"I think she hates me."

"No." Reyji casually shifted her hips on the desk and went through the magazines with one hand. "She wouldn't be lecturing you if she hated you. Unless she wants to use you... But more likely, she's lectured you because she thinks you're worth her time."

"I'm not so sure about that. She's always like that. The- The- The- The day before yesterday she took my inhaler."

"What did she do with it?"

"Shook it and w- w- w- ..."

Reyji looked towards the door at the time because she had noticed that it was starting to rain. She already knew the stuttering. Mausi wasn't super shy. She had a speech impediment. She kept getting stuck on individual words and then couldn't seem to stop until she had said the word correctly. She got stuck, panicked, couldn't get any further and started hyperventilating. She also had asthma, which was probably a terrible combination. Mausi was just her nickname. She was probably called that because she had a snub nose and protruding ears. Reyji would not call her that if she had not introduced herself that way.

"... w- was asking questions."

"Sounds like she's just worried about your health, doesn't it?"

"She asked "You need this to survive?" and "What happens if I keep it?" as if it was a threat."

In Reyji's imagination, Marah held the inhaler over Mausi's head while Mausi kept jumping up to reach it, but failed to do so. After all, she was quite petite.

~Probably not.~

"Surely there was some reason for that? Did she say anything else?"

"N-no." It seemed as if she had remembered something and while still answering she bent down with her upper body and looked searchingly into her insert, then came back up with a pink sheet of paper. "Here, look at this." she said and began to fold the sheet several times with precision. She continued until she had a figure that she held up proudly. "This is a swan," she explained proudly and then moved the swan as if it were swimming on the open sea.

Reyji took the figurine and looked at it. The swan had a logo of the state company Rosa on its wing, but otherwise it was blank.

"Origami?"

"Do you know that? It's my new hobby."

"I used to do it a lot as a child. Isn't that Rosa's expensive paper?"

"That's all I have at the moment." she replied without really listening as she opened a drawer at her desk.

A few weeks ago, Mousie had still been working in administration at the state company Rosa. She had probably taken a pack of the paper from there.

Just as Reyji was putting the swan back down, Mausi poured a dozen other paper figures onto the table with both hands.

"Look, I've already practiced a lot."

"Are you actually working at some point?"

"I've been told I'm allowed to. It's not that often that someone comes up here."

"What are we going to do with you..."

Mousie frantically fetched something from her desk once again.

In the meantime, Reyji looked at the office door once, because she had heard a cupboard fall over.

~Why does every conversation she has end in her breaking something?~

When Reyji turned back around, Mausi was holding a black paper flower out to her.

"I made this for you."

The piece looked very sophisticated.

"Why?"

"I- I- I- It's to thank you for helping me move."

"Ah... I see. I told you I didn't mind though."

"But you always work so much, so I wanted to at least give you something back."

"Why a black flower?"

"I saw it when you were in the shower. Won't you accept it?

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Reyji took the flower and looked at it more closely. It was better made than most of the other things on the table.

"Reyji?

"Hm?"

"I know what it means..." Mousie lowered her gaze. "I'm sorry."

"Ah... I see. Um... You're worrying too much. It's just a tattoo. I just thought it looked cool. There's no real meaning to it."

"Ahh... I see."

Mousie continued to look saddened. It seemed like she was thinking about it anyway. Reyji probably was not good enough at lying.

While Mousie mainly looked down, Reyji stood up.

"I'm going for a smoke. I'm sure she'll soon get tired of snapping at him. Tell her I'll wait outside."

"Will do."

Reyji kept the blossom and headed for the roof door.

"Reyji?"

Reyji already had the door handle in her hand, but lingered.

"I..." Mausi was silent for a moment. "Bye, Reyji."

"I'll take one of your umbrellas with me."

"Feel free to."

Reyji waved her backhand and walked out and under the canopy to the left to the door of the stairwell, right next to a garbage can.

She held the flower in one hand and lit a cigarette with the other. Without protecting the flame from the wind, it only worked on the second attempt.

The weather was terrible. The roof was already full of puddles and the smoke was drifting into the heavy rain.

~Hm, her dress will get dirty.~

.../

During the second cigarette, Marah came outside. From the way she opened the door as she walked, her mood was rather mediocre.

"How did the conversation go?"

"It went brilliantly. He could hardly stay in his seat, he loved my suggestions so much."

