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247
Still Waters
We
were
a
little
disappointed we weren’t
the ones who found her.
Michael and I arrived
after they had already
pulled her out of one of
the Judenteiche, the Jews’
ponds. We still got to see
the vehicles from the fire
and police departments,
as well as the news
reporters, so at least we
didn’t miss out on all of
it. We stood around and
gawked, trying to see as
much as we could. We
all knew it was Silvana’s
mother who had been
found there in the water.
No one had to tell us.
Thorsten had gotten there
long before we had. His
parents lived in one of
the half-timbered houses
on St. Annenstrasse, only
a stone’s throw from the
Judenteich. He was still in
his PJs when we walked
up, and he claimed to have
seen everything from the
very start. He said she had
looked like Barschel in his
bathtub, and he went on
to mimic how her head
had lolled onto her right
shoulder, twisting his
arms as if suffering from
cramps. We acted like we
didn’t care, like we always
did when Thorsten was
telling one of his dumb
horror stories, but I still
wondered at that moment
what Silvana’s mother had
actually looked like when
they found her in the
pond. I had never seen a
real corpse. None of us
had. So we kept standing