I had just started eating my cream cake made of airy pastry and a large portion of whipped cream when a voice announced that I was coming. "Who is it? " I asked. "Your grandchildren, Ernst and Rascals," answered a voice that came out of nowhere. " Oh, already?" A smile was reflected on my face. " The children wanted to come at 2:00, now it's 2:15, so they are even late. I can't understand your surprise," the voice replied. "Should I let them in?" " No, I'll go myself. I will see my grandchildren myself." I got up, but the moment I straightened up my legs gave way and I could barely hold on to the edge of the table. I was fasting into the piece of cake that was standing on the very edge and floating a few inches in the air. With a groan I pulled myself up at the table and wiped my hand on the grey robe. " Stand on the table, I must fetch the children now!" I said angrily to the piece of cake. The piece of cake sank slowly and landed gently on the white tablecloth. "No! You are to go on the plate! You'll get the whole tablecloth dirty. "Come shoo, shoo," I shouted. The piece of cake slowly began to move towards the golden plate, leaving a big trail of crumbs on the tablecloth. "Oh, the tablecloth is beyond redemption!" With a waving gesture, I turned away from the table and ran my left leg into the hall. " Open the door," I said with contrition as I stood in front of the thick entrance door, which was made of sturdy oak. It detached itself, floated out of the door frame, flew to the side and stopped in front of the wall. Not a second too soon, because at the same moment two children happily rushed through the opening and jumped at me. Their white hair, their white teeth and their white robes, which they wore but were actually too big and were dragged on the floor, made them look unspeakably sweet. But also contributing to their sweetness were the blue eyes, which looked like waterfalls, and the cute little wings on the backs of the grandchildren. "Grandfather!" they shouted, and so close to my face that the whole spit sprayed in my face. "Serious and scallywags," I laughed and wiped the wetness off my face. "How nice to see you. But I'd be even happier if you'd get off my back." " Can't you carry us a little. Just across the hall. " "No", I gasped: "I can't carry your weight, I'm not that young anymore." They moaned, but then they jumped off me. Rascal took my robe in his hand and looked at it with interest. "Grandpa, why is your hair so yellow and your cape so dirty?" I said with a soft laugh, "It comes with age. The cape slowly becomes greyish and the hair yellow. But I'd rather you said my hair was golden, as people call it." "What does it change with age," Ernst said. " Well, the eyes begin to fade and turn from blue to grey and the fingertips become black. But let's go to the kitchen, I have something for you." Ernst and Rascals cheered and ran down the hall to the kitchen. I trotted after them. By the time I reached the kitchen, Ernst and Rascals had already sat down at the table and two pies were floating towards them and stopped right in front of them. "I see you've already helped yourselves," I said and sat down at the table. Then it suddenly occurred to me that I had not seen Ernst and Schlingel's mother. "Where is your mother?" "She had to leave at once, she ate the rascal. "We were a little late." Rascal swallowed and opened his mouth so another piece of the cake could go into his mouth. When they'd finished the cake, I asked them, "What are we going to do?" "A story, Grandfather, tell a story." begging rascals and serious people. I smiled: " Ok, let's go into the living room, I'll tell you a story there." I got up and walked towards a door. She swung to the side and I looked back. Ernst and Rascals were still sitting at the table. " Come on," I asked. "Otherwise, there's no story." The children jumped up from their chairs and ran after me. Then we walked down a hallway together. On the wall hung pictures that turned from time to time, so that alternately, picture on the front and picture on the back. Just below the pictures, there were pedestals with figures moving on them. On one of them was a dragon, which flew around the pedestal with its wings spread out. On another one there was a small roundish angel with a beard, who hit a small pile of stones with a pimple and on a third pedestal there was another angel with bright red eyes and a red glowing ball between his outstretched arms.At the end of the corridor they reached another door that swung to the side and gave a view of a huge room. At the top it was covered by clouds as a roof, and on the sides of the wall, shelves floated in the air above each other, where thousands of books were piled up. The floor, which was made of glass, and where below it clouds could be seen, which from time to time left a view of the earth. The floor was not sturdy, but elastic, because it bent with each step of the angel, under her feet forming a small round arch, and when the foot was lifted off the floor, it jumped back to its original position. "Sit down on the sofa I'll get a story out quickly", and while I was saying this, I pointed to a sofa made of a huge cloud that was standing in the middle of the room, floating at medium height between the floor and the sky. When the children had sat down on the cloud, I stepped up to the shelf to the left of the entrance and began to swing my wings. As I did so, I slowly climbed to the top. When I reached the top shelf, I slowed down to stand still and pulled the thick book out of the shelf, which was just in front of me between a thin book about the different kinds of people and a thicker book about the angels' weapons. Then I floated back towards the ground. When I hit the ground, the glass floor bent menacingly deep, only to shoot back immediately and shoot me up in the air again with another but much smaller hop. When I had landed I went to my grandson and sat down in the middle where they had, thankfully, left me a seat. I put the book on my thighs and pulled out of the breast pocket of my dress, my reading glasses. I opened the cover, which was made of two golden ribbons and in the middle between them, the title " The Devil and God" in curved letters, and began to look for a specific place. " Grandfather" interrupted scallywags and whimpered, " finally start the story, I've been waiting for ages." " Now give an old angel time to choose the right story, because I'm not the fastest anymore. Here it is. You haven't heard this one. With these words he pointed to a page with the big title "The Origin of the Devil". "You must know that the devil was not always evil, he was even once God's best friend," I explained, looking alternately at Ernst and the rascal, "While God was like you," I stroked Ernst's head, "the devil was more like you, rascal," and I stroked his head too. "Now go on, Grandfather, go on!" the rascal whimpered, grabbed my hand, pulled it away from his head and fell on my thigh. " Okay, okay, I'm going," I laughed and started to tell the story.