Why not? - English

13-23 Beware of the Fox

Some called it a big step in a relationship to introduce your partner to your parents and family, to take them to family gatherings. It had been easy for me and, above all, it had been important for me to take Sam with me to my grandmother's birthday. I had spent much of my childhood with her. She was an amazing woman who always fought through life and never gave up, no matter how difficult it was at times. Even if we wanted to hide it from our friends, that didn't include my family and it was important to me to introduce Sam to the most important people in my life - he now belonged in that circle himself and took the first place at all.

Even though Sam have had trouble remembering everyone's names - which I didn't blame him for since my family was really big, even from just one side of my parents - he still seemed comfortable at my grandmother's birthday and it was nice watching him in the middle of my family as if he had always been a part of it. He had already felt visibly comfortable when setting up in the morning, but it was nothing new that he did that when he could help. My grandmother had been raving about him the rest of the day because he was so attentive and handsome, even though she had impressed him more than turned around. I have had to close Sam's gaping mouth in the morning many times while my grandmother was lugging stacks of chairs around or moving tables. She had always cultivated a small farm and even after my grandfather died, she only reduced the number of animals and the field work for an bare minimum because she loved the work so much. Growing up among animals and working on a farm on vacation, you couldn't help but love them. However, it wasn't enough to steer my career desire in this direction, as Annie put it into practice, because I had longed for more excitement and more opportunities.

When Sam came back after his shift, he came in with my oldest cousin's son in his arms, who, at the age of 6, had fallen asleep on three chairs outside in the hallway, unnoticed by everyone else. It was a shame he had missed Annie so narrowly. We used to be one heart and one soul. Even though I was in danger of her telling Sam some embarrassing stories from our childhood, it was important to me that she and he got to know each other. Annie had been enthusiastic about Sam and Sam also found my cousin very nice, as he had confessed to me on the drive home and that he was, above all, very curious to find out what cheeky things I had done as a child.

Sam had spent the night with me and I had to admit that I could really get used to lying in his arms and listening to his heartbeat when I fell asleep or woke up. I slept better than ever and just felt completely at ease when he was with me. It couldn't be compared to all the countless nights I had spent alone or even deeply sad when we tortured ourselves and each other and listened to negative feelings and rumors more than to our hearts.

This morning Steele had called me while I was having breakfast with Sam and he had sheepishly told me that he had forgotten about the cadets training, that he was leaving to Sam and Ellie, and that he had also had heard of the wild men were planning a trip again for today. Smiling, I agreed to his request to come to work for at least half a day later. At least that way I was able to help my grandmother clean up in the morning. Sam, on the other hand, had to go to work and when I arrived later, he had already left to set up the course for the planned three-legged race and Ellie was waiting with Trevor's bus for the cadets to finally arrive.

And the wild men had once again triggered an forest fire.

The fire had spread frighteningly quickly, as I discovered when we got there, and I was relieved to see that Sam and Ellie had also arrived short time after us. Even though someone still had to supervise the cadets, we could still need everyone's hand. While I was getting the overview, I was a little confused when Norman shouted excitedly for us to hurry up and put out the fire. Even more so when Ellie told him that things were going slower faster. Sam emphasized that it worked better with teamwork and left me completely in charge. It was the first time he had done this on a fire of this magnitude. But the two of them were ultimately right. With teamwork and concentrated action, we quickly extinguished the fire.