Free The Great Rabbit Revenge Plan by Burkhard Spinnen

want to try living in separate apartments for a year.’
    â€˜Oh,’ says Konrad. ‘And your dad? Where does he live now?’
    Fridz turns the computer off. ‘With Kristine. Kristine with a K. Imagine! With a K at the beginning. Like kindergarten. Or kick.’
    â€˜And who is this Kristine?’
    â€˜Dad’s girlfriend. Just think, she has short blonde hair.’ Fridz demonstrates with two fingers. ‘This short. Youwouldn’t believe it. It only takes her ten minutes to wash her hair. Ten minutes, including drying and everything. When Mum washes her hair, it takes half the afternoon. And if she puts colour in too, then that’s the whole evening gone.’
    â€˜I see,’ says Konrad. This is extraordinary information. Fridz’s mother’s red hair is dyed and Fridz’s father lives with a girlfriend called Kristine with a K. And on top of that, all Fridz’s relations are divorced. Konrad must seem like a person who has no proper experience of life. He feels somehow rather small. And because nobody likes feeling small, he tries hard to think what kind of catastrophe he can offer to match Fridz’s experience.
    Right enough, there is something! And so Konrad explains at great and elaborate length how he and his disgusting brother had catapulted half a bowl of spinach at the wall. What? Half a bowl? No, of course it was a whole bowl. And the spinach had spattered as high as the ceiling. And the bowl smashed into a thousand pieces. And what a rant Mum went on! And, and, and – Konrad does wonder if maybe he’s telling lies. Not really. Life, Dad always says, is full of the beginnings of stories. You just have to think up a good ending for them. And besides, Fridz is roaring with laughter. And that’s worth a bit of fibbing, isn’t it?

At the Canal
    â€˜Let’s go to the canal,’ says Fridz, when she is able to talk again.
    To the canal! What should he say to that? Going to the canal has not, so far, been discussed in the Bantelmann house. There’s no need, because Konrad is the kind of child who has an inbuilt sense of what is forbidden. Konrad always knows in advance perfectly well what he is not allowed to do. The lovely lawn in the park? Keep off the grass . The funny stuffed animal in the natural history museum? Do not touch . And the interesting little path along by the railway tracks? No entry .
    It was the same with the canal. Konrad only had to see it from afar, that time when the houses in The Dransfeld were being built – and he knew at once that you weren’t allowed to go there. And most certainly not alone.
    â€˜Ah,’ he says now, ‘to the canal?’
    Of course, that is not meant to sound like ‘Oh no, no! That’s not allowed!’ It’s meant to sound more like, ‘But would that be cool?’
    Fridz either has no ear for such subtleties, or she’s worked out what Konrad really meant to say.
    â€˜Do you not dare, or are you just not allowed?’
    Both: Konrad doesn’t dare to say that he is probably not allowed to go to the canal. He adds quickly, ‘Of course I dare.’ This, on the one hand, is not exactly true, but on the other hand it’s the only thing that he dares to say. Life can be difficult.
    â€˜Let’s go, then,’ says Fridz. She grabs Konrad by the arm and pulls him down into the hall. She yanks her shoes out of a rickety little cupboard and calls out, ‘Bye, Henri, we’re just going to the ca-na-al!’
    Who on earth is this Henri? Konrad wonders.
    â€˜My mum,’ says Fridz, as if he had actually asked the question.
    â€˜Excuse me?’
    Fridz has one shoe on already and Konrad hasn’t even picked his up yet.
    â€˜My mum’s name is Henriette. But Dad always calls her Henri.’
    Oh boy! Everything is so weird in number 28b. Konrad tries to imagine Dad calling Mum Eddi. He finally finds his shoes.
    â€˜Bye,