A ski holiday with Rudi and Trudi
A story with Freddy Fit by Larissa Herzl.
Freddy Fit on a ski holiday with Rudi and Trudi
Freddy Fit presses his face against the windowpane and marvels at the snowy forests passing by. The winding road up to the hotel where Freddy will spend this year’s ski holiday with Uncle Birnstingl and Nana is also covered in snow, but the uncle skilfully steers the car around every bend. His grandmother sits with glasses on her nose in the passenger seat and looks up now from her crossword puzzle: “Oh little children, look, that’s the hotel in front of us! That went really fast now, didn’t it?” Uncle Birnstingl looks at Freddy Fit in the rearview mirror and the two smile tellingly. Neither of them wants to be the one to tell Nana that she slept through more than half of the journey.
After the car comes to a stop at the hotel’s car park, Freddy Fit opens the car door and scrambles to get out from the back seat to help Uncle Birnstingl unload. Meanwhile, his grandmother rushes to the reception to pick up the room keys. Freddy and his uncle both take some luggage under their arms and enter the reception hall. They are approached from the side by a somewhat chubby figure with red overalls and a frayed hat covered with large headphones. With his head bowed and his gaze fixed on his smartphone, which he holds in one hand, the pomegranate moves towards Uncle Birnstingl. Freddy Fit just wants to shout “watch out!” when it suddenly crashes loudly into him. Uncle Birnstingl lies with his luggage on the ground along with his new acquaintance, who rubs his head in surprise. “Well, I say, can’t you be careful? Probably the altitude!” shouts the pomegranate angrily as he stands up, groaning. “Please forgive me, but you were the one who walked through the hall and didn’t look where you were going!” says the uncle, shaking his head. Dismayed, Freddy Fit comes to help his uncle up. “Such a mean apple!” says Freddy with quiet annoyance. He continues on his way without uttering another word and has an even more steely look than before.
“I have bad news,” says Uncle Birnstingl, visibly exhausted from carrying his luggage, as he stumbles through the door of their room. He drops onto the upholstered armchair in the corner of the room and buries his face in his hands. “I don’t know how this could have happened, but I’m afraid we forgot your skis at home, Freddy. I’m sorry,” he says depressed. “How is the little one supposed to whizz down the slope with us now?” shouts Nana, angrily. Freddy Fit thinks for a moment and then says: “I think I might have an idea…” Then he grabs his uncle by the hand.
A little later, Freddy Fit is standing with Uncle Birnstingl and a hotel staff member in a basement room of the hotel, where countless skis are lean against the walls. Freddy has already seen a sign on arrival indicating you can rent skis at the hotel. “Hmm, to get some exactly in your size could be a little tricky now, as a lot of our guests have been borrowing skis lately. I’ll have to see if we still have any,” says the employee as she walks through the room looking for a suitable pair. Uncle Birnstingl puts an arm around Freddy Fit. “It’ll be okay – there’ll be something for you,” he whispers to him, encouragingly. “Aha! Those are the ones!” The nice lady from the hotel puts a few skis in front of Freddy, which seem to be just the right size. “Perfect!”, he says, delighted, and he thanks her when suddenly a loud voice can be heard from the corridor: “What do you mean that the last pair of skis have just been given out? That can’t be true! What kind of service is that?” Freddy and the uncle peer out into the hallway and the two immediately recognise the grumpy figure who had previously crashed right into the uncle. “Who else?” Freddy Fit murmurs very quietly, so that only the uncle hears it and the two look at each other with a grin. Uncle Birnstingl shakes his head almost without anyone noticing.
Early the next morning, Freddy Fit runs down the stairs to the ski room. There is so much anticipation on his face as he opens the door and heads for the corner where the hotel employee put his name on the rental skis the day before and leaned them against the wall. Suddenly, Freddy Fit stops and freezes.
There is just one spot amid all the skis that is empty – exactly where Freddy’s skis were the day before. There, on the floor, there is even the note on which his name is written! Only the skis have vanished. Freddy Fit can’t believe it. “Who would do such a mean thing?” He asks himself. At that moment, Uncle Birnstingl enters the room, intending to help Freddy carry the skis up. An angry Freddy tells him about the disappearance and when he finally takes a break to catch his breath, the uncle, with his eyebrows raised, says: “Guess who I just saw in the reception hall? With skis that looked exactly like the ones that were reserved for you yesterday.” Freddy Fit sucks in the air noisily. “That wretched pomegranate!”
