We finally arrived at Nuremberg, after 9 years of not being here. It felt so odd to be back after moving out to go to Hawaii. As we exited the plane. I looked around the airport; I noticed Louise was attracted to the clothing options; her feet scooted over to get some clothes which aggravated me; she’s technically what I call a “Fashionista Freak.” 

Ever since she’s gotten more onto the trends on Instagram, she’s been complaining to Mother and Father about getting clothes from around the world, and when the Germany trip was announced, I could just hear her squealing through my room’s thin walls. I groaned in disbelief, as if missing the ballet wasn’t horrible enough.

Walking more down towards the luggage pick-up, I noticed something at the back of my eye. I thought I saw a spirit within a dark corner of the airport. It stood under a flickering light as it appeared when the light went off and disappeared when it turned back on.

I shook my head in disbelief, as I remained focused on what I needed to do. I grabbed my luggage as it rolled towards my vision. I held onto the suitcase handle, pulling my suitcase towards me. Soon, we exited the airport as soon as we got everything that we needed; we looked around for Drosselmeier as according to my mother, he was supposed to be picking us up and he’d take us back to our old home from 9 years ago.

After what felt like half an hour, I finally caught my eyes glancing on what appeared to be a white Mercedes. Walking out of the Mercedes, was none other than Godfather Herr Henry Drosselmeier! My eyes beamed with joy as Fritz & I ran to him like happy children on Christmas Day. “GODFATHER!!!!” We screamed.

“Marie! Fritz! Welcome back!” He smiled happily as we embraced him and soon enough, my father approached him, “Well, Henry, the kids are excited to go back to their old home. If this goes well, we may consider moving back here.”

“Carl, you don’t have to. Especially since you have a better pay rate in your job over there in Hawaii.” Godfather spoke.

“Well, we’ll see after the week with you is over.” Father walked to the car, putting the luggage in the trunk. As I got used to my surroundings, I heard meowing from one of the boxes. There was a box with holes on the sides. I opened the box and found Pavlova, purring. I chuckled as I held Pavlova in my arms. Likewise, I smiled as he licked my cheek, purring softly.

Louise had a face of disgust on her; she stared at Father with devil’s eyes. As I passed by her, I turned my head around, sticking out my tongue like the most idiotic brat that she perceives me to be. Soon enough, I could hear her complaining to Father on why he shouldn’t have brought over Pavlova. Pavlova hissed at Louise but I just pet him gently to calm him down.

Throughout the car ride, everything felt eerie and silent… I couldn’t hear anyone talking. Fritz remained focused on his 3DS and I just sat there in the far back. I felt like I should’ve sparked up some conversation. But as any other obedient kid would do if you lived in a somewhat strict family, you’d stay silent and never comment on anything.

It felt awfully weird. I couldn’t take out my 3DS as it was in my suitcase, in the trunk. I sighed, awaiting something to happen. Soon, I looked out the window to see a ghost town if you’d put it that way. My eyes caught sights of a home covered with blood and skeletons hanging out of the windows. My gut just dropped when I saw the skeletons. Then, I saw something that truly shocked me… a little boy’s hat was next to the skeletons. I felt like I was about to cry. Soon enough, I broke the silence.

“D-Drosselmeier? What’s that town right here?”

Godfather looked at where I was pointing to see the town riddled with skeletons and blood. He held his head down as he looked at me with sorrow. “That, my dear child,” he spoke with distraught, “is Sternschnuppe.”

“Sternschnuppe?” I asked.

Drosselmeier nodded as he spoke of the tales of Sternschnuppe: 

“Long ago, Sternschnuppe was a prosperous town. It was so beautiful and mostly housed the richest German family to ever live in that small quaint area. The Jacobs family, once a wonderful family, were killed around the 1980s; this caused many citizens who were loyal supporters and friends with the Jacobs to flee. Since then, the town has been a ghost town. The only things that remain are the skeletons of Erin and Richard Jacobs.”

