“That was a real blessing, dear Frieda!” Hannah was watching her children as they dug away.
“Mom, I’ve got something here!” cried Marco, who had already dug a hole so deep that the whole length of his arm and half his head had disappeared into it. They instantly all rushed over. The spade was making aclong, clongsound as he struck it against the lid of something hard.
“That has to be the gold treasure!” Leon cried excitedly. He wiped his beet-red face, leaving a few bits of dirt on his high forehead. “Quick—get it out!”
Marco kept digging until he had fully uncovered the little box and could lift it out. It was the width of a hand and as long as a forearm. Hannah crouched down beside him and took the box from his hands. She hadn’t believed it till now.
“Open it! Open it!”
Ever so slowly, for what seemed to take an eternity, Hannah opened the lid of the metal chest with its creaking hinges. As the lid fell open, her jaw dropped even more. “I don’t believe it...”
Inside the chest were gold coins, rubies, and emeralds. It was filled to the brim. Hannah slowly shook her head. There was no way this could be true.
“How much is that, Mommy?” asked Emi, whose brown eyes were as round as saucers.
“I don’t know.”
Hannah heard Leon’s high little voice pipe up beside her: “Do we have money now to buy Lena’s baby a present?”
Hannah had to laugh.
“Well, yeah, brother!” cried Marco. “I’m guessing it’s enough that Mom can work less and we’ll still have enough to live on, right?”
A tear trickled down Hannah’s cheek, and she nodded. She looked up to the heavens.Thank you, Maximilian! Thank you for helping me.More and more tears came trickling down until she began to sob.
Unsure of what was going on, Emi gave her a hug. She had never seen her mother crying before. “Mommy, what’s wrong? Why are you crying?” The corners of her mouth turned down, and it didn’t take long before she and Leon were wailing as well.
“I’m crying out of happiness and gratitude, sweetie.”
Leon furrowed his kid’s brow. “You didn’t hurt yourself?”
Hannah shook her head and wiped her tears away with the back of her hand. “No, sweetie, I’m happy beyond belief. We’reall together again, and our money problems are solved. We’re taken care of now.”
“You don’t have to work for Ines anymore?” Emi asked.
“Only if I want to.”
“And?” Frieda asked as she peered at her over her half-moon glasses. “Do you?”
Hannah smiled at her. “No, I want to build something of my own!”
Frieda beamed. “And I’ll help you with it!”
Hannah didn’t know whether that was good or bad, but she had to smile when she saw Frieda’s delighted expression. They could work out the details later. “Let’s go!” Hannah said.
“But I wanted to go into the forest and look for Irmgard!” Emi cried.
“Irmgard died a long time ago. Remember, sweetie, these events took place a hundred years ago or more.”
Emi put her hands on her hips and made her smart-aleck face. “Unicorns get really old, Mommy!”
Right at that moment, a mist swept through the forest, very close by. Hannah stood up and followed it with her gaze. It was too dense to discern any contours, but the glow it emitted spoke of magical powers. Hannah thought she could hear a distant whinnying sound, and she smiled. “There in the mist,” she said, “that’s where the unicorns are galloping by!”
The children’s eyes opened wide, and they wanted to run over, but Frieda and Hannah held them back. “We mustn’t frighten them!”
The mist was heavy and opaque, and they couldn’t distinguish a thing. But they did pick up on the quiet sounds of thundering hooves and snorting. Was a herd of unicorns galloping by?
“The unicorns live in the mist,” Hannah whispered.