"I heard furniture."

"Indeed, an old cupboard fell over, but nothing happened to me."

"I also heard a vase."

"He had an unfortunate stumble."

"Haha."

Reyji was not worried. Mr. Turmer was not a sensitive person.

"What's that?" Marah asked irritably, pointing at the paper flower. "Do you want to get married?"

"Oh, no. It's a present from Mousie."

"She wants to marry you?"

"I don't think she knows what it means."

"Why do you think she doesn't know? She's not as stupid as the magazines suggest."

"Ah, yes, about the magazine. Should I arrange to have that bought for you?"

"Why would I want to buy that?"

"You sounded unhappy with the contents?"

"I am, but that's not so important. If you speak your mind, you can convince some, but there are other opinions that convince others. If you hide all other opinions, you can convince more, but there are still other opinions that others have. Only if everyone says their opinions you can manipulate everyone."

"I can't follow?"

"Suppose there are ten newspapers. They all write something different, but in essence eight write the same thing and the other two are untrustworthy. You don't need to own all ten. I don't need the ones that praise me. They do that themselves. I only need certain ones and I already have those."

"But how is that manipulation?"

"It is manipulation. If a newspaper writes how great I am, then at best you feel vindicated, but if a newspaper writes how incompetent I am, even though you have benefited, then you really feel something, namely injustice. People should think that they are being personally attacked. I'm criticized for every little thing and every justified criticism sinks in the swamp. I don't even need to deal with it. Everything that comes to the surface is automatically invalidated. The rest of the press prints what sells. If the readers want to hear that I'm great, then that's what they'll write. So I only need certain ones and I already have those. I'd like everyone to love me, but that is not possible. If everyone's a group, who are we supoosed to bash their head in?"

"The Economic Journal is neutral, is it not?"

"Just because my name isn't written on everything doesn't mean I don't own everything."

"I suppose you're not going to tell me which paper you mean?"

"The nice thing about information is that you never truly know where it comes from. I don't want to spoil you the truth. Can we then?"

Reyji nodded and stubbed out her cigarette, then went back downstairs.

"Just out of curiosity, will there be high inflation?"

"Maybe a hundred percent? I don't decide that in the amount."

"Isn't that a problem?"

"For some people it will be. Now that you know, why don't you buy a house?"

"I'm happy with my apartment."

"Then you'd better buy it. The rent will get more expensive over the next few years."

"I'll think about it. What about foreign commitments?"

"Reyji, we've done the math. We have enough in foreign currencies."

"Enough until a new currency?"

"Try to guess for yourself what will happen. Everyone else has to do that too."

Marah seemed annoyed by the questions. Reyji had no idea what she was up to. The only thing that was certain was that she wanted to devalue the S-Mark.

The two of them did not go back to the main entrance, but went straight from the stairs to the left to a glass door at the end of the corridor. This was the emergency exit. For fire safety reasons, the door could be opened from the inside at all times. Probably everyone who had their office here used this emergency exit, as there was already a container of umbrellas by the door. Behind the panes of the door, Reyji saw that it was pouring buckets outside. It had gotten even worse.

"Here, take this." Marah pushed her handbag onto Reyji again. "If you want, you can put your flower in there."

~Why the pretense?~

Reyji did, then grabbed an umbrella, held the door open for Marah, and they walked outside.

When they were already on the stone path to the main road, Reyji handed the umbrella to Marah and ran back to the door.

"Did you forget something?"

At the door, Reyji pushed against the frame with her right hand and the door opened, so she pulled it shut hard again, then ran back to Marah.

"It just didn't close properly. I'll walk you back to the palace and then?"

"Nothing then. I don't have any more plans for today. What are you going to do?"

"I guess I'll go to the gym then."

"In this weather?"

"Do you still need me?"

"No. Do what you want."

.../

In the evening, Reyji lifted weights in a gym while a thunderstorm raged outside. The hall and the equipment belonged to the military. Reyji was the only one here. All the other equipment was empty. The weekend was just around the corner. The soldiers were probably out drinking. On a weight bench in the corner lay her sports bag and the black flower next to it.

Mousie certainly did not know the full meaning. The fact that she knew anything about it at all was already unusual. It was something that you could simply look up.

Reyji had not thanked her. She meant to, but never got the chance. It was the last time she had seen her.

Mausie died three days later in an attack.

.../ End Part