Finally, a thirty-meter-high lookout tower rose up in front of them. With its long steel supports it looked like a huge bundle of Mikado sticks. A narrow spiral staircase with hundreds of metal-grate steps circled up to a round platform halfway up and then continued to two other platforms at the very top and slightly below it.

Susanne paused to catch her breath for a second, then headed toward the tower. Several steps up, she stopped again.

Anja hadn’t followed her. She stood rooted to the spot at the base of the tower, clutching the metal railing.

“Aren’t you coming?” Susanne called down to her. “I know this is probably old hat to you, but…”

“No, that’s not it.” Anja scraped the bottom of her hiking boot along the ground. “I’ve never been up there. I’m, um, not too fond of heights.”

Susanne jumped down the few steps she had already taken. “We don’t have to go up there if you don’t want to. We can join Franzi and Miriam for some Flammkuchen.”

“No, no. You go up. I’ll wait here.”

Susanne hesitated. “But don’t you want to see the view from up there?” She pointed at the top of the tower.

“Yes, of course I do, but—”

“Then come on. We’ll do it together.” She offered Anja her hand.

Anja’s gaze darted back and forth between her hand, her face, and the tower. She swallowed audibly.

Susanne waited patiently, not pressuring her or trying to grab her hand to pull her up the stairs. Anja had to decide this for herself.

Finally, Anja loosened her white-knuckled grip on the railing and accepted Susanne’s hand.

Her fingers were cool and clammy. Susanne entwined them with her own in a secure grip. “You can do this. But if it gets to be too much, just tell me, and we’ll go back down, okay?”

Anja pressed her lips together and nodded.

Hand in hand, they took the first step, then another. The staircase was winding and narrow, so they had to walk with their shoulders brushing. Susanne let Anja walk on the outside, where the stairs were broader.

“Couldn’t they at least have built concrete steps, not these see-through metal grates?” Anja grabbed the railing with her free hand.

“Don’t look down. Keep your eyes on the horizon.”

The higher they climbed, the paler Anja became, but she followed Susanne’s advice and kept her gaze on the horizon…or on Susanne.

When they neared the circular platform halfway up the tower, Susanne paused. “Want to keep going or stay at this level?”

Anja’s grip on her hand tightened. “Keep going…I think. As long as I focus on the physical activity of climbing, it’s not so bad.”

“Okay.” Susanne led her higher up on the winding staircase.