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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