Two hours.
For two hours, Erik had been driving from Dortmund to Nijmegen all just for Hanne.
The boy was desperate to see his girlfriend again. After finally finding out where she was just yesterday, he wasted no time to get ready for trip across the German-Duch border to find the girl he loves.
And finally, when he had arrived in the Dutch city of Nijmegen, he was greeted with the beautiful scenery and building all around him. What he couldn't find in the modern city of Dortmund, nearly a hundred miles away.
Imagining Hanne growing up in a city like this was very realistic. Erik could see a four year old Hanne running along the sidewalks with her brother as their parents followed hastily behind. At some point, he had passed a football field, occupied by two teams of girls probably there for a match. It was beautiful city fit for a beautiful girl, no wonder she had fled off to here.
For thirty minutes, Erik had been driving around looking for the address he found in Hanne's apartment. And to be completely honest, he didn't look through her personal stuff any more than he had to, he just saw a letter from someone named Ellemijn Leijerzapf, whom he assumed was her mother since Hanne never mentioned a sister or cousin.
His best bet was that the address led to her childhood home or a relative's home at least. He wasn't going to leave Nijmegen alone.
He looked at his watch. 9:35 it read.
He had left Dortmund at seven in the morning and is now in a whole different country as two hours passed. ---
The address led him to a home. A nice one with a brown roof, a wreath of flowers on the door, and a small garden in the front yard just by the white arch in front of a pathway leading to the front door.
There was a woman by the mail box, who seemed to freeze when she saw Erik slow down and park his car in front of the house. She looked nowhere near related to Hanne. The woman was a blonde, tall, and thin. Her eyes weren't that warm hazel color Hanne had, the ones he had missed so much.
As he got out of his car and stood on the sidewalk, he almost immediately tugged his jacket together, feeling the cold Nijmegen weather on his skin.
But he didn't care about how cold it was. He only cared about one thing.
Hanne.
"Kan ik je helpen?" she asked, once he got an ear distance to her. She repeated it again, this time in English. "Can I help you?"
He shoved his hands in the pockets of his black jacket. "I'm Erik, and I'm looking Hanne Leijerzapf. Do you know where she lives?"
The woman looked at Erik. And then started to walk off to the door. "Here. She lives here. Well, used to. Come in, come in. It's freezing out here."
Erik followed her into the house, being welcomed by picture frames and vases of flowers. Wow, Hanne must have grown up happy, he thought. Beautiful city, nice house, her childhood must have been amazing.
"You're Hanne's boyfriend, right?"
"Yeah."
"Good. I'm her mother, but just call me Ellemijn, ja?" They went through a hallway full of family pictures, and Erik couldn't help but to fall in awe of Hanne's baby pictures. "And you're aware that she came her yesterday with all of her stuff?"
He nodded. "That's why I'm here."
Seconds later, they would be in the living room where Erik took a seat on the couch. Sitting across from him, in a chair, was Willem, Hanne's brother. He was on his phone, scrolling through whatever he looking at, eyes looking up only once.
