When the future appears at Christmas

A Christmas story with three ghosts

23 December 2025, CoolGrill headquarters. Karl Meier stared at the screen. He had now reached page 47 of 89 in the annual report. Another new key figure. Another footnote explaining three paragraphs that used to be in one line.

‘Humbug,’ he muttered. ‘It’s all humbug.’

The consultants had assured him that it would ‘meet the requirements.’ Of course. For a consulting fee of 15,000 euros, everything was sufficient. Bureaucracy that no one read. Compliance that helped no one. The main thing was that the checklist was complete.

It was already getting dark outside. His smartphone vibrated. Local area code: +49 951.

‘Meier.’

‘Good afternoon, Mr Meier. This is Markus Fischer from Fraenkischer Tag. We’re doing a series on family businesses and succession. Your daughter is ready, isn’t she?’

Karl pressed his lips together. ‘I don’t want to comment on that.’

He hung up. Lisa. Of course she was ready. Competent, committed, full of ideas. AI here, circular economy there. As if you could just turn a company like CoolGrill upside down!

It started snowing outside. Something like this had become rare in recent years: real December snow. Karl closed his laptop, put on his coat and went home. He drove home through empty streets.

At home, he opened the fridge, took out a bottle of beer and sat down on the sofa.

Tomorrow was Christmas Eve. His mother used to always…

He shook his head. His mother. Dead for four years. And he was still running CoolGrill as if she could walk through the door at any moment and say, ‘Karl, what are you doing?’

A cold draught brushed across his neck. The window was closed, but Karl shivered. Then he saw her.

She was standing at the window with her back to him. She was wearing the dark blue evening dress and her hair was styled as she always wore it.

He stood up. He walked slowly to the window.

‘Mum?’ he asked.

She turned around.

His breath caught. Her face, her eyes. Her back as she turned away again. A tattoo. Vines twisting around her shoulder blades, interwoven with cogwheels, cooling fins and the old CoolGrill logo.

‘You never had a tattoo,’ he whispered.

‘Not in a million years.’ Her voice sounded familiar and strange at the same time. ‘But now I wear what I have created. The marks I have left behind.’

She touched his shoulder.

‘Control was my way,’ she said. ‘Right for my time. Poison for yours. The company was my child. Now it needs freedom.’

‘Mum, I…’

‘Three ghosts are coming tonight. Listen to them, Karl. Or you’ll wear these chains forever.’

She dissolved. Just gone. Karl stumbled onto the sofa, took a few quick swigs of beer and slowly fell asleep.

The ghost of the probable future

A hand shook his shoulder.

‘Wake up, Karl! We’ve got work to do.’

Karl opened his eyes. Standing next to the sofa was a man in his early seventies wearing a dark blue suit with a tie tied with millimetre precision. The face was familiar, but he couldn’t place it.

‘Who…’

‘Friedrich. Your travel companion for tonight. Come on, we have no time to lose. Solid work doesn’t wait.’

The man spoke quickly, energetically, almost choleric. Karl scrambled to his feet.

‘Where are we going?’

‘December 2028, Karl. Your probable future.’

Karl frowned. ‘Future? Last time we went into the past. That’s the classic sequence: past, present, future.’

Friedrich smiled jovially. ‘Oh, Karl. In the future, you can also go back to the good old days. What has been tried and tested remains tried and tested. Come on.’

There was a car in front of Karl’s house. Friedrich opened the passenger door for Karl.

‘Get in, my dear,’ said Friedrich. ‘Highly efficient combustion engine made in Germany.’

They drove through the familiar streets towards the CoolGrill headquarters. Shortly afterwards, they were standing in his office. 23 December 2028. Through the window, Karl saw himself: older and greyer. His daughter and the production manager were sitting at the table with him.

‘The Chinese have ramped up their dark factories,’ said his daughter. ‘We have to invest in robotics now, Dad. Otherwise…’

‘Too expensive,’ interrupted Karl-2028. ‘We’ll ramp up the new product line first, then we’ll see.’

His daughter was silent. She nodded. She closed her laptop.

Friedrich next to him beamed. ‘See? You listen to her and give her responsibility. But in the end, you make the decisions. The experienced company leader. Just right.’

Karl felt pride. And something else at the same time.

‘Come on.’ Friedrich took his arm. ‘I’ll show you more.’

Suddenly they were standing in the company car park. Karl-2028 sat in the car with his smartphone to his ear. Friedrich opened the passenger door and pushed Karl inside. Silently and invisibly to the older Karl.

