A new arrival. There was excitement at our school because in this small city, nearly everyone knows everyone and it is always exciting when a new family settles here. Apparently it was a couple with an 11 year old daughter, who had moved into an empty apartment. We were particularly excited in our class to see what our new classmate looked like and to find out what talents and abilities she had. The day finally arrived and our new classmate turned out to be Maria. She was of medium height, had a very pretty face with short hair, but looked a little podgy under her clothes, in fact she was a fatty. In the first lessons of maths, geography, German and natural history we all soon learnt that she was very intelligent, more than us, and it seemed like she had already heard and learnt everything in her previous school. There was also a little jealously that this newcomer had put us all in the shade. One afternoon, gymnastics was on the timetable and we were all hoping that this would finally be something we were better than her at. Our gym teacher had previously been a professional rhythmic gymnast and would include elements of this often in our class, so that we had all become quite flexible and had mastered a number of the exercises. We had already noted in the changing room that Maria moved very naturally, despite her thick and somewhat chubby body. As we were all fairly slim girls, we saw that we already had quite an advantage to perform our exercises elegantly. We would see how flexible she was. The gym teacher greeted Maria warmly and didn’t let us waste any more time with our thoughts. In the warm-up we noticed that Maria was very light-footed ran about the hall with us with a spring in her step. After a few warm-up exercises our teacher told us it was time for us to put all that we had learnt into practice and show our new classmate what we could do. First came the splits. Two of us had mastered them really well, with the other girls coming within about 10 to 15 cm of the floor. Maria looked at us respectfully, smiled a little and then slowly slid her feet apart until she was sitting in a perfect split. We were surprised where this fatty had got this flexibility? The next exercise was to perform a bridge. We lay on our backs on the floor and then pushed up with our hands so that our spines were bent backwards. Maria watched us and after we had stood up again, said to the teacher that she could do this too. She smiled again – she had a beautiful face when she smiled, incidentally – turned backwards and pushed her shoulders backwards forming a beautiful curve in her back. Then she lifted her hands up in the air and lowered her upper body slowly backwards until her hands touched the ground in a bridge that was tighter than we had been able to manage. Thrilled, we all applauded and said, after she had pushed her legs over and was standing upright again, that we had not imagined how flexible she was. Maria said that she would always have loved to do gymnastics, but because of the way her body looked, people always laughed at her. So she had practised on her own, because she found out very young that she was flexible and from about the age of 5 was able to bend her spine in all possible directions. Her mother had been very flexible and she had amazed her with how effortlessly she could bend her body. She could completely tie herself up in knots bending backwards, so that her head touched her bottom and then spreading her legs she could push her head through between her thighs until she was looking forwards again. Sometimes it was hard to tell whether she was a real person or a rubber doll! She had never performed professionally, only at private parties to entertain the guests. She had contorted into all kinds of unbelievable positions wearing normal clothes like jeans and pullover and astonished her friends. Even though she was still as flexible as ever, she practises every day. She said that once her mother had found her in a deep sleep in bed and that she had become so contorted that I was holding onto my legs with my hands with my spine bent and my head resting on the back of my knee! I was probably dreaming about snakes and so managed to get myself into this position. With her help and experience I have continued to train and learnt many things from her. We were all of course very envious, particularly as we saw our gymnastics trump card slowly melt away. But we admired our new school friend who astonished us more all the time. Our teacher asked if she would be able to show us some more as she was interested to see how this plump girl was able to contort herself. She said gladly, but that she would need to do a short warm-up first. She put her hands on her waist and moved her torso forwards and backwards, left and right and round in circles. After about two minutes, she said she was ready. What we saw next almost took our breath and away, and our admiration for Maria became even greater. She sat in the splits and bent her torso forward until the tip of her nose touched her knee. Then she sat upright again, and then bent backwards until her head was touching the foot of her rear leg, which was bent at the knee. Then she took hold of her foot with her hands and began to straighten the back leg until eventually her head was touching the back of her knee. But she didn’t stop there; she continued bending backwards until the top of her head was resting on the floor. She straightened up and slid into a perfect side split and continued into a normal split with the other leg forward. Then she repeated the same exercises on the other side with the same ease and we all began to applaud. Even our teacher was impressed even though she had done some of these exercises earlier. Maria stood up, arched her back and lowered herself backwards into a bridge, but without putting her hands on the ground. She swung her torso forwards and backwards and suddenly managed to grasp her ankles with her hands. Her spine was already fairly well bent but she continued to move her hands slowly up her legs until her head was resting on the back of her knees. She turned her head and smiled at us, obviously quite relaxed. What followed we found unbelievable. In this position, she now pushed her head upwards along her thighs until it was lying against her bottom. I can’t go any further she said and lowered her head down again. Then, with legs slightly apart, holding her knees she pulled her backbend even tighter so that there was hardly any gap between the different parts of her back. We were all thinking, how can you bend so much with hurting yourself? Then she slid her head through between her thighs and her cute face looked at us from between her legs. It’s not possible to bend any further, she said, as my shoulders are touching my thighs. Slowly she stood upright and leant forward and with straight legs placed her torso flat against them. She said that this was to balance out the spine which seemed to be able to bend in all directions. She confirmed this with the next exercise. She bent forwards again and now began a circular motion with her torso, first to the left, then to the back, round to the right and on until her nose was touching her knees in the front again. She was so bent over that her head never came above the height of her bottom. This girl had demonstrated an incredible flexibility and we, including the sports teacher, were more and more amazed. Then she showed us a perfectly straight handstand and without any assistance arched her back and slowly lowered her legs forwards until her bottom was resting against her back. Then she lowered her knees, still in the handstand, and then looked at us completely relaxed in this extremely contorted pose. Everything she showed us, despite her plump figure, seemed completely effortless and graceful. We had even more respect for her because what she had demonstrated to us a many times better than we or our teacher could do, or even imagined we would be able to do. Now you can experiment with me, said Maria. You can squeeze me into all kinds of positions. She lay on her tummy on the floor and said push a leg right up to my head. Our teacher had a go first, took a leg and pushed the foot to her head. Now take the knee and push it down until it is against my shoulder. Push harder, she said, as the teacher was going about the task a bit tentatively. Eventually her leg went all the way down and Maria was laying in an upside down split on the floor. Now do the same with the other leg she said. A student took hold of the second leg and pushed it all the way up and over. Now Maria was completely bent in half on the floor. She placed her hands on her knees and pulled her head through her legs so that her cheeks touched the insides of her thighs, and unbelievably, smiled at us totally relaxed. She showed us more exercises, contorting herself into all possible positions standing, lying down, kneeling or on her hands, astonishing us more and more. The result was that we were always pleased when it came to gym lesson and Maria introduced us to many tips and tricks in the mystery of contortion. Some of us managed to achieve a backbend so that we could place our feet either side of our head or do perfect splits. Maria was a little disappointed that because of her figure that she would never be able to take part in rhythmic gymnastics competitions but she was happy she could bend like a contortionist. Recently she astonished out maths teacher. When he came into the room, Maria was sitting on her chair – but not quite as normal! She had propped her head up on the table top, her back completely bent in a hairpin, her abdomen was resting on the chair and the legs were arranged so that her feet were on the table near her head. How long can you stay in that position, the teacher asked. As long as you like, she said, and stayed in that position for the whole lesson. Maria became our best friend and we had great fun together, whether it be in lessons, doing gymnastics, or just hanging out together.