The Storyteller

He stood and lifted Micha up to carry her to her bed. She looked almost dead, lying in his arms like that. As if someone had cut out her heart with a rapier and left only her body. But her heart was still there … still there dreaming, A

A

“And now we’ll do something about that wound,” she said when Abel closed the door to Micha’s room. “Do you have tweezers? Disinfectant?”

“Wait for me in the living room,” Abel said. But she followed him and stood at the doorway of the tiny bathroom, watching him pull a cardboard box from the top of a cupboard and search around inside it.

“We could use alcohol,” she began, and Abel gave a start.

“Didn’t I say to wait in the living room?” He hadn’t realized that she’d followed him. Suddenly, he sounded angry, and she didn’t understand why.

She took a step back, out of the bathroom and into the hall. “In case you don’t want me to see my phone number on the mirror,” she said with a smile. “I know it’s there; Micha told me. She couldn’t have called me otherwise.”

He gently pushed her toward the living room and followed, closing the bathroom door behind him.

“Yeah, that,” he said. “That’s a little embarrassing. It’s just that the apartment is such a horrible mess at the moment. Here.” He gave her a pair of tweezers and a small bottle of old disinfectant. “What will you do?”

“I thought I’d drink the disinfectant and stuff the tweezers up my nose,” A

Abel took the tweezers and said, “I can do that myself. We do own a mirror, though that might surprise you. You should go now. Sorry about the number on the mirror … she shouldn’t have called you.”

“Abel.” A

“It’s late, A

“It’s not late. I’ll call them later. Sit down on the sofa.”

Helplessly, he held up his hands and sat down. A

“I know somebody else who was damn lucky,” Abel said. “Rainer Lierski. He was damn lucky to walk out of here on his own two feet.”

Then he fell silent. As A

She smiled. “Why do you have a buzz cut?” she asked, just to ask something matter-of-factly.

“The trimmer only does buzz cuts,” Abel replied. “It’s old. I don’t want to waste money on a barber.”

“That’s the only reason?”

“That’s all. Plus, people here leave you alone if you have a buzz cut. And if you’re wearing a Böhse Onkelz sweatshirt. I don’t want any trouble.”

“But … politically … you’re not … you’re not like skinheads?”

“A Nazi?” Abel asked and started to laugh. “I’m not dumb.”

“And … the white cats … the fabric of the white cats … the rainbows …”

“Today is question day,” Abel said. “But with A

“Yes,” she said. “Everything. About the world.” She sounded like a child again. So what.

“It’s just that it’s not always answering day,” Abel murmured. And, after a while, “The white fabric is exactly what you think, of course. But that’s not what you want to know. You want to know why I’m selling.” He turned his head, and she pulled away the tweezers, which had almost touched his eye. “I don’t take the stuff I sell, A

“And I’m the queen of Sheba.” A

Abel didn’t laugh. “It’s true. I’m dealing it, that’s all. It brings in cash. Michelle has … I got my contacts through her, a long time ago. It’s always good to have contacts. I can’t afford to take anything. I need a clear head. Because of Micha. You understand? And because of school. I want to pass. It’s hard enough, when I miss so many classes …”

“And when you sleep so much,” A

“Why do you think I sleep at school? What do you think I do at night that I’m so tired?” he asked seriously. “Tell me what you think. I’m sure everybody thinks something.”

“Well, I … I don’t know,” A

He laughed. “Yeah,” he said, relieved. She didn’t understand his relief. “Well, yeah. But I have legal work, too. If you have contacts … I’m helping out in two bars out here. Sometimes in town, too.”

“You asked Knaake for a job. Our lighthouse keeper.”

Abel nodded. “The lighthouse keeper. Yes. Sometimes it gets to me, and I think I should do something totally different to earn money. Something that doesn’t have anything to do with bars and clubs and … something that’s got to do with thinking. Thinking is something you can do at home, too. I du

A

While pouring, Abel moved closer, and she wondered whether it happened accidentally. Probably. He seemed too lost in his own thoughts to even notice. “Back then … back then, I couldn’t defend myself against Lierski,” he said. “But now I can. I’m as strong as he is. I …”

A

“Oh, come on,” Abel said. “It just got too close to a chair’s leg.”

“Can you move it?”

“The chair’s leg?” Abel tried to laugh. He tried to move the hand. “Sure, I can. Shit. No.”

“You should see a doctor,” A

“Crap.”

A

“Do I have to eat them?”

“No, you just have to inject them into a vein,” A