‘What? Completely shut down?’ The voice on the other end sounded desperate. It was his business partner Wagner. ‘Production has been at a standstill for three weeks. Supply chains. I can’t take it anymore, Karl. I give up.’

‘Politicians must finally…’

‘I don’t care. I’m out.’

Silence. Karl-2028 stared through the windscreen. He said nothing more. He hung up.

Friedrich leaned back. ‘Well, that’s how it is. Some make it, some don’t. You persevered, Karl. Solid stability pays off.’

Wagner had been a good entrepreneur. And now he was simply gone.

Karl wanted to say something, but Friedrich had already jumped up again. ‘One more stop. Important.’

They walked. Dark streets, snow under their shoes. Friedrich talked non-stop. Industrial electricity prices, reducing bureaucracy, solid values. Karl hardly listened.

Then Friedrich stopped in front of a house. Lisa lived here.

He saw her through the illuminated window. There was a blister pack on the kitchen table. She took two tablets and washed them down with water. Then she put her head in her hands.

Karl took a step towards the window.

‘Young people don’t want to work anymore! And then there are the quotas, no wonder that …’

‘That’s my daughter.’ Karl’s voice cut sharply through the air.

Friedrich fell silent. He cleared his throat. ‘Of course. Sorry. But you see, overwork happens. It’s part of being an entrepreneur.’

Karl stared out of the window. His daughter. Alone. Exhausted.

Friedrich put his hand on his shoulder. ‘You’re doing well, Karl. Really. Keep it up.’

Then he was gone. Karl was standing in his living room again. He went into the kitchen. He opened the fridge. Another beer. That’s what he needed now.

The ghost of a possible future

The light flickered. The smart TV sprang to life. Then she suddenly stood there, as if she had stepped out of the screen. A woman with skin as smooth as glass, her eyes glowing faintly blue.

‘Hello, Karl.’

‘Who the hell…’

‘Katie. A humanoid. AI-based, in case that wasn’t obvious.’

She held out a pair of glasses to him.

‘December 2028. Are you coming?’

Karl nodded and put on the glasses. What else could he do?

The world around them dissolved into pixels and reconstructed itself. It was like a video game loading a new level.

They were standing in the CoolGrill production facility. But the machines were idle. The same text appeared on every screen: ‘Your data is ours. Pay or lose everything.’

Karl-2028 stood helplessly between the rows. Next to him stood Lisa with her laptop open, her fingers flying over the keyboard.

‘How much do they want?’ asked Karl-2028.

‘It doesn’t matter. I’m limiting the damage.’ Her voice sounded tense and focused. ‘The backup is clean. We can be up and running again in two days.’

Karl-2028 nodded. He said nothing. He just stood there.

Katie whispered to him, ‘See? SHE can handle us. You can’t.’

Lisa closed the laptop. She took her smartphone and scrolled briefly. An app icon appeared on the display: a stylised head with gears.

‘What’s that?’ asked Karl-2028.

‘My therapist. AI-supported. She helped me after my burnout.’ She put her phone away. ‘I’m investing in the start-up. It’s a good thing.’

Karl-2028 stared at her. ‘A machine as a therapist?’

She shrugged. ‘Better than nothing.’

Karl felt how foreign all this was to him. This world. These tools.

‘Come on.’ Katie pulled him by the arm. ‘Let’s move on.’

They left the building. It was raining outside. It wasn’t the cold December rain Karl knew. It was warm. Almost tropical. The snow from three days ago had long since melted.

‘Get in,’ Katie said.

There was no car in front of them. A boat. In the middle of the car park, where the water was ankle-deep. Katie got in and started the engine.

‘Tipping point reached. Endless snow at the beginning of December, now heat and heavy rain. Welcome to the new normal.’

Karl stared at her. ‘This nonsense has to stop. It’s unrealistic. Scaremongering.’

‘I’m showing you a possible future. Based on data from 2025.’

Her voice sounded cool and analytical. ‘You trust your gut feeling, Karl. Even though it’s been wrong for years. I have the data. You’re ignoring it.’

They drove through flooded streets. Karl recognised the area. It was the city centre. It used to be the city centre. Katie steered towards a climate-resilient building. People were standing in front of the building, carrying boxes.

‘Florian,’ said Katie.

His nephew. Karl saw him filling reusable containers with food and distributing them to helpers. The boat docked. Karl got out and walked over to him.

‘Florian!’

His nephew turned around.

‘Uncle? Not now, sorry. We have half the city to feed.’

‘No one could have seen this coming!’

Florian and Katie replied in unison, ‘Yes, they could.’

