“White Ernz,” she replies. I give some thought to this, and ask who this Ernz is. At that very moment, an old man is riding past on his bicycle. He laughs. I ask him why he is laughing. He sits down with us.
“Ernz is not the name of a person,” he explains. “A long time ago, people called a river Ar. Over time, this name changed. Ar became Ernz.”
Mia and I look at each other, disbelieving. We want to know more, and pepper the man with questions. “Where does the river come from?” Mia asks. The man thinks: “Where are you from?”
“Koedange,” we reply. The man says that the river has travelled a lot further than we have. Later on, it flows into a bigger river, the Sûre. From its source in the Grünewald forest to the Sûre is over 30 km. I’m impressed. That is quite some way.
“The White Ernz has a twin,” the man says. Mia rolls her eyes.
“The man’s mad,” she whispers to me.
He laughs loudly. “No, it’s true!” he says. “The twin river to the White Ernz is the Black Ernz. They both spring from the same source. But then their paths diverge. They only come together again many kilometres further on, in the Sûre.”
Mia has another question: “So why is it the White Ernz?”
“Good question,” I think. After all, water is blue. Suddenly, the water shimmers white. I rub my eyes. And look at the sky. The sunlight is reflecting in the water.
“I know the answer!” I call out.
