I thought hard what to do with him. It was impossible for him to stay here. I was interrupted in my deliberations when I heard a strange male voice behind us.

"Something happened?"

Jasmine and I turned our heads and faced a priest. Quasimodo crept behind the pillar next to which he had just been sitting.

"Oh... um... a friend of ours was attacked and badly mauled.", Jasmin explained fast, "we want to get him out of here without being recognized."

"Oh, I know a way.", the priest said and motioned for us to follow him. I turned to Quasimodo and gave him my hand.

"Come with me." I said.

Quasimodo was hesitant at first, but when he noticed my kind eyes on him, he seemed to realize that he could trust me. He grabbed my hand and we led him through the few shady corners of the cathedral to a small side door. In front of this door hung a kind of cloak on the side, which the priest took and put on Quasimodo. Then the priest opened the door.

"I didn't see anything," the priest said, winking at me. Apparently he recognized Quasimodo.

"And what now? I can't just take him home by train!" I said desperately to Jasmin.

"Why not?" she asked and laughed.

"W-because..." I started to stutter and looked at Quasimodo in embarrassment.

"You can do it, and I'll have your back.", Jasmin said.

I sighed heavily and hung my head.

"Where am I?" I heard Quasimodo ask.

I turned to Quasimodo, "Don't you remember what time you are in? The 21st century," I said.

Quasimodo looked around in amazement. When he entered this world, he hadn't dealt with the environment that much. But now he saw everywhere the ground paved with gray stone and strange vehicles, smaller ones with people sitting on them, transporting other people in a carriage-like vehicle. And then there were big, shiny companions on 4 wheels that seemed to drive as if by magic. A lot of them were out here. They made a lot of noise and seemed to pollute the air.

Is this the future? Will it be like this in Paris one day? Quasimodo had heard of Colonge once. It was a big city, much like Paris, but he had never known it had such a mighty cathedral. Perhaps the cathedral was only built after the 15th century. Quasimodo followed the two women because he didn't know what else to do. Quasimodo was deaf, but he could still hear certain sounds very faintly out here, which proved to him how loud this time was. The two women took him to a building that wasn't as tall as the cathedral but was diagonally across from it. When they entered the building with the round roof, they met more people than there were on the street at the Festival of Fools in Paris. He followed the two of them, they always stubbornly walked straight ahead and the building seemed almost endless until they reached the other end of the building and climbed a staircase here. When they got to the top, he saw huge, long metal things that were also moving by themselves.

"It's a train. A means of transportation for us humans. They are powered by lightning," Regina said to explain it so he could understand. Something could be operated with blitzen? Unbelievable.

I boarded a train towards my home with Jasmine and Quasimodo. I lived in one of the many districts of Cologne. I was careful all the time that nobody saw him, that is, his face, so that we didn't provoke another fight or worse. Quasimodo didn't resist when we got on, and he didn't say anything until we got off. Quasimodo seemed to have realized that he better not attract attention. We walked about 10 minutes to my house. I knew that as soon as I entered the apartment I had to have a GOOD explanation for bringing a stranger into the apartment. Because I didn't live here alone. I lived here with my mother. She's very particular about "visiting". She knew that Jasmine was coming to Cologne, but Quasimodo wasn't planned.

So I put the key in the lock and unlocked it. We entered, first I let Jasmin in, who ran straight to my mother, who was sitting on her bed and was already holding out her hand to Jasmin. I turned right into my room with Quasimodo. I set Quasimodo down on my sofa and then wanted to take a look at Quasimodo's injuries.

"Regina?!" I heard my mother call out.

"Wait!" I called back.

But my mother, as impatient and curious as she is, came to my room door and began in an angry tone: "You can't send your girlfriend ahead and...", she interrupted her sentence when she saw Quasimodo.

"That's a bad joke, isn't it?" my mother said, stunned.

"No, it's not. He's real and he's here. He's injured, I need a bandage," I said.

It is extremely rare for my mother to be speechless. But the fact that Quasimodo is sitting in my room definitely left her no other option. Almost mechanically she got a bandage from the bathroom and handed it to me. I placed a compress on Quasimodo's forehead and then began bandaging his head. Then I motioned for Quasimodo to lie down. The sofa was just big enough to accommodate Quasimodo when he lay on his side. Then I left the room with my speechless mother. We went into the living room where we sat at the table

"T-the whole t-thing must be a d-dream!" My mother suddenly burst out.

"No, it's not. I didn't want to believe it myself at first until I touched him. That's when I knew he was real and really here."

"B-but how? And why?" my mother asked.

"He could only tell us that after Esmeralda's death, when he lay down next to her to die, he suddenly appeared on the cathedral square.", Jasmin explained.

"Now what?" my mother asked.

"I don't know. We'll definitely find a way to bring him back. But for now he needs to recover. He was beaten up by a crowd on the cathedral square," I said, bowing my head.

"It would be better. Who knows what will happen if he stays here. Thinking about Catweazle, for example..." my mother said and laughed.

I opened the balcony door and stepped out. I looked up at the sky thoughtfully. I began to want to keep Quasimodo here. But I shook my head to get rid of that thought. He couldn't stay. He didn't belong here. My mother was right about that. Who knows what would happen then. Still, I couldn't help but smile at my mother's reaction to the story. Had it been anything else, she would have exploded with rage. But Quasimodo... my mother had first made me familiar with his story at the time and thus given my phobia of the bell ringer the decisive impetus. Surely a way would be found to send Quasimodo back. Somehow...