After some heated discussions and a lot of persuasion from Freddy’s side – he has had to assure the uncle and Nana at least 100 times that it is okay if they go alone, because what is a holiday without skiing? – Freddy Fit finally sits on a sofa in the lobby of the hotel, rests his head on his hands and looks longingly up at the slopes. He wants nothing more than to be up there with his uncle and grandma, enjoying the wonderful fresh snow. That’s when Freddy notices the sofa next to him sinking a little. He turns his head and looks into the face of the friendly caretaker. “Well, sourpuss,” he says jokingly, “what’s up?” Freddy Fit begins to tell him. About the skis gathering dust in the garage at home instead of being used here, the nice hotel staff member who reserved a couple for him in the basement room and the mean pomegranate who just took them. “I understand…”, says the caretaker, frowning. “Stay where you are, I’ll be right back!”
Freddy Fit hears a rattling and clinking sound from a room near the reception where the caretaker disappeared to. Shortly afterwards, he stands in the doorway with a wide grin and a pair of wooden skis. “Freddy, I present to you: Rudi and Trudi!” “What?”, Freddy Fit shouts with a laugh. “Your skis have names?” “Yes, of course. These were my best friends in my younger years. I was a hazard on the slopes with these every winter,” says the caretaker and goes to Freddy, who has now gotten up and wants to take a close look at the old skis. “I know, of course, that they don’t quite match today’s fashion, and you probably won’t get down the piste with them quite as quickly as with the newfangled models, but old skis are better than none at all, right? If you want, you can keep them. I’ve already grown out of them and have no use for them anyway. We just need to clear a little bit of dust off them and adjust the binding,” says the caretaker. An emotional Freddy Fit looks at him and gently strokes the skis with his hand. “Thank you very much, that really means a lot to me!” he says and surprises the caretaker with a long hug.
Freddy Fit steps out of the hotel with his new yet old skis in his hand. “Well then, Rudi and Trudi, let’s go!” he grins. He feels a slight tap on his shoulder. The wretched pomegranate is standing behind him. “I’m sorry. What I did was not right and I would like to apologise to you,” he says. Freddy Fit’s mouth remained open – an apology was what he was least expecting right now.
With his head bowed, the pomegranate went on to explain that his skis had broken the day before. He really wanted to ski again today, however, and without skis that just isn’t possible. “But then I saw how sad you were,” he says, presenting Freddy Fit with the skis he took out of the basement room. Freddy Fit feels the corners of his mouth rising up. “You know what, you keep the skis, I’ll take Rudi and Trudi and we’ll have a nice day of skiing together now!”
Find out more about LARISSA HERZL …
Freddy Fit hat all seine Freunde zu Hilfe gerufen. Und auf Zenzi Zwetschke, Ronni Rhabarber und Mara Marille ist immer Verlass. Als Freddy vor der Tür von den Zwillingen Klara und Kiara Kirsche gestanden ist, um ihnen ihre Mützen zu übergeben, haben sich die beiden nur einen kurzen Blick zugeworfen, genickt, sich die Hauben aufgesetzt und sich dem Weihnachtstrupp angeschlossen. Eddi Erdbeer ist ebenfalls dazugestoßen. Zusammen und doch jeder auf seinem eigenen Weg, sind die Freunde jetzt unterwegs und tauschen Geschenke was das Zeug hält. Sie packen und verteilen, schneller als jedes Rentier das geschafft hätte.
Als auch das letzte Paket in die richtigen Hände gekommen ist, ist es schon ziemlich spät in der Nacht. Erschöpft lassen sich die Freunde auf Freddys großes Sofa in seinem Wohnzimmer fallen, während Onkel Birnstingl heißen Kakao und Decken verteilt. Da läutet das Telefon. „Ich denke, das ist für dich, Freddy“, schmunzelt der Onkel und reicht Freddy Fit den Hörer weiter. Rudolfs Stimme erklingt lautstark, sodass Freddy das Telefon in einem sicheren Abstand zu seinem Ohr halten muss: „Applaus für den einzig wahren Weihnachtsapfel! Freddy Fit, ohne dich hätte Weihnachten in diesem Jahr nicht mit Geschenken stattfinden können! Hiermit befördere ich dich und alle deine Freunde offiziell zum Weihnachtsobst!“ Freddy Fit hebt eine Augenbraue. „Äh, danke, schätze ich?“, grinst er. Und als die Freunde nun auch endlich ihre eigenen Geschenke öffnen können, meint der Onkel: „Ihr seid wirklich wahre Weihnachtshelden.“
