In the morning Ada is more cheerful. She prepares breakfast, sends her children off to school, kisses her husband. She takes the dog for a walk. A sunny, cold winter day greets her. So lovely, that it hurts her eyes. The dog has his run in the snow-covered field behind the stand of birches. How very much she loves her simple life. Passing by a store, Ada notices large oranges on sale. She ties up the dog, goes into the store and buys two of the fragrant fruit. It is so cold outside that the oranges seem warm, smooth-skinned and tender. Ada takes the dog home, picks up her purse, puts the two oranges and the dog’s leather lead in it and heads out again.

At the bus stop, she, as always, waits for the trolleybus. But she gets off earlier, at her children’s school. She meets her daughter in the corridor and learns that her son is in class.

“Here, child, I’ve got an orange for you. Share it with your brother.”

“Mamma, why bring me an orange now?” “Because I love you very much.”

“I love you too, mommy.”

Afterward Ada catches a bus for the airport. In her purse she has one orange and the leather dog lead. It is cosy and warm in the airport. People are meeting and parting. She buys letter paper, an envelope, a stamp and a pen at the newsstand. She climbs the stairs to the cafeteria, buys a coffee with Balsam and writes a letter to her brother.

“Dear brother, I know that I have cancer, brother, I love all of you very much, dear brother, I love life very much, brother, I want to die on my own, not go through the torture of waiting, brother, I’m drinking coffee with Balsam, which I truly like, but more because, brother, finally, brother, I am in the airport, I’ve never flown, but it’s so beautiful, when a plane takes off and lands, brother, people here are parting so sadly and so infinitely happily meeting each other, and even that is incredibly beautiful, brother, I know, you’ll find me, I’ll be in that old manor across the river, brother, I’m not at all afraid, I love you very, very much, brother …”

Ada mails the letter in the small post office across the river.

Then she heads for the old manor. It still is such a cold, beautiful winter day, so beautiful it hurts her eyes.

The other Ada no longer exists in her; she just follows her step by step, leaving footprint after footprint. She hears her steps crunch in the snow, when she goes from the bus stop through the old park to the derelict wooden house. She opens creaking doors, leaving the other Ada outside, going further alone.

Ada has not been home for two days. In the kitchen, on the table is a large, fragrant orange.