The Secret Room

The Secret Room — page 7 — to the breakfast room The breakfast room was part of the orphanage where Karl and I lived It was a totally normal orphanage or well I don’t really know what an abnormal orphanage looks like Anyway ours was just fine There was a big yard with apple trees a television room a basement where we had parties sometimes and lots of nice little rooms with two or four beds in them And of course there were a bunch of grown-ups who made sure that we didn’t make campfires in the nice little rooms and that we brushed our teeth and got on the bus to school every morning Some of the grown-ups like Maria for instance were really nice But they weren’t parents That’s what we all wanted big strong parents A father who was a pilot a train engineer or a Nobel Prize winner and a mother who baked hot rolls and who could eat any teacher alive Siblings weren’t so necessary That morning Karl shaped a small piece of bread into a little boat with jam portholes and everything and set it into his cup to float in his hot cocoa Achim he announced I’ve decided I’m going to be a sailor A sailor I asked skeptically and watched as the bread boat soaked up cocoa and slowly began to sink Yeah that’s right said Karl And then I’m going to dis cover the twelfth continent All by myself You don’t need parents to do that 2

The Secret Room — page 8 — What are the other eleven continents I asked suspi ciously There aren’t that many of them By then there will be He grinned By then someone will have definitely discovered another couple You’re crazy I replied smiling Really I am Karl was leisurely fishing the half-sunken boat out of his cup so he could throw it at me but I didn’t wait around for him to do it I had already jumped up dove under the table come out on the other side and started running Just you wait I heard Karl call out from behind me Some grown-up tried to stop us but we slipped under his arms and in a fit of giggling dashed back and forth through the aisles 3

The Secret Room — page 9 — At some point I zipped around a corner and was sud denly face to face with the front door and the green sunlit yard behind it I was so caught up in running away and laughing and being scared of him catching me that I didn’t even notice that someone was standing there In the doorway I didn’t notice until I ran right into him He was a man a pretty tall man but I had been running so fast that I knocked him to the ground A moment later we were both lying on the gravel path I I I stammered and sat up gasping for breath I’m sorry I The man was looking at his hands and picking a few small sharp pebbles out of his palms He had curly black hair and looked at me with solemn gray eyes And you are he asked A-Achim I stuttered My my name is Achim He nodded My name is Paul This he pointed his out stretched arm toward the front door this is Ines I looked over at the door Maria was standing there with a woman I didn’t know Maria had grabbed hold of Karl and wrapped her arms around him so that he couldn’t get away The other woman was small and thin and pale She had lots of freckles and her red hair was coiled into an unruly bun behind her head And all three of them were staring at us Maria and Karl and the new woman too 4

The Secret Room — page 10 — This is Mr and Mrs Ribbek said Maria as if that explained anything Ah I said as if I understood We were just about to go look for you continued Maria because Mr and Mrs Ribbek have come here to get to know you Then I didn’t say anything not even ah Because no one had ever come to the orphanage to get to know me I had lived here for ages since I was really little But as a baby I had been sick all the time I was always coughing and of course no one wants a baby that doesn’t work right when you take it home Maria’s always saying Achim it’s a miracle that you’ve grown so tall I remember the period when we thought you might be leaving us for good But I hadn’t I got taller and paler and stayed sick For a long time I thought that they weren’t distributing the air fairly and I complained to Maria that I got so little of it She laughed and said That’s your asthma And I got an inhaler to help prevent asthma attacks and was really proud of it for a while But not for long Sometimes people would come to the orphanage choose one of the children and take him out for ice cream or to the movies or to the park Every weekend The kids would laugh and wave as they drove away and sometimes they went away with the people forever I would stand at the fence 5

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