Boxing Day

Date/Timing: 25 January 2006
Setting: Gottlieb home; Berlin, Germany
.
Dietrich heaves the last box onto the desk with a grunt. „Good Lord, Manny, what the Hell did you buy over there? Rocks?“
Hermann shrugs without looking away from the abstracts from the latest /Astrophysics, then recrosses his ankles.
„Hey. There's a note taped to this one.“
Hermann pretends to read.
„You probably want to look at this.“
The envelope eclipses his laptop screen.
Hermann huffs at the unfamiliar writing on the front, opens it without enthusiasm.
Dietrich chuckles, pads out.
Hermann extracts a sheet of University of Manchester letterhead, sighs.
- 15 Jan '06
Mr Gottlieb,
The University saw fit to put me in charge -
His eyes skip to the bottom of the note—
- Regards,
Bakshish Singh -
—roll.
- The University saw fit to put me in charge of packing your possessions for their journey to Germany. I hope it's acceptable that I brought in three of your fellow students—a Ms Singh, a Mr Jones-Morgan, and a Mr Reid -
Hermann's heart skips.
- to assist me.
If anything's broken, it's totally their fault. (Swansea was /especially careless.)
If there's anything included that's /not yours, it is now. Finders keepers and all that. (/All of them were sloppy with this last box. You just can't trust kids to do a decent job these days.) -
Hermann blinks at the paper. 
Side-eyes the box.
Blinks some more.
Flings aside the paper, dumps the laptop on the mattress, lunges—misses his balance, sends the chair toppling, grabs the edge of the desk, barely manages to stay upright.
Bastien skids in, squeaks, „Are you alright?“
„I'm fine,“ croaks Hermann. Clears his throat. „I was a bit ambitious with how quickly I stood up.“
Bastien stomps over, rights the chair, crosses his arms, frowns at Hermann.
„I'll be more careful next time.“
„You'd better.“ Bastien snaps a nod, marches off.
Hermann finds the edge and rips off the tape, opens the flaps—
The box inhales.
—peers inside.
A dark shirt, probably purple.
Not his.
He gathers it up, presses it to his face.
Cheap laundry detergent, strawberry soap.
/Edan.
He buries his nose deeper.
The shirt /crinkles?
Hermann extracts himself, feels about inside the garment, pulls out a slip of paper.
- Trade you! -
in Edan's handwriting.
He smiles, wings fluttering happily, sets the shirt and note on the desk with a pat, and turns back to the box.
A thick layer of snacks: Hobnobs, Jelly Babies, Frazzles, Wine Gums, Twiglets.
Beneath that, an anti-static bag.
Hermann furrows his brow, unfolds it, shakes out three thumb drives. He puts those aside.
Another shirt, a different dark shade this time.
Below it, the bottom of the box.
Hermann replaces the shirts with a sigh, grabs his laptop, arranges it on the desk, and plunks on the chair.
He plugs in the first thumb drive, checks the contents, finds three folders.
- CITY -
- PEOPLE -
- AROUND -
He opens the first to find dozens of snapshots of places in and around Manchester.
"Around" contains pictures from different cities, mostly Glasgow and Swansea, with a scattering of other locations around Britain.
He takes a deep breath, clicks into "People".
Rhys. Vigsai. Astrophysics classmates.
Edan.
Hermann closes the folder, wipes away the start of tears.
He switches to the next drive.
- AWESOME_MIX_2 -
The Slits, the Au Pairs, the Damned, Buzzcocks.
The next.
- AWESOME_MIX_1 -
Joy Division, The Fall, Wire, the Clash. 
Hermann sets the laptop to copying over all the files to its hard drive.
He pushes to his feet, closes up the box, carries it to his closet, tucks it away on the shelf to save it for special occasions.
Category:Ficlet
Category:Berlin (setting)
Category:Hermann
Category:Hermann's POV
Category:Hermann has wings
Category:Hermann (ficlet)
Category:Dietrich
Category:Dietrich (ficlet)
Category:Bakshish
Category:Bakshish (ficlet)
Category:Conversations via snail mail
Category:Vigsai (mention)
Category:Rhys (mention)
Category:Edan
Category:Edan (ficlet)
Category:Bastien
Category:Bastien's POV
Category:Ficlets with images
Category:Celestial Mechanics
2006 01 25