Florian turned back to his work. Katie pulled Karl back onto the boat.

‘Yes, Karl. The signs were there. Climate data, tipping point models, extreme weather events. You could have seen it if you had paid attention. But to you, it was all just nonsense.’

They drove on to a neighbourhood that Karl knew well. In 2025, it was still middle-class and well-kept. Today, you see smashed shop windows and graffiti on the walls. People looking suspiciously at the boat.

‘Too dangerous for you,’ said Katie. ‘We’re staying here.’

On the street, a woman was helping Florian’s team distribute food. Karl recognised her. He had had to let the production worker go in December 2025.

‘She was lucky,’ said Katie. ‘She took part in a social hackathon. Florian hired her. She found meaningful work. The exception.’

Karl saw the woman smiling as she handed a bowl to an old woman.

‘And the others?’ he asked quietly.

Katie held out the tablet to him. Social media. The posts were dripping with anger, hatred and conspiracy theories. ‘Your former employees. The Blue Party is at 67 per cent. Mistrust everywhere.’

She swiped further. A video showed masked people destroying robots. ‘Machine breakers. Attacks on automated factories.’

Katie looked at the video. For a tiny moment, Karl saw something in her eyes. Not coldness, but fear.

‘I could calculate the solution,’ she said quietly. ‘But no one is listening. And then they will destroy us.’

Karl was pale. The water splashed against the boat. It was all too much. BANI. Broken, anxious, non-linear, incomprehensible.

‘Take me home,’ he whispered. ‘To 2025.’

The world blurred. Karl was standing in his kitchen. The beer was still on the table. He slumped into a chair. He was breathing heavily.

‘Another one,’ he muttered.

The ghost of a desirable future

When he looked up, he saw a woman standing by the kettle. She was middle-aged, wearing a hoodie and looking relaxed. She was making tea.

‘Take a deep breath, Karl. Would you like one too?’

He nodded silently. She brought two cups and sat down next to him at the table. Not too close, but present.

‘I’m Frederike. Yes, another ghost. The last one for tonight.’

Karl swallowed. The third ghost. Last time, this ghost had made him break out in a cold sweat. But Katie had just shown him a future that had pulled the rug out from under his feet.

‘What now?’ His voice was shaky. ‘Even worse? Are you going to show me how everything completely falls apart? How I…’

‘No.’ She smiled gently. ‘I invite you on a journey to the Christmas you desire.’

Karl stared into his cup. Might want. Desirable. The word felt strange.

‘Come on. Let’s get it over with.’

‘What are you feeling right now?’

The question caught him off guard. What was he feeling? Overwhelmed. Helpless. Angry. He was sad about his daughter. Afraid of… everything.

‘I don’t know,’ he finally said.

Frederike took his hand. ‘Then let’s figure it out together. What kind of future do you want, Karl?’

He stared at her. Did he want anything? The future just happened. You reacted to it. You controlled what you could. But want?

‘I… don’t know how to answer that.’

‘Think about your trip with the previous ghosts. What moved you there?’

Wagner. The business partner who had given up. Karl had respected his decision. But he didn’t want to give up. Because of the people. Because of what he had built.

‘I don’t want to give up,’ he said quietly.

Frederike nodded. ‘Letting go is not the same as giving up. Come, I’ll show you something.’

The world around them blurred and became shapes without substance. Everything around Karl was white like fog.

‘What is this?’ asked Karl.

‘Your future. But you have to shape it. How do you want it to be?’

‘Not giving up like Wagner. Not Katie’s dystopia.

’And instead?”

Karl thought about it. ‘I want the company to survive. But not in a way that destroys my daughter.’

The outlines materialised. CoolGrill production, December 2028: Karl-2028, his daughter and the production manager stood in front of a new production line. There was a bustle of AI-controlled robots.

Karl’s mobile phone rang.

‘Meier.’

‘This is Kaufmann. We have a massive quality problem. Your new line has been produced incorrectly. What’s going on?’

The team instinctively took cover. Karl-2025 would have exploded.

Karl-2028, on the other hand, took a deep breath. He handed the phone to his daughter. ‘You do it. I’ll support you if necessary.’

His daughter took the phone and stepped aside. Karl was torn inside, his hands clenched. Even in 2028, he still found it difficult to let go.

Frederike said beside him, ‘See? The experiment went wrong. But you didn’t destroy what you’re building together. Even in desirable futures, there are mistakes. Learning is important.’

Karl nodded slowly.

‘Come on.’ Frederike gently pulled him along. ‘Let’s go.’

They left the building. It was raining outside. Warm and torrential. Flooding.

