Die Wand Page #2

---

and not only the people.

The Animals as well.

If that was how they all died,

death came quickly and gently

in an almost loving way.

Perhaps it would have been wiser to go with

Hugo and Louise to the village.

Luchs!

What's going on? Luchs?

Come, Luchs!

Luchs!

Com...

Yes, come on.

ln the meantime had become clear to me

that this cow indeed a blessing

but also a great burden.

Such an animal wants to be fed and milked

and calls for a domestic master.

I was the owner and prisoner of a cow.

Of course, I also thought of the cow.

If I were very lucky,

she might be expected a calf.

But I couldn't rely on that.

I only could hope my cow would

give milk as long as possible.

Again and yet I thought of my situation

as temporary

or at least tried to.

I thought of a name for my cow

and called her Bella.

Actually, she didn't need any name.

She was the only cow in the forest.

Perhaps the only cow in all the land.

Until tomorrow, Bella.

Ten days had passed and

nothing had changed.

For ten days I worked in a stupor,

but the wall was still there,

and no one had come to get me.

I had no choice but to face reality.

I could kill myself or I could try

to dig under the wall,

but that probably would have been a

toilsome form of suicide.

And of course I could stay here

and try to stay alive.

I was not young enough.

To think seriously about suicide.

The thought of Luchs and Bella kept me

from thinking about that.

Thanks to Hugo's generosity I owned suppllies

for the whole summer,

a home, wood for life, and a cow.

I also intended to wind the clocks daily

and check off each day from the calendar.

This seemed very important to me.

I wanted no change in my life.

I do not know why I do this.

It is perhaps some inner compulsion

that drives me.

Maybe I'm afraid if I could do otherwise

I would slowly cease to be a human,

and soon would crawl around dirty and stinky

and emit unintelligible sounds.

Not that I was afraid of becoming

an animal, that would not be so bad.

But a human never can be an animal,

we rush past the animal in us,

into the abyss.

I don't want this to happen to me.

Lately this is my biggest fear.

And this fear is why I am writing

this report.

On 30 May, rained all day

a warm, fertile rain,

which forced me to stay in the hut

if I did not want to get soaked.

That evening

the cat came to my house.

So we were four.

The cow, the cat, Luchs and me.

Luchs was closest to me.

He soon became not only my dog,

but my friend.

My only friend in a world

of trouble and loneliness.

It's okay, Luchs.

Although I was confined to the

cabin with Bella,

I wanted to try and look around

a little.

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes