Chapter 2
"Let me go!"
He stared at me, still shaking with fear. "But I do not hold you" I said and put much surprise into my voice. "I only sit here, hoping for a little music to make my breakfast sweeter!" And with that, I opened the paper-bag with the rolls I still held. The wonderful odour of fresh bread filled the small room immediately. The way he swallowed, swayed and looked at the roll I took out said everything: the boy was weak from hunger. "Help yourself!" I suggested cheerily and held out the bag into his direction - what of course caused him to jerk back.
"Well, if you do not want a breakfast, I am hungry!" I declared with emphasis and bite into a roll. I had always felt at home in the church and therefore had never been afraid (even when I volunteered as a child to take the job to keep the church open) to take with me some food and drinking.
"Why do you not let me go?" He was begging now, but still he was very cautious.
"I do not hold you. You may leave the chapel if you want, and I will soon come to unlock the main door after I finished this roll."
In the very moment, through the windows sounded the merry giggling and shouting of playing children. The sun had risen by now, and the children from the adjacent houses were playing on the church square. Though it was hard to tell because of the mask, it seemed as if all hope for escape died in the boy at this sound. The church was located in the middle of the town, an escape could not have been managed unseen.
"What will you do with me?" he inquired hopelessly "I stole money from the church, broke into the box for the alms and took the tin."
"I will do nothing with you at all, boy, believe me. You did not damage the box as far as I have seen. You are able to give back the can. You may keep the money, which is not much. And as I see you do not like the idea of leaving the church right now, at any rate not through the front door, and that you are hungry and in poor condition . . ." he glanced shortly at the rags he was wearing ". . . I offer you a complete breakfast, a bath, a chance to let your clothes being washed and patched as good as possible - and all that without being seen by anybody but me. - And: you may leave whenever and wherever you want to go - through a better way than over the church square."
The look he cast at me could not been mistaken, despite the mask. How should he believe me?
"The church belongs to an old monastery, which is built at its back." I stated hastily. "I am a nun in that monastery (he surely would not care about the minor differences in catholic nuns in a convent and protestant canonesses in a monastery) and can bring you into my rooms unseen (moreover he surely would not ask why a nun has "rooms" - in fact, as a canoness one has a complete little flat for herself inside the monastery)."
"Julia" a voice rang through the church, and the boy, who had relaxed a very tiny bit, clasped at my harp with new panic. "Julia, dear, are you here?" I swallowed a curse, after all I was a canoness, and slipped - with as much softness and as little hard movement as I could - out of the pew and out of the chapel into the nave. "I am here, Mrs. von Spaeth!" I roared loudly, for the tiny old lady who came out of the cloister was a little hard in hearing - but if that is the only problem you have when you are 96 years old!
I sprinted through the church and came to an abrupt halt before her, what caused her to laugh a bit nervous. "Julia, you should not run inside the church! It may be all right if you allow children sometimes to do so, but you as a grown woman and a canoness . . . But we have discussed that so often, I guess you may never change." she said with a little laugh. Mrs. von Spaeth was old, but no one could ever call her archaic! "Sorry, Mrs. von Spaeth" I breathed. "How can I help you?" "Oh, never mind my dear, I just wanted to know where you were. I tried to invite you for breakfast, but you did not open your door . . ." I broke in on her: "I came here early before dawn, and then . . ." I paused. It would have been easy to simply tell her anything and make her leave. But was that wise? "Mrs. von Spaeth, there is a little boy in the chapel. He tried to steal money, and he is exhausted, ragged, dirty and nearly frightened to death. He is afraid to leave the church as well, for he does not want to be seen by anyone. I am trying to get him into my rooms unnoticed by anyone. Please, will you help me and get everybody out of the cloister and the adjacent yards and gardens?" I confessed hastily and as quietly as I could.
Mrs. von Spaeth looked at me in astonishment for a second. Then she responded simply: "But of course, dear." turned around and left the nave. She surprised me ever and again. How could one be so old and so active in mind?
When I came back to the chapel, the boy had let go of the harp and had no doubt been moving in the room, but he returned to his position behind the instrument the moment I came in.
"That was only one of the sisters who live here with me." I stated quietly. "She is gone. Have you decided what you want to do? Shall I open the front door for you?" I noticed that the paper-bag was gone. Smiling I reached into the pocket of my jeans and pulled out a banknote. Carefully I placed it on one of the pews. "Perhaps you will need a little more money than the 89 cent that were in the alms can and the single Euro from the box."
He looked at me in astonishment, but did not say a word. I was suddenly exhausted and not willing to wait any longer. "Come on now, boy" I prompted and left the little room without even looking back.
