{This is a response to a prompt from What Pegman Saw, a weekly challenge to write a 150-word piece, based on the area of Google Maps selected. Today we are in Frankfurt, Germany. The photo is a blurred closeup of a shoe shop, along the perimeter of a cobblestoned shopping area in Frankfurt. I chose this impressionistic view, to help communicate my impression of the colorful, magical nature of nighttime Christmas Markets in Germany.}
Sonja spent hours, preparing for the party. Coaxing cobwebs from fixtures, lime from faucets and dust from corners. Her apartment sparkled.
She checked her watch. An hour to kill.
She left, walking briskly, over cobblestones, to the town square. The scent of almonds—marzipan and spiced—wafted past her frost-kissed nose, like a warm breeze.
Every year, the same. She tried to stay away. But the kitschy Christmas Market always lured her back.
Hundreds milled around the stalls, chomping on bratwurst, scalding their tongues on Glühwein, defying the cold, gray dusk.
As if the blinking, colorful displays could fend off Winter’s gloom.
A wool coat caught her eye. Black and speckled with rainbow threads. Its hawker sized her up with jaded eyes.
A huge frosted Lebkuchen heart dangled above, proclaiming, “Ich liebe Dich!”
Sonja checked her watch. She sighed.
Submerging herself in the seething crush, she succumbed to the season.
This is so accurately described! We have a German market here each year and you could have been describing our city centre at the moment, that mix of kitsch and delicious, irresistible scents and flavours. Great stuff Andrea
Thanks Lynn! Oh that sounds like a good idea, having a similar Christmas Market in your hometown! But I also wonder if the sensory experience is as intense when the language is your own. You would be more easily distracted by the murmurings around you.
My character could conceivably be German or a foreigner, living in Germany for a protracted period of time. But when I was there and not yet to a sufficient level of fluency, i could turn my understanding, of the language being spoken around me,off, like dunking your head in a fish bowl, or listening to the grownups on Peanuts. Without the input of language every sense seems sharper, crisper.
Lovely writing, Andrea. The rich sensory details took me right along!
Great. Going to have to make Gluehwein soon!
There is a sweet surrender in this micro fiction which makes it appealing to the eye and the ear. I really enjoyed reading this, Andrea. Hope your party is lovely.
Thank you Kelvin! You know how to make me blush. The party was great, thanks for the good wishes!
Excellent story. I especially like the evocative verbs you used to describe her cleaning. Well done.
Thanks Josh! Really feeling the cleaning this time of year!?
I also wrote about the Frankfurt Christmas Market, but my tale was quite a bit more grim.
Can’t wait to read it, but right now I must prepare for my own party!:)