Sunday, July, 19th
Why did the weekends seem shorter and shorter? It was already 8 p.m., and Christian had to catch the train that would bring him to his barracks somewhere in the center of Switzerland.
  They hugged each other yet once more, and then Christian had to leave. A quick kiss, the train doors shut, and the train slowly began to move down the track. The two days they spent together passed so quickly.
  When he got home, Christian was a mix of exhaustion and excitement, and a whole load of laundry. Sascha took him in his arms and made certain that Christian forgot the stresses of the past six weeks.
  The new recruit had done well so far in the service, but he was still both angry and frustrated that he could not reveal his sexuality to others. "What is not can still be. Give it time," Sascha said.
  When the train was no longer in sight, Sascha turned and walked to the tram-stop. The Armed Service wasn't just hard on Christian. Sascha suffered too from the loneliness of hardly seeing his friend. He also noticed that Christian had begun to change somewhat.
  No wonder. Living in another world for fifteen weeks! Sascha just hoped the changes would not weaken their relationship.
Wednesday, July, 29th
With Christian away, Sascha had more time for himself again. He decided to take an active role in the gay youth group. A couple weeks ago, he had offered his support, and they welcome him warmly. "What would you like to do?" they asked him. Sascha had posed that question to himself already. He was willing to do almost anything to help, and he remembered when he first joined the group, and how the group helped him gain confidence in himself and self-respect. Because of that, he decided to help counsel newcomers to the group. And today, he was ready to provide that help to someone for the first time.
At exactly 7:30 p.m., he stood by the entrance, put on his nametag, and waited for his first customer. It was not long before a 19-year-old boy walked up the stairs somewhat cautiously. By the way he scanned the room, Sascha knew at once that this boy had never been there before. "Hi, I am Sascha. I'm a member of this youth group. Are you new?" "Hello, my name is Stefan. You're right; this is my first time here." "No problem," replied Sascha.
Sascha gave him the full tour of the facility, all kinds of information handouts, and sat down with him in the lounge. "I learned about your group in the newspaper," Stefan said, "about six months ago. I cut out the article and kept it in my diary. I wanted to come by much earlier, but I was really anxious. But I can't stay away anymore because something important has happened. For about a year, I have been head over heels in love with a schoolchap..."

Sascha grinned inside himself. He knew this story very well.