The Hawks locker room wasn’t usually a place where people stared, but still, Dennis Schröder hesitated when he took his new garment out of his bag. He didn’t want anybody to notice what he had brought with him.
Slipping the Magic Lederhosen on over his Under Armour, he tried to adjust the suspenders to the proper tension without anybody noticing. However, this effort was in vain.
“Dennis, dude, what’s up with those suspenders?” asked Kent Bazemore with laughter in his voice. “Wait, are those lederhosen?”
“No, they’re not,” Dennis responded, quickly reaching for his shorts. “I don’t know what you talk about.”
Kent grabbed the shorts out of his teammate’s hand. “Don’t lie, man. Those are lederhosen and you know it.”
Dennis snatched at his stolen shorts, but the article of clothing was whisked out of his grasp. “Okay, I admit, they are my good luck lederhosen. Now please give shorts back.”
“Hey guys, check out Dennis’ new wardrobe!” Kent yelled gleefully, prompting the rest of the Hawks players to look over. When they saw the brown leather lederhosen, they began to laugh in unison.
Squeezing his eyes shut, Dennis tried to ignore the teases of his teammates. But the taunts were too cutting, and he wanted nothing more than just to take off the lederhosen and forget about them. Just as he was about to do so, a humanlike apparition formed behind the blackness of his closed eyelids.
“Detlef Schrempf! You’re back!” Dennis thought.
“Indeed I am, for I will always be present with you when you put on the Magic Lederhosen,” Detlef responded, smiling serenely.
“They’re making fun of me, Detlef. I don’t know what to do.”
“You must ignore them, Dennis. The power of the lederhosen resides with you, now, and nothing that anybody says can wrest that power from you.”
At that moment, Dennis noticed a feeling, a force in his heart that had not been there before.
“I see that you have discovered what I told you,” Detlef said, waving a goodbye. “Auf wiedersehen, Dennis! You know what to do from here! Auf wiedersehen!”
Dennis opened his eyes to find his teammates continuing to laugh and point. However, their joking no longer bothered him, and he joined in their laughter. Let them laugh! In time, they would come to understand, and perhaps even fear, the secret sorcery of the Magic Lederhosen.