It was well past 2am when the two sleepy men tried to get back to the valley as quickly as possible from the inn high up on Pohorje. Anže was at the wheel and his girlfriend was sitting next to him, almost asleep as they drove around the many curves to get home, when suddenly she saw a helmet in the grass and a motorbike a few metres away.
First she had to blink twice to see if it was true, so they drove past, but as the scene didn't leave her alone, she asked Anže: "Did you see someone lying in the grass?" He replied that he hadn't. Still, a woman's intuition almost never fails, so they decided to turn around and see if there really was someone lying in the grass, or if it was just an illusion.
In their minds, they were both preparing for the worst. If the helmet was really on the ground and there was no body next to it, was it possible that they would come across a horribly gory scene? Fearfully, they quickly parked in the middle of the road and honked their horns hard to see if anything would move. It didn't. They stepped out and, a few metres away from the motorbike and helmet, saw a fair-haired boy lying in the wet and cold grass, his head turned to the ground. They shook him and - thank God - he grumbled in response.
When they turned him around, they saw that he had vomited and was in a drunken state. They breathed a sigh of relief. Just that he was alive. They wrapped him in a blanket they had in the car, because the boy was shivering from the cold. When he came to a little, they asked him what had happened. He said that he had taken a motorbike from a friend who was having a birthday party and decided to sleep in for a bit, as the journey home was too long. He had no idea that he might freeze to death.
They tried to find out from his unrelated speech where he lived so they could take him home. They did not want to call the police, assuming he could not be far away. Fortunately, the boy was becoming more and more present, and after a few dozen minutes he was able to guide them home. They were happy to take him there, quietly hoping that he was actually at home. When they dropped him off at the location where he supposedly lives, he hugged them and burst into tears. He was very grateful. They waited until he had gone into the house and were relieved when he was let inside.
To this day, Anže is proud of the fact that they turned around and helped that night, because he says he could not have forgiven himself if the next day he had read in a local paper that a young boy had frozen to death in the grass.
All's well that ends well!
Amadeja Kangler, 29 May 2025
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