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Mario was 7 when he first moved to Dortmund. His brother Fabian was 9 and his brother Felix had just turned 1 six months ago. He loved the house, one of the reasons was because it was so close to the park, another was that he had his own room. He also thought that it was really cool that the roof outside of his window almost connected with the roof of the house behind his.
About a week after they had finally settled in to the house, Mario opened his window and went to play on the roof. He would do this a couple times a week when he got home from school or on days where he didn't have school, he liked to look into the empty bedroom on the other side of the roof, he could see that a girl lived in there from the perfume bottles, fans, nail polish, and makeup-he knew that one from seeing his mother's-that covered a desk with a pretty decorative mirror connected to it. It fascinated Mario how nothing was ever in the same place as it was the last time he looked.
He hadn't been able to go on the roof because a rain storm moved through Dortmund, so he just watched cartoons with Fabian and watched football games with his father. When the storm finally cleared up Mario went onto the roof, it was slippery but he didn't pay enough mind to it. All he did was play with his toy cars on the roof, he had taken one from Fabian while he was at his friend's house. When Mario stood from the roof he turned around and slid a little bit and dropped Fabian's car he bent over to pick it up and his feet fell from under him.
He would have fallen from the roof if it wasn't for the hand that grabbed the back of his shirt.
"Goodness! Be careful child!" Mario's head snapped around to look to the voice that just spoke to him. It was an older woman, the one to whom the makeup, jewels, nail polish, and perfume belonged to.
"I-I'm sorry miss." Mario felt a faint pain in his knee, he continued to stare at the woman.
"It's not a jungle gym boy! You can't go and fall of the roof when you only been here since April!" Mario's knee began to hurt more so he shifted and looked down at it and then back to the woman.
"I'm sorry miss." He repeated himself not knowing quite what else to say. The woman sighed.
"Come in here and I'll clean that up for you."
Mario entered the woman's house, he learned her name to be Tanja. He liked Tanja, she got mad at him when he asked her how old she was but she still answered him. She was 63, she didn't look like she was 63, she laughed when he told her that.
Throughout the couple years that Mario had lived in that house, Mario and Tanja would always open their windows and speak to each other. On nice days Mario would sit out on his roof and talk to Tanja. Within 4 years he learned that she had a daughter that was Fabian's age and a son that was in college in France. He knew that her husband passed away in the Cold war and she had lived in Sweden during WWII while she was a child. He also learned that Tanja's daughter Stefanie had a crush on Fabian, that weirded him out, he didn't want to be 13.
Mario always loved to show Tanja his new comics whenever he would get new ones, he was always particularly happy when Northstar would appear in his x-men comics, Tanja always found it cute.
When summer rolled around Mario stayed in Bavaria with his family. He thought a lot about Tanja and how she talked about loving the ocean, he couldn't wait until the last week of summer where they stay by the North Sea. He wanted to bring her seashells as a present, her birthday was in September.
When Mario finally comes back to prepare for school, he visit's Tanja's home with Fabian. While Fabian was busy flirting with Stefanie, Mario was giving Tanja the seashells he collected for her during his time by the sea.
A year later Mario started year 10 in college. It was completely separate school from the last he was in, the school colours were different. That didn't worry Mario very much though. He talked to Tanja about how he was going to try out for the football team.
When Mario returned back from school he went to his room and then entered onto the roof. Tanja was waiting for him.
She asked him how trying out for sport went and how school went, the same things his parents asked he and Fabian minutes before.
"Did you make any friends?"
"Yes, a boy in year 13." Mario looked to his lap and fiddled with his fingers.
"Are you going to tell me who he is child?"
"Marco. Reus. Marco Reus. He's in 2 of my Friday classes." Tanja laughed at Mario, she had her suspicions about Mario for a while, the excitement he had in his eyes every time he would see Northstar in one of his comic books gave her a bit of a hint.
"He's in year 13, huh?"
"Yes. He's really amazing at football, he's the best I think." Tanja laughed and they resumed talking about football.
Since Mario was older, Tanja figured he was mature enough to hear her stories from protests during the Cold war. Mario was fascinated by them , he always said how terrified he would be if he had been alive at the time.
After a while Mario's visit's became less frequent, with his schoolwork and all, but he still tried to make it out onto the roof. He helped Tanja with the smart phone her daughter for her birthday that she had just started trying to use. Mario told her that one of his friends had recommended he try out for a football club with him so they could play year round-if she had to make a bet she would say it was the Marco kid Mario never stopped talking about-and that he was going to ask his parents about it the next morning.
When it started raining and snowing they would note pads and write each other notes.
Around April, Mario started having a lot of issues with himself and his visits stopped completely. He kept his windows shut and he kept the blinds drawn, Tanja worried about him but she had been feeling to tired recently to do anything, especially getting out on the roof. Mario would peek through his curtains every once and a while but he didn't go out on the roof. He was having a lot of personal problems and he knew that Tanja would listen, but he didn't want to bother her with any of it.
On the 22nd of May 2006, Mario heard strange noises coming from Tanja's room, He opened the window and got on the roof and went through Tanja's open window. Tanja was having a stroke on the floor so Mario grabbed her phone and called the ambulance. Mario Had forgotten that Tanja was 70, he forgot that she was old and could leave him at anytime. He felt terrible about neglecting their daily routine of exchanging stories and experiences they had that day.
His parent's were asking him if he was alright and he answered Marco back about spending the 31st together over text.
Tanja's son had to come back from France that week. Tanja was alive and she had Mario to thank for that. She was however, being moved into a group into an elderly home. Mario wasn't always going to be right outside of her window for the rest of her life.
In the 2nd week of June Tanja was allowed back to her house or a couple days before she would be moved to the group home. Mario came by 2 days before she she had to move out. She apologized for missing his birthday and asked to sing to him.
When she finished Mario said he wanted her to meet somebody for him, he walked over to the windowsill and said something along the lines of 'you can come in now'.
A boy, taller than Mario, with blonde hair and blue eyes made his way into Tanja's room. Mario held the curtain's back for the boy and he gave Mario lopsided smile in return.
"Thank you, Sunny." Were the words that came out of the boys mouth, Mario smiled at him so brightly she thought her vision was going to leave her.
"Um, Tanja, this is Marco. Marco this is Tanja."
"I'm glad to meet you Tanja." Marco said before letting Mario finish, looking back down to him and admiring him blatantly.
"Marco is my, he's my boyfriend." he looked to Tanja with a need for approval. "I really wanted him to meet you, vice versa."
Tanja teared up a bit before beginning to interrogate Marco, asking him what his intentions for Mario were. She could see a giant weigh lift from Mario's shoulders, she determined that Mario's personal issue was dealing with the realization that he had a crush on Marco and being accepted by the people he cares about.
After Tanja was moved into the group home, Mario visited Tanja to tell her that his parents weren't exactly thrilled but they did except him, he just wasn't allowed to stay the night at Marco's anymore, but of course he was going to.
Mario stayed back from family vacation to spend time with Tanja and Marco. He took a weekend trip with Marco to the beach and brought back a bunch of seashells for her and Marco even came with him a couple times. She couldn't quite recall the last time she saw 2 people look at each other like they did.
Tanja died the next year in mid August of a heart attack. Mario saved his favorite seashells from the last time he and Marco went to the shore. Instead of putting flowers down, he left the seashell's in one of Tanja's old drawstring pouches that held a bracelet that she liked.
Mario and Marco went on together to defy the 'you never stay with your college boyfriend after college' by adopting a child with him when he turned 23. They named her Tanja.
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