So I became the stand-in Sohn.
Make it with me. Till six.
The job was simple: pick up mysterious envelopes from back-alley lawyers, forgotten warehouses, and one terrifyingly polite woman in a penthouse who always tipped in euros folded into origami cranes. Deliver them before 6 PM. Till never explained what was in them. I never asked.
I opened it. Inside: a photo of Till, young, laughing, arm around a woman holding a baby. On the back: "He was six months old when they took her. I never stopped looking. Tonight, they give her back. Just leave the package. Machs mit, Till."
Next morning, Till was gone. The shop was empty. But on the counter, a fresh origami crane. Inside it, a key to a small house by the river, and a note in a woman’s handwriting: "Tell the boy thank you. We’re going home now. —H."
I still drive the van sometimes. Still pick up strange packages. And every time someone asks how long I’ve got, I smile and say: "Machs mit. Bis sechs."
One Tuesday, the envelope was different. Heavy. Warm. And it ticked.
Not until . Till. With a capital T. His name.