When Nasty and Simon entered the car, she turned to her beloved boyfriend, "Hillbilly, I really need a nice new dress…would you mind dropping me off at that KidFashion shopping center?"

"Wouldn't you rather go home and take some rest?" asked Simon.

"Hey I'm fine, Hillbilly. Shopping is a girl's best rest. How much can I spend?"

"Only the smallest bit of what you would like to," grinned Simon.

"Ha, you know I buy only cheap stuff," smiled Nasty as she gave Simon a peck on the cheek. "Be happy I don't like gold and jewels."

On the crossing near the shopping center the traffic light remained on red, so Nasty exchanged a few deep kisses with her darling and left the car. Our brave little girl put on her fingerless cycling gloves, fastened her backpack and set out on a long crutching trip. Outside the air was really hot and she was happy to enter the cool air-conditioned halls of the large shopping center. First she hobbled towards the huge show-window of a footwear shop.

The salesman who hung around the entrance couldn't stop gazing at her cast and Nasty smiled to him mischievously.

"I really like those red chunky wedgies, but I prefer to try both of them… Sorry, I hope I'll be back after few weeks!"

"I hope we won't sell them," young guy embarrassedly nodded. "I can put them aside for you. What happened to your leg?"

"Broke it, isn't that obvious?" chuckled Nasty. "I fell down the stairs. So stupid, isn't it?"

"Huh, that's really bad luck. Last February I broke my leg too, skiing. Spent three months in a cast just like yours," replied the salesman with a sympathetic smile. "Well, I hope you get well soon. Bye!"

"Bye, see you soon, I hope," winked Nasty with mischief as she crutched to the other side of the mall.

There was a shop with teenagers clothes where Nasty was a regular customer, as they had a lot of crazy raver clothes. A cashier girl in her late teens, with short violet hair and many piercings approached immediately,

"Hi, Nasty, glad to see you again… Damn, what did you do to your leg? Again?"

"Hi, Petra!" smiled Nasty as she started to explain about her accident. After exchanging recent Bad Reichenhall gossip, Nasty tried on several asymmetric tops and one of them actually found it's way into her backpack.

The two girls exchanged the autographs – Petra signed Nasty's cast and Nasty signed the credit card slip, before she continued on her spending spree. She visited several shops, bought herself two lipsticks, a pair of plastic earrings, a few pairs of panties and a t-shirt. Finally in the KidFashion shop she found exactly the same dress she admired before on Heidi.

After several hours on crutches Nasty had become really tired. Her hands and shoulders started to ache, so she hobbled to the Hard-Rock Café to catch a few minutes of deserved rest. The cafe was pretty crowded and it seemed the only free seats were near a fat guy, or near a sad-looking black-haired girl of her age.

Nasty decided to join the lonely girl.

"Hey there, is this seat free?"

"Please," smiled the girl sadly, "it looks like misery needs company."

She leaned back and revealed her right hand, which had been hidden under the table. She wore a short arm thumb spica cast on it, and when Nasty took a better look at the girl she realized there's also a short leg walking cast on her left foot. It was almost hidden under some loose bell-bottom pants and the girl's toes were covered by a black sock.

"Wow, what a coincidence!" laughed Nasty. "I think we should drink on that!"

She beckoned to the waiter, who took the orders whilst looking the girls up and down with a blush. As he left Nasty finally asked the girl the obvious question.

"What happened to you?"

"I was riding a bike, when a cat suddenly jumped in front of me," shrugged the girl. "I tried to avoid her, but hit a curbstone and fell badly. Broken foot, broken wrist."

"Huh, what a shit! I hope the cat's okay… Uh, sorry, I didn't mean…" blurted Nasty and blushed in embarrassment.

"She's okay, don't worry… I'm glad I didn't hurt her, I wouldn't forgive myself if I did," grinned the girl. "And what happened to you?"

"I crashed my motorbike, broke my ankle badly," confessed Nasty. "Oh, sorry, I forgot – my name is Nasty."

"I'm Ingrid, nice to meet you." She offered her casted hand to Nasty before thinking, then embarrassedly pulled it back and offered the left one.

Suddenly both girls started to laugh and Nasty finally gently squeezed Ingrid's right hand, the casted one.

