on the floor.
Wednesday
Fifteen minutes before eight on Wednesday, Chris was standing in front of the swimming pool. Some of the others were already there, but Max wasn't yet. Of course, he arrived just two minutes before eight.
“Hello, I thought you'd rather spend today in our beloved archive.”
“Anything but that. The three weeks we're still locked up in this dungeon are enough for me.”
“Well, it's not that bad. At least it's nice and cool there.”
One by one, everyone started to arrive, including the people from the play bus who had brought all the play stations with them, and together they set up the stations. Chris and Max volunteered to supervise the bouncy castle. In retrospect, however, this turned out to be a mistake, as the bouncy castle was the kids' favorite game and the two of them were constantly surrounded by people, whereas some of the other places were yawningly empty. But at least the time passed quickly and before they knew it, it was already lunchtime. The whole group, around 15 boys and girls, met further back in the bathroom, where it was a little quieter, and made themselves comfortable on blankets and bath towels. The sandwiches and drinks they had brought with them were unpacked and they were fooling around and having a lot of fun. Until suddenly ...
“Hey, look at those two faggots over there!” shouted Manfred.
Chris got hot.
“Fuck off, you fucking homos!”
“That's disgusting. Now they're even groping each other!”
Two young men had walked past near their campsite, holding hands. As Manfred let out his rant, one of them turned around, gave Manfred the finger and provocatively put an arm around his friend's waist and kissed him on the mouth. When the two of them had long since disappeared, the small group was still on edge.
“Why are you getting so artificially upset?” asked Melanie. “Did one of them do something to you?”
“What do you mean, artificially upset? Do you think it's normal for two guys to make out or fuck each other in the ass? When I see something like that, it makes me puke!”
“Exactly, two men doing it together, that's disgusting.” Vanessa stood in for Manfred.
“I really can't understand that. What's so disgusting about kissing another person?” Melanie asked sharply with raised eyebrows.
“Nothing, but two men - or even two women - that's completely unnatural.” Manfred got upset.
“Exactly.” Vanessa agreed.
“You're so sick, both of you!” Chris exclaimed. “You couldn't care less what they do when they're in bed together. It hasn't occurred to you that they love each other, has it? If you can't watch when two people like each other, then don't watch. Nobody's forcing you to.” Chris had really worked himself up into a rage.
“You're a little pansy yourself, aren't you? Does it turn you on to look at the boys' dicks? Max, watch out when you're bending over in the archive!” Manfred laughed dirty. He didn't notice that the others - with the exception of Vanessa - didn't find his joke very funny.
Furious and red-faced, Chris jumped up and ran off.
“Idiot!” Max shouted and ran after Chris.
At the family pool, Max finally caught up with Chris.
“Hey, wait!” He grabbed Chris by the arm and spun him around to face him. “Why don't you leave the idiots alone?”
“Aren't you afraid they'll think you're gay too?”
“Why would they?”
“Well, Manfred and the others probably all think I'm a fag now.”
“It doesn't matter what they think. Besides, it was only Manfred and Vanessa who got so upset. The others didn't really care. That was my impression anyway. But maybe running away wasn't such a good idea.”
“Mmm.” Chris said and looked carefully at Max. “And what do you think?”
“I think it's none of my business, and if you want to tell me something, you can, and if there's nothing to say, you just don't say anything. I have nothing against gays, if that's what you want to know. My best friend likes boys too.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“So?”
“And what?”
“You too?” Chris asked shyly.
“I prefer girls, but Andreas is a good kisser!”
Chris gave him a big look.
He laughed. “Maybe I'll tell you sometime. But now come on,” Max put an arm around Chris' shoulder and pulled him along, ”our bouncy castle is calling.”
Chris smiled shyly. “Thanks, Max.”
“That's OK.”
All afternoon, Chris couldn't get the argument and subsequent conversation with Max out of his mind. He knew he was gay. He wasn't under any illusions, it didn't really bother him, he'd already gone through that phase. What scared him were the reactions of those around him. What would his parents and friends say?
Would they drop him or would they react as cool as Max? Chris was sure that Max suspected that he was gay, and he was 100% sure that he didn't mind. And Melanie had also stood up for the two boys she didn't even know. He didn't really have any concerns about his friend Tom either. He was the one he had often wanted to tell. But somehow the right situation had never arisen or he had probably never really tried seriously. In principle, he didn't care about Vanessa and Manfred. After these three weeks, he would probably never see them again. And slowly he came to a decision. He would no longer play hide and seek. Firstly, he would tell Tom tonight and he would set an example.
“Hello Chris, come in. I haven't seen you for ages!”
“Hello Mrs. Hartl. Is Tom there?”
“Yeah, sure, he's upstairs in his room. Do you want something to drink?”
“Thanks, I'd love one.”
“Wait, I'll fix you something quickly.”
A few minutes later, he knocked on Tom's room door.
“Yes?” came from inside. Tom was sitting on his couch reading.
“Hi.”