Storm, Then Soup

Day four, Germany, two in the morning. A storm is crossing the country. At the Kochelsee the lightning goes over the sky in whips, and I wake up because the car is being shaken.

The wind has hold of Susi and is moving her back and forth. Through the window the trees are shapes that come and go with the flickering. I lie there working out whether one of them might come down on the roof, and what I would do about it.

The tank is nearly empty. There is nowhere to drive to. So I go back to sleep, which is what you do when a problem turns out not to be yours to solve.

The next day I meet Stefan from Darmstadt at Einsiedl on the Walchensee. He sleeps in his car too, a black estate, travelling with his dog. He packed his things and left to get out for a week. In the evening we make soup on a gas burner.

Two evenings later we are talking in a car park nearby, and he says:

„You don't need to change. Just be who you are. If you play a role, you get what fits the role. If you're yourself, you get what fits you.“