Such a boring place to be. When will we go leave, he asked, while dropping a second banana peel on the sidewalk. All one can do here is watch the grass grow. I've had it with those stupid mountains, the valley and unexpected hail storms. Who wants to spend his Summer holiday and savings in a place like this? I ask you 5 euros for a bottle of 750 millilitres of water!
He had tried to be nice, had done his very best to be attentive but that woman was the worst travelmate he had ever had. All she was interested in was hiking with those stupid Nordic walking sticks. It was not that she would ever join the Olympics or would learn how to ski. She was old, annoying and after 1.5 weeks in the Black Forest, he finally understood that age wasn't just a number. She had spoiled his trip around Europe.
Abruptly she stood still and waited for him to catch up with her.
You could try to have fun, I warned you! She grinned and couldn't help smiling by seeing his angry face. That arrogant face she wouldn't easily forget.
What did he expect, a well set table and her debit card because he had said one friendly word as they had just met?
Well, what do you say, he puffed, shall we go out, visit the city and celebrate for a change?
I am celebrating right now, don't you?
She didn't wait for the answer and started hiking again.
Don't forget to count your steps and stick to my pace. Isn't this fun, she shouted.
He refused to follow the lady whom he thought he could have made easily fallen in love with him. She turned out not to be as stupid as he thought she would be. She was a hard shell to crack. Angry he looked at the grass, was it growing? How long had he been standing there?
Was something hidden among the grass? Just as he leaned over to have a closer look he felt a cold, slippery splash. The banana peel he had thrown on the path had landed on his neck.
What were you thinking, can't you read? Keep your trash in your pocket and do not dump it on our street, do you want to make Mother angry, a shrill voice called out.
In disgust, he pulled the peel from his neck and threw it back to the ground.
What the heck, he shouted furiously as he tried to figure out who had pulled that dirty trick.
The path was deserted and so were the fields, only a solitary flower swayed in the wind, frantically trying to hold its leaves together as the wind blew beneath its epicalyx. He could have sworn that rotten flower hadn't been there earlier.
Shut up, you stink flower, he snarled, you are not aware of the deadly situation you are finding yourself in.
The flower, just like his travel companion, seemed unfazed, his yelling had no effect and neither had the shoe he tried to crush her with.
The next morning, the constable found the reported missing tourist stretched out behind the locked door of the video travel centre with a banana peel placed on his angry face.
A broken ankle, a purple-spotted tongue and clear signs of insanity. Symptoms that only occur among an uncertain ratio of bored tourists, those who cannot cope with nature and cannot keep fantasy and reality apart, the local doctor noted.
The detective nodded. For the time being, the travel centre remained closed until all videos were deleted and the case of the crazy tourist was forgotten.
2-2-2024
The photo was taken by me
I'm a mobile phone user only