“That’s cruel…” I spoke under my breath.

He nodded as he continued to drive towards the freeway to Nuremberg. But sooner or later, we got stuck in traffic. Drosselmeier could see that I was bored out of my mind, so he opened his glove compartment to take out something. He took out a GameBoy Color; I snatched it out of his hands and looked at it. He chuckled as he spoke, “I bet you haven’t played one of those, huh? Those were released two years before you were born in 1998. My brother let his second born son play with a GameBoy Color when he was 8 years old..”

“Oh, interesting! What game is inside?” I turned it on and there popping up on the screen was Walt Disney’s Alice In Wonderland. I tilted my head as I proceeded to play. During the car ride which lasted another couple of hours, I was hooked on that one game. Of course, there were options that Drosselmeier offered to me but I just stuck with Alice In Wonderland because surprisingly, I was almost finished with the game. As I kept playing, I noticed that we were going into a small forest. Deep within the forest was our old home. It still looked refurbished, like it looked beautiful like the day we left it.

I paused and saved my game. Putting it in my pocket, I ran to the entrance of the house as soon as we pulled up into the driveway. Pavlova followed, purring on my legs. I chuckled as I pet him. Staring back at the house, it felt like something came back in my brain… A little memory. The memory wasn’t that big like the dreams with that… toy, but in reality, it reminded me of 9 years ago, when I just lived here before moving to Hawaii.

Father opened the trunk and got out all of our luggage; Louise ran to the side as she then over-exaggerated on how long the car ride was. But, even then, I didn’t mind the car ride. Fritz? Well, let’s just say that all he did was stay focused on his 3DS; him and his little stupid Mario Party games. Drosselmeier opened the door, revealing that everything was still the same. It’s like he never touched anything while we were away for 9 whole years.

After getting comfortable, I started to explore a bit. It felt like home… It was home. But depending on how Father felt, we could come back and live here for good. I entered the living room where the dreams began. There, I saw the broken cabinet was replaced, the glass shards were gone and everything looked beautiful once again.

Suddenly, something caught my eye…

I turned my head towards the cabinet; there on the third row, directly in my vision were my old dolls. I smiled, opening the cabinet to grab the dolls. “Hello, Mistress Clara! I missed you!” I exclaimed happily.

Clara stood still, not moving in my hands. I played around with her for a while before putting her back in the cabinet. I skimmed through the cabinet, noticing all the toys that I used to play with. From Dolls to Puppets, I gasped in amazement at how well Godfather Drosselmeier kept them intact for almost 9 years.

Soon, nighttime had fallen…

Drosselmeier had called me and Fritz down for early Christmas gifts. We ran downstairs in our pajamas. Fritz was wearing a gray shirt and red shorts, while I wore a white tank top and sweatpants with rainbows on them. As we arrived in the living room, we saw Drosselmeier by the fireplace. We chuckled a bit as he wore the exact same attire on the day of the 2009 Christmas party.

“Sit down, my dear godchildren!” He exclaimed in glee. Fritz and I sat down in front of Drosselmeier as he opened his cape; sparkles flew around the room as two boxes appeared; one for Fritz and one for me. 

“Consider these as Welcome back Gifts!” he exclaimed, happily. Fritz quickly opened up his gift; he got a couple new soldiers to collect for his army that he never finished 9 years ago. He jumped up and down in amazement, hugging Drosselmeier in tears: “Oh, thank you, Godfather! Thank you Thank YOU!!!”

There I was… sitting on the floor, with a gift box in front of me…

“Open it, my darling goddaughter…” Drosselmeier spoke as he watched, holding a small smile.

I chuckled when I saw his smile. I opened the box slowly, removing the ribbon and the wrapping. Soon, my hands dug into the box to see what it was. As the box opened, my eyes widened. My breath stopped for a split second, only for my hands to slowly pull the gift out of the box…

Lifting up the gift, I shook a bit in fear; I then spoke, “My lost toy… My Nutcracker!!”