‘Here too?!’ Karl was startled.

‘Even in a desirable future, you can’t control everything, Karl.’

Karl’s mobile phone rang. Florian.

‘Uncle, I need help. We can’t manage the emergency supplies on our own. Can you help?’

‘Hold on, Florian. Lisa is calling too. I have to take this.’ Karl pressed “Accept”.

‘Lisa?’

“Dad, we still haven’t solved the quality problem. And now the robots are doing strange things too. They’re suddenly producing water filter components and pump housings. What should I tell the customer?‘

’Keep going. I’ll take care of the customer.‘

He hung up and dialled Kaufmann’s number. Karl stood behind his daughter, not in front of her. He used his strength, the customer relationship, to enable her to innovate.

’You see, letting go isn’t the same as giving up,” Frederike said quietly. ‘By the way, the Christmas party is coming up. What would you like?’

‘A classic Christmas party,’ Karl said immediately. ‘Normality. A bit of the good old days.’

Frederike smiled. ‘Okay.’

They were standing in Florian’s company. Karl-2028 was filling bowls with food on his own. Helpers picked them up and took them to people in need.

His mobile phone vibrated. Voice message. From Lisa. He rolled his eyes. He listened to it anyway.

‘Dad, thank you for today. For trusting me. It means a lot to me.’

Frederike rolled her eyes too. ‘Voice messages. So 2025.’

They both laughed.

A news channel was playing on a screen on the wall. The interview featured the former employee he had fired in 2025. Apparently, she was now the deputy mayor.

‘Companies like CoolGrill took responsibility during the crisis. I’m grateful for that.’

Karl-2028 smiled. Proudly.

‘Where are we going for the Christmas party now?’ he asked.

‘That was the Christmas party.’

Karl needed a moment. Then he understood. Solidarity. Pride in what had been achieved. That was exactly what a Christmas party should achieve.

‘And Florian’s food didn’t cost me anything,’ he grinned.

Frederike shook her head with a smile. ‘Who said that economics and social issues are a contradiction?’

The world dissolved. Karl was sitting at the kitchen table again. Alone. Next to him lay a book. ‘Ignite the spirit of the future within you.’

On the first page was written in handwriting: ‘Make a wish. Then do something. – F.’

Completely exhausted, Karl shuffled over to the sofa and immediately fell into a deep sleep.

How do you want your future to be?

Bang. Karl woke up with a start. He saw on his smartwatch that it was 6:23 a.m. on 24 December 2025. Back from the future. Frederike was gone. All three of them were gone. Had he just dreamed it?

There was a book on the floor. The handwriting on the first page was still there. Real. He grabbed his mobile phone. He stared at his daughter’s name. Three seconds. Five. Then he dialled.

‘Dad? It’s half past six.’

‘I know.’ His voice sounded more fragile than he wanted it to. ‘Can we talk? Today?’

Silence.

‘Seriously? It’s Christmas Eve. Man, at least give the company a break today.’

‘Not about the company. About the future.’

‘I’ll be at Florian’s for a Weißwurst breakfast at 9 a.m. Come by. Okay?’

Two hours and 50 pages later, Karl set off to meet Florian. In the flat in the heart of the old town, the smell of white sausages, pretzels and sweet mustard mingled in the air. Florian was just pouring coffee. ‘Good morning, Uncle. You look like you’ve seen ghosts again.’

Karl laughed quietly. “You could say that. I’m full of enthusiasm for the future myself. Tell me, what do you actually want for the future?‘

Lisa watched her father. She saw his gaze shifting back and forth between her and Florian. She leaned over to Florian and whispered, ’Is he serious?‘

’No way. Uncle Karl talking about the future on Christmas Eve instead of the fourth quarter figures?” Florian grinned. ‘He’s completely lost his mind.’

Florian’s mobile phone vibrated. He reached for it. ‘Voice message. Just a moment.’

Karl rolled his eyes. ‘Voice messages. So 2025.’

Lisa burst out laughing. Florian looked back and forth between the two of them, the mobile phone still in his hand. Karl’s fingers drummed on the table. ‘Never mind. Are you listening to me or not?’

Lisa leaned back. Her smile was still there, but her eyes searched his face. They checked to see if it was real.

‘Okay, Dad. We’re listening.’

Karl exhaled. ‘So… How do you want the future to be?’

 

Notes:

Tobias Leisgang is a moderator and companion for companies that want to boldly break new ground. If you’re still finding it difficult to get started, feel free to visit his website or contact him on LinkedIn to take the first few steps together. 😉

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