A Novel by Mira Steffan

Elated, Charlotte locked the front door to the gallery. She had been working with Lara Sass for six months now. She had never enjoyed a job so much. Lara was a cheerful, straightforward, creative person. With a lot of patience she had acquainted Charlotte with the work, took her to artist visits and customer meetings, asked Charlotte for her opinion and emphasized at every appointment how happy she was to have such a professional at her side. The respect and attentiveness with which Lara treated her was something new for Charlotte. It inspired her in her work and made for an excellent working atmosphere. Then there were the family-friendly working hours and, as the cherry on top, the interesting lectures in art history. Today, Lara had left a little early because she didn’t want to miss her son’s piano concert. Relaxed, Charlotte strolled to her car. How well her life had turned out! Life can be beautiful!

In the living room from the sofa, where Charlotte had made herself comfortable with a book about the Bonn painter August Macke, she watched her husband and daughter through the open patio door planting pansies. A wave of tenderness rose up inside her, filled her from head to toe, and then flew to her two loved ones: This is the life I want to live. And this is the one that I live to the best of my ability. And not as others would like to have it, she thought, and her thoughts wandered to Susanne and her saying, which she used to like to quote: “The right choice leads to the right way of life. Wrong choices have their revenge without mercy.”

Charlotte shook her head, “Bullshit! Life never progresses without mistakes. Because the so-called mistakes are in truth real requirements, in order to subsequently proceed through one’s life more clearly and more strongly, leading to the meaning of life and love.

 

“I didn’t fail 1000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1000 steps.”

Thomas Alva Edison

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