The glass of the window was foggy because of the rain. The steam had stuck to the surface, making it impossible for Nadia to see the shadows outside her window clearly. The darkness of the night was bathed in full moonlight and she could only see the outline of the bare trees outside. It was winter and the rain was cold.
Nadia had arrived from the train station wet and she was trembling. Her brown eyes peeked into the night through the foggy window that was in her bathroom. She then turned on the hot water on her bathtub and let the water run while she slowly undressed. She threw all her wet clothes on the floor as she continued to see the shadows of the wonderful tree that had surely been planted a century ago. Its trunk was immense, and the height of its branches exceeded the four-story houses around it. Although it was night and despite the fogged window, she admired it in the distance meditating on its greatness. It was strong, it could be seen by the thickness of its trunk and the firmness of its branches. Its strength took roots in time. It had been a silent witness to wars, bombs, hunger, persecution and death. Even so, it stood firm, looking in the daylight at the sun without fear.
Nadia went into the hot bathtub, and let the hot water penetrate her body, it was the only way to warm her bones in the winter. She looked up and saw through her window the sky above. As she watched the raindrops fall on her window glass she thought: “These windows only existed in Europe and are really beautiful.” She still didn’t get used to the fact that when she lay in bed or in that bathtub, her eyes met again and again with a window that let her see the sky above. She lived in the roof of a German house. On clear nights she could distinguish the little dipper.
Nadia felt lonely, insecure, and uneasy that previous week. She had arrived from a dusty Buenos Aires, full of winds and noise just a year ago. She was full of nostalgia that night and felt fragile. Only a day before she had spoken with Alexandra her dear friend that Europe had gifted her with and that night, she had come to rescue her from those feelings full of gray tones, like her winter skies. Then she thought of the tree and said to herself: “I would like to be like that tree, strong and with deep roots.”
Even though she was in the middle of her winter, that night was special. Nadia knew that the next day she would see something extraordinary. It was something that will make her finally quench the thirst she always carried inside to enjoy the wild, nature and its greatness. She had seen so many days where the sun was absent, but she was certain daylight would bring her as a gift the whiteness of the Polish mountains full of snow. The brightness of the white flakes and its reflections full of light. She knew that night that tomorrow, she would skii through the mountains enjoying a beautiful track. The snow, the cold, the wind, the adrenaline, the euphoria; all that and more awaited for her tomorrow. In addition, she would go with Alexandra, her beloved Polish friend who had come to teach her how to enjoy the best of winter.Alexandra was sweet and affectionate, intelligent and physically beautiful, and her fresh laughter always knew how to soften the heart. Sometimes the words between them were not necessary to understand what was inside. One look was enough. Thinking about this, Nadia turned off the light of her night lamp and before closing her eyes she thought: “Tomorrow with sunrise, everything will be better.”
It was the thought of hope, of internal strength, of the visualization of better things to come, and the ability to see ahead from any obstacle in life. But all that she didn’t know that night. She was still so young.
After her thoughts were finished, she curled up in her warm bed, to sleep the sleep of the hard-working class with the certainty she would slide through the snow next morning and have the majesty of winter at her feet.
In her life, as in all of us there were good and bad days. It was her part and it is ours, to savour the flavors of the good days, to remember them and to embrace them; to leave those flavors in the mouth, for the bad ones.
“Everything has its time and everything that is wanted under heaven has its time … time to laugh and time to cry, time to lay and time to dance” Ecclesiastes: 3: 1,4
