“Well, I liked her I suppose and she seemed genuine enough but I didn’t have long enough to get to know or appraise her her personality. But surprisingly she had heard dear papa lecture at her hospital some years ago in Berlin, where she had just qualified as a young house doctor and that was all rather strange come to think of it?” she finished having no more to add to this unexpected question.

“Good very good” spoke Carin nodding appreciatively and also looking towards Hermann lovingly who had himself just pulled up an easy chair and now seated himself next to her.

“Well, I certainly look forward to making her acquaintance. Oh, and I’m so very pleased about your trip with the nurse to the cathedral.”

Carin paused then added as if making an important statement: “We all have to believe in something or someone I suppose. So few people I have noticed do not even believe in themselves these days and if they do they are usually their own worst enemy and consumed with past guilt or an obvious slight, but often they will support a popular useless cause financially and a lost one at that too.”

“And don’t we all need these little lifelines of hope thrown at ourselves at different times?”

“Now I suppose my beliefs,” she paused and thought about this then announced with some pride: “I think perhaps my hopes in recent years have always been obviously for the success of our Party here in Germany, as I know it has always been your dream or wish as well dear Karen.”

She reached out and gently took her friend’s hand saying: “And I now suspect that the tide of many past bitter disappointments has at long last been turned in our favour. And unexpectedly from the ballot box of all things. Offering to Germany a welcomed, longed-for, new surge of aspiration and joy and pride that hopefully will bring with it I hope, a lasting success….that is if we don’t get derailed first? You never know in that so-called swamp of politics what tomorrow will bring in its wake.”

Then she quietly asked Karen for a glass of water: “I’m suddenly very thirsty dear, but I am looking forward to meeting Doctor Nagel. Well I suppose I am?” she announced without too much enthusiasm to her husband.

Walter silently walked back to join them having quietly left the room for several minutes, earlier. They all made some small talk and waited for the arrival of Doctor Nagel with Nurse Hoffman to prepare Carin for her important critical medical examination. 

Walter had earlier asked Herman rather quietly if the briefcase of the deceased doctor had arrived yet.

“Yes” he announced with a satisfied smile “and I’m delighted that the obliging Chief of police, a chap called Muller and incidentally he’s not a Party member, actually included also, the doctor’s wallet for some reason as well other personal items. Which might, or might not be very useful for our doctor from Berlin to examine.” 

“BUT JUST LOOK at that!!“ He suddenly pointed an accusing finger out of the window into the square below. Pointing to an abstract tall oblong stone sculpture depicting something or someone. It had been erected on a small plinth by the fountain near a bleak government box-like building.

“It personally means absolutely nothing to me or ever will. It simply depicts anything you wish it to be or imagine it. But I simply see it as just a useless piece of elegant junk lodged in the subconscious. Passed off as art by the so-called experts whoever they are. Then Walter added after looking at it with disgust, “I simply unhesitatingly would reach for my old service revolver and … ” He pulled a silent trigger and pulled it and laughed aiming it at the stone image.

He then heard his wife’s faint request for some iced water. (That strange statue and whatever it represented to the artist was later banished the same night to a government park warehouse probably on Hermann’s request). 

Two floors below Doctor Nagel had allowed herself the luxury of a deep refreshing scented bath and a welcomed hair wash.

Now dressed in a freshly ironed white blouse and black pleated skirt and being shoeless with her tired stocking feet resting on a soft footstool, she sat and talked to her friend Nurse Hoffman.

The Doctor’s neatly tailored suit jacket had been hung on a single wooden hanger in the spacious bedroom wardrobe. They had both immediately noticed on arrival the choice in the wardrobe of separate wood or wire hangers. The doctor had earlier placed her few travel clothes from her overnight bag onto the wooden hangers. Knowing from experience that most clothes usually retain their shape, on wooden hangers for some reason.

“So what’s the difference?“ asked Nurse Hoffman still slightly puzzled at this as she also examined the unusual choice presented to the arriving hotel guest.

“I suppose it’s something to do with the quality of the hanger. I read somewhere that natural wood is more suited for cotton or linens. Simply allowing the material apparently to breathe and settle naturally. So that no creases appear when the item is removed from the hanger. So I shall settle for the natural wood nurse if you don’t mind” she decided firmly without any hesitation. 

They later sent down to the busy hotel kitchen for a pot of Earl Grey tea for two. Then when it arrived Nurse Hoffman poured out the steaming beverage asking: “Brown sugar or white?” 

“I’ve always been informed by,” she said with a rather patronising smile “by the so-called etiquette cuisine experts, that it’s always white for tea and brown for coffee. I’m not sure why this should be. So white sugar for me please if you don’t mind.”

Then carefully the nurse placed the silver tongs into the sugar bowl. She was then asked as she was about to sip her tea: “So what’s this Countess really like … I mean what is her background?” Carin enquired with some noticeable caution.

To be continued…

© G. Patrick Battell

All rights reserved

May 2024