Kidnapped or collapsed? When the teenage girl doesn’t answer her cell phone

What are the three most important things in a 17-year-old’s life?

The vacuum cleaner hair dryer, the Chihuahua puppy and the make-up bag the size of an Interrail backpack rank further behind.

The ranking has a catch: number 3.

Neither a birthday nor the sale of the confirmation gold coin can conjure up the certificate that entitles you to drive a vehicle. Everyone, really EVERYONE, has to sit down and cramme to be let loose on the other road users by the official authorities.

I still remember what my father said as I sat over the driving school books. He jokingly threw them into my room: “Every big idiot out there has a driver’s license.” My father was a gentle and wise man and probably only wanted to cheer me up at the time and take away my fear of the exam. Little did he know that the pressure of failing an exam that every idiot could do was weighing on me.

Olaf and I wanted to spare our daughter this trauma, and Olaf applied to be a driving instructor. The father-daughter vehicle had to cover thousands of kilometers before her 18th birthday in order to be admitted to the practical driving test. What you could do beforehand at any time was the written theory test.

Frequently used exchanges of words from the past year follow. Number of occurrences is given in brackets:

“When do you start studying for the driving test?”
– “Soon!” (54)

“Have you learned for the driving test yet?”
– “I’ll start today.” (76)

“So, how’s the study going?”
– “Pffffffffffffffffffffffffffff!” (66)

“I just wanted to tell you that the XYZ came towards me in the car today. Apparently she already has her driver’s license.”
– “Please, I don’t care what she does or doesn’t do.” (4)

“What are you waiting for? Hopefully you’ll earn a lot someday so you can afford a chauffeur…”
– “JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!” (120)

I admit I couldn’t – leave her alone. On top of that, Olaf turned out to be a driving instructor with little patience, and the teenager often stormed angrily into her room after a practice drive. Olaf mostly shook his head and said “It’s crazy” or “I didn’t imagine it like that.”

The weekend before last, at the end of the holidays, the time had come, our daughter began to learn after the driving school had sent out an information letter that the time would soon be up.

We, Olaf and I, had a business appointment in town. When we got stuck in traffic, I tried to reach our daughter to ask her to pick up her little brother from school.

Alone, she didn’t answer her cell phone. I saw the most terrifying scenarios before me. The child collapsed, lying motionless on her pink carpet. The child in the hands of kidnappers. The child is caught in a depressed mood from despair over the difficult exam questions.

Something must have happened. Never, under any circumstances, would the child move away from the phone.

The neighbor I alerted, who has a key to our apartment, went to see what had happened to the child.

My heart was pounding.

“Uh, why are you making such a fuss when I don’t answer the phone for once,” my daughter asked me a short time later on the neighbor’s cell phone. Yes, okay, she would get the little brother then.

I asked why she wouldn’t answer her cell phone.

A gift celebrates a surprising premiere

“Because I locked it in the cell phone safe you gave me. The safe only opens in 2 hours. Now I’m learning and then it’s not right again.”

I gasped.

The cell phone safe, a Plexiglas box with a timer, has been part of our family for eight months and has never been used by the teenager. She found it “cute,” “unnecessary,” and “something for wimps who can’t discipline themselves.”

“So you know I…” I started.

“Uh, don’t be mad, but I’d like to continue my studies until I have to pick up my brother,” she interrupted, “so if you don’t mind then…”

I did mind. I took a deep breath, then screamed:

“JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!!!!!” (121)

A week later, the teenager passed the exam.