"Don't worry, I've always used my right hand for shaking, even when it was broken," said Nasty.

"You broke your hand before, too?" asked Ingrid.

"Yeah, both of them, and not only once," chuckled Nasty.

"Ouch, you must be really unlucky," smiled Ingrid. "How did you deal with that?"

"No problem, I got used to it," shrugged Nasty. "It's not a big deal, you'll see. You never had a cast before?"

"Nope. I've been wearing these two for a week now and I'm getting crazy of them… I just can't imagine how I’m going to struggle through the next five weeks. In October I'm going to University in Munich and I already planned to go on holidays in Spain with some friends next week, but now this happened… I'm such a screw-up."

"Hey, there's no problem, you can go anyway… I assume you don't have any wounds or stitches under those casts, do you? You can ask your doctor to give you a fiberglass cast with special goretex padding, so you can go in the water… But even if you don't get it, the most important thing in Spain is…"

"Party! I know that," Ingrid sadly nodded. "But no way, my mother won't let me. We just had a big argument about that today."

"Yeah, mothers can be soooo annoying," Nasty agreed. "That's why I didn't tell my mother about my accident yet. Fortunately she lives in Greifswald."

"You are not from here?"

"Well, I moved in Berchtesgaden three years ago," the brave little girl explained. "But you can hear by my accent I'm a natural born Ossi."

(Ossi – somewhat derogative name that Western Germans use for former citizens of Eastern Germany)

"You're an adult already so you can do whatever you want - no matter what the parents say," continued Nasty, "but maybe it would be best if you ask your doc for those waterproof casts I mentioned before. If he would allow you to go, there's no reason your mother wouldn't. Who's your doc? Doctor Steiner?"

"No, Doctor Brandt. He's nice and he probably would really let me go. At least it's worth a try," Ingrid brightened. "But my mother's really a difficult person."

"So is mine. You can't imagine how stubborn Pomeranian women are, that's why I didn't tell her about my broken ankle yet. We had a really wild clash last year when I broke my arm and didn't lay in bed, but rather went to Prague. That event is called  'The Prague Incident' in our family and we never speak about it, just as you can't mention the rope in a hangman's house. Do you wanna hear the story?"

"Yes, I'd like to, if it doesn't bother you too much," nodded Ingrid.

"Not at all, I like to ramble," chuckled Nasty and started her story…

***

Nasty was practising urban warfare with her conscripts and when she demonstrated window-to-window jumping across the street, she miscalculated both the distance and the weight of all the equipment loaded onto her tiny body - she landed on the ground from almost four meters. The helmet and the flak vest protected her from more serious injuries, but despite that she broke her right forearm and wrist in three places.

Doctor Steiner fixed it and put her arm into a large full arm cast, which included her thumb and first phalanges of other fingers as well. Nasty was much happier than if she would get a precious jewelry bracelet on her wrist. Of course, the severe fractures ached quite a lot, although the brave little girl got used to it quickly as she always did. Doctor Steiner made her cast just perfect, stiff and all-embracing enough to prevent the slightest movement, yet well padded and neatly moulded to provide her injured limb safe, soft rest during the healing process.

She got sick leave but there was no particular reason to lie in bed. She broke her arm on Thursday and on Monday (the lazy day for Simon's agency) they decided to go to Prague. We have to comment that Nasty loves Prague very much - and Czech beer even more! Just before her departure, Nasty called her parents on the other end of Germany and blabbed not much more than, "Hi Mom, how are you? I'm fine, except I broke my arm yesterday. I got a big cast and I'm on sick leave for a month or so. Kiss Papa and Grandpa for me. Bye!"

She hung up the phone and rushed to Simon's car, carefully supporting her aching casted arm. After about three hours their Landcruiser stopped in downtown Prague and the young couple started to stroll around Kafka's town, stopping at almost every corner for several long, passionate kisses.

In the evening they found themselves a cheap motel at the outskirts of the city. Nasty had already undressed herself and lay naked on the bed ready to be ravished when Simon's mobile phone rang. It was his brother Joseph who told them Nasty's mother just arrived in Berchtesgaden. Yelling and crying could be heard from the background.

The immediate drive home wasn't a pleasant one. The young couple merely exchanged a word or two and Nasty was drowning her anger and sense of guilt with dozens of beers that they loaded in the jeep just before their sudden leave. As a result she was completely stoned when they arrived home.

