Home at last!

At last the German family were almost home! Their return had been delayed twice because of a protracted family crisis.

"Papa! My trains!" said little Heinrich, suddenly remembering his favourite toys. "Will you help me set up the track?"

"Of course, of course," said his father, but something in Volker's voice made his wife look sharply over at him.

Her gaze followed his. The taxi was just pulling up in front of their house. After the endless-seeming trip home, how eagerly they were all longing to get washed up and fall into bed (or in amongst their toys). What a blessing they had not allowed anyone to house-sit ... no need to worry if the sheets were clean, the towels ...



But why on earth was the front door standing open?

"Volker! I hope someone has not broken in!' said Helga in alarm.

"Mama, there is an ox peeking out of the livingroom window," said Elfi.

"Child! Stop this nonsense!" hissed Helga. What a time for Elfi to indulge in her silly nonsense. How unfair life was! They had moved all the way to Arunachala, and here was their child spouting lies, as if immune to the influence of the Mountain.

"No, Mama, I just saw him. A great big ox, with an nasty air about him. I saw his eyes. He tried to trick me."

It was all Helga could do not to smack the child. She herself had been raised by very strict parents in Germany .... the slightest nonsense had been dealt with quickly and firmly. What a trial it was to be married to Volker, who would not hear of the children being spanked when they deserved it.

"Papa, I saw him too," said Heinrich.

Volker was trying to pay the taxi driver who was keeping his eyes averted from the mansion and shuffling uneasily.

"Driver," said Helga suddenly. "I will pay you double if you will enter the house and look in each room and closet before we go in with the children ... just to be on the safe side." She smiled what she hoped was a very winning smile, and added, "Likely it was just the wind that blew the door open," knowing full well this could not possibly have happened.

But at her suggestion, the driver gave a big involuntary shudder which he tried to pass off as the start of a coughing fit. When he could speak, he said he had promised to take a family to Chennai and was running late. The moment he had their bags out of the trunk, he turned and sped away.

"Scared of that ox," remarked Elfi quietly.

"Stop trying to get your mother's goat," said Volker, walking uneasily toward the open front door.

"I SAW the ox," said Elfi. "And he DID try to pull a trick on me with his eyes."

"And on me," said Heinrich, perhaps out of loyalty to his slightly older sister, or perhaps just not wanting to left out of any interesting tricks.

When Volker stepped into the kitchen, he was even more surprised than if he had been greeted by an ox. There was his old university friend, Dmitri! How bizarre.

"Dmitri, lovely to see you," said Volker, not knowing what else to say.



Nobody noticed a small very cute face at the window.

The cubses had managed to arrange themselves in a nice tall stack so the smallest of them could see what was going on in the mansion.



But Spotty's binoculars fell and bumped Tirucub on the head, and he jumped in surprise, and they all came tumbling down on top of each other with a lot of little squeals and chuckles and thumps and bumps.

Somehow, only Elfi heard it and she nipped over to the window.



"Mama! There are a whole lot of lions and a leopard and a nice pair of binoculars outside in the flowerbed," she announced.

Her mother, already furious that some old friend of Volker's had managed to effect an entrance (no doubt invited by Volker, who must have mailed him the key or hidden it for him!), was ready to start spitting tacks.