Minefield of Mirrors

-5-

With a deep sigh, Iris tore herself apart from the soft and warm bedsheets and walked up to her suitcase to change her clothing. After all, it was still partly covered in the sweet substance called Red Bull. A little anger found its way to the surface as she thought about what happened at the airport. How could someone just walk away without even apologizing?

She put the suitcase flat on the floor, totally ready to open the silver object to get some new clothing. Her fingers easily traced the zipper on the side of the suitcase and with a harsh sound that travelled through the hotel room, she opened it. A little push later, the whole content was visible to her eyes.

'What?' Iris whispered to herself.

Her hands went through the contents of the suitcase, moving lots of Red Bull merchandise and dark blue jeans. Nothing looked like the pastel-coloured blouses she packed yesterday evening. This wasn't her clothing at all. As the panic started to rush inside of her, she moved quicker and quicker through all the clothing and toiletries that were stuffed into the space. Someone must have mistaken her suitcase for theirs.

Out of frustration, she sat down on the floor while her hands went through her hair. How is this even possible? For a quick moment, she wished it was yesterday morning. Just a usual morning when she walked into the office to get started on the new working day, not knowing what was awaiting her. But she shook the thoughts immediately out of her head again. This account was the biggest opportunity of her life and she worked her ass off to get to this point. She couldn't let this slip through her hands, just because she got unlucky on the first day. No, she had to find out as quickly as possible who was the owner of the suitcase, so she could trade it back for her own.

It wasn't hard for Iris to figure out that the content belonged to a male. The boxershorts and the male deodorant gave her easily the knowledge. But who on earth would have the same suitcase as her? She bought it together with her eldest brother Lucas at a little local shop back in the Netherlands when she decided to move to England for her studies.

Iris opened the other side of the suitcase by unzipping the piece of fabric that was covering the content and she immediately spotted two notebooks and a picture frame. Thank god. Finally, some personal stuff that could help her find out who the stupid guy was who took her suitcase instead of his own.

As the picture frame was an easy way out, she took it in her hands and flipped it over to see the people who were captured forever in this shot.

'Oh hell no.' She said straight away as she stared into two specific blue eyes in the photograph.

Quickly she grabbed one of the notebooks and flipped the cover page around to see what had been written down. A little scrabble of a race track was the first thing that covered the page, next to some notes and red dots on certain points of the track. Her fingers flipped through the pages where Iris saw the same thing over and over again, but every time with another race track.

For a moment it felt like the universe was joking around, as she looked at the picture frame on her lap again. It was a picture of Max and a little baby in his arms. Oh my god. It was Max's suitcase that was lying open in front of her...

Hoping she would find another clue in the suitcase that would point out it was not the Dutchmen's suitcase that was lying in front of her, she took the other notebook from between the stuff and opened it. A wishing card fell between the pages and Iris picked it up from her lap to read to whom it was addressed.

Dear Max,

I can't tell you enough how proud I am of the young man you have become. Strong, resilient, and driven, but always with a heart of gold. Sometimes I still see you crawling around as the little baby you once were. Look at you now... Making your dreams come true by driving in Formula One and even winning the world championship. You have been fighting for it all your life. All the evenings you were driving around in your kart together with your dad to improve your driving... Or all the weekend trips to Italy to find another racing track... You had to sacrifice a lot to get to this point, so make sure you sometimes take a step back to look at all the things you have already achieved in your life. Enjoy all the memories, but most of all; enjoy the present.