TE22 Potpourri

You’re Not Dying

Kathrin Schmidt

means the rattling goes on for longer, too.

towards the sink. He pulls a plaster off and removes a dressing from his right eye. Gosh, what’s wrong with him? She’d so like to ask him, really she would. When he comes to the bed, he’s crying. Has she had a baby perhaps? The last time she saw him cry was when their youngest daughter was born. That was five years ago, and he’d stood at her bed exactly as he’s doing now. She has a quick look, just in case there’s a bundle of baby on her chest.

Yvonne Kiering! Born in 1972 and resident in Hückelhoven! Now she gets it! She laughs loudly, pleased she’s worked it out. She wants to tell the dark-haired girl, who’s currently doing contortions with Yvonne Kiering. But Yvonne is unconscious! Since when can you do contortions with people who are unconscious? Oh, it’s so stupid that she can’t say anything. Why is it she can’t say anything? After all, what shewants to say takes shape in her head. It just doesn’t come out of her mouth. She lifts her left hand, with the tube in, to her mouth. And her nose. What, has she got tubes there too, just like Yvonne Kiering? Right, that’s it. Determined, she pulls them. It doesn’t hurt. She pulls and pulls. The dark-haired girl calls out. Comes over to her bed. Asks in an aggrieved tone whether she wasn’t enjoying her food.

No.

Just checking, obviously.

Is there something wrong with his eyes? That would explain the crying. Why, in the time she’s been here, has she not once thought about her five-year-old daughter? And – she has another one! And another! Five, fourteen, eighteen, twenty, twenty-three – yes, she actually has five children! Astonishing, the stuff that just pops into your head.

‘Were you not enjoying your food, then?’

But she’s smiling a bit, too.

* * *

There’s a knock at the door.

___

‘Your husband’s here, Frau Wesendahl.’

Wesendahl… Her husband is here. Is he called Wesendahl too? Before she can think about it, her husband takes a step 56

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