"My poor child, where have you been?" snivelled mother Baranowski.

"I'm fine, Mommy, you didn't need to come here," slurred Nasty as she wobbled in the toilet to vomit.

It turned out that Nasty's mother took a day off just after her daughter's call, then hastily baked a few cakes and rushed to the airport. It turned out she had spent more than half of her monthly wages on a plane ticket, and appeared in Berchtesgaden late that afternoon. Her mother was always extremely concerned about even the smallest of Nasty's regular injuries, but this was the last straw. When Nasty had sobered up and her mother cried out her eyes and heart (and gave many lectures to Simon and Joseph while her daughter was sleeping on the toilet's floor), two stubborn women clashed vigorously.

"You don't care at all for all my care and concern about you! You ignorant, selfish, careless child!" yelled Christine through her tears.

"Just because I don't give a shit about my broken bones doesn't mean you have to instead!" screamed Nasty as she fought to get a cigarette out of the box. It wasn't easy with her right hand almost useless under thick layers of plaster that immobilized her thumb and first knuckles of the other fingers.

"Don't start playing mother hen with me. I live my own life, I never asked you for anything, why the hell you can't just leave my ass in peace if you are unable to understand me!"

"You are injured, my poor child, and I'm concerned about you, that's all, but you..." her mother lost herself in tears again.

"It's not that bad, mother," protested Nasty a bit calmer, " the doctor fixed my bones and now I just have to wait till it heals, that's all. There's nothing you can do for me now. C'mon, Mom, it's not my first break."

"So don't tell me there's nothing to worry about! You break this and that almost every year, how could you be so irresponsible?!"

"More than once a year sometimes," grinned Nasty. "And for some minor injuries you even do not know."

"No wonder after what I saw when you arrived!"

"What the fuck does that mean?!"

"You were drinking beer!" shouted Nasty’s mother.

"Should I eat it with a spoon?! By the way, I drained out the last can before Regensburg," laughed Nasty.

"It's not funny!" Christine screamed at the edge of tears. "You are drinking alcohol! And you started to smoke again!"

"I never stopped," Nasty said with a shrug. "Whilst we are talking about smoking, I can run ten kilometers wearing full battle equipment, while you lose your breath after two flights of stairs."

Nasty finally succeeded in digging the last cigarette from the mangled box - she kicked her sneakers off and stuck her feet up on the edge of her chair, absently running her good hand over many smaller and bigger scars on her knees and shins. Her mother continued her scolding, but by now Nasty wasn’t listening to her. She threw the colorful scarf used as an arm sling to the coffee table, embraced her knees with casted arm and admired Doctor Steiner's work...so thick and hard - yet smooth and nicely carved, following the shape of her lithe hand and arm. Her thumb was casted in that cute upturned hitchhiking position and the tip of her thumb was just protruding from the rolls of neatly moulded plaster. She always got so wet when Simon gently kissed her pink fingertips. The first phalanges of her other fingers were firmly trapped in the cast, too. She could wiggle them a little, although her pinky finger was casted almost completely, but not much more. If we take into account her immobilized wrist and elbow, it's evident Nasty could do very little with her arm and hand. However she didn't regret that, not for a second.

"Are you listening to me?!" grumbled mother Christine when she saw her daughter caressing her injured fingers as gently and as lovingly as she would caress a child or a pet.

"No, did you say something important?" uttered Nasty with wide innocent smile. She then exhaled a large cloud of cigarette smoke into her mother's face.

Then she rubbed firmly her eyes, which by now were the colour of the mountain sky... with the red dawn of an approaching hangover. If the truth be told, beerdrinking (combined with excessive smoking) creates an especially severe headache and Nasty could be very mean on such occasions.

"Although I didn't plan it, it was nice to see you Mom. Well, I'm tired and the Get-well-soon party is over. I hope you'll find the door without problems."

Nasty took her scarf-sling and wobbled to the bedroom. Her mother gazed at the wall for few minutes without a word, then started to blubber again. She spent the night in Joseph's flat and left early in the morning without saying goodbye.

They didn't speak for months and it was only just before that Christmas, after several attempts, that Uli managed